Did You Know YOU Are Paying For Tony Tuesdays on WTBQ?

Town of Monroe Residents are subsidizing Supervisor Tony Cardone's weekly radio show on WTBQ, whether they like It Or not.

Let’s take a break from South Blooming Grove today and return to everyone’s favorite subject here at The Monroe Gazette: The continuing misadventures of our Town Supervisor, Tony Cardone.

Hit his theme music!

Only I and maybe like, three of you, find this funny. But that’s ok. This is the music I hear in my head every time the Supervisor enters the room.

Now you may be asking yourself, “Self, what corrupt BS did we discover this week about Tony Cardone?”

And boy do we have a fun one here for you today. Like how every taxpayer in the Town of Monroe is subsidizing Supervisor Cardone’s radio show on WTBQ, all while he ignores questions sent in by the people paying for his show.

You may also be subsidizing political advertising for the Town of Monroe Republican committee without even realizing it.

That’s right.

Our town can’t afford to pay for more code enforcement officers, but we can pay for a radio show where our Supervisor tells us about all the wacky things he gets up to at church!

Don’t worry, Monroe. That garbage problem will just take care of itself.

Let’s start from the top …

WTBQ is an independent radio station owned and operated by Frank Truatt and his company, FST Broadcasting. The station manager is Joy C Taylor aka Taylor Sterling.

You may remember “Taylor Sterling” from this complete and total meltdown after receiving questions during Tony Tuesday from Monroe Councilwoman Maureen Richardson.

Whether Joy C Taylor changed her name to Taylor Sterling as part of an effort to avoid trouble with the State Attorney General’s office is unknown. Allegedly, Mrs. Taylor operated a charity known as Feeding Families Inc., which was reported to the AG’s office by several Orange and Sullivan County farmers.

Both Frank Truatt and Joy C Taylor declined to respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

After arriving at WTBQ at some point in 2013, Joy C Taylor is alleged by former on-air personalities to have started chasing out said on-air personalities and anyone who disagreed with her politically. Especially after Orange County Executive, Steve Neuhaus, became a regular fixture on the station, where Mrs. Joy C. Taylor would echo Neuhaus’s talking points throughout the day. One former on-air personality is said to have directly lost their job because they disagreed politically with Mr. Neuhaus.

You’ll notice today that, with an occasional exception, most of the politicians who appear on WTBQ are Republican.

WTBQ has also been accused, at various points, since Mrs. Joy C Taylor arrived, of not paying their on-air personalities appropriately, violating FEC regulations by not reporting Dan Castricone’s old weekly show as an in-kind donation when Castricone ran for Congress against Sean Maloney, telling advertisers that there are more listeners than there actually are, and charging advertisers differently based on mere whim.

This last point could explain why, in 2023, a transaction between the Monroe Republican Committee and WTBQ does not list a dollar amount for advertising on WTBQ, simply saying the commercials order were pre-paid.

A similar transaction, between the Warwick Republican Committee and WTBQ, a week earlier, stated that the cost of the deal was $1,000.

In fact, in 2023 according to the FCC’s public file for WTBQ, only the Monroe Republicans do not have a dollar amount listed on their transaction with WTBQ.

You Want To Know Why?

At some point, Monroe Town Supervisor Tony Cardone began appearing regularly on WTBQ. His program airs each Tuesday at 9:30am. By the way it appears on WTBQ’s website, it sure looks like an official program from Tony as a Town Supervisor, and not Tony as a private citizen.

And every time Supervisor Cardone appears on WTBQ, he submits an invoice to be reimbursed by the Town of Monroe. You can see 2023’s and 2024’s reimbursement requests here.

It’s not for a lot of money, but it adds up over months and years.

The Supervisor is paid $77,000+ a year by Monroe Taxpayers. He also receives a stipend for travel expenses related to his work as a town official.

I suspect Supervisor Cardone is slipping the money he makes from these reimbursements back to WTBQ.

That would explain why the Monroe Town Republican Committee paid nothing for their election week ads in 2023.

It also may explain why, in 2022, Dorey Houle’s State Senate campaign invoice DID have a dollar amount on it, but it also said her ads were pre-paid.

Naturally, Senator Skoufis’s ads did not have that same note.

Again, both Joy C. Taylor and Frank Truatt declined to comment on these discrepancies, so we are only left to speculate.

Just a note: No. I don’t know why the Town opted to black out some of the information I requested. I submitted a request for an explanation. Technically they can’t just black stuff out like that unless there’s a specific purpose, and none was given when I was provided with these reimbursements.

One other thing to take note of: Three members of the Town Board MUST sign off on all reimbursement requests.

Starting in 2024, at the bottom of the above linked document, the only signature that appears regularly is Councilman Sal Scancarello.

Sometimes Councilwoman Bingham also signs, but Sal is basically a rubber stamp for Supervisor Cardone’s invoices.

Town of Monroe residents should ask Councilman Scancarello about why he’s signed off on all of these invoices without public comment or discussion.

The odds are good, most Monroe residents had no idea about the reimbursements until reading this very story.

Without the three required signatures, Supervisor Cardone should not legally be reimbursed for Tony Tuesdays.

But there’s another question you should ask …

If the Town Supervisor is being paid by the Town residents to appear on WTBQ, then shouldn’t the contents of that program be shared with the other Town Board members each week?

One would think, if the Town of Monroe is paying for something, then everyone we elected should have a chance to examine it and give their feedback.

Also: If the Town of Monroe taxpayers are paying for this radio show, then shouldn’t the Supervisor be made to answer questions submitted by the taxpayers during the program?

Sounds fair to me.

Town residents should be allowed to ask whatever questions they want, and not be verbally abused in a six minute rant like this one.

If it’s true that Monroe taxpayer money is being used to pay for Monroe Town Republican advertising, then shouldn’t we be informed about that transaction?

Does it violate any rules by the State Board of Elections? I don’t know, but I sure did send a press request for more information, and I also wrote to the State Comptroller’s office for comment as well.

One final point, and it brings us back to WTBQ.

“The FCC is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press. It is, however, illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news, and the FCC may act on complaints if there is documented evidence of such behavior from persons with direct personal knowledge.” [Emphasis Added]

The FCC takes disinformation very seriously.

So when you have a radio station carrying almost exclusively Republican content, and censoring questions sent in by listeners that make those Republicans look bad, that’s something they will absolutely investigate. Ditto if the Town Supervisor, using his weekly radio show, is presenting Town events differently from what’s actually happening.

I’ve been in touch with the FCC about Joy C. Taylor, her activities, Mr. Truatt and his activities, and Mr. Cardone's show.

I’ll let you know what I hear.

But if there’s one thing I know about the FCC? It’s that they are the one organization that doesn’t fuck around, and that should worry the people at WTBQ.