Matt Siegel, ‘Matty in the Morning’ radio host, storms off the air after being warned about Demi Lovato comments

© Nic Antaya for The Boston Globe Matt Siegel talked during the "Matty in the Morning" radio show on Kiss 108.

Matt Siegel, a fixture on Boston radio for 40 years as the host of the “Matty in the Morning” show on Kiss 108 FM, abruptly signed off Wednesday after being told to “stop talking” about pop star Demi Lovato’s announcement that they are non-binary.

It’s not clear if the dramatic mic drop, which stunned listeners and sponsors, marks the end of “Matty in the Morning.” Reached Wednesday, WXKS-FM general manager Alan Chartrand seemed to downplay the controversy, saying “everything is going to be fine.”

But when asked via text if he’ll be back on the air Thursday, Siegel replied, “No.”

At issue Wednesday were comments Siegel made while discussing the announcement by Lovato that the singer now identifies as non-binary and as such would be changing their pronouns. Siegel said his boss at iHeartMedia, which owns WXKS-FM, called and told him to “stop talking about what I’ve been talking about.”

“I was going against the ‘woke thing,’ okay?” Siegel said, according to a recording of the segment uploaded to YouTube. “Against the Demi Lovatos of the world and all that kind of stuff.”

Siegel said he’d received a similar call prior to the November presidential election when he was criticizing Donald Trump.

“This is why I got rich, okay?” Siegel said Wednesday. “Because I told it like it is to my listeners for 40 bleepin’ years. They pulled the plug on me and they said ‘you cannot talk about what you’re talking about.’ ... If I’m left wing and I go anti-Trump, I get in trouble, and today I was anti-wokeness and I can’t do that.”

He added that he’s now barred from being “a funny comic, telling it like it is about what he’s thinking.”

So, Siegel said, he was “ending my portion of the radio show right now. ... I just want to say, I love my listeners ... and it’s been a hell of a run, but I think it’s coming to an end.”

He reiterated that he’s being muzzled by the station. “It’s a joke, the whole binary thing,” he said. “I don’t care what Demi Lovato does. But now we have to worry about ‘you might offend someone.’ ... Basically what they want me to do is to be, you know, a lightweight show.”

He concluded his rant by saying, “they said shut up Matt, stop talking, well, I hope you’re happy because I just stopped talking. Matty out.”

Chartrand said he planned to meet with Siegel Wednesday afternoon and hoped to resolve the issue.

“He threatens (to quit) all the time in a joking kind of way,” said Chartrand. “This isn’t the first time he’s threatened this would be the last show.”

Siegel told Boston.com in a phone interview after Wednesday’s show that “I’m against her binary thing; I think she’s a troubled woman and a lot of young people are taking her seriously and it bothers me,” stressing that “of course, it’s a comedy show, so I did it in the context of jokes.”

Though he called Lovato a “woman,” non-binary people do not identify as either gender and pronouns such as “her” do not accurately describe them; they is the preferred pronoun.

“We were having fun with it, and my boss called up and said that I’d crossed the line and they didn’t want me talking about it anymore,” Siegel told Boston.com. “I responded by saying, ‘If I can’t talk about what I’m thinking at this point in my career, I don’t want to be on the radio anymore.’”

However, he also told Boston.com that after talking with his superiors Wednesday, he believes that despite what he said on air in the morning, he’ll remain with the station.

Siegel’s departure quickly reverberated across the Internet, with one person tweeting, “Gonna need my Matty in the Morning pals to debrief with me immediately.”

Siegel launched his show in 1981 and said in January during a 40-year celebration that his run had surpassed his expectations by a long shot. The morning show also features Siegel’s longtime sidekicks Billy Costa and Lisa Donovan.

“In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would see this day,” Siegel said in a statement at the time. “I am forever grateful to my wonderful radio team, the great company I work for and the terrific people of Boston.”

Then-Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh in January declared “Matty in the Morning Day” while Governor Charlie Baker issued a citation honoring Siegel, according to a prior statement from the station.

“Good morning everybody, today’s my 40th anniversary and my team’s done all these wonderful things and a lot of nice people have called in, I’m overwhelmed, I love you guys,” Siegel said during the January anniversary show. “Part of being able to do this act, this radio show is me being a wise guy, when you’re kind of a wise guy... you put yourself down... so this is overwhelming and I love you guys.”

This is a breaking news story that will be updated. Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report and Jeremiah Manion of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Charlie McKenna contributed.