Trib Tower-watchers are speculating to TRI that the Lee Abrams incident, on top of the damaging October 6 New York Times story about the Randy Michaels regime, was the proverbial straw that broke the dromedary’s back. Late last night, the Times' David Carr reported that the Tribune board "is expected to ask for the resignation of Michaels" today. It has "lost confidence" in his leadership, using the classic phrase. In this case, the heat got too extreme for the board and possibly the future controlling owners, the senior lenders. The irony is that Michaels has been saying the operating results at Tribune have been good. The second irony is that he's being forced out in a way that echoes the Summer 2002 incident where the Mays family sidelined him at Clear Channel radio - also under the glare of controversy. With the cooperation of senior lenders, Tribune’s expected to file its Chapter 11 re-org in a matter of days. It could be that the lenders, including Angelo Gordon, Oaktree Capital and JPMorgan, want to start fresh. If Randy goes, there could be a cascade effect affecting the many former Clear Channel and/or Jacor folks now at Tribune. As TRI told you Monday, one Tribune staffer interviewing a potential hire told him he wasn't sure how long he'd be there, himself. Until now, being one of "Randy's guys" at Tribune was a good thing.
