Audacy and Mike Missanelli are suing a Philly sports network owner

After making a big splash by landing popular Philly sports figures like Seth Joyner and Mike Missanelli, JAKIB Media has shed talent and is facing at least three lawsuits with complaints over payment problems.

Audacy, the parent company of 94.1 WIP and six other Philadelphia radio stations, is suing JAKIB’s owner, Joseph Krause, in Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas for more than $440,000, claiming in court documents he “failed to pay in full for paid programming agreements” to broadcast content on Audacy’s airwaves.

According to the lawsuit, filed in May, this included a number of programs covering a wide range of topics — including legal advice, labor issues, medical care, and real estate — that aired mostly on WPHT-AM (1210) from May 2020 to July 2023.

“JAKIB Media Partners will not stand down when facing a ‘shock-suit’ and will protect themselves and their clients at all costs, despite the pressure that comes with the public perception of a lawsuit,” Krause said in a statement.

Audacy declined to comment on the lawsuit. Krause’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

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Krause also faces a lawsuit in Montgomery County from Missanelli, who claimed he’s owed over $65,000 in unpaid compensation following his brief tenure with JAKIB.

Before returning to 97.5 The Fanatic in August, Missanelli cohosted JAKIB’s Eagles postgame show for two seasons in 2022 and 2023. According to court documents, Krause had agreed to pay Missanelli $100,000 during the 2023 season, but the veteran sports talker claims he received only a fraction of that.

Krause has denied the claims, saying in a statement that Missanelli “failed to fulfill the expected deliverables clearly defined within the contract.” Krause didn’t clarify what aspects of the contract Missanelli didn’t live up to.

“I gave him plenty of time to pay what he owed,” Missanelli said of Krause. “Chasing him down was exhausting, which was why I finally decided to sue.”

The lawsuit, filed in August, includes message after message Missanelli sent asking about late or missing payments, with Krause’s replies blaming issues with his payment system.

Missanelli wrote to Krause on May 31 that he was “tired of your excuses,” according to the lawsuit. “You have played me for too long with promises that a certain payment is coming in at a certain time and you never deliver. I have completely lost trust in your word.”

Both lawsuits are ongoing.

Missanelli’s lawsuit had been previously reported by Crossing Broad, after Missanelli joked on air in August that he and his cohost, Bill Colarulo, were “unpaid” contributors with JAKIB.

Missanelli isn’t alone in claiming he wasn’t paid. Seven other people who had once worked with Krause also told The Inquirer they were owed varying sums of money, ranging from a few hundred dollars to well into the thousands. The workers spoke anonymously out of fear of losing future work or tarnishing their reputation, and none have taken legal action.

Many of them echoed the pattern Missanelli laid out in his lawsuit about Krause offering excuses and blaming his payment system.

“We have paid everyone that has worked for JAKIB Media that has fulfilled their contract,” Krause told The Inquirer.

WIP host Rob Ellis took Krause to small claims court in Delaware County in April, claiming he was owed over $8,000 for cohosting JAKIB’s now-defunct Sports Take midday show. The court ruled in Krause’s favor, but after Ellis filed the suit, he quickly received a large chunk of the money he said he was owed.

“So I don’t view it as a loss to him in any way, shape, or form,” Ellis said.

Krause has also been in a legal dispute with Amsterdam Capital Solutions, a financing firm based in New York. The company gave Krause a cash advance of $449,500 for JAKIB Sports, which they were to recoup from the media venture’s revenues. But according to court filings in New York, JAKIB stopped sharing the owed portion of its incoming cash to the investor in April, when Amsterdam Capital Solutions recouped roughly $270,000. In court, the firm argued that Krause owes the rest of the cash advance plus interest and attorneys’ fees, a total of nearly $240,000 combined.

Krause, a former advertising accounts manager who has worked for the Philadelphia Soul and The Fanatic’s former parent company, Greater Media, launched JAKIB Sports in 2020. But over the past year, the YouTube network has shed nearly all the Philly sports talkers who made it a destination for fans.

In addition to Missanelli, Joyner, and Ellis, JAKIB’s lineup once included WIP sports talker Jody McDonald, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Barrett Brooks, longtime Eagles reporter Derrick Gunn, and former Fanatic hosts Harry Mayes, Eytan Shander, and Marc Farzetta.

Joyner, Farzetta, and Gunn have moved on to cohost their own Eagles show on YouTube, which is simulcast on 6abc’s website.

Now JAKIB is down to two daily shows — The National Football Show hosted by ex-NFL defender and former sports talker Dan Sileo, and Birds 365, which is cohosted by John McMullen and Krause’s son, Zander. The trio also cohost pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage during Eagles games.

“We have expansion in front of us; our numbers are continuing to grow,” Krause said. “We’re going to continue to be a player in the Philadelphia market, whether people want us to be or not.”

Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.