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'Bouffant Buffet' Loses Its 'Marvelous' Taste

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: October 24, 2008

They've taken the flavor out of the "Bouffant Buffet." The midday oldies request show on WRBQ, 104.7 FM, isn't the same without "Marvelous" Marvin Boone.

The well-known Tampa area radio personality was let go Wednesday, the victim of budget cuts in this ever-tightening economy.

"Fans have been calling me in tears," Boone said Thursday. "They are taking it harder than I am. I've been fired before, and I've got faith that I'll find work in radio again."

WRBQ's Rico Blanco is handling Boone's 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift.

The station's program director, Mason Dixon, says "it was hard to see Marvin go." He says several staffers, himself included, offered to take salary cuts to save Boone's job.

But CBS Radio, which owns WRBQ and five other stations in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market, is slashing jobs at stations nationwide. Boone wasn't the only one getting the boot here.

Reportedly, about 20 people were let go, including most of the on-air personalities at "Smooth Jazz" WSJT, 91.2 FM. Al Santana, George Nick and Alicia Kaye are being replaced by automated jazz programming.

Boone says he is not surprised because people everywhere are getting laid off. "I just happen to have a high-profile job," he says. "The sad part is that I got fired in the morning, and I didn't have a chance to say goodbye."

He says he went out the door joking about how this puts a real crimp in his plans to celebrate a recent pay raise.

"But nobody laughed," he says. "I keep a positive attitude because I am a man of God, and God is in control. I believe I was put here to make people laugh and make their lives a little happier.

"Looking on the bright side, I can go to the gym an hour later and I've got time to catch up on daytime TV, except Rachael Ray - her mouth kinda scares me."

Boone, 52, has been working in the Tampa area since 1977. He has been with WRBQ for eight years.

He also runs a party DJ service for weddings, reunions, birthdays, anniversaries and corporate events (see www.weddingreceptionradiodj.com).

CHANNEL FLIPPING: If you haven't voted yet and want to know more about the six amendments on the Florida ballot, check out "The Amendments 2008: A Florida Matters Special Edition," at 8 tonight or 6 p.m. Sunday on WUSF, Channel 16.

The program explains amendment language and the potential impact. The hot button issue is the "Florida Marriage Amendment," which would ban same-sex marriages.

•"The Food Network Challenge," at 8 p.m. Sunday, is all about making funky jack-o'-lanterns.

•"Inside New Orleans High," at 10 p.m. Sunday on National Geographic Channel, takes us to one of the most dangerous schools in the country where poverty, gang violence, drugs and fear rule. During the six months of filming, four students were killed.

OBAMA VS. McCAIN: John McCain is getting more negative media coverage than Barack Obama, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Released Wednesday, the study examined 2,412 campaign stories from 48 news outlets from the end of the conventions through the final presidential debate. Because the media tends to cover the horse race and not the issues, Obama's rise in the polls resulted in more favorable reports - 36 percent, to only 14 percent positive for McCain.

On the negative side, McCain's tally was 59 percent unfavorable to 29 percent negative for Obama. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin went from highly positive to mostly negative while Joe Biden was pretty much ignored. Read the whole study at www.journalism.org.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Ghost Whisperer, 8 p.m., CBS

Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is on a romantic cruise, but there's a pesky ghost haunting some newlyweds.

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