Wendy Bell is off the air at radio station WJAS Pittsburgh.
In January, the conservative media personality landed a role at WJAS-AM, a radio station owned by St. Barnabas Broadcasting. She was promoted to a full-time host in March, but as of Monday, she “is currently not an on-air host for WJAS,” Michele Bradac, director of marketing for St. Barnabas Health System, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday.
“It is a personnel matter,” she said. “It’s a situation that’s being currently handled by our company.”
Bradac would not say if Bell could return as a WJAS host and said a concrete answer to that question couldn’t be provided “until this personnel matter is resolved.”
Bell was fired in 2016 from her longtime WTAE-TV position after posting racially insensitive remarks regarding a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg on Facebook. She was back at work in 2019 as a KDKA Radio host but was taken off the air there in September 2020 after suggesting that park rangers should “shoot on sight” people vandalizing public monuments.
In March, Bell made a public speaking appearance at a rally Downtown where about 150 protesters aired grievances regarding mask mandates and the 2020 election results, among other things.
“I’ll bet some of you were even at the big insurrection on Jan. 6, peacefully assembling, listening to the real president of the United States,” she said to cheers.
It’s unclear what led to Bell being removed as a host.
J.D. Turco, senior vice president of St. Barnabas Health System, told the Post-Gazette around the time of her hiring at WJAS that “we do think we’ve done ample due diligence” on Bell and that “we feel it’s mutually beneficial to put her on the air.”
“We spoke about issues that we would not like to resurface, things that happened that caused her demise at WTAE and KDKA [Radio],” Turco said. “We know where she stands, and she knows where we stand. We’ll see how it unfolds.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: May 10, 2021, 2:56 p.m.
Updated: May 10, 2021, 3:01 p.m.
