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Bauerle going to WECK?

R

Rob Piotrowski

From a Facebook post today:

"Buffalo's #1 Oldies Station, WECK Radio is proud to announce the hiring of Buffalo Radio Legend Bauerle."

So which Bauerle is it? I'm thinking it's Dick because he just "retired" from Entercom sales. But maybe Tom's had enough of the right-wing talk?
 
According to Facebook, it's Dick Bauerle, going over to sell at WECK. He worked with Buddy at Entercom. It does make you wonder whose decision it was for him to retire.
 
SirRoxalot said:
According to Facebook, it's Dick Bauerle, going over to sell at WECK. He worked with Buddy at Entercom. It does make you wonder whose decision it was for him to retire.
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Have you been listening to Bauerle the last six months? That should give you some idea.
 
LOL Bauerle.

Up and out of the recliner, Dick. Gonna have to put Gloria Loring into heavy rotation.

WECK is indeed the most eco-friendly station around... EVERYTHING is recycled!

Seriously, Dick is cool (IMO). No idea how he is as a salesguy. Best of luck to him.
 
This move is like relocating from one deck of the Titanic to another.

Radio listeners won't care if WECK is hiring a new Sales Rep. Buddy is desperate for attention if the Facebook blurb is about a salesman. If he's actually bringing in Psycho Tom, that's a different kind of desperation...
 
tbolt909 said:
This move is like relocating from one deck of the Titanic to another.

Radio listeners won't care if WECK is hiring a new Sales Rep. Buddy is desperate for attention if the Facebook blurb is about a salesman. If he's actually bringing in Psycho Tom, that's a different kind of desperation...
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Not sure that I agree with the first statement. If I understand it correctly, Dick was at Entercom, right? Despite that firm's (seemingly) aberrant Buffalo portfolio, I see no reason to believe that they are destined for disaster. Now, Dick is on the move to WECK, right? WECK is not Entercom. Relatively speaking, it's a "mom-n-pop." Same industry, vastly different structures (I have to believe). Mom-n-pops fail at a far greater rate than established national public companies. So, my nautical analogy would go more like this... Dick has gone from a Princess Cruise Ship with a quarter size leak, to a 16' Tracker PanFish with a quarter size leak.

I also see no signs of "desperation." Mom-n-pops struggle. That's part of the deal. I happen to think the path that WECK has taken is economically unsustainable. I think the quarter size leak will sink the enterprise. Maybe Dick Bauerle is like a powerful bilge pump.
 
four4rock said:
Not sure that I agree with the first statement. If I understand it correctly, Dick was at Entercom, right? Despite that firm's (seemingly) aberrant Buffalo portfolio, I see no reason to believe that they are destined for disaster. Now, Dick is on the move to WECK, right? WECK is not Entercom. Relatively speaking, it's a "mom-n-pop." Same industry, vastly different structures (I have to believe). Mom-n-pops fail at a far greater rate than established national public companies. So, my nautical analogy would go more like this... Dick has gone from a Princess Cruise Ship with a quarter size leak, to a 16' Tracker PanFish with a quarter size leak.

I also see no signs of "desperation." Mom-n-pops struggle. That's part of the deal. I happen to think the path that WECK has taken is economically unsustainable. I think the quarter size leak will sink the enterprise. Maybe Dick Bauerle is like a powerful bilge pump.
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I simply cant read these anymore because everyone is wrong about everything. Economical sustainability???? You do realize that Cumulus is the company in Bankruptcy, not WECK. You do realize that I Heart (The biggest radio company in the country)was in Bankruptcy, not WECK. WECK has never made more money in the history of it's existence than it does now, and your telling me the station is "not sustainable". This conversation is no longer about radio.....it needs to be about how you simply do not know anything about business. Also, you may consider putting in your resume at WECK. I pay employees almost double than the wall street companies do. You really, really, need to understand radio as more than playing a song. It's a business. From a net profit PERCENTAGE, WECK is probably ahead of all major radio companies in the country. WECK is also the highest rated 1KW AM in the entire country for medium and mid size markets. Swallow that for a minute.
 
Buddy Shula said:
You do realize that Cumulus is the company in Bankruptcy,
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To clarify, Cumulus has exited bankruptcy, and has been relisted on NASDAQ:

https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/177223/cumulus-officially-emerges-from-bankruptcy

Its bankruptcy was not caused by radio, but by the debt it incurred in buying the bankrupt Citadel Broadcasting. iHeart's bankruptcy wasn't caused by radio, but by going private in 2008. My point is that while these two companies have gone bankrupt, it wasn't because of radio, but because of bad business plans that caused them to take on too much debt.

Having said that, I agree with your point about WECK.
 
"Keep that Chum Line going, Chief" (JAWS)

This thread was about Buddy being deliberately vague in a Facebook post. It backfired based on the listener comments. A simple "WECK welcomes ___ to its sales staff" would have sufficed. Buddy is like the Quint character. Obsessed with the Great Corporate Sharks...
 
Buddy Shula said:
Also, you may consider putting in your resume at WECK. I pay employees almost double than the wall street companies do. You really, really, need to understand radio as more than playing a song. It's a business. From a net profit PERCENTAGE, WECK is probably ahead of all major radio companies in the country. WECK is also the highest rated 1KW AM in the entire country for medium and mid size markets. Swallow that for a minute.
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Buddy, I guess all those people on the air must really be "happy campers" these days. With WECK's historically high billings and profits, they must have gotten a substantial raise from when they started with you a year ago when it was rumored they were in for around $20 per "on-air" hour. And that's only right since they're working at a station that's net profit PERCENTAGE is probably ahead of all major radio companies in the country. My hat's off to you for sharing the wealth and taking good care of your employees.
 
As co-moderator, I'd like to call for a bit of respect by all participants. There is more than one way to do good radio.

As a broadcaster in his 60th year in the business, I'd like to see more owners like Buddy taking over stations that have been under-performing and re-purposing them to serve niche and ignored audiences.

There is still money in local sales, despite the big box stores and the Internet. It takes special skills to serve listeners and advertisers, but it beats having one more un-listened to voice of paid religion!

And I wish a few more owners were as excited about radio today as Buddy is.
 
I agree, DavidEduardo. I support what Buddy is doing with WECK. But he posts on Facebook that radio legend "Bauerle" is joining WECK. Okay, he's trying to be cute. He wants followers to think he hired Tom Bauerle. That's not the case. Dick Bauerle is not a Buffalo radio legend. Buddy is being disingenuous. Listeners don't care if Dick Bauerle is joining the sales staff. And Buddy crying on this forum that he can't read these posts anymore is pure crap. Then don't post such ridiculous postings on Facebook. Plus, he weighs in like a know-it-all, that WBFO does not subscribe to Nielson. Well, that's plainly false. They do. Or else I wouldn't have had access to the data that I shared with this group. Again, Buddy is doing a great job with WECK. He just needs to scale back on the hype!
 
Tall Thin One said:
Buddy, I guess all those people on the air must really be "happy campers" these days. With WECK's historically high billings and profits, they must have gotten a substantial raise from when they started with you a year ago when it was rumored they were in for around $20 per "on-air" hour. And that's only right since they're working at a station that's net profit PERCENTAGE is probably ahead of all major radio companies in the country. My hat's off to you for sharing the wealth and taking good care of your employees.
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Thank you. I treat them great. Others would not hire them
 
Mark1981 said:
I agree, DavidEduardo. I support what Buddy is doing with WECK. But he posts on Facebook that radio legend "Bauerle" is joining WECK. Okay, he's trying to be cute. He wants followers to think he hired Tom Bauerle. That's not the case. Dick Bauerle is not a Buffalo radio legend. Buddy is being disingenuous. Listeners don't care if Dick Bauerle is joining the sales staff. And Buddy crying on this forum that he can't read these posts anymore is pure crap. Then don't post such ridiculous postings on Facebook. Plus, he weighs in like a know-it-all, that WBFO does not subscribe to Nielson. Well, that's plainly false. They do. Or else I wouldn't have had access to the data that I shared with this group. Again, Buddy is doing a great job with WECK. He just needs to scale back on the hype!
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Do you remember the days of radio stunting ?. It was exciting. It’s show biz. Chill out BTW, Dick is a radio legend. The hype is going to get stronger. That’s what broadcasters should be doing. Hyping themselves.
 
Rob Piotrowski said:
And as co-moderator I call on you to moderate threads properly by keeping them focused and on-point. That's the one way to do a good message board.
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I'm not going to get into an argument on board moderation.

Suffice it to say that a healthy exchange of ideas, including disagreement, is the main reason this kind of board exists. We only ask that debate, even the most heated kind, not become personal and insulting.

As to focus, threads may wander and as long as they are relevant to the overall topic of the board, we would not want to be controlling of them to such a degree that valuable comments are repressed. A winding country road is often more fun than a freeway.

Overall, Buddy's WECK presents itself as one of the industry's most interesting subjects today. The possibility that successful independent local radio can be created from the shell of a decrepit station is exciting. The idea that there may be a financially rewarding opportunity in the serving of older demos is great for the industry and a big group of listeners. And the fact that this is happening with an AM and a couple of those much-dismissed translators is icing on the cake.
 
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Buddy Shula said:
Do you remember the days of radio stunting ?. It was exciting. It’s show biz. Chill out BTW, Dick is a radio legend. The hype is going to get stronger. That’s what broadcasters should be doing. Hyping themselves.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Well, maybe not so directly about the so-called "legendary" status of DB. Great guy; likely an adequate salesperson; knowledgeable, I suppose; big talker; seasoned. All of that. But "legend", um... oh, wait, that's more hype, isn't it?

Sometimes, though, "hype" extends itself to BS.

BTW, if WECK wants a supreme marketer, a has-been, and hype-like media attention... look no further than Russ Brandon... who, it seems, is open for a new job. lol

Seriously, radio stunting & over-the-top hype? Yes! Go for it! Kind of a disparity with the alleged target market though, no?
 
Ostrander was all apologetic on a recent Facebook post, writing "I thought using the Bauerle name was a funny tounge [sic] in cheek prank, but in retrospect, it was stupid on my part..." More ill-conceived than stupid. Most people who listen to the radio know who Tom is, few know his brother Dick. When they hear Bauerle, they think not of Dick, but the guy who's been pounding the tired neo-con drumbeat on the air for decades. Give the guy credit for apologizing. It's wholesome. Moreover, it gets him more publicity and Facebook sympathy. Some of the responses to his post were revealing. The part-time TV-Radio critic of The News wrote, "Next you will needlessly apologize to Don Shula." Another, from the scion of a former radio station owner and non-dairy products company advised "...remember what I told you when you bought the station, never apologize." Rich folks often taken that approach. Recalls a certain serial tweeter.
 
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