Mayor, wrestler vie in skunk of a battle

Vote pins Marlborough cable show

Chris ''The Skunk'' Antal, a professional wrestler, has his dander up over his cable access program. (Wiqan Ang for The Boston Globe)

MARLBOROUGH - Professional wrestler Chris "The Skunk" Antal routinely scorns public officials' decisions, derides snooty suburbanites, and offends entire countries on his cable access program. He once desecrated the flag of Brazil.

But Mayor Nancy Stevens recently delivered a body blow of her own. She and members of the Marlborough Cable Trust recently voted Pro Wrestling Monthly off the air. The reason: Antal lost video camera equipment he borrowed from the station.

"I'm livid," Antal shouted during an interview in the blistering tone of a pro wrestler. "It's because Nancy doesn't like me. She claims I make a mockery out of the city."

The fight between the pro wrestler and pearls-and-pantsuit mayor has highlighted tensions in this city of 80,000 as it tries to shed its blue-collar image as a Central Massachusetts factory town. While many like or at least tolerate Antal's show, which has been on the air for nearly nine years, more people view it as an oddity and embarrassment. Predictably, Antal, who wears his hair in a white mohawk, has promised not to give up his show quietly. He said he plans to wreak havoc at today's Labor Day parade, which has traditionally drawn congressmen and politicians statewide.

Stevens has hired a private lawyer to handle all discussions with Antal. And she was adamant last week that the decision to suspend Antal's show had nothing to do with his on-air antics.

"This has nothing to do with his show, let me make that very, very clear," she said. "He has clearly violated his agreement with the channel by not replacing the equipment he lost."

At dispute, she said, is the cost of a camera's replacement. The mayor said buying a new one will cost $3,400. Antal said that the equipment was 14 years old and that he would pay only $700 for a replacement.

"My digital camera is five years old, and I'd be lucky if I could sell it for $20 at a yard sale," he said.

Stevens said that Antal had signed an agreement with the station that he would pay for "all replacement costs" for missing equipment, but has refused. The equipment is not insured.

Stevens serves as chairwoman of the cable trust. Other members include a close personal friend, Linda Ossing, and fellow Rotary Club member Joe Valaroti. The trust voted 5-0 to suspend the show until Antal agrees to pay for new equipment.

"We have had other producers who have not had the equipment available" since it was lost, Stevens said. "That's not fair."

The city's cable access station, M8, is funded by cable companies that set aside a percentage of their gross revenues in the city to fund locally created programming. M8 program director Dan Guindon referred all questions about Antal's show to the mayor's office. Neither the station nor the lawyer for the trust, Aldo Cipriano, would disclose the age of the lost camera.

Antal has been doing his show for nearly nine years, taking the camera with him to local wrestling matches and interjecting his own political and social commentary. He has mercilessly derided public officials, once donning a Porky Pig mask to imitate Stevens's predecessor, former mayor Dennis Hunt. He rants that crime, alcohol, and drug abuse are on the rise in the city. He urinated on the Brazilian flag on one show, sparking international anger when the footage was aired on Brazilian national television. As a result, he lost his job at a Hopkinton optical engineering firm, he said.

Antal also has previously been banned from the grounds of the city's high school because he used an expletive to describe the school's principal while introducing a band at a concert. The principal, Mary Carlson, was recently named superintendent of schools in the city and appointed to the board of the cable trust. Carlson did not return a reporter's phone calls.

Stevens is currently serving her second term as mayor, working before that as a stay-at-home mother of two. As mayor, she has pushed to bring more wealth and white-collar jobs to the city and has supported tax breaks to local corporations, including Boston Scientific, where her husband works. She also proposed a local ordinance that would ban sex offenders from living in the city limits. Two years ago, she initiated a plan to evict a hot dog vendor from a scenic roadway because he drew in unsightly 18-wheelers.

Marlborough resident Nanette Goldstein said she was glad Stevens took Antal's show off the air.

"He just went too far," she said as she loaded groceries into her car. "He was sort of bad for Marlborough's image."

Retiree and longtime city resident T. Joseph Correia said he rarely watched the show, but "didn't see any reason why he shouldn't go on."

Larry Doucette, owner of Doc Larry's Watch Repair shop on Main Street, said he's not a fan of The Skunk or Stevens.

"The Skunk should be able to say whatever he wants," Doucette said. "That's why we've got an on/off switch."

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.