University of Kentucky sports fans love Matt Jones. The provocative voice behind Kentucky Sports Radio can be counted on to say just the right thing to tick off Cardinal fans, and has built quite a following of Big Blue lunatics who hang on his every word. His show airs on WKJK 1080 AM weekdays here. Jones also has a nightly TV show on Insight.
And he’s made at least one enemy in the media. On Sunday Jones tweeted that he was going to go off an a rant about a Louisville media personality. That turned out to be WDRB general manager Bill Lamb.
After dissing Lamb for his Point of View editorials and the station’s programming (calling it the 8th-b est station in Louisville), Jones made a claim that Lamb later disputed. It has to do with a UK football luncheon. Jones was invited to be MC for the event. Lamb, whose station carries programming for UK sports, did indeed, as Jones claimed, back out of participating as a luncheon media sponsor. And the reason was that Lamb didn’t want to be associated with an event that had Jones as a participant.
Jones: “When they asked me to be the speaker “a source” told me that Bill Lamb came in and said if Matt Jones was the speaker they were no longer going to be affiliated with the event. They no longer would donate. He said if you decide to drop him as MC, then we’ll come back.”
Lamb acknoweldged these facts, but Lamb took issue with Jones’ assertion that there was any money involved. Jones claimed Lamb was taking money away from the UK scholarship fund, which receives proceeds from the luncheon. But Lamb says the station has never given anything but promotional spots for the event. No money. And that’s where he says Jones is dead wrong.
“I don’t care for him because he lacks a moral and ethical compass,” Lamb told me. “But we didn’t pull a dime in sponsorship. We declined to paricipate because we didn’t want to be seen on the same dais as him.”
Jones told his listeners that he and Lamb have a history.
“Now Bill Lamb and I have had run-ins in the past. Mostly he doesn’t like us, he thinks we’re biased, and don’t follow journalistic standards and go after some of his boys at U of L. A source told us they’re pulling the money if you don’t get rid of Matt Jones. I assume they would take him. They decided to stick with us. He has now pulled all his money, this scholarship money, because over time we’ve given him a hard time.”
Jones called Lamb petty and “unbelievably childish,” and said Lamb “is the biggest hypocrite of all time.”
The bottom line: Jones doesn’t like Lamb. Lamb doesn’t like Jones. There’s a lack of respect on both sides. But Jones’ public rant wasn’t accurate, and he should have either known better or gotten his facts straight.
