we were not going to do it with conventional news/talk." The station hired shock jock Gary Dee (Gilbert) for the midday slot on January 7, 1988, replacing John Dayle, who would rejoin Merle Pollis and Joel Rose at WERE. Dee's hiring came after management and all six Independent Group stakeholders agreed by consensus. Dee's conservative-leaning populist persona was often compared to onetime WERE host Morton Downey Jr., while the Beacon Journal's Bob Dyer said, "he makes Jerry Falwell sound like a flaming liberal." After the acquittal of a Lorain man on charges of molesting his daughter, Dee publicly attacked both the judge and county prosecutor, insinuating that their children should be raped while going into graphic detail on the case and giving out their phone numbers; the station later apologized. Dee's often-inflammatory remarks, coupled with several off-color statements by Drennan on Sportsline, soon prompted Dyer to ask, "is WWWE trying to corner the market on racism?" A fishing boat owned by Dee was intentionally burned while he was on vacation, prompting WWWE to offer a cash reward in exchange for information. It was David "Fig" Newton, who returned to WWWE as afternoon host on April 11, 1988, that netted the most negative attention. after his show debuted, a WJW-TV report filed by Carl Monday revealed Newton was previously convicted on charges of purchasing a videotape that contained child pornography. After winding up on a mailing list after purchasing an art film containing nudity, government agents attempted to bait him with porn mail catalogs, and he purchased a tape after the eighth attempt. Monday confronted Newton about the allegations while Newton conducted his show in the WWWE studios, while the U.S. attorney that handled Newton's case revealed he was fired from his prior job in Denver over the conviction. Dee began his show the following morning pillorying Newton, declaring he would refuse to work at a station that employed "a child molester", and Newton resigned later that day. Danny Wright and humorist Tom Bush took Newton's time slot in what was termed "rock radio without the music". Even with all the controversy, WWWE ascended to fourth place in the spring 1988 Arbitron book, helped largely by Dee and the Indians. However, the station's Indians commitments caused the majority of the Cavaliers' 1988 playoff run to air on WRMR and WDOK instead. In response, Joe Tait—who had taken over as head of