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WMEX Lives Up To Its Long Standing Reputation - They Don't Pay Their On-Air Talent

O

Omnibus

Guest
Howie Carr announced today that the reason he left WMEX 1510 is that the owners were unwilling or unable to pay him.

No matter who owns or rents that frequency going back to the Richmond Brothers who Jerry Williams had to chase down the stairs of the old Fenway Park station to get paid to the ethically challenged owners of a later incarnation of WMEX - then known as WMRE - in both the music and talk format - most talent is still owed money. That includes this poster.
 
When Howie launched his network he had Kevin "Dr K" Wallis on and said "he's buying, or trying to buy, the station". Howie said he hoped they'd be able to do this even though it could take awhile. Fact is RKO didn't want Howie even on an affiliate basis and without WMEX, WCRN would be his flagship. Maybe he was promised they'd pay him eventually. Howie was getting affiliate fees plus money from advertisers and he admitted tonight he went on WMEX because "I needed a station in Boston to make this thing work. I started wondering if they were ever gonna pay me." There was speculation that Howie may have been buying time on 1510 just to get a Boston station. Instead maybe they promised to pay him eventually.

It was costing Wallis a lot to lease the station and it just wasn't clicking (they weren't subscribing to ratings). Yeah Howie was getting money from sponsors but again nothing from Wallis. Howie gets ads in the Herald on Mon and Thu and he actually put ads in for WMEX, WCAP, WBSM, WCRN and WFEA. So he was helping in some way to promote MEX.The Herald radio deals (some hours on MEX, some on CRN) seemed like ways to promote the Herald and Herald radio on the radio while the stations got some local content and mentions in the Herald.

First Wallis' station in Laurel MD, WILC 900., dropped their similar talk & lease deal and went Spanish. MEX drops its Facebook, the website goes into maintenance mode (oh,
they got JT the Brick on again...) and Scott F quoted sources as saying Wallis is no longer involved and Blackstrap is now programming the station until someone else can come along.They make iHeart happy by clearing Beck, Hannity, and JT (from FSR) so they can tell advertisers their spots are running in Boston. "That should be good for
a 0.2...for now," said Scott on Facebook when I told him MEX was now running Hannity.

Signal problems? Supposedly the signal goes out to the fishies. I really do get it fine here in Beverly, but I'm two blocks from the ocean.
 
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Omnibus said:
Howie Carr announced today that the reason he left WMEX 1510 is that the owners were unwilling or unable to pay him.

No matter who owns or rents that frequency going back to the Richmond Brothers who Jerry Williams had to chase down the stairs of the old Fenway Park station to get paid to the ethically challenged owners of a later incarnation of WMEX - then known as WMRE - in both the music and talk format - most talent is still owed money. That includes this poster.
Click to expand...

What does WMEX actually own? Do they own the transmitter and studio real estate? If not what is it really worth?
 
And now they've put Sean Hannity in HC's former time slot. Wonder how they're going to pay his syndicator when they couldn't pay Howie?
 
Shows like this may be on a month to month basis,it was said on the other board and who knows, could see changes soon that aren't an April Fools' joke.If it takes awhile to get another leaser lined up maybe Blackstrap could keep the Herald Radio and the Premiere shows going temporarily. I'd
think changes come 4/1 after monthly contracts expire. While the
"Personality radio is back" promos continue,it looks like anything associated with Wallis is gone including
Bryan Berner's CFR show.(The C stands for Cluster and the R for Radio and you can guess what the F stands for.)
 
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raccoonradio said:
Shows like this may be on a month to month basis,it was said on the other board and who knows, could see changes soon that aren't an April Fools' joke.If it takes awhile to get another leaser lined up maybe Blackstrap could keep the Herald Radio and the Premiere shows going temporarily. I'd
think changes come 4/1 after monthly contracts expire. While the
"Personality radio is back" promos continue,it looks like anything associated with Wallis is gone including
Bryan Berner's CFR show.(The C stands for Cluster and the R for Radio and you can guess what the F stands for.)
Click to expand...

Bryan Berner is the General Manager.
 
Omnibus said:
Howie Carr announced today that the reason he left WMEX 1510 is that the owners were unwilling or unable to pay him.

No matter who owns or rents that frequency going back to the Richmond Brothers who Jerry Williams had to chase down the stairs of the old Fenway Park station to get paid to the ethically challenged owners of a later incarnation of WMEX - then known as WMRE - in both the music and talk format - most talent is still owed money. That includes this poster.
Click to expand...

Much more to the story than what you have heard.
 
I don't know if Berner works for Blackstrap or Wallis. Fybush had said supposedly Wallis is out and Blackstrap now programming the station; @bostonradio had said "don't get too used to Hannity at 3 pm" and hinted at a change. Berner part of the CFR show; don't know if that too got replaced by Fox Sports. The MEX facebook got deleted; I guess CFR still appears as a podcast (Berner's twitter had someone post a pic of him along w "WMEX you'll hear the difference") and the MEX twitter was last updated Jan 4 and has a banner saying Dr K 12-3, Howie Carr 3-7, Hannity 7-10, Bob Levy 10-mid and CFR mid-1. Not too accurate.
Again if Berner is GM is he working for Blackstrap or Wallis and if Wallis is supposedly out of there...haven't bothered to ask him...

@bostonradio on radioinsight (re Hannity): Don’t get used to him. That’s all I can say at the moment.
Nathan on radioinsight:Agreed. Blackstrap is simply honoring contracts.Methinks that Wallis et. al., signed monthly contracts with Premiere Radio Networks (among other providers) and it makes more sense for Blackstrap to run out the string. It will only take two weeks… hopefully enough time for them to find a replacement LMA.
 
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raccoonradio said:
I don't know if Berner works for Blackstrap or Wallis. Fybush had said supposedly Wallis is out and Blackstrap now programming the station; @bostonradio had said "don't get too used to Hannity at 3 pm" and hinted at a change. Berner part of the CFR show; don't know if that too got replaced by Fox Sports. The MEX facebook got deleted; I guess CFR still appears as a podcast (Berner's twitter had someone post a pic of him along w "WMEX you'll hear the difference") and the MEX twitter was last updated Jan 4 and has a banner saying Dr K 12-3, Howie Carr 3-7, Hannity 7-10, Bob Levy 10-mid and CFR mid-1. Not too accurate.
Again if Berner is GM is he working for Blackstrap or Wallis and if Wallis is supposedly out of there...haven't bothered to ask him...

@bostonradio on radioinsight (re Hannity): Don’t get used to him. That’s all I can say at the moment.
Nathan on radioinsight:Agreed. Blackstrap is simply honoring contracts.Methinks that Wallis et. al., signed monthly contracts with Premiere Radio Networks (among other providers) and it makes more sense for Blackstrap to run out the string. It will only take two weeks… hopefully enough time for them to find a replacement LMA.
Click to expand...

Bryan Berner works for neither Blackstrap or Wallis. You figure it out.
 
Yes I have heard and also heard WMEX has been sold... (a little more insight...)Not
confirmed yet.,,,

going back to Mar 9, the day Howie's RKO return was announced, @bostonradio tweeted:
>>
I heard there's a possible sale(not again!) in the works. You can't be caught w/o a Boston station if you're syndicating
 
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raccoonradio said:
Yes I have heard and also heard WMEX has been sold... (a little more insight...)Not
confirmed yet.,,,

going back to Mar 9, the day Howie's RKO return was announced, @bostonradio tweeted:
>>
I heard there's a possible sale(not again!) in the works. You can't be caught w/o a Boston station if you're syndicating
Click to expand...


Well I would like to start seeing some speculation on what a new owner would do.
 
raccoonradio said:
You can't be caught w/o a Boston station if you're syndicating
Click to expand...

I would say that boat has sailed, Boston is heavily Liberal, the AM signals are hampered to protect the rest of the US and Canada, there are many syndicated shows that get along just fine without what is supposedly a top 10 market.

What is more important, being on a Boston station with no ratings (Rush Radio did great huh) or having sea to shining sea coverage from the Carolinas to California on a bunch of smaller stations, especially if you are a Hanity, Levin, Savage, or ________?

there are a dozen AM's in this market that are at best under utilized, and probably on life support, that any one of a half dozen nationally syndicated shows could approach... but I have not seen anyone jumping at the opportunity.

Katz, Rush, and Severin couldn't get 1200 above .3 in a good book.... that shows you how important talk radio is to Boston.

WRKO may come off of life support with the "return" of HLC, but it is still in I.C.U. ..... what fills the void next time?

sister station WEEI once the highest rated AM sports talker in the nation is pulling decimal point numbers with ESPN... explain to me how that is paying the electric bill?

I don't think Boston is as important as it once was..... the South and Southwest are where the population is growing
 
For that to be true, you'd be able to provide an example of a talk radio station (non-sports) in that region, or in any region of the country, that was started in the past 5 years that showed significant listener growth.

Can you provide an example of that? (spoiler alert: you can't.)

This isn't a "Boston is a liberal city" thing. This isn't a "Boston isn't an important city" thing. this is a "Traditional talk is dying across the nation" thing.



Also: I'll believe the "WMEX is being sold" rumors on the day the sale closes. That station has been "for sale" forever. I'll believe it when I see it.
 
A lot of these on-air folks want to have it both ways: They want to get paid a ton of money, and have full control over their content. A few manage to get both, but this is a guy who walked away from a top-paying job for life to get what he thought was a better deal at a smaller, weaker station. So now he's complaining? Who forced him to leave? A sucker is born every minute, and here's just one more example.

Regarding AM radio, that train left the station 20 years ago. AM has been in steep decline for years. Even the FCC is talking about it, except they really don't have a solution. Just like they don't have a solution for more minority ownership. But AM ill continue its decline regardless of programming. There is no programming solution to what is obviously a problem in technology.
 
TheBigA said:
A lot of these on-air folks want to have it both ways: They want to get paid a ton of money, and have full control over their content. A few manage to get both, but this is a guy who walked away from a top-paying job for life to get what he thought was a better deal at a smaller, weaker station. So now he's complaining? Who forced him to leave? A sucker is born every minute, and here's just one more example.

Regarding AM radio, that train left the station 20 years ago. AM has been in steep decline for years. Even the FCC is talking about it, except they really don't have a solution. Just like they don't have a solution for more minority ownership. But AM ill continue its decline regardless of programming. There is no programming solution to what is obviously a problem in technology.
Click to expand...

The first thing that I would do is fix the signal. Just sayin
 
Wimmmex said:
Whatever signal problems they have are inherent.
Click to expand...

I think that's one of the problems some old timers have...they just don't realize how the interference marketplace has changed, and how little the FCC has done to fix it.

As I said, this is not a programming problem. It can't be fixed with a new format.
 
Some talk listeners combat weak signals or interference by listening online, smart phones etc. Some give up because they don't care for talk anymore or they got frustrated trying to find where their fave hosts moved to,or dealing with weak signals. Sports talk doing fairly well but not so much political talk. And some hosts like Dennis Miller (Roger Hedgecock too) are doing what Jerry Williams talked about...they're getting out of the business.
 
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