We just ran a story about Kevin Geddings, a terminated GM at Volusia Broadcasting’s Oldies WROD-A/FM Daytona Beach, who is being sued by station owner Joe Hopkins for misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, wrongful repossession and false imprisonment. Here’s an update:
Geddings lost a round in Federal Court. A judge rejected his position on repossession (of the boat) and the case is now moving toward trial in Circuit Court, Seventh Judicial Circuit. Hopkins v Geddings 6.13.13.
Geddings told RBR-TVBR previously: “There are so many lawsuits involving this Hopkins guy. He is being sued by the Fowler Consulting media brokerage firm for not paying commissions. I’m suing him; he’s suing me. He’s facing a series of FCC fines, which came out in November. From my perspective and others, he’s just a bad character. Between his FCC violations and other various non-payments of debts and how he handles his business, he’s just an incredibly poor radio station operator.”
Hopkins is currently the owner of WROD and Geddings is currently the owner of GLK Consultants’ Oldies WSOS-AM/FM in nearby St Augustine.
Monetary damages are $15,000, which include attorneys fees. Geddings was fired 8/17/12. An advertiser, Joseph Miles with Daytona Repair was also sued for breach of oral contract for agreeing to build a website (www.wrod.fm) for the station in exchange for free ads on the site and a weekly car repair show. However, the domain name ownership was allegedly not transferred to the station. Now, WROD’s website is www.wrodradio.com.
After Geddings was fired, he allegedly tried to turn advertisers away from WROD. A boat is involved here as well—that’s where the false imprisonment comes in.
