The following has to be said only because the lies and slander following the former staff's departure continues. Its now not only ruining reputations but destroying the ability for a former staff to make sales of their own because of those lies. Radio used to be something great but has changed so much over the years. Quick fires,rapid boots out the door and bad blood are spilling over a business we’ve spent our lives loving. What lies ahead?
It's been two months since the staff at 1600 WULM had no choice but to walk away from an impossible situation. When the former General Manager Bob Pitsch a year earlier said the owners didn’t care and that they weren’t willing to help their own business he wasn’t lying. It took us almost a year to finally realize he was right. Bob Pitsch and his side kick Michelle tried in vain to keep afloat a station they would never get a dime to support. Let alone the fact the owners were no physical help to their own business. 1600 WULM’s biggest downfall was that Bob and Michelle didn’t have the experience they needed to run a radio station successfully, worst of all neither did the owners. The bank fell hook, line and sinker for a man they thought knew enough about radio to give him a loan for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the bank knew the truth they would have never made that mistake. We now know why the owner never stepped up to help the station. They would tell you they were to busy but the truth is they had not a clue what to do to keep their radio station alive. When Bob Pitsch was fired by the owners his long-time partner Michelle left with him and they both left the station in shambles. Tons of barter contracts were found attached to the station to fill programming needs. Affidavits were being falsely signed, some programs under contract were not even being aired. Bills were being tossed in drawers and the workload created by these choices was way to much for a team of two. They tried but did not succeed. They needed more help. Bob Pitsch being fired was what probably kept him from having a stroke although he may not agree. To take his place the owners hired no one. The business absorbed Bob Pitsch’s salary as well as his commissions on his sales accounts. The burden to clean up fell on a staff of 3 1/2. A new part-time traffic girl trained herself as she worked each day on traffic software that crashed often and desperately needed replaced. Weekly accountant adjustments were a frequent necessity with this traffic software because it was hardly ever right The owners knew this but never replaced it. The promotions director and two sales reps took the remaining burdens on themselves. The old automation system from Germany was the first thing that needed replaced and with no budget Arrakis was the only choice. After wiping out a library of oldies that kept the station from being sold like it needed to be, a new line up of music brought new life to WULM’s airwaves. In the months following we’d fight old barter contracts for programs that didn’t fit the new format as well as programs the former staff no longer aired, piles of bills and a business with literally NO budget. Three full time employees and one very part-time employee were running the station buried in mistakes from years past. As time progressed business relationships got better, sales improved and the station listener numbers continued to climb. Here is where we’ll tell you the draw for the sales staff was $110 every 2 weeks and the traffic and promotions director were being paid $6.00 an hour. We were working on 6 phones we pieced together from the 80’s that didn’t work and cut out while dong sales calls, we had computers that couldn’t handle new software (not enough memory and they couldn’t be upgraded) and we were expected to do production for clients without the luxury of a solid production library. But we still managed to make it work. In the midst of all this was the fact we never got paid on time sometimes 2 to 3 weeks after it was due. We still had NO budget for anything not even staff salary and by now one of us had absorbed 3 job titles and the other absorbed 7 job titles. Let us remind you we were still being paid $6.00 an hour and still we received NO help from the owners, just the push to do better and the expectations to handle more with not a penny of pay increase insight. We’d soon see the pressure of working 13 hour days wear us thin. We lost a sales rep, then soon the traffic girl and the burdens and workload continued. We asked for the owners help, we told them the workload was too much and we told them the pay was not enough, not to mention the unsanitary conditions of the bathrooms and kitchen (we were expected to be the cleaning staff too). Our complaints all fell on deaf ears. We found ourselves reliving a memory from a year before when Bob Pitsch the former General Manager was saying some of the same things. These owners expected everything for nothing. So we soon found ourselves planning our escape. We made sure every needed file was in place, we made sure all production was done, we made phone calls and set out training booklets for new software…(because the owners had not a clue on the Arrakis system). We set the station up to run for 3 days on its own giving them more than enough time to train so they could take over. After a final morning show we left keys and all behind. Little did we know the owners would tell everyone how horribly we treated them and how we did them wrong by quitting. What they fail to realize is that they quit us. They quit the station long before we did. They hadn’t made a full payment to the bank in years; they we’re behind on everything and had been for over a year and it would have taken $80,000 just to get the station to a level where it could function to work towards making a profit. Remember though they had no budget for anything. Besides the bank had just given them 60 days to pay off the loan. We stood up for ourselves the day we walked out and if that makes us jerks than so be it. That’s the day this story should have ended. But it hasn’t. The owners now tell clients we stole $500 in gift certificates from them, they tell clients we had no permission to do trades of course the owners knew about and benefited from all of them. They tell clients we did them wrong. Now it seems to be a story of vengeance. When it began it was a story about saving small market radio. So to the former staff members that have never received all of their pay, to the engineers that worked for less than they deserved, to the volunteer producer that works for free, to the underpaid and overworked to the past General Manager Bob Pitsch and his sidekick Michelle I commended your attempts to keep a small market station alive, you all have shown your true love for radio by the sacrifices you made. To the owners that left the burden of their radio station purchase on our backs I blow a razzberry in your direction. For it was your lack of experience and unwilliness to help that got your where you are today!
It's been two months since the staff at 1600 WULM had no choice but to walk away from an impossible situation. When the former General Manager Bob Pitsch a year earlier said the owners didn’t care and that they weren’t willing to help their own business he wasn’t lying. It took us almost a year to finally realize he was right. Bob Pitsch and his side kick Michelle tried in vain to keep afloat a station they would never get a dime to support. Let alone the fact the owners were no physical help to their own business. 1600 WULM’s biggest downfall was that Bob and Michelle didn’t have the experience they needed to run a radio station successfully, worst of all neither did the owners. The bank fell hook, line and sinker for a man they thought knew enough about radio to give him a loan for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the bank knew the truth they would have never made that mistake. We now know why the owner never stepped up to help the station. They would tell you they were to busy but the truth is they had not a clue what to do to keep their radio station alive. When Bob Pitsch was fired by the owners his long-time partner Michelle left with him and they both left the station in shambles. Tons of barter contracts were found attached to the station to fill programming needs. Affidavits were being falsely signed, some programs under contract were not even being aired. Bills were being tossed in drawers and the workload created by these choices was way to much for a team of two. They tried but did not succeed. They needed more help. Bob Pitsch being fired was what probably kept him from having a stroke although he may not agree. To take his place the owners hired no one. The business absorbed Bob Pitsch’s salary as well as his commissions on his sales accounts. The burden to clean up fell on a staff of 3 1/2. A new part-time traffic girl trained herself as she worked each day on traffic software that crashed often and desperately needed replaced. Weekly accountant adjustments were a frequent necessity with this traffic software because it was hardly ever right The owners knew this but never replaced it. The promotions director and two sales reps took the remaining burdens on themselves. The old automation system from Germany was the first thing that needed replaced and with no budget Arrakis was the only choice. After wiping out a library of oldies that kept the station from being sold like it needed to be, a new line up of music brought new life to WULM’s airwaves. In the months following we’d fight old barter contracts for programs that didn’t fit the new format as well as programs the former staff no longer aired, piles of bills and a business with literally NO budget. Three full time employees and one very part-time employee were running the station buried in mistakes from years past. As time progressed business relationships got better, sales improved and the station listener numbers continued to climb. Here is where we’ll tell you the draw for the sales staff was $110 every 2 weeks and the traffic and promotions director were being paid $6.00 an hour. We were working on 6 phones we pieced together from the 80’s that didn’t work and cut out while dong sales calls, we had computers that couldn’t handle new software (not enough memory and they couldn’t be upgraded) and we were expected to do production for clients without the luxury of a solid production library. But we still managed to make it work. In the midst of all this was the fact we never got paid on time sometimes 2 to 3 weeks after it was due. We still had NO budget for anything not even staff salary and by now one of us had absorbed 3 job titles and the other absorbed 7 job titles. Let us remind you we were still being paid $6.00 an hour and still we received NO help from the owners, just the push to do better and the expectations to handle more with not a penny of pay increase insight. We’d soon see the pressure of working 13 hour days wear us thin. We lost a sales rep, then soon the traffic girl and the burdens and workload continued. We asked for the owners help, we told them the workload was too much and we told them the pay was not enough, not to mention the unsanitary conditions of the bathrooms and kitchen (we were expected to be the cleaning staff too). Our complaints all fell on deaf ears. We found ourselves reliving a memory from a year before when Bob Pitsch the former General Manager was saying some of the same things. These owners expected everything for nothing. So we soon found ourselves planning our escape. We made sure every needed file was in place, we made sure all production was done, we made phone calls and set out training booklets for new software…(because the owners had not a clue on the Arrakis system). We set the station up to run for 3 days on its own giving them more than enough time to train so they could take over. After a final morning show we left keys and all behind. Little did we know the owners would tell everyone how horribly we treated them and how we did them wrong by quitting. What they fail to realize is that they quit us. They quit the station long before we did. They hadn’t made a full payment to the bank in years; they we’re behind on everything and had been for over a year and it would have taken $80,000 just to get the station to a level where it could function to work towards making a profit. Remember though they had no budget for anything. Besides the bank had just given them 60 days to pay off the loan. We stood up for ourselves the day we walked out and if that makes us jerks than so be it. That’s the day this story should have ended. But it hasn’t. The owners now tell clients we stole $500 in gift certificates from them, they tell clients we had no permission to do trades of course the owners knew about and benefited from all of them. They tell clients we did them wrong. Now it seems to be a story of vengeance. When it began it was a story about saving small market radio. So to the former staff members that have never received all of their pay, to the engineers that worked for less than they deserved, to the volunteer producer that works for free, to the underpaid and overworked to the past General Manager Bob Pitsch and his sidekick Michelle I commended your attempts to keep a small market station alive, you all have shown your true love for radio by the sacrifices you made. To the owners that left the burden of their radio station purchase on our backs I blow a razzberry in your direction. For it was your lack of experience and unwilliness to help that got your where you are today!
