Sports-talk host Hank Goldberg, a South Florida radio presence since the early 1970s, will leave WQAM when his contract expires at the end of December, his agent said Friday.

 

An official close to the discussions said Goldberg, 67, refused to take a pay cut in the 50 to 60 percent range.

 

''I can make more elsewhere,'' Goldberg said. ''I don't have that many more years to work.'' Beyond money, Goldberg said, ''I've kind of had enough of this. I've got a lot of ESPN work. I have an idea of something national I want to do.'' Goldberg decl ined to say what that would be.

 

Goldberg said he doubts he would work at another South Florida station: ''There's nothing I know of I would be interested in.'' Joel Feinberg, owner of 790 The Ticket, said he won't pursue Goldberg.

 

WQAM general manager Joe Bell said he and Goldberg are ''at an impasse regarding finances'' but Goldberg can stay if he changes his mind.

 

Goldberg has been a talk show host on WQAM since November 1992. Two months before that, he was fired from his jobs as a talk-show host and Dolphins color analyst on WIOD because he refused to cancel a guest on his show (novelist/screenwriter Elmo re Leonard) when WIOD's program director insisted he talk only about Hurricane Andrew, three weeks after the storm.

 

Goldberg, who predicts NFL games and does horse racing analysis for ESPN, previously was a sportscaster at NBC 6 when it was WTVJ-Channel 4.

 

Bell said he will look nationally and locally for a new host to replace Goldberg, who works 4 to 5 p.m. with Jim Mandich and alone from 5 to 7 p.m. Local candidates include WQAM's Kim Bokamper and Orlando Alzugaray and Palm Beach-based sportscast er Evan Cohen, who hosts UM post-game shows for WQAM.

 

Meanwhile, Bell said he has told Neil Rogers' agent that he will offer the longtime midday host a new contract beyond his current deal that runs through 2008.

 

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I think there will be about 8 people in South Florida that will miss Hank.

Good riddance, fat boy

Thank Goodness. I hate this fat turd.

Thank Goodness. I hate this fat turd.

 

 

:thumbup

Later Fatberg. :thumbup

790 better not nab him......that would just make me angry.

790 better not nab him......that would just make me angry.

 

 

790 doesn't want anything to do with him. :thumbdown