Bauerle and Beach Sacked!

[FilthySusan]

OK, it's October 2006. Bauerle and Beach have been given their papers by Entercommie Buffalo. You are tasked with reprogramming WBEN-AM for its rebirth on 1 January 2007.

You are God! You can do just about anything you want with a few exceptions.

• You can not move the station to a new market.
• You can not move the station to a new licensee.
• You can not move the station to a new frequency or band.
• You can not make any grand technical changes at all.

You can do virtually anything you want. You can go totally free form and do C&W weekends, jazz all night, dishwash talk Mondays, Political Tuesdays, Sex Crazed Saturdays, etc.

You even have magical powers! You can bring back the dead and/or the successful who otherwise wouldn't dream of even flying over WNY.

Money is not an issue.

Gentlemen, start your brains and reprogram the beast of Buffalo!

Good luck to you all. Let the ideas fly!

1St place winner will receive a TransOceanic 8G005YT in near mint condition.
[Or a JPEG image of the above at the awarders discretion.]

 

[Debaser]

And why would we want to "re-program" a beast that is #1 in the market and commercially sold out in the two shows that Filthy Susan hates with such a passion that the first time she posts on this site since it was re-vamped she deliberately mis-leads all readers with a subject line that is as false as George Bush's reason for invading Iraq?

Welcome back, FS. It's good to see that your broken record is still skipping in the same spot as before.

 

[Bob1370]

Obviously if Beach and Bauerle are still bringing in the listeners and the bucks, you're not going to blow up the schedule in the first place. But if you tie the can to these guys, it's obviously because the station has cratered--so let's start with that implosion as an opening premise.

First thing you do has nothing to do with Beach and Bauerle, but will have a lot to do with the future health of the station. You undo the mistake they made six years ago and bring back Bill Lacy to host and re-energize the morning from 5:30-10--have him as the focal point while retaining everyone else on the current morning crew. Then there's the midday puzzle, what you need to do to fill the hole Bauerle's departure would leave. You blow out Limbaugh and bring back the Newsday news hour at noon, which was historically one of the most successful shows on the schedule. A new host has to be recruited for the rest of middays, so you look to someone else who's had success in the market and a history with the station--Jack Mindy comes immediately to mind--to do 10 to noon and 1 to 2.

Afternoons, I'd call Shredd and Ragan and have them take over the 2-6 PM slot--it'll bring you a new, larger, younger audience and give them a fresh new start which they probably want after getting the shaft from Citadel.

I'm going to assume that Ron Dobson is doing well and will remain in place.

Finish the day up by leading into George Noory with a new young local host 10 PM-1 AM who will be the person you groom for the future to take the place of any host who opts to retire or move on. You may be able to find him or her at one of the existing rockers in town.

Weekends would start with a 6-10 AM newsmagazine show both Saturday and Sunday (Hank Nevins would be a good host for it) and continue on mostly with how-to type shows the rest of the weekend daytime, and best-of shows late nights. If you go after the Bills rights, you'll make fall weekends very much Bills-oriented, to a greater degree than 97 Rock does now.

In short, what you're doing with this lineup is keeping it a news-talker but cranking up the energy level and phasing in hosts who appeal to a younger demo.This is someting WBEN has needed to do for some time even if Bauerle and Beach stay.

 

[audioconnell Voice Talent]

Hi Kids!

Long time no chat.

So I'm reading along and see some old familiars...might as well jump in.

Proceeding under Susan's scenario....

Format will not change, only the players (no offense intended to the current team....we're all just has beens playing a game here)

If you're going to shake rattle AND roll, you gotta start with mornings. I was toying with keeping Susan and a new partner but I want this new morning show to have punch and to pick up the pace AND I want the script WRITTEN, not improvised...at least it sounds that way alot and I'm not talking about when there are breaking stories...that doesn't count. So for the female voice I'm going to bring in Evelyn Macko from Toronto who I first heard doing news cut-ins for Howard Stern on Q107. Then for the male I'm pulling in Buzz Burbank from the Don and Mike Show. THAT oughta wake Cheektowgans outta their perpetual walking slumber in the AM. I'm talking JOLTING awake with news at break neck speed.

Ahhh now we're cooking.

Mornings...Laura Ingraham
Noon...Rush Stays
Afternoons...boy I like that S&R idea but it just won't fit. They might be able to adjust but, I don't want to spend the money to convince people...that cash oughta go to ME.

So afternoons, hmmmm, they need to be local. Danny might work, hmmm nah, ....ok we're going to try to newbies here and steal a bit from Fox. We're going to put Bob Davis and Len Lenihan on as a kind of Hannity and Colmes. It will only be 40% politics proper but even if they cover Britney Spears...they'll make it political. We'll have a couple of segments where they tear into each other "jane you ignorant slut" type stuff. We'll see how that goes for a year.

We'll keep the news block at 6, we might move Joy Brown in at 7 but I could be talked into a local voice and late evening and over nights will be national too and not George Noory or whatever that crap they play now when I have to wake up super early....I'm discombombulated enough at that early hour I don't need to hear about UFO's.

And until some real money gets put on the table...I'm not spilling anything about weekends.

Peter
www.audioconnell.com