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Cumulus Vaccine Policy Hits WDRQ

She's apparently one of two Cumulus hosts who exited today. The fact is she worked for a company that mandates lots of things. Earlier this year, they told country stations not to play music by Morgan Wallen. That cost this station's PD his job. The fact is big companies mandate things all the time. It's their company, and they can run it however they want. I think they gave employees a couple months to follow the rule, and seems to me employees were given the option of regular getting Covid tests.

Here's the RadioInk coverage of the story:

radioink.com

Cumulus Hosts Hitting The Exits After Refusing Vaccine - Radio Ink

They can't say they weren't warned. As we reported back in August, Cumulus gave all employees until October 11th to get their COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. WYCD Detroit co-host Roxanne Steele was one of several employees told not to return to work after refusing to get vaccinated.
radioink.com radioink.com

The problem people miss is this is an infectious disease. So it doesn't just affect you. It affects the people around you. If we all worked and lived in our own bubble, this wouldn't be an issue. Lots of cities and companies have also instituted very strict rules about smoking. Both the virus and smoking can kill you. For some reason, smoking rules haven't created the passion the vaccine has.
 
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Her (and her co-host's) ratings in morning drive stunk; I'm sure that didn't help her cause any. Although she was officially named co-host about five months back, she actually began sitting in the morning co-host chair earlier than that.

The New Country 93-1 brand was supposed to be the younger, trendy competitor to WYCD. In a short period of time following the station matching or even edging out WYCD in some very important demos (which occurred within the first six months following the rebrand away from Nash-FM), the station lost its original female local morning show co-host to a podcasting / streaming startup, decided to replace her with Roxanne (who is probably 15+ years of age older than the station's ideal listener), and lost another talented full-time personality with an impressive social media presence to Audacy's CHR station in L.A.

In the latest Nielsen survey, WDRQ recorded its worst AQH share in a very long time. Excluding religious WMUZ-FM, it suffered the worst 6+ AQH share of any full power commercial FM station in the market.

The station is a wreck.

The "New Country" brand made sense when the station had two young yet very talented broadcasters who would sound perfectly at home on a CHR station (Roxanne's predecessor, in fact, was the former night jock at WKQI). It doesn't make a whole lotta sense when much of the station's talent sounds as old or older than the talent on WYCD.
 
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MarkW said:
In the latest Nielsen survey, WDRQ recorded its worst AQH share in a very long time.
Click to expand...

This is about where the station was when it flipped to country. It's probably been a while since people in Detroit ventured over to 93.1. They may not even know its there any more.
 
Well stated; I completely agree.

We'll see if the Brand Manager (not sure if that is his official title - might be Director of FM Programming) can resurrect this sinking ship. Hopefully, corporate will give him proper support.

Detroit, Cincinnati, and Grand Rapids are all Cumulus country dumpster fires. It's amazing how poorly Cumulus performs with this format around here. Most other owners have little difficulty with it, and in fact, usually see quite a bit of success.

W4 in Ann Arbor is a noteworthy exception. That station has found a winning formula and has wisely clung to it. The station was in good shape when Cumulus acquired it and they wisely left it alone, for the most part.
 
Grand Rapids had decent numbers much of the time as Nash on 94.5. A botched frequency switch to 107.3 accompanied by other ill conceived programming changes killed their numbers.

Detroit did well initially as New Country 93-1 and then saw its numbers crash as popular personalities left. The lack of song variety and the pukey voiceovers make the station a fatiguing listen, at least for me.

Cincinnati's numbers were OK as Great Country, tanked immediately after becoming Nash, and other than a couple aberrations following the rebrand to Cat Country, have remained in the toilet. You are probably right as far as Cincinnati goes.
 
TheBigA said:
She's apparently one of two Cumulus hosts who exited today. The fact is she worked for a company that mandates lots of things. Earlier this year, they told country stations not to play music by Morgan Wallen. That cost this station's PD his job. The fact is big companies mandate things all the time. It's their company, and they can run it however they want. I think they gave employees a couple months to follow the rule, and seems to me employees were given the option of regular getting Covid tests.

Here's the RadioInk coverage of the story:

radioink.com

Cumulus Hosts Hitting The Exits After Refusing Vaccine - Radio Ink

They can't say they weren't warned. As we reported back in August, Cumulus gave all employees until October 11th to get their COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. WYCD Detroit co-host Roxanne Steele was one of several employees told not to return to work after refusing to get vaccinated.
radioink.com radioink.com

The problem people miss is this is an infectious disease. So it doesn't just affect you. It affects the people around you. If we all worked and lived in our own bubble, this wouldn't be an issue. Lots of cities and companies have also instituted very strict rules about smoking. Both the virus and smoking can kill you. For some reason, smoking rules haven't created the passion the vaccine has.
Click to expand...
I think I was one of very few people in radio who didn't smoke when I started in the 70s. Though some of those studios I worked in I might as well have.

I noticed Cumulus acted pretty fast after Phil Valentine, COVID denier that he was, died of the disease after refusing to get vaccinated. Their insurance company doesn't want to pay claims for unnecessary ICU stays.
 
TheBigA said:
She's apparently one of two Cumulus hosts who exited today. The fact is she worked for a company that mandates lots of things. Earlier this year, they told country stations not to play music by Morgan Wallen. That cost this station's PD his job. The fact is big companies mandate things all the time. It's their company, and they can run it however they want. I think they gave employees a couple months to follow the rule, and seems to me employees were given the option of regular getting Covid tests.

Here's the RadioInk coverage of the story:

radioink.com

Cumulus Hosts Hitting The Exits After Refusing Vaccine - Radio Ink

They can't say they weren't warned. As we reported back in August, Cumulus gave all employees until October 11th to get their COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. WYCD Detroit co-host Roxanne Steele was one of several employees told not to return to work after refusing to get vaccinated.
radioink.com radioink.com

The problem people miss is this is an infectious disease. So it doesn't just affect you. It affects the people around you. If we all worked and lived in our own bubble, this wouldn't be an issue. Lots of cities and companies have also instituted very strict rules about smoking. Both the virus and smoking can kill you. For some reason, smoking rules haven't created the passion the vaccine has.
Click to expand...
But I have a Constitutional right to spread that disease!
 
So apparently a new morning show is coming soon, with Broadway moving to afternoons, according to Country Aircheck:

Cumulus WDRQ/Detroit Broadway In The Morning host Bill “Broadway” Bertschinger will shift to afternoons beginning Friday (11/12), PD David Corey confirms to Country Aircheck. No official word, but a new local morning show is believed to be joining the station in the coming weeks. The move marks a return to afternoons for Bertschinger, who segued to mornings last year amid a station rebranding
Click to expand...
 
I noticed he talked very little on mic during his morning show when I sampled the station this past Monday. No chatter going into commercial break. No chatter coming out of commercial break. I listened beginning around 5:50a. I didn't hear him crack the mic at all until maybe 6:20, and he didn't talk for very long.

I somewhat look forward to the new show. Hopefully, they won't go with the national Westwood One show.

A complete revamp of the station's sound wouldn't surprise me (one is certainly needed). A phase of all-Christmas music as a transitional segue wouldn't surprise me, either.
 
So now WDRQ hires a new guy for mid-days, according to Country Aircheck:

Former Beasley WKLB/Boston afternoon personality Kevin Kennedy is joining Cumulus WDRQ/Detroit for middays. He replaces Rachel Ryan, who has been voicetracking the shift from Country sister KSCS/Dallas since May (CAT 5/25). “Kevin is a massive talent, and we are lucky to have him,” says PD David Corey. The move reunites Kennedy and Corey, who worked together during their tenures in Boston.
Click to expand...
 
Longtime utility jock Renee Vitale has been handling mornings solo for several months.

Later this week, I'm told the new morning show will debut. She will be the co-host. The guy known as Goose, who worked in Fort Wayne for several years, will be the new lead. He's a good air talent. He also worked at 106 KHQ for many years (ironically, the station where Broadway is now PD and morning co host).
 
MarkW said:
Longtime utility jock Renee Vitale has been handling mornings solo for several months.
Later this week, I'm told the new morning show will debut. She will be the co-host. The guy known as Goose, who worked in Fort Wayne for several years, will be the new lead. He's a good air talent.
Click to expand...

Here's the full announcement:

radioink.com

New Motown Morning Show - Radio Ink

New Country 93.1 FM/WDRQ-FM Detroit is launching a new morning show. 'Goose & Renee' teams morning personality Renee Vitale with Aaron "Goose" Seller. Most recently Seller was Operations Manager for Adams Radio’s Ocean City, Maryland cluster.
radioink.com radioink.com
 
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I look forward to the new show. 93.1 has been sounding better lately - better song selection, smoother sounding processing, much better imaging (I could not stand the old voiceovers). David Corey finally seems to be making his mark. These enhancements come in the nick of time; 93.1 has seen some of its worst AQH share results in years over the past six months.
 
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