Local radio talk show host Mike Webb fired

Liberal radio talk-show host Mike Webb has been fired from his job at KIRO radio after he was charged earlier this month with making a fraudulent insurance claim.

A spokesman for KIRO confirmed today that Webb, who pleaded not guilty to the felony charge last week, is no longer with parent company Entercom and will no longer have a show on KIRO.

Attempts to reach Webb or his attorney for comment this morning were unsuccessful.

Webb was charged with making a fraudulent claim after an accident in June 2005, when his Lexus was struck by an uninsured driver.

According to charging papers filed in King County Superior Court, Webb is alleged to have produced a forged document indicating he bought an insurance policy with Geico before the June 28th accident.

The insurance company claimed that Webb, 50, bought the policy online one day after the accident and denied coverage of the nearly $6,000 damage.

Webb, however, insisted that he had purchased the online policy more than a month before the accident and during an interview with an insurance adjuster, he produced copies of bank statements that purported to show payments made to Geico on May 20 and June 7.

Seattle police, who were called in to investigate at Geico's request, obtained a search warrant for Webb's bank statements.

Those statements show payments to Geico made on June 29 and July 4 of 2005.

Webb, who denied the charge last week, said he believes it is the possible result of an insurance company snafu resulting from a clerical or computer error.

The charge may underline a potential problem with online policies, according to Webb's attorney, in which there can be a lag between the time the policy is confirmed and when it actually goes into effect.

Webb also said that he and his attorney, Bradley Marshall, are looking into the possibility that the incident was caused by a computer hacker who "hates" his show and hoped to cause Webb trouble.

Charging documents say that at the time of the accident Webb produced an insurance card for a policy with National Merit that had not been in effect since 2001. Webb said last week that he mistakenly grabbed the old card

The charge against Webb was reported by Michael Hood on his Web log, http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/ where Webb's termination is a current topic.

In a goodbye note to his listeners on his Web log, Webb writes, "Thank You For Your Friendship during these past 35 years on the radio, especially the past 10, where we had a chance to really get to know one another and offer an alternative to the disgusting, corporate-driven nonsense masquerading as talk radio.""So Long, Mike."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com