Radio station hires replacement for fired DJ Dave Wheeler

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This article was published 27/09/2018 (2184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Radio station 92.1 CITI-FM announced it has hired a replacement for morning show DJ Dave Wheeler, who filed a $1.4 million lawsuit against Rogers Media after he was fired.

TJ Connors, a native Winnipegger whose dad is former radio broadcaster Scruff Connors, will join the station on Dec. 3 as part of the new Rena, TJ and Turnbull show from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The station calls the show, which will feature personality Kelly Butler, “a dream team of diverse personalities and edgy humour.”

“Rena, TJ, Dave and Kelly each bring their own authentic personalities and humour to the table and that’s what makes great radio,” Kevin Britton, the station’s program director, said in a statement Friday.

“We know with this team, we have a winning combination that will keep Winnipeggers coming back every weekday morning to get their day started off right.”

Last week, Wheeler launched his suit for wrongful dismissal.

Wheeler was fired in July after likening transgender people to actors pretending to be “different things.”

Many Winnipeggers were surprised about the details about Wheeler’s salary. In his lawsuit, he said he was being paid $335,000 in each year of a five-year contract, and could earn two $10,000 bonuses each year if he was the No. 1 disc jockey for adult audiences aged 25 to 54 among all Winnipeg radio stations.

Connors is leaving St. Catharines station 97.7 HTZ-FM to return to Winnipeg. Other stations he has worked at during his decade-long career have been Country 103 and Vista Radio in Kamloops, B.C., 91.9 BOB FM in Lindsay, Ont., and The Wolf in Peterborough, Ont.

Connors also worked at Power 97 from 2013 to 2015 in Winnipeg, where his dad also worked in 1994 and 1995.

Scruff Connors is probably best remembered for being the DJ who did practical jokes, including one which caused him to be suspended for a week.

Scruff was a DJ on Power 97 when he ran a contest in 1995 in which Winnipeg listeners could win a prize to go to Miami to watch Super Bowl XXIX.

After 30 winners were chosen, they were told to meet Connors at the Winnipeg International Airport where, instead of a jet, they boarded a bus and were taken to the rural Manitoba community of Miami where they watched the game on a black-and-white TV in a local bar.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.

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