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Blood Bath at ABC Radio (Citadel)

deeblanton

deeblanton

There is word that a massive blood bath is taking place this morning at ABC Radio Network (Citadel) in Dallas.
The brass is reportedly slashing most, if not all, morning drive talent on the network. They are out immediately! Management is reportedly offering two weeks pay and one month health coverage, but no major severance package to anybody. As if Citadel wasn't in enough trouble already, the death of Paul Harvey earlier this year was apparently the dagger!
 
No huge shock that AM drive would go first. Its my experience that most Citadel affiliates are local for at least part of the AM Drive shift.

Tracked mornings with Steve Eberhart: coming soon to Today's Hits & Yesterday's Favorites!
 
Let's see... there's The Dorsey Gang, Larry & Gail and Hal Jay/Mark Davis. They wouldn't let any of them go would they?
 
Those shows are not headquartered in Dallas but in Arlington. Not sure if Citadel draws a distinction between the two operations.
 
At least two dozen and maybe more have been let go. The timeless classics staff has 90 days till they are toast.
 
So the radio info story isn't correct then? It says that not that many were let go.
 
there were a lot of people let go. i can name 10 at the moment, that doesn't count timeless and there are probably more i don't know about.
 
People there 15-20 years two weeks severance. Hope Farid is sleeping well. Another Mel flunky that has no business running a broadcast company.
 
2 weeks is a joke. But hey, the whole company is a joke and will be liquidated soon enough, so what did you expect?
 
Any listing of who is out?

From what I've been able to gather:
Real Country:
Richard Lee (PD/PM) - Out
Jerry Walker (Evenings) - Out

Timeless:
Everyone (from Lori Bandemeer on) seems to be staying until the end next year.

Greatest Mojo:
Lou Warren - out (All Nights - NOTE: I'm not certain that Lou was the current all-night guy.)
 
The ABC 24 hour networks in Dallas should have been automated years ago. Most of the affiliates are in small markets and they will never know the difference. It would be different if we were talking about major market talent but, we are talking about small market talent that was on small market stations. That is why the ABC 24 hour networks djs made as little money as most of the Sirius XM jocks. It all just means that the talent pool of bad, unemployable djs in Dallas just got a little bigger.
 
This comes a little over a month after Citadel pulled the rug out from the hundreds of affiliates by killing their shared websites. I hope Farid ISN'T sleeping well tonight.

On the AC side, it does appear that Peter Stewart, Tom Kennedy, Brian Kane, and Lauri must be gone. Basically, as an affiliate, my radio station, and hundreds more, have been destroyed, with whole staffs basically gone in an instant. This has to be one of the most inane decisions ever made by a syndicator.

Hot AC, morning show Mary Talaska gone. Syndicated Kidd Kraddock takes the slot. Citadel will be using talent from their Owned and operated stations for syndication. Have not heard other details, but Mike Wade moving from Hot AC to AC.

The frosting on the cake for me was that they didn't even have the presence of mind to tell affiliates who might be on the air next so that we could make changes in jock liners.

Citadel says they were losing affiliates. I wonder why.

It is such a shame to see the once respected ABC 24/7 Radio Networks go down like this.
 
Believe me, this small market knows the difference. Citadel had a mix of some that are better than most, and some that are below average. On the Hot AC format, Jonathan and Mary were good. But Jonathan got the boot, and now Mary is gone. AC wise, Richard & Laurie were a good morning team, and better than a small market would be able to afford.

I would not lump them all into a "bad, unemployable" basket. I empathize with all the radio people that hung in there despite Farid Suleman's actions at tearing down the ABC organization.
 
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