Interesting article in Inside Music Media. Last week Gary Pizzati from Cumulus Atlanta walked into the Montgomery operation.. Told the market manage he had to move from his office to a small office next to the sales floor. At the same time reportedly the market manager's wife was fired who was the station's receptionist. Great way to motivate the market manager and the rest of the staff. When Gary Pizzati visits people are fired. This must be a special Cumulus Christmas present. Wonder if overall radio billing is down substantially for that market at all stations? Maybe someone can ask BIA for figures. Several years ago total billing were reported by BIA as around 11 Million for all stations combined. Sadly the next move for that market manager might be shown the door.
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Cumulus Montgomery
- Thread starter busterluck
- Start date
BIA says 13+ million for Montgomery in 2012. Their numbers are suspect though cause they have always under reported Bluewater (who is over 3 million a year), and over reported Cumulus (reported at 6 million) They have Clear Channel at 3.6 million, which is probably close. Three years ago both Cumulus and Clear Channel decided to stop reporting to Miller Kaplan, probably due to not wanting to have Wall Street see their mediocre results. Bluewater was always willing to share it's figures. You'd think CC and Clue-u-less would want real market data. Nope? Head in the sand?
J
jharmon
Guest
Has the MM ever heard the word nepotism?
Hiring your wife for the receptionist job is duuuumb!
It reeks of special treatment, favoritism, you name it.
Recently, Pizzati came into Savannah GA market to the very new MM, because he "fell in love" with one of the AE's on the staff and fired him too.
What were these people thinking?
This is corporate America people. There are a lot of lawsuit happy people out there and you just dont want to give them extra ammo by doing dumb things.
Hiring your wife for the receptionist job is duuuumb!
It reeks of special treatment, favoritism, you name it.
Recently, Pizzati came into Savannah GA market to the very new MM, because he "fell in love" with one of the AE's on the staff and fired him too.
What were these people thinking?
This is corporate America people. There are a lot of lawsuit happy people out there and you just dont want to give them extra ammo by doing dumb things.
I just drove through Montgomery after doing some work in Dothan and WZHT has went to the crapper. They went 5 songs straight segue and were slamming into commercial breaks with no bumper or anything. Sad to see that Clear Channel has destroyed a legendary Urban signal like that...
5 years ago that station was very HOT and was seen everywhere in the area. I agree it is a small shadow of years past. I stopped by the office studio recently and it was a ghost town with few live bodies in the building. The care-taker manager was in the building, however. It is a shame of what radio has become in that market, and other markets these days.
busterluck said:
It was pitiful. I always hate to see the 'legendary' ones go. That station had history (and of course, signal). You would think that even the cookie cutter Clear Channel Urban format would at least have the voicetracks and imaging properly placed, though...
It seems that local Montgomery Broadcasters just don't care about production problems. Check out the bad cues and production problems at 1440 WLWI AM during the 6AM to 9 AM segments. And don't forget the Bluewater disaster last Friday at WBAM after a less than sucessful remote broadcast, it was followed by over a 15 minute disaster with no one around to cut it off. All three 3 Montgomery "clusters" now have many operating "cluster F's in their operations. Bring back the days of live local radio without hard drive automation. Yes there are always problems, but not as bad as in today's radio. Back them a skipping record on the air was about as bad as it ever got.
I notice AM 950 has dropped the "a Cumulus (Media) station" from their legal IDs - which about half the time begin at xx:59:50 and often are heard at xx:19:50 instead. Wonder if the proposed sale is near completion - wasn't Cumulus required to divest one of the AMs after the Citadel merger was concluded?
With 740 and 1440 committing to the two extra HD slots on 95.1, among other things, 950 would be the first to go. However, except in certain parts of midtown (especially from downtown ESE to the channel 32 tower) even the nighttime signal is tolerable.
As much of WSFA's news is now on 950, wonder if some at Raycom ever wondered about obtaining AM 950?
With 740 and 1440 committing to the two extra HD slots on 95.1, among other things, 950 would be the first to go. However, except in certain parts of midtown (especially from downtown ESE to the channel 32 tower) even the nighttime signal is tolerable.
As much of WSFA's news is now on 950, wonder if some at Raycom ever wondered about obtaining AM 950?
For all of you lamenting the demise of the legendary Hot 105...it's still the #2 (tied) 12+ radio station in town, beaten only by sister station WHLW, and #3 25-54. Not to imply that Clear Channel isn't "phoning it in" - they are. Buster is correct. It is a "ghost town" over there.
One point: automation isn't the real problem. Prerecording an air shift is no more detrimental to the entertainment value of a show than David Letterman prerecording his program. Its the content that drives satisfaction and listenership. The problem with automation is what one does or doesn't do with it.
Oh, for all you Montgomery radio bashers here (read: busterluck), having just listened to 2 days of Atlanta radio (PPM market), I'll put up the sound of almost any Montgomery radio station as being better than the offerings in market #6. Truly sad.
One point: automation isn't the real problem. Prerecording an air shift is no more detrimental to the entertainment value of a show than David Letterman prerecording his program. Its the content that drives satisfaction and listenership. The problem with automation is what one does or doesn't do with it.
Oh, for all you Montgomery radio bashers here (read: busterluck), having just listened to 2 days of Atlanta radio (PPM market), I'll put up the sound of almost any Montgomery radio station as being better than the offerings in market #6. Truly sad.
Mr Gower said:
I would expect it to have numbers... It is a legendary Urban in Montgomery.
Also, I have no troubles with them using tech. If you read my post, my problem was with the sloppiness.
Properly used, technology and voicetracking can make you sound better, not worse.
I was listening to a station that doesn't give a f*** and they know they will get numbers because they are HOT. Give me a 100K signal and I could wipe the floor with them in 3 books.
Bluster: WBAM is live for two shifts: Mornings and Afternoons. Two live shifts? That's industry standard for a 100kw.
As the engineer for BAM, I'd love to know more about the station being screwed for 15 minutes. How so? Please describe what happened.
Furthermore, if BAM was dead for as little as 15 seconds - I'd get a phone call from the silence sensor, much less 15 minutes.
As the engineer for BAM, I'd love to know more about the station being screwed for 15 minutes. How so? Please describe what happened.
Furthermore, if BAM was dead for as little as 15 seconds - I'd get a phone call from the silence sensor, much less 15 minutes.
Mr Gower said:
To refute the ones who decry the cheapness of CC and others, if they're still #2 then obvious their audience doesn't mind all the cut corners, lack of live hosting and all that. So why should they change? Ditto Hallelujah. If they're #1, that is probably all they need to sell the station.
Mr Gower said:
I think that speaks more for how bad Atlanta radio is than how good Montgomery is. Or worse, how homogeneous radio has become, because the same players that own Atlanta own Montgomery and own Birmingham and own Nashville so why wouldn't they all sound the same?
But what people forget is, it sounds that way because it works.
WBAM on air disaster.....I see the Bluewater spin-doctors are at it again. Dothan Radio took a cheap shot claiming as an "engineer" he gets a alarm if there is 15 sec of dead air. So he takes a swipe at the poster who heard the 15 minuite drive time disaster. All Dothan Radio has to do for an explanation is to read a previous post from "Mr Gower" who admits that 15 minute drive time problems was "something more serious" Bottom line is no one at the studio cut off the programming that was out of control. but not "dead" air. But as I pointed out perviously, sloppy radio is everywhere these days.
Dothan Radio... it is no big deal...just wanted to point out how radio in general gets sloppy with automation and consolidation. Go down the hall and talk to Mr Gower..he seems to be on top of the 15 minute problem. I am only a bystander listener who still listens to all sorts of radio programs. I am sure you are overworked taking care of all those stations. Others on this thread have noted the sloppy performance of the other cluster stations in Montgomery. And those station clusters outbill Bluewater and should and could do better if they wanted to eliminate those operational errors. But those other clusters don't seem to care, and one poster on this site said the listeners don't seem to mind either.
Gower....The 15 min on air disaster sounded like an automtion problem. If WBAM was "live' why did it take 15 minutes or so to be corrected?. So now we can guess that someone was just asleep at the switch. Go back to micro managing Bluewater out of being the # 3 cluster. You are so onion-skinned about any comments made about "bluewater" or other stations in that market. Of course I do did not know it was an automation problem simply as a listener, but for what ever reason is was bad radio that day. Get over it. This site isfor opinions and rumors.
The spin-doctors at your place are always interesting to hear from, Peters, Barber, and now the "engineer". Sorry if you guys get offended...but that day it was WBOM-BAD. I listen in Montgomery and find this board interesting.
The spin-doctors at your place are always interesting to hear from, Peters, Barber, and now the "engineer". Sorry if you guys get offended...but that day it was WBOM-BAD. I listen in Montgomery and find this board interesting.
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