Another WOAI Firing; Chris Duel Gets Emotional

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From Jeanne Jakle's Column today:

Could this be Chris Duel's next sidekick?

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.mysanantonio.com/columnists/stories/MYSA100605.5P.jakle.15f9226a.html>http://www.mysanantonio.com/columnists/stories/MYSA100605.5P.jakle.15f9226a.html</a>
<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Missing Betsy
Betsy Britton may have been only one of many traffic reporters on local radio, but her departure last Friday caused a flood of responses.

Many have written e-mails wondering what became of one of their favorite WOAI personalities. One cited her "engaging laugh." Another spoke of her "lovely deep voice."

Britton told me she had been fired by WOAI. Stress and exhaustion had led her to make errors, she said; for instance, instead of specifying Loop 410 in reports, she simply called it "The loop."

Um, OK.

Britton said she'd love to catch on at another station — as a talk co-host, perhaps; however, she doesn't intend to return to traffic.

<hr></blockquote>

Same column had this Chris Duel item:

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

While we're on emotions, a San Antonio radio talk-show host did something very rare on the air Tuesday evening: He cried.

Chris Duel was winding down his show on KTSA when he was faced with the unexpected: an e-mail that brought Duel back to the day 25 years ago when his beloved brother, Greg, died in a military plane crash in the Houston area. The letter-writer had been there in Pasadena where Greg committed an act of heroism that cost him his life. However, it may have saved many others.

Soon after takeoff, his plane's engine flamed out. He decided not to eject, however, to keep the plane from crashing into the homes beneath him. Instead, he attempted to land the plane in a vacant field nearby. His plane crashed.

Surprised by the correspondence, Duel wanted to share it with his audience. However, he couldn't make it to the end without becoming overcome with emotion.

It was a highly unusual moment in a world where talk radio hosts may bellow and bark daily, but very seldom show us their tears.

<hr></blockquote>

 

[DAndyRock]

> From Jeanne Jakle's Column today:
>
> Could this be Chris Duel's next sidekick?
>
>
> Britton told me she had been fired by WOAI. Stress and
> exhaustion had led her to make errors, she said; for
> instance, instead of specifying Loop 410 in reports, she
> simply called it "The loop."

Stress and exhaustion? Okay. But as a listener, her traffic reports always sounded as though she was doing happy hour at 6AM. I suspect stress and exhaustion can have the same impact on one's delivery.

Hadn't Duel already picked up WOAI's last traffic reporter, Laurie Hahn when they let her go for having a name that could be confused with 99.5 Kiss' Steve Hahn?

 

[ChuckTiller]

> Stress and exhaustion? Okay. But as a listener, her
> traffic reports always sounded as though she was doing happy
> hour at 6AM. I suspect stress and exhaustion can have the
> same impact on one's delivery.
>
I don't know about her, but recently in Houston, there was an incident in where a traffic reporter was found sitting on the ladies room floor, babbling incoherently. She was in a position of feeding 9 radio stations. Some where live some were sent via the internet. Some of her work was also newscasts in addition to traffic reporting. The feeds were several times an hour for each station. It was way too much. Suddenly the feeds quit coming. We made calls to the provider who could not provide details. They went looking for her and found her in the ladies room. These reporters are juggling feeds like an air traffic controller. It is a stressful job, when you are overloaded.

Of course, its cheaper to operate to feed many stations with one person. Again, i don't know any of the details of what happened in SA. I wanted to comment on the stress factor.

 

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

WHAT?! That babbling didn't really happen, but I wouldn't doubt it could, ESPECIALLY if employed by METRO. Reporters in Houston average 20 some odd feeds an hour, while the OM takes three hour lunches to visit his boyfriend.

I heard Betsy had been very ill. Not sure what she had or if she kicked it, but perhaps she was on some good meds, or liked coffee a little too much, causing her "happy hour" delivery at 6am. On the other hand, I have heard her stuff, and she was NOT good. Why on Earth would people miss her?

I don't think Lauri is at KTSA, but the whole name thing is why she left Clear Channel. She got married, and the program director for WOAI thought that allowing her to use her new married name (Hahn) would cause people to think of KISS, so she quit. The same PD ran off the manager of the traffic department (Jenna Rush, who did WOAI's traffic reports on the flipside of Lauri's) at about the same time.

WOAI's PD is doing a bang up job, isn't he? He started by firing Chuck Booms, who took their ratings to the highest ever. Then he fires Chris Duel and replaced him with the worst talk radio host ever...Jeff Bolton. Now he fired him, too. He ran off his two star traffic reporters within weeks of each other. Hired a has-been to replace them, fired her, too. Started a liberal talk station, it failed miserably, so now it's country. Can anyone tell me what this guy has done RIGHT?