It seems that Kevin Slaten is barred from appearing on St. Louis radio in a sports role until October 6, 2008. According to this article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, a St. Louis County Circuit judge upheld the non-compete clause in Slaten's contract. However, Slaten is barred from only a sports broadcasting role, he can appear in any other facet.
What does this mean? Not much really. Non-compete clauses are used a lot in the business world. Courts have tended to allow enforcement of the provisions, as long as none of the typical contract law defenses exist, such as fraud, you signed it under duress, etc. I checked the leading contract law treatises, and being a major tool is not one of those defenses, so the 6th month "Slaten Vacation" will be allowed to continue. Unfortunately for us, October 6, 2008 is fast approaching.
As a side note, I think there are only two people in St. Louis who actually like Slaten, they are the ones who post favorable comments about him on the Post Dispatch stories. Then again, I'm suspicious that at least one of those posters is Slaten himself, so that really only makes 1.....
8.12.2008
Douchebag Report: Kevin Slaten Edition
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4 comments:
I wouldn't be surprised if Slaten had two screen names.
Working in the radio biz (and I think Sandwich may agree), non-competes are usually bullshit. You have to be an absolute tool and piss everyone in the company off enough to have them envoke the non-compete clause.
Slaten fits the mold.
They are typically enforced for higher-profile "personalities" such as Slaten.
I'd never sign one, then again, they are not enforcible against attorneys, thanks to our "code of ethics." (Insert joke here.) My firm could never enforce one if they made me sign one.
i've seen the non-competes enforced in st. louis plenty of times (tool or no tool), and that's mostly because sports radio people treat the STL market like the holy grail of radioland. in the whole scheme of things, both sports station pull in crap ratings, but they act like they're the yankees and red sox of the media universe.
actually in Sir's bertflex contract, I made him sign a one year non-compete with blogs about taco bell, model railroading, farts, poop, and bat flips. so he's pretty much locked into his contract here. thank god.
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