Just got off the phone with Mark Moeller, the CEO of R.F. Moeller Jeweler, who confirms that, yes, he did pull his AM1500 ads after his buddy Tommy Mischke was fired.

"There wasn't one single reason," Moeller insists. "Friendship obviously played a part. But the other thing is, he's been doing my spots for 15 years, he's a popular guy, so I'm supposed to have Joe Blow do my ads now?"

Moeller says he's received 50 emails supporting him for pulling his ads, or urging him to do so. Mischke "made a profound difference in my business. Not a day goes by — not a day — where someone doesn't walk into a store and say 'Mischke sent me.'"

I pressed Moeller to tell me how much of a hit KSTP was taking for this. "It was well into seven figures" he says of his ad buys over 15 years. Simple math says those purchases averaged at least $65,000 annually.

Moeller noted the holidays and the especially bad timing of Mischke's Dec. 5 axing: "I basically have 14 days to do 20 percent of my business. How'd you like to have the rug pulled out from under you in this economic climate?"

Still, Moeller says business is up 27 percent this year, and he professes no ill will toward AM1500. While admitting some shouting occurred Saturday, "I have nothing bad to say about KSTP management," adding execs told him the day the deed was done, but not the reason why. "I love the Hubbards, I love the radio station. But they made a business decision and I made mine."

The Moeller-Mischke partnership is not over, he emphasizes.

"No one understands the time we spent on those ads — 40-50 takes, and it was just freaking hilarious. But Tommy and I have talked since this happened. We're planning some YouTube ads, some viral marketing."