• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Are the rumors true?

B

Big Bopper

I heard a rumor tonight that a Knoxville cluster has held employee meetings and made the following disturbing claims:

If you leave this company to join another, you will be making a mistake because our company "owns" the call letters of the other station, and we have the legal authority to take them away.

If another company with 12 times our transmitter power tries to recruit you, don't believe the power disparity will help you, because their transmitter is operating at 50% of the authorized power, and, oh,yeah, we plan to raise our power soon, anyway.

We have lost our powerful signal and some of our better programs, but the larger station that might try to hire you has gotten us fired up, so all this is really a blessing in disguise. So, we have decided to give you a better signal to sell....someday. And, oh yeah, we don't really need all those listeners outside the Metro, because they don't count in the ratings.

The other station does not have an office, so, if they hire you, you will have to work out of your car.

The other station has serious equipment problems they cannot afford to fix.

It is amazing that a company would scare their employees with such fabrications, and that professional adults would buy such a bunch of malarkey.

Somebody please tell me it is not true. Tell me that a company would not terrorize its employees by telling them those things, that a company would not lie about another company in an effort to overcome their own shortcomings. Is this still America, or what?
 
Big Bopper said:
I heard a rumor tonight that a Knoxville cluster has held employee meetings and made the following disturbing claims:

If you leave this company to join another, you will be making a mistake because our company "owns" the call letters of the other station, and we have the legal authority to take them away.

If another company with 12 times our transmitter power tries to recruit you, don't believe the power disparity will help you, because their transmitter is operating at 50% of the authorized power, and, oh,yeah, we plan to raise our power soon, anyway.

We have lost our powerful signal and some of our better programs, but the larger station that might try to hire you has gotten us fired up, so all this is really a blessing in disguise. So, we have decided to give you a better signal to sell....someday. And, oh yeah, we don't really need all those listeners outside the Metro, because they don't count in the ratings.

The other station does not have an office, so, if they hire you, you will have to work out of your car.

The other station has serious equipment problems they cannot afford to fix.

It is amazing that a company would scare their employees with such fabrications, and that professional adults would buy such a bunch of malarkey.

Somebody please tell me it is not true. Tell me that a company would not terrorize its employees by telling them those things, that a company would not lie about another company in an effort to overcome their own shortcomings. Is this still America, or what?
Click to expand...


I don't know if someone is making those claims, but if they are they're either flat out lying or they're scared and trying any act of desperation to save an already sinking ship.

If you know anything at all about FCC regulations you'll know that the call sign is registered to Oak Ridge FM, who owns 100.3. As I said in an earlier post, if Citadel had any right to that set of call letters they would have moved them before the switch. They didn't so that just about proves they don't have the authority for them.

The power issue is a real head scratcher. Since the station was being leased by them, then weren't they responsible for the engineering? Why would they pay all those millions only to run at half power? They wouldn't. Beyond that, 50kw at 4k ft beats the hell out of 8kw at 571 feet any day of the week. It doesn't take an advanced degree in mathematics to understand that.

Speaking of their power, and the possibility of a future increase, that's not going to happen. They are pretty much stuck with what they have for the foreseeable future. They could improve the signal by going the translator route or buying up some other stations, neither option is realistic.

100.3 has an office. It's on Kingston Pike. Drove past it last night. Looks good. Modern, stucco, BIG building. They're going to have the only sign on Kingston Pike, where tens of thousands of cars pass by each and every day.

I doubt money is an issue with them either. They've been cashing those blue whale sized monthly checks for over a decade, and haven't really had any overhead. They've got millions to spend.
 
Wasn't it Citadel that went bankrupt and could not pay its loans etc? The same people that screwed it up Farid, Ellis, Paul O'M etc. are still in charge too... for now.
 
BillBattle said:
Wasn't it Citadel that went bankrupt and could not pay its loans etc? The same people that screwed it up Farid, Ellis, Paul O'M etc. are still in charge too... for now.
Click to expand...

That's true. How long until there is a major house cleaning in that building?
 
FYI, there was an interesting exchange between Dave Fogel (sitting in for Phil) and a caller yesterday. At about 5:30, a female caller asked about the move to 98.7 and would she be able to hear the new signal. The caller used specific terms such as "only 8,000 watts" and "FCC." Stuff which an average caller wouldn't know about. Dave of course was a pro and didn't reveal anything or put his foot in his mouth.

Interesting, no?
 
Actually Dave Foulk, who also announced he is going to be doing morning and afternoon drive news and traffic (guess that leaves "Left Turn Laverne" out). It is sad that the shenanigans perpetrated by corporate are affecting everyone locally, who had no say in anything that's going on. It's their job to put a good spin on things. Sad part is, after all is said and done, it's likely that HHH, Phil Williams, Dave Foulk etc. may be looking for jobs (I like them all).

Think about one thing...if Citadel and Pirkle go to court, the most likely scenario I can see is Citadel losing, or knowing they are losing and cutting a deal on the courthouse steps to transfer the service mark and intellectual property to Oak Ridge FM. Oak Ridge gets whatever of the rest of the existing lineup they want, Citadel goes back to the True Oldies Channel and cuts a bunch of overhead.

I saw the story on WATE-6 last night. Unusual for local radio to get that long of a news story first of all, and second the news chick was at the new WNOX studios which are under construction. So if anyone was threatened with "you won't have an office", that's wrong.
 
Big Bopper said:
I heard a rumor tonight that a Knoxville cluster has held employee meetings and made the following disturbing claims:

If you leave this company to join another, you will be making a mistake because our company "owns" the call letters of the other station, and we have the legal authority to take them away.

If another company with 12 times our transmitter power tries to recruit you, don't believe the power disparity will help you, because their transmitter is operating at 50% of the authorized power, and, oh,yeah, we plan to raise our power soon, anyway.

We have lost our powerful signal and some of our better programs, but the larger station that might try to hire you has gotten us fired up, so all this is really a blessing in disguise. So, we have decided to give you a better signal to sell....someday. And, oh yeah, we don't really need all those listeners outside the Metro, because they don't count in the ratings.

The other station does not have an office, so, if they hire you, you will have to work out of your car.

The other station has serious equipment problems they cannot afford to fix.

It is amazing that a company would scare their employees with such fabrications, and that professional adults would buy such a bunch of malarkey.

Somebody please tell me it is not true. Tell me that a company would not terrorize its employees by telling them those things, that a company would not lie about another company in an effort to overcome their own shortcomings. Is this still America, or what?
Click to expand...

When the reality of the situation hits Citadel no amount of lies will be able to save them.

I look forward to the exodus.
 
Yeah, I was surprised to see such a long TV interview. I had read on here that the Pirkle guy was too old to get back in the game. Was that Junior on TV...?
That guy had white hair, but his demeanor and overall appearance looked like a guy who go hunt bear with a switch.

Well spoken, and, man...was he intense, or what?
 
Big Bopper said:
Yeah, I was surprised to see such a long TV interview. I had read on here that the Pirkle guy was too old to get back in the game. Was that Junior on TV...?
That guy had white hair, but his demeanor and overall appearance looked like a guy who go hunt bear with a switch.

Well spoken, and, man...was he intense, or what?
Click to expand...

Nope, that was senior the guy everyone said was too old to get back in the game. Looks to me he's more than young and energetic enough to battle anything tossed at him.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom