Danny Williams denounced a radio host for "pessimism and crap" during a testy on-air exchange yesterday morning that ended with the sound of the Newfoundland and Labrador Premier abruptly hanging up.

Earlier in the morning, Mr. Williams had announced a tentative deal to proceed with development of the Hibernia South oilfield.

In his opening preamble, Randy Simms, open-line host on the province-wide radio station VOCM, referred to the good news in the Hibernia announcement, but also questioned whether oil was taking attention away from other issues, such as the fishery.

Just over an hour into the show, Mr. Williams called in to express his displeasure with Mr. Simms.

"I can't understand for the life of me why when we've now negotiated another deal here this morning that is going to put twice as much money and royalties in the province's hands as we collected in 12 years on all three projects, and you got to find something wrong with it," Mr. Williams said.

Mr. Simms countered that he wanted to raise a "challenging question" about the amount of government focus on other troubled areas, such as the forestry and fishery.

"We don't need that kind of pessimism and crap coming out of your mouth in the mornings, I can tell you right now," the Premier replied.

"You're the reason that I keep going in this job because it's the skeptics and the negative people in this province that have kept us, those lobsters clawed back in the pot year after year after year, but I refuse to listen to pessimists like you --and we're going to move forward and we're going to do it despite you," Mr. Williams told Mr. Simms.

"Now you have a nice day, thank you very much."

Mr. Simms replied: "What was that all about?" Mr. Williams said: "Goodbye."

After a loud noise, the line went dead.

A spokesman for the Premier indicated later Mr. Williams had no comment.

Mr. Simms said later he was surprised by the "level of anger that [the Premier] displayed" in the phone call.

The radio host said Mr. Williams did not have any reason to be upset. "It wasn't anything personal that I was posing. In fact, it's a question dealing with the future of Newfoundland and Labrador."