I just returned from visiting WNY after having moved to another state, 5 years ago. I caught the always under rated HANK NEVINS on his weekend gig. He's slowed down quite a bit, which is understandable, but is still entertaining. The holiday fill ins were basically under age interns who, hopefully, will have no future on air positions.
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Buffalo WBEN... 5 years later
- Thread starter Long Time RadioFan
- Start date
Why not just listen to another station, rather than publicly and anonymously crapping on people who may or may not just be starting out on air?
Just an opinion. Once upon a time, when Buffalo was a major market, standards were higher. Young people honed skills on college stations and earned positions in commercial broadcasting. If anything, I'm "crapping" on the decline of the current state of broadcasting in general.
You said these were holiday fill-ins. I don't know anybody who wants to work holidays. Do you?
They were live & local. Most companies would have run repeats of regular shows. Which is better?
Yes Buffalo was once a major market, and there was once a LOT more money in radio. Times change.
"Radio should be live and local again...no, not like that!"
I just listened to some of the airchecks Steve Cichon posted on Facebook to commemorate Mark Leitner's passing.
All I can say is wow - that reminded me of what a top notch operation WBEN was in the 1980's and 90's. Plenty of stations in top 10 markets are not as good as that today.
I was just in Buffalo and WBEN still sounds good to me, and I'll credit them for staff consistency. Susan Rose/Wenger has been there right along and many others - but they were really hitting home runs day after day back then.
All I can say is wow - that reminded me of what a top notch operation WBEN was in the 1980's and 90's. Plenty of stations in top 10 markets are not as good as that today.
I was just in Buffalo and WBEN still sounds good to me, and I'll credit them for staff consistency. Susan Rose/Wenger has been there right along and many others - but they were really hitting home runs day after day back then.
Plus, everyone has to start somewhere..... and some of us forget we were once worse then underage interns.
Theres some clips of me at my first job that exist somewhere that are just godawful. THere's a few that exist of me in Florida that suck
I spent several years doing a syndicated overnight show.. something i would've never dreamed of based on those 20 year old airchecks.
I trained a high school kid here whod never given radio a thought and he turned out so good after 9-12 months working here, id gladly reccomend him for a part time gig in the lower 48.
They gotta get a chance to gain expierience. Unless theyre full of ego, Ive not met too many starting out who dont think they have stuff to improve on or critique themselves afterwards
Staff consistently? 4 people? They have made more changes in the last 5 months that has led them to upper 5 shares 12 plus. Their audience is going elsewhere.
The station should not be a “testing ground” for interns. The quality has absolutely taken a hit. Like their “trusted” news coverage that terrorists were blowing up the Rainbow Bridge. I still have the audio. I plan to use it.
To be fair, the source for that story was actually Fox News. As conveyed by "underaged interns" Tom Bauerle and David Bellavia.
WBEN criticized for unfounded Rainbow Bridge reporting
The letter writer agrees with The News' Alan Pergament who criticizes WBEN's impulsive reporting on the Rainbow Bridge car explosion.
Which just goes to prove that the age of the staffers doesn't really matter.
Further perpetuated by Kari Lake and Vivek Ramaswamy.
AND from Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre. Don't let him off the hook.To be fair, the source for that story was actually Fox News. As conveyed by "underaged interns" Tom Bauerle and David Bellavia.
WBEN criticized for unfounded Rainbow Bridge reporting
The letter writer agrees with The News' Alan Pergament who criticizes WBEN's impulsive reporting on the Rainbow Bridge car explosion.buffalonews.com
Which just goes to prove that the age of the staffers doesn't really matter.
Further perpetuated by Kari Lake and Vivek Ramaswamy.
That was two years ago. And to paraphrase, let him who has never made a mistake on a developing news story cast the first stone.
Most understand that here, as being on-air lends itself to widespread criticism. Comes with the territory. Radio talent standards are significantly lower than years past.
And while plenty of successful talent has come from college radio, many college on-air types were harder to train than somebody off the street, as they tended to have bad habits that did not jive with commercial radio. Low energy levels and not running a tight board were big ones. Easier to start with a fresh lump of clay than trying to undo bad habits.
That's what happens when you go from 400 radio stations to 16,000. The talent pool gets diluted. The top people are still there. But they aren't going to work for local money in Buffalo. They want national syndication. They know they're good. Buffalo had a lot of great people at one time, and the minute they got better offers, they left.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the quality of WBEN and Buffalo radio has declined. Look at the names who manned the full service AM’s in news departments the 70’s and 80’s
WBEN - Jim McLaughlin, Lou Douglas, Mark Leitner, Ed Little, Brian Meyer, Kevin Keenan, a young Susan Rose and John Murphy plus Stan Barron on Sports - a freakin’ all star/hall of fame lineup
WKBW - Henry Brach, John Zach, Jim Fagan and a young Sherry Margolis- listen to their work during the Blizzard of ‘77 - top notch professionals
WGR - Ray Marks, Don Dussias, John Zach (after he left KB) and probably a few other name I’m forgetting plus John Otto - pretty darn good too.
Absolutely no comparison to what sh— hits the airwaves now. If somebody wants to intern it should be overnights solo and in daytime with a seasoned pro with them - otherwise you sound like the cable access channel.
WBEN - Jim McLaughlin, Lou Douglas, Mark Leitner, Ed Little, Brian Meyer, Kevin Keenan, a young Susan Rose and John Murphy plus Stan Barron on Sports - a freakin’ all star/hall of fame lineup
WKBW - Henry Brach, John Zach, Jim Fagan and a young Sherry Margolis- listen to their work during the Blizzard of ‘77 - top notch professionals
WGR - Ray Marks, Don Dussias, John Zach (after he left KB) and probably a few other name I’m forgetting plus John Otto - pretty darn good too.
Absolutely no comparison to what sh— hits the airwaves now. If somebody wants to intern it should be overnights solo and in daytime with a seasoned pro with them - otherwise you sound like the cable access channel.
That was 50 years ago. There were alive people in the 70s and 80s who said radio was better in the 1930s. They might be right.
There's really no such thing as "full service AM" anymore.
Regardless of the time period, age, whether full service exists, whatever. Objectively ‘listen’ to air checks of news from those stations and the people referenced and there is a clear difference (IMHO - Better Delivery, Better Production/Sound bits leading into and out of the newscasts and generally Better Writing) to what is on today. It just sounded better.
You’re right on your 30’s comment - there is always some ‘back in the day things were better’ thinking.
There was no choice. Fewer station, and no digital media. You had what you had. As a result, there was more money. It was a great time to be alive. If radio stations had the budgets they had 40 years ago, they would likely sound better. But ad money is now spread to lots of other things. So you get what's left.
If you were a college student today, would you want an internship at WBEN? Or would you become a digital content creator and post your own videos on TikTok and YouTube?
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You’re right. Digital content creator - no doubt.
WBEN has made itself sound horrible. These folks were so desperate, afraid with what I would do with the Patriot, that they proactively, when they knew I bought the station, took Fox News back after almost a decade of not having it, just so they could walk a fine line and be perceived as “conservative “. They also called other affiliates like Bloomberg to threaten them from working with me. In legal terms..” Anti-Trust” violation
The air talent is terrible, except for Susan Rose and David Bellavia. The station talks about non-sense. ‘What’s your favorite thing to put on your hot dog” is not very compelling. They live thru the lens of wacky Tom Bauerle who has the worse ratings on the station, by far.
WBEN actually reacted to me, just a hometown guy. That should tell you something. They are scared to death, and they should be looking at their ratings and their cume audience. Just wait until the Patriot has 2 FM signals covering the entire metro market in January. The syndication is going bye-bye and the fun will begin.
The “conservatives “ at Audacy had no problem when they needed the government to bail them out in radios biggest bankruptcy in history. I was in the Entercom rest room one day in 2015 or so, and next to me was Tom B singing about how big his shlong is. Do you really think that the pioneers of Buffalo news/talk would have acted that way?
There will be huge changes in 2026 at Audacity,Townsquare and Cumulus. I’ll leave it at that.
Keep an ear on 93.3 and 94.9 1270, in January, or perhaps 90 days after that.
The air talent is terrible, except for Susan Rose and David Bellavia. The station talks about non-sense. ‘What’s your favorite thing to put on your hot dog” is not very compelling. They live thru the lens of wacky Tom Bauerle who has the worse ratings on the station, by far.
WBEN actually reacted to me, just a hometown guy. That should tell you something. They are scared to death, and they should be looking at their ratings and their cume audience. Just wait until the Patriot has 2 FM signals covering the entire metro market in January. The syndication is going bye-bye and the fun will begin.
The “conservatives “ at Audacy had no problem when they needed the government to bail them out in radios biggest bankruptcy in history. I was in the Entercom rest room one day in 2015 or so, and next to me was Tom B singing about how big his shlong is. Do you really think that the pioneers of Buffalo news/talk would have acted that way?
There will be huge changes in 2026 at Audacity,Townsquare and Cumulus. I’ll leave it at that.
Keep an ear on 93.3 and 94.9 1270, in January, or perhaps 90 days after that.