State GOP leader drops suit against radio stations

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 03, 2009

RALEIGH

Tom Fetzer, the chairman of the N.C. Republican Party, has settled a legal fight with the owner of several Wilmington radio stations and a talk-show host over an e-mail that claimed Fetzer is gay.

A statement released yesterday said that Fetzer, radio host Curtis Wright and the stations' corporate owner, Sea-Comm Inc., have resolved out of court a lawsuit filed by Fetzer late in his campaign for the chairman's job.

Fetzer didn't receive a monetary settlement, but he released a letter attributed to Wright apologizing and clarifying what happened. Wright, who still has a morning talk show airing on two stations, didn't respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Fetzer said he's not gay.

"This was never an issue of monetary compensation, but instead the preservation of my good name and reputation," Fetzer said in a prepared statement. "With this settlement, I consider the issue closed."

Paul Knight, the vice president and general manager of Sea-Comm Inc., which operates four Wilmington radio stations, said that Wright was traveling yesterday but confirmed that Wright wrote the letter. The lawsuit has been dismissed, Knight said.

But Knight took issue with Fetzer's statement and said that Fetzer's side had initially asked for a "six-figure" monetary settlement but the company refused to pay anything.

"The only reason Sea-Comm ... was pulled into this because we had the money," Knight said in an interview. The company "was never guilty of anything. We did not broadcast anything about Mr. Fetzer."

Neither Fetzer nor his attorney returned phone calls seeking further comment.

Fetzer sued June 1 after Wright forwarded an e-mail in May containing an unsigned letter that Fetzer said gave false information about his sexuality to county Republican Party leaders a few weeks before the state GOP chose a new chairman.

Fetzer beat out three other candidates for the job on June 13.

In the apology, Wright wrote that he sent the e-mail containing letters about Fetzer and another candidate to county leaders to show them what was circulating among party members "and that their very existence could possible damage the party."

Wright said he never discussed the Fetzer letter on the air.

Fetzer's lawsuit said that the e-mail containing the letters was meant to discredit him and Adams because Wright was supporting a third candidate.