A 30-year veteran of the Chicago sports radio airwaves has been fired following a bizarre interaction on social media involving an argument between the radio host and another user about a catch on a fishing trip.
Dan Bernstein has been fired from the Windy City radio station 670 The Score after a series of now-deleted posts from last week where he threatened another user.
Back on March 13, Bernstein posted an image on X, formerly Twitter, of himself holding a northern pike that he caught with the caption, ‘This was a helluva fight.’
Noting the bloody appearance of the fish, a user responded with the allegation that Bernstein killed his catch, saying, ‘that is a female northern pike that was getting ready to spawn, but instead Dan killed it and seems proud of it.’
The radio host denied this, saying, ‘What the entire f*** is wrong with you? it was released successfully. Took off like a torpedo. Go f*** yourself.’
That same user then called Bernstein a liar, which generated another profane response: ‘Like a shot. I never respond to trolls, but questioning my sportsmanship and conservation awareness sets me off. Wanna fight? I’m a bad enemy, f***er.’
WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS TEXT INCLUDING PROFANE LANGUAGE.
Chicago radio host Dan Bernstein was fired stemming from posts pertaining to this image
The other user continued to goad Bernstein into a response calling him ‘fat’ and saying that his profanity made him ‘a very base, juvenille person.’
Bernstein then threatened to doxx the other account by leaking their address and phone numbers.
When the troll said he didn’t mind, Bernstein responded, ‘Want your kids involved?’ He followed that tweet with three more: ‘Up to you’, then, ‘Just say “I’m sorry for being a d**k,” and I’ll stop’, and finally, ‘I guess your cowardly silence is “I’m sorry for being a dick.” Cool. You MAGA worms are so lame.’
The ‘troll’ account then tagged the station’s operations manager, Mitch Rosen, and the X account for the FBI’s field office in Chicago with the message, ‘Dan, how would you feel if someone threatened your children? You did.’
On Friday afternoon, Rosen announced on the airwaves that Bernstein ‘no longer works at The Score.’
An e-mail sent to staff obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times read, ‘On behalf of [Audacy market manager] Kevin Cassidy and myself, we want to let all of you know that Dan Bernstein no longer works at the Score. We thank Dan for his time here and wish him nothing but the best. Please reach out to me if you have any questions. Thank you.’
Following the announcement, another host – Matt Spiegel – opened the top of his radio show with a tribute to Bernstein, calling him one of the station’s ‘most famous, influential and impactful hosts.
‘Dan Bernstein is gone, and we won’t shy away from discussing him,’ Spiegel said before adding, ‘We’ve been advised not to talk about the events of the last week, but we won’t shy away from talking about Bernsy and us and The Score and our relationship at time along the way.’
Bernstein has been under fire for multiple social media incidents across the past year
Bernstein (L) had been on-air in Chicago for 30 years (seen with Laurence Holmes in 2022)
On Sunday, before the station reacted, a children’s camp – Camp One Step by Children’s Oncology Services – that they would be removing Bernstein from their board of directors.
This does not appear to be the first time that Bernstein has been on thin ice when it comes to his usage of social media in the past year.
Last September, he came under fire due to his poor reaction to being called by his full last name by an employee of the Chicago branch of Barstool Sports. Company president Dave Portnoy mocked Bernstein on social media and told his ‘army’ to ‘ruin this guy’s life (professionally speaking of course).’
Additional Bernstein indiscretions included making a lewd remark on social media about the appearance of an ex-Comcast SportsNet Chicago reporters appearance.
He also once referred to the amputated legs of late Chicago Cubs Hall-of-Famer Ron Santo as ‘stumps’.
Bernstein gained notoriety for his fiery personality on-air where he often attacked callers he found incapable of making suitable arguments.
However, his show was a ratings hit in the Chicagoland area – hitting a 7.4 share in the male 25-54 demographic in Nielsen’s ratings book last fall.
