WCWA-AM Radio host Troy Neff points to Holiday Lane in Perrysburg Township, where, on Wednesday, he said he got into an argument with another driver that turned physical and became bloody.
Troy Neff admitted yesterday that his temper might have contributed to getting him into trouble two times within a 24-hour period. He was involved in a road-rage incident Wednesday night in Perrysburg Township that left him with three stab wounds – and yesterday afternoon his radio show was canceled after he sent a profane e-mail to a program director.
Mr. Neff, 40, a local radio personality, is recovering with a swollen left hand , including a cut just below the thumb, a jagged wound along his left tricep, and a stab wound on his shoulder blade from the road-rage incident.
A Tennessee man was arrested and charged with assault.”I know that I’ll probably be criticized and maybe rightly so for getting out of my vehicle, but it is what it is,” Mr. Neff said.
Mr. Neff said he doesn’t feel as if he instigated the altercation, but he did contribute to it and is not the type of person to back down.
He was driving on Holiday Lane about 6:15 p.m., returning to his financial planning office, Advanced Retirement Solutions, at the end of the cul-de-sac for a 7 p.m. appointment with a client when he saw a car pulling out of a parking lot at the end of the curve.
He hit his brakes and honked his horn because he had the right-of-way, he said. The other driver, identified by police as Jeffrey Hardeman, 42, of Knoxville, Tenn., then blew his horn, Mr. Neff said. Words were exchanged and Mr. Neff got out of his car and threw his watch, ready for an altercation.
The man got out of his vehicle and pushed him, Mr. Neff said, and then he tackled the man. They fought and Mr. Neff said he didn’t notice at first that he had been stabbed. “I was attempting to stand up at that time and say, ‘Enough. Get in your vehicle and go,’ but as I stood up, I felt a rush of heat and saw the blood,” Mr. Neff said. “I said, ‘Dude, you stabbed me? Are you serious?'”¢”
Mr. Neff said he got the license plate number of the vehicle before the man drove away. Mr. Neff walked through the parking lot to his office to get help, leaving a substantial trail of blood that was still clearly visible yesterday.
Seeing it yesterday in the daylight, he realized how lucky he was to have not been hurt more seriously. “I’m surprised that it can happen and you don’t feel it happen,” he said.
After Mr. Neff was released from St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, he returned yesterday morning because of the pain.
He spent most of yesterday talking to local media and noticed that local radio station WSPD-AM, 1370, was the only outlet not covering what happened to him.
Mr. Neff said there is “bad blood” between him and the administration at the station and believed that was the reason they were not covering it. He accused Program Director Brian Wilson of that, and sent him an angry and profane e-mail. He was notified in the afternoon that his show, the Troy Neff Show, which ran from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays on WCWA-AM 1230, was canceled because of that e-mail.