Key Takeaways
- Ebro said he contacted The Kid Mero after his Hot 97 rant and offered to help him navigate issues that mirrored Ebro, Laura Stylez, and Peter Rosenberg’s experience at the station.
- Ebro said he warned Mero when he took the job that morning radio is demanding and building a meaningful audience can take 18 to 24 months.
- Mero and Kaz criticized Hot 97 leadership and alleged unpaid contractors during a 15-minute livestream. Station owner MediaCo has not addressed their claims or layoff rumors.
Ebro says he reached out to The Kid Mero following his on-air rant about Hot 97.
During the Monday (Oct. 19) episode of their Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show podcast, the former Hot 97 morning show hosts weighed in on Mero and Kazeem "Kaz" Famuyide's frustrations with the legacy hip-hop station and said the new complaints mirror what the three of them went through toward the end of their tenure.
"I've reached out to Mero even since then, like, 'Yo, bro, if you need help navigating what you're dealing with, I know exactly where or how to help you,'" Ebro said near the five-minute mark in the video linked above. “And he was like, ‘Cool. I’ll hit you up.’"
Ebro shared what he believes Mero’s approach might be.
“I think in his mind, he's like, ‘No, I'm going to hold these people accountable. They asked me to come here and told me X, Y, Z can happen. Why do I need you, bro?’ And I'm like, ‘Bro, well, give me a call,’” Ebro said.
Ebro also revealed that he got on a call with Mero back when Mero was first hired, specifically to make sure he understood what he was walking into.
“When Kaz and Mero took the gig I was like, ‘Yo, guys, you know, I know it's Hot [97] but be prepared,’” Ebro recalled. “'If you've never been in radio before and you don't know how this goes? It's a hard gig. It's not an easy gig. On top of that, you're at work at 5-6 in the morning.”
He also said he told them that a realistic “timeline” for developing a meaningful relationship with a radio audience can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months.
The response follows the Oct. 14 segment in which Mero and Kaz spent roughly 15 minutes calling out the station's leadership on the show’s YouTube livestream. The two pointed to unspecified issues with executive leadership and contractors who allegedly were not paid what they were owed, among other issues.
During the stream, Famuyide called Hot 97 “the worst place I have ever worked in my life.”
Ebro, Stylez, and Rosenberg hosted Hot 97's morning show for 13 years before being let go in December 2025. They launched the Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show podcast shortly after.
The Kid Mero inherited the slot in January, and Famuyide later came aboard as a co-hosts for Mornings with Mero.
Famuyide also claimed their show outperformed its chief competition, the iHeartRadio-backed The Breakfast Club, over the past three months. Charlamagne tha God rejected the claim on Monday’s episode of his show.
MediaCo, which acquired Hot 97 and WBLS from Emmis Communications in 2019, has yet to address the criticism publicly.
