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Buffalo Cumulus is Hiring Its Buffalo Bills Radio Network v.2.0 Staff

S

SteveTripi

Cumulus is hiring a game day host and a producer for their fall Buffalo Bills Radio Network inventory.

Not surprisingly, neither position is full time. No benefits.

Both positions will work long game day hours. Bills have games on Thanskgiving and Christmas Day.

They're paying $35-$40/hour for the Game Day Host and $20/hour for the Producer, respectively.

The Producer is also expected to run One Bills Live M-F 1-3PM. This is a curious move. 97 Rock never would've ceded precious M-F airtime under the previous era.

Is this the "smoking gun" that all but confirms Cumulus is moving 98.9 to Sports Talk?

Furthermore, who will they go with?

Will Rich Gaenzler get another shot at his former employer?

Will a Vic Carucci / Jim Brinson (another old white man), type get the gig?

Will Cumulus do something actually interesting and hire someone younger, newer, unfamiliar to the aged Buffalo listening audience?

In my opinion, "the kids" (their weekend / part timer staff) at WGR aren't strong enough to worthy consideration. None of the TV personalities would leave their gigs for this. Part time is a weird fit.

They're asking a LOT of work, for nominal pay, 0 benefits, and difficult working hours. This isnt The Drought anymore. You're not going to work at 9 AM on Sunday and home by 7.

You're gonna be away from your family for major holidays.

You may not even be asked back at the end of the season.

As a former producer, $20 is a laughable, insulting ask in 2026. Who can afford to work a PART TIME job in the middle of the day (12-4 PM or so) M-F? Do you work nights full time?

How do you pay your bills? It's a serious question. No benefits! Keep in mind, you also have to work the night games. So, again, your full time job has to work around the goofy split schedule.

Maybe a "just out of college" kid still living at home and able to stay on their parents' health insurance? But still, you're gonna entrust an NFL Network broadcast to a kid who's never ran a live show besides their (probably awful) college show?

Time will tell. But I think "part time" screams "you get what you pay for".
 
SteveTripi said:
Cumulus is hiring a game day host and a producer for their fall Buffalo Bills Radio Network inventory.
Click to expand...

As far as I know, the Bills are still responsible for producing and distributing:

www.buffalobills.com

Buffalo Bills to produce and distribute radio broadcasts for all games in 2026

Team also announces a new audio home for One Bills Live
www.buffalobills.com www.buffalobills.com

Cumulus is merely the broadcast partner. So my take on this Cumulus producer is a glorified board op.

If they are in fact flipping the station format to sports, the PD will be the real producer.
 
SteveTripi said:
Cumulus is hiring a game day host and a producer for their fall Buffalo Bills Radio Network inventory.

Not surprisingly, neither position is full time. No benefits.

Both positions will work long game day hours. Bills have games on Thanskgiving and Christmas Day.

They're paying $35-$40/hour for the Game Day Host and $20/hour for the Producer, respectively.

The Producer is also expected to run One Bills Live M-F 1-3PM. This is a curious move. 97 Rock never would've ceded precious M-F airtime under the previous era.

Is this the "smoking gun" that all but confirms Cumulus is moving 98.9 to Sports Talk?

Furthermore, who will they go with?

Will Rich Gaenzler get another shot at his former employer?

Will a Vic Carucci / Jim Brinson (another old white man), type get the gig?

Will Cumulus do something actually interesting and hire someone younger, newer, unfamiliar to the aged Buffalo listening audience?

In my opinion, "the kids" (their weekend / part timer staff) at WGR aren't strong enough to worthy consideration. None of the TV personalities would leave their gigs for this. Part time is a weird fit.

They're asking a LOT of work, for nominal pay, 0 benefits, and difficult working hours. This isnt The Drought anymore. You're not going to work at 9 AM on Sunday and home by 7.

You're gonna be away from your family for major holidays.

You may not even be asked back at the end of the season.

As a former producer, $20 is a laughable, insulting ask in 2026. Who can afford to work a PART TIME job in the middle of the day (12-4 PM or so) M-F? Do you work nights full time?

How do you pay your bills? It's a serious question. No benefits! Keep in mind, you also have to work the night games. So, again, your full time job has to work around the goofy split schedule.

Maybe a "just out of college" kid still living at home and able to stay on their parents' health insurance? But still, you're gonna entrust an NFL Network broadcast to a kid who's never ran a live show besides their (probably awful) college show?

Time will tell. But I think "part time" screams "you get what you pay for".
Click to expand...

Sometimes things are a Labor of Love. I don’t think any applicant would think they will get rich with these openings. However, they will get to know people, network, and prove their worth to work up the chain.

Sometimes that is worth more than money

I did my 80’s show live every Sat from 7p-12m on 102.5 for free, just because I loved it.

Also, I am sure you know the answer to your 98.9 question. It can’t be more obvious what you are going to hear
 
This is a production position, game day board op position and game day host position for Cumulus. The hosting position is for pre-game and post-game shows. There was a LOT of production that went into 97-Rock's presentation including local commercial production, imaging for each game, and promos for the games and auxiliary shows with players and coaches. It's more than the current production staff can handle, but not enough to hire a full-time person who gets full benefits. Whether some current part-timers are utilized for some of the positions but at different pay rates is an interesting question.

The rest of the production - One Bills Live and the game broadcasts - are handled in-house by the Buffalo Bills. Some of the promo work may also come directly from the Bills with room for local inserts, etc.

It's very possible that the Bills broadcasts will be run on multiple Cumulus stations, one in as close to real time as possible, and another delayed to match the TV broadcast. There's an audience for people watching on TV who would prefer to listen to local hosts instead of the national announcers.

It may indicate that Cumulus will do syndicated sports talk on 98.9 and carry One Bills Live generated by the Bills at their new in-stadium studio during the week. In that case, the board-op will work two hours a day M-F, possibly remotely. 10 hours a week plus game day certainly doesn't add up to a full-time position.
 
In my time at Cumulus, 2011-2020, I never made more than $13/hour.

I understand the Labor of Love point.
SirRoxalot said:
This is a production position, game day board op position and game day host position for Cumulus. The hosting position is for pre-game and post-game shows. There was a LOT of production that went into 97-Rock's presentation including local commercial production, imaging for each game, and promos for the games and auxiliary shows with players and coaches. It's more than the current production staff can handle, but not enough to hire a full-time person who gets full benefits. Whether some current part-timers are utilized for some of the positions but at different pay rates is an interesting question.

The rest of the production - One Bills Live and the game broadcasts - are handled in-house by the Buffalo Bills. Some of the promo work may also come directly from the Bills with room for local inserts, etc.

It's very possible that the Bills broadcasts will be run on multiple Cumulus stations, one in as close to real time as possible, and another delayed to match the TV broadcast. There's an audience for people watching on TV who would prefer to listen to local hosts instead of the national announcers.

It may indicate that Cumulus will do syndicated sports talk on 98.9 and carry One Bills Live generated by the Bills at their new in-stadium studio during the week. In that case, the board-op will work two hours a day M-F, possibly remotely. 10 hours a week plus game day certainly doesn't add up to a full-time position.
Click to expand...

Yeah but that's not really right. The job listing says there's planning and production meetings.

Imaging and post production takes time. The 2 hour on air shift is more like a 4-5 day. Call it 20 hours M-F.

I worked the Bills Network in 2011. It was easily a 13-14 hour day. 7 AM arrival to at least 7, sometimes 8 or 9 PM cutting up tape and highlights. So 20+12 = 32 hours/week.

Almost full time, but not enough to earn benefits, 401k match.

All that to get burned out, 0 recognition, 0 air time, and a snowball's chance in hell of ever replacing Shredd, Ragan or Jim Jacka when any of them ever retire in 20 years.

Pretty grim outlook.
 


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