Today, 12/22/25, during morning drive, WTAM aired "This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal", at least during the half hour I listened between 7:05 and 7:20 AM. It's a national show that runs on other stations, including WHLO in Akron and was used on the former AM930 WEOL in Elyria.
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A Christmas vacation move?
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
Not a good sign if iHate can't or won't bring in a live and local substitute(s) to cover the morning show for at least the days leading up to Christmas.
I predict that this will be a permanent change in 2026, if not sooner.
I predict that this will be a permanent change in 2026, if not sooner.
Childish pejorative nicknames for broadcasting companies are frowned upon here.
True, but today it was on well after Wills & Snyder are usually on-the-air.
It's a holiday week. A lot of people are off. The national show had fresh news, and that later version was updated.
This is an ongoing question about how to handle holidays and vacation. Do you run repeats or bring in sub-par fill-ins? Which do you prefer?
I know a lot of radio talent who take both entire weeks off. It's scheduled vacation time.
They leave town, visit family, do whatever they want.
I remember the olden days when all those full-time talent vacations meant part-timers could pick up lots of hours and air time
Advertising could support the cost of parttimers back then. Not now. The country station I listen to is running jockless middays with the regular DJ taking the week off. I understand and am not going to bellyache about cheap radio companies.
In another post I mentioned that 4th quarter advertising is pretty bad this year. The holidays used to be the time when radio made up for low sales at other times of the year. But now that retail is a smaller part of the ad pie, it's no longer the case.
I'm involved with a station whos office is closed DEc 24th to January 4th (opens Jan 5th) Shows are VT'd, there are notices on the door and voicemail about the extended office closure
Yes, I know radio talent is entitled to vacation time. But there should be a live, local person to fill in while they are away rather than go to syndicated programming, especially for a 50kW powerhouse like WTAM.
See post #10.
You want ANY live local person? Is the 20-something PT board op someone you want to listen to? Talking about his interests? Really?
The very pointless and annoying vitriol about people off on a holiday week in broadcastin is always annoying (the same thing is endemic with TV pre-empting local newscasts on Christmas Eve and Christmas; oh how will we live without the latest gas prices and check-in with Morning Save?).
Most of this week was already reckoned as a useless week with two full business days by most everyone and no point bringing in people on the 26th. I'll take national tape any day of the week over a grumpy local person who definitely does not want (or need) to be there.
Most of this week was already reckoned as a useless week with two full business days by most everyone and no point bringing in people on the 26th. I'll take national tape any day of the week over a grumpy local person who definitely does not want (or need) to be there.
Put me in coach! I'll put the fine people of Cleveland to sleep by 9am.
(Sadly, have not been a 20-something for a long time)
But when you take a popular and critical daypart that has been live and local forever and replace it with a nationally syndicated show -- even for a week ‐‐ and there is not much backlash by your average listener, there is a good chance that the suits and bean counters will use it as an excuse to do away with the local show entirely and permanently.
Let's revisit this in January 2027, and see who Cleveland is waking up to on WTAM then... i don't foresee Wills and Snyder on the schedule anymore, unless Snyder is still doing some work with the Cavs or Guards.
Let's revisit this in January 2027, and see who Cleveland is waking up to on WTAM then... i don't foresee Wills and Snyder on the schedule anymore, unless Snyder is still doing some work with the Cavs or Guards.
Are they being cheap, or trying to keep their financial heads above water?
could very well be they have no one else to fill in.
When i was out sick for 3 weeks at KSKO, we had no morning or lunch time show.. i had no one else available.
Over on KLMI, where i do afternoons, they let it run jockless.. no one to fill in. No one is better than some generic joe schmoe phoning it in
I was listening to this station around the same time of day a couple of years ago. There was an unfamiliar voice doing the midday show, and he was clearly struggling with the format and the music, stumbling over artists' names and making comments about how he liked certain songs, etc. It wasn't long before he explained that the regular midday jock had had a family emergency crop up, so he was filling in right after finishing his shift on the classic rock sister station, and that this was his first time working on a country station. In the next break, he mentioned the ribbing he was getting from the people "down the hall." OK, I'm a radio geek so I found all this amusing, but I'm sure most of the listeners were wishing he'd just shut up and play the music, especially since he mangled Kelsea Ballerini's name badly and botched the title of another song.