Scotty Ray Boyd, one-half of the morning drive-time lineup at WOKK 97.1 FM radio, was fired Tuesday morning — after 17 years on the air at the country music station.
WOKK is owned by New South Communications Inc., which operates stations in Meridian, Jackson and Monroe, La.
Bob Holladay, president of New South, lives in Monroe. He was in Meridian on Tuesday, and confirmed that he fired Boyd, but declined to discuss the reasons because it was a personnel matter.
Boyd said Holladay did not state a reason for firing him, but he has no plans to leave the area: “I’m from here, I’ve lived here all my life and I’m not going anywhere.”
Scotty Ray Boyd and his wife, Angie, have two children — 12-year-old Dylan Ray and 8-year-old Madison. The family lives in Scooba.
Boyd said he started working part-time on weekends at the station in 1989. Beginning in 1993, he manned the midnight to 6 a.m. on-air shift, eventually working his way up to the afternoons. When longtime radio personality Earl Aycock had a heart attack in the mid-1990s, Boyd said, he moved to the morning drive-time lineup and has been there ever since.
Debbie Alexander, co-host of the “Scotty Ray and Debbie Show,” which airs from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., was called into a meeting at the station Tuesday afternoon but was not fired.
In February, Boyd, Alexander and Jason Phillips, a former WOKK salesperson, filed a lawsuit against New South Communications and its former officer Eddie Holladay in Lauderdale County Circuit Court.
In the lawsuit, Boyd asserts that Eddie Holladay sexually harassed him for a number of years. Phillips, who worked at WOKK for two years, also claims he was sexually harassed, leading to his resignation in December. Alexander asserts that Eddie Holladay intimidated her, and threatened to fire her, when she attempted to defend Boyd.
Eddie Holladay said Tuesday night that he couldn’t comment on either Boyd’s termination or the lawsuit: “I haven’t been in the building for four months. I’m not an officer of New South Communications. I retired at the first of the year.”
Attorney Gary Friedman of Jackson represents New South and Eddie Holladay; he could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Nobody associated with the events asserts a cause-and-effect relationship between the lawsuit, which represents only side in a legal dispute, and Boyd’s termination.
The plaintiffs — Boyd, Alexander and Phillips — are represented by Tupelo attorney Jim Waide.
Waide said he will be amending the complaint filed in circuit court to add Boyd’s termination to his list of grievances against New South.
A similar complaint, Waide said, has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The case could be moved to U.S. District Court in Jackson, a federal court, if the EEOC issues a “right to sue” letter — although Waide said he has no plans to make such a request.
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