Adam Copeland is no longer the program director at KNBR in San Francisco after a six-month run leading the station. The move comes after Copeland was outed by Barrett Media president and fellow former Bay Area program director Jason Barrett for his pleas for praise by media journalists and explicit arguments with listeners on social media.
Barrett Media was also the outlet to confirm Copeland’s departure from KNBR.
“We have great momentum, thank you to everyone in the building for your work and passion keeps us pushing forward,” wrote Larry Blumenhagen, an executive at KNBR parent Cumulus, in an internal memo acquired by Barrett Media.
Copeland will reportedly continue co-hosting his afternoon drive show Tolbert and Copes for KNBR.
Last week, Copeland tweeted at Barrett requesting KNBR’s ratings victory in April be covered. Copeland accused Barrett, who used to run 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, of being partial to the station and ignoring KNBR’s successes, despite Barrett’s established practice of only covering full quarterly books.
Barrett covered the interaction in a column, also calling out Copeland for vulgarly attacking listeners online.
Copeland called out Barrett for being an old white guy telling him “what to do,” and wrote back on X, “you could eat me.”
Barrett then tagged KNBR and Cumulus in a response, telling the companies they were “embarrassing” themselves by continuing to let Copeland manage the station.
After Barrett Sports Media posted its article reporting Copeland’s departure from the program director role at KNBR, Copeland appeared to confirm the move on X.
Copeland posted a gif of former president Richard Nixon leaving the White House after his removal from office in disgrace.
Copeland was promoted to program director after two years as afternoon drive host and nearly 20 years at KNBR. Now, he returns to hosting after a chaotic stint running the station.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.