MAXWELL OUT AT ’MMS

Afternoon drive DJ Maxwell and WMMS have parted ways.

Benjamin “Maxwell” Bornstein has hosted the shift since 2004. His contract was set to expire in 2010, but relations turned sour over the past year. The Clear Channel station placed Maxwell on probation in April, after the DJ’s prank announcement that Metallica would play a show in the WMMS parking lot. The Maxwell Show was No. 1 in Arbitron’s spring figures for the ages 18-34 audience.

Since then, the over-sharing talk jock has told listeners that ongoing negotiations for contract renewal have been going poorly. Monday, Maxwell was gone, as was co-host Dan Stansbury, who also served as the station’s music director.

“No agreement could be reached with the [Maxwell] show,” wrote program director Bo Matthews in a Twitter post. “We really tried. No secrets. He has talked about it. The process played out.”

Maxwell, Matthews and Stansbury didn’t return Scene’s calls.

For now, WMMS is filling the slot with the Dumb & Charlie Experiment, a feature-length extension of a regular bit from the station’s morning drive show Rover’s Morning Glory. (After years of feuding with Maxwell, Shane “Rover” French signed with ’MMS in April 2008.) “These guys are trying out,” explained Matthews in another tweet. And in another, he wrote, “I didn’t care for the MWL talk either. They are moving on and going to TRY and do a show.” — D.X. Ferris