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Donna Halper mistreated on WCAP

P

paulfromlowell

Did anyone hear the interview with author, educator and historian Donna Halper on WCAP on Wed, March 9th?
Jack Baldwin was filling in for Dean Johnson...when suddenly station owner Clark Smidt interrupted the interview and proceeded to berate, belittle and trash both Donna and her book. Never in my 70 years of listening to the radio did I hear such an unprofessional rant (and from a station owner). He basically told her that her research was incomplete because there was not more information about him in the book. I've been listening to radio for a long time and until he bought WCAP (and destroyed it in my opinion) I had never heard of him. Others have told me that he was a "boy programming genius" back in the late 60's and early 70's......others have said that he has a life long history of abusing people he works with. I have told a number of local businesses that I frequent that if they advertise on WCAP - I will not do business with them.
I have seen Donna's book and am thrilled with it........so a raspberry in your face Mr Smidt....time to go home to Andover - you're not needed or wanted in Lowell.
 
paulfromlowell said:
Did anyone hear the interview with author, educator and historian Donna Halper on WCAP on Wed, March 9th?
Jack Baldwin was filling in for Dean Johnson...when suddenly station owner Clark Smidt interrupted the interview and proceeded to berate, belittle and trash both Donna and her book. Never in my 70 years of listening to the radio did I hear such an unprofessional rant (and from a station owner). He basically told her that her research was incomplete because there was not more information about him in the book. I've been listening to radio for a long time and until he bought WCAP (and destroyed it in my opinion) I had never heard of him. Others have told me that he was a "boy programming genius" back in the late 60's and early 70's......others have said that he has a life long history of abusing people he works with. I have told a number of local businesses that I frequent that if they advertise on WCAP - I will not do business with them.
I have seen Donna's book and am thrilled with it........so a raspberry in your face Mr Smidt....time to go home to Andover - you're not needed or wanted in Lowell.
Click to expand...

I read Donna's book and it was great. Maybe the Clarkster should write an radio autobiography of himself. No matter what your accomplishments were, after a very, very short period they become nothing more than "old war stories" and the 60's and 70's were a half-century ago. What has Clark done lately?

No one ever said people in the media lacked egos.
 
I will have to listen to this interview myself. Donna is a great radio historian and she really knows her stuff. I always look forward to what she has to say next about radio in the Bay State. I truly enjoyed her recent interview on WMWM (Salem State University).

She is also a friend. :)
 
That is too bad, though there was no real mentions of the original WEEI-FM 103.3, WBZ-FM @ 106.7, and WCOZ. I did think that WCOZ deserved a place in the book, not much on "The Big 68 / WRKO" either.. Perhaps the artifacts and pics are scarce for those stations in that period of time. In saying that, the book has many positives, clearly WBZ was represented well.. Would have loved to see more on WBCN, WVBF, and WZLX's place in the radio world.. The book itself is great, and a must for any radio fan ! Kudos to Donna Halper for putting it all together, and I hope she sells some copies !
 
I have to agree with Third Endorsed, that publisher is one step above being a vanity imprint publisher. Random House it isn't, but that should not take away from the work that Donna created, which by all accounts I have seen is worth reading if you have an interest in Boston radio history.

IF WCAP ownership acted as Paul From Lowell says, they owe Donna and the three listeners an apology.

I had high hopes for WCAP, but they have not lived up to expectations.

The revolving door known as the employee entrance must need a lot of oiling as it opens and closes a lot.

Then the legal battle between the owners is going to make a few lawyers rich.

Clark had a brief and somewhat successful career, but you are only as good as your last book as they say, and I wouldn't say being part owner of WCAP is the cherry on top of a great career.

And Clark gave us the term "soft rock", IMHO rock is not supposed to be soft!
 
Interesting stuff.

My only experience with Donna Halper was when a PD who worked for me (in the 90's) purchased her music scheduling software package. It arrived with our call letters transposed... they appeared this way on each and every log that was printed for every shift... and we were told it couldn't be fixed. I guess her software guy must have suffered from dyslexia... That could have been overlooked, but the software itself is what I would classify as pure crap-ola. Honestly, the music rotated smoother when the jocks were pulling and initialing those dreaded color-coded index cards. ???

Needless to say, we didn't do any further business with Donna Halper & Associates.
 
stereolane said:
Interesting stuff.

My only experience with Donna Halper was when a PD who worked for me (in the 90's) purchased her music scheduling software package. It arrived with our call letters transposed... they appeared this way on each and every log that was printed for every shift... and we were told it couldn't be fixed. I guess her software guy must have suffered from dyslexia...
Needless to say, we didn't do any further business with Donna Halper & Associates.
Click to expand...

Sorry that happened and that it still bothers you years later.  We have/had users all over the world for more than 20 years.  But let's be honest-- this is not about the music software.  You are perhaps a friend of Clark's and wanna trash me.  That's okay, but we really did take a lot of pride in the music software, as we did with everything else.  When complaints occurred, we handled them.  And you'll be amused to know-- the software guy DOES have dyslexia, but he's worked for me for 25 years and usually fixed every problem. Again, sorry he didn't fix yours, and I wish you'd have let me know.
 
thirdendorsed said:
Get over yourselves.

Acadia publications are not serious histories. They are picture books.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Obviously they are not "War and Peace", but I put 2 years of research into that book. It's a lot more than pictures. In fact, there are about 25 pages of text as well as the captions, and I tried to tell the story of Boston's radio scene, decade by decade. That said, I wish I had the chance to write more pages-- Arcadia has a rigid format of 128 pages, but I was just glad to get a start on Boston's radio history. There was a lot that got edited out, and I hope I can do volume two sometime. And some excellent professional historians have written for Arcadia--oh, and pictures really are important artifacts, you know!
 
I'd like to check out the book, sounds great... but, Donna... more importantly than music software - Were you mistreated by Clark Smidthead?
 
First to Donna: I bought your book and enjoyed it very much. I would have preferred a little more detail, but that's just my inner geek talking. You worked hard on it, and it shows.

Re Clark: I've been on the receiving end of his angry hotline calls. After I calmed down (and sometimes that took a long while) I'd realize he was right 99% of the time. Every time I see Gordon Ramsay on TV I'm reminded of Clark. Not the most diplomatic guy on the planet, but he has the chops (and a heart) and you learn a lot just being around him. Very similar personalities IMHO.
 
ON AIR said:
I'd like to check out the book, sounds great... but, Donna... more importantly than music software - Were you mistreated by Clark Smidthead?
Click to expand...

Truthfully, I was surprised at his reaction. I had expected to chat with Dean Johnson, an old friend. I have always gotten along with Clark, so when he suddenly came in and joined the conversation (Dean was not on, having been called to a meeting), I expected we would talk radio history. But instead, I felt he took me to task, and while I don't mind being questioned (Bob Nelson asked me questions, and I tried to respond accurately when I was on his show on Sunday), I felt Clark's tone was ... well how can I say this politely... very very disapproving. He questioned the quality of my research (accused me of not having done enough of it), and seemed very upset at what I had not included, as if I had intentionally avoided writing about his stations. But that was not the case, as I tried to explain. I don't think he liked the book, which is certainly his right, but I wasn't expecting him to be upset with me the way he seemed to be. I apologized to the on-air host for having upset him. What else could I say?
 
dlhalper said:
stereolane said:
Interesting stuff.

My only experience with Donna Halper was when a PD who worked for me (in the 90's) purchased her music scheduling software package. It arrived with our call letters transposed... they appeared this way on each and every log that was printed for every shift... and we were told it couldn't be fixed. I guess her software guy must have suffered from dyslexia...
Needless to say, we didn't do any further business with Donna Halper & Associates.
Click to expand...

Sorry that happened and that it still bothers you years later. We have/had users all over the world for more than 20 years. But let's be honest-- this is not about the music software. You are perhaps a friend of Clark's and wanna trash me. That's okay, but we really did take a lot of pride in the music software, as we did with everything else. When complaints occurred, we handled them. And you'll be amused to know-- the software guy DOES have dyslexia, but he's worked for me for 25 years and usually fixed every problem. Again, sorry he didn't fix yours, and I wish you'd have let me know.
Click to expand...

I don't know Clark, or anything about WCAP. Actually, I've never even visited Boston. We used your music software for more than 4 years, because we were on a limited budget. The last MD had better luck with the song rotations than the first two. All the while, we had the wrong call letters on the logs. That always irritated me, and right from the beginning, when the software was delivered, your partner acted like it was nothing more than "a typo" that couldn't be fixed, and that I should just get over it. Using Boston as an example, would WXKS enjoy having music logs that said WKXS? It was more than 15 years ago, but when I saw your name, it's the first thing I thought about. Thanks for allowing me to vent.

Regarding a much earlier post...I thought the term "soft rock" was coined by Mike McVay or Gary Berkowitz. ::)
 
I was employed at 'CAP for about a year and a half, mostly board opping but I did produce & co-host a show on Friday afternoons called Living For The Weekend. There was a Rush tribute show being put on in Cambridge (I believe) and Donna was doing the intro as she was the first jock in the US to spin the record (a station in Cleveland if I remember correctly) So I booked Donna on the show to talk about the event and talked with Donna before the on-air interview. A day or two before the interview, Clark told me I had to interview the owner of local tire place on the air at the time I had scheduled Donna for (he did this to me on MULTIPLE occasions, the worst being Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones for a live broadcast at a local diner, true story) When I called him on it he went over the edge. He asked me who I had booked in that slot and who was SOO IMPORTANT that I can't put a very important client in the slot. I told him Donna Halper. He then proceeded to berate her and told me that I will DEFINITELY bump her and then he gave me a few choice words in regard to her. Well, I called Donna and gave her a 'diplomatic' excuse that I had to bump her but we did some shuffling and we ended up doing the interview and it was an absolute pleasure to speak with her. I have been on the receiving end of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on multiple occasions and was literally shocked the first couple times it happened but learned to take it in stride. I am now gainfully employed on-air at a great station and I absolutely love the people I work with. I thought back over my radio career which spans maybe 7 or 8 total years in 3 states and I realized I have NEVER been treated the way that I was by Clark Smidt. He may have been a consulting guru back in the day but I will just say that after the way he treated me (and many others at 'CAP) I lost ALL respect for him. NO-ONE should be treated that way no matter what industry you work in. Many advertisers of the station also stopped doing business with 'CAP because of Clark's aggressive & abrasive manner. And regarding my departure from the station, don't even get me going. It was done in the most unprofessional and cowardly manner I have ever encountered over my entire working lifetime. He didn't even have the balls to tell me I was no longer employed. He sent an email stating that the majority of the weekday programs would be on hiatus for a week so they could re-tool things for the fall line-up, then when the next week came and I was emailed a copy of the schedule WITHOUT my name on it, I contacted Clark and got no response, TWICE. The PD also brushed me off saying "I'm just doing what Clark told me to do" It was Dean Johnson who had the courtesy to tell me about a week later that they had put Jack Baldwin back on the air and that there was no room for me on the schedule any longer. I know this is a small business and I try not to burn my bridges but after reading this thread, I had to share my story about the unprofessional standards at that radio station. Now, if you'd like to start a new thread about the actual conditions of the station itself, that would fill up pages upon pages on radio-info.com.
 
To anyone trashing the quality and the packaging of Ms. Halper's book before reading a single word: Find yourself.

And to all you "soft rock" fans: I believe WNSR in New York (the former "beautiful music" WRFM) was the very first "soft rock" station in the country when it flipped in April 1986.
 
And to all you "soft rock" fans: I believe WNSR in New York (the former "beautiful music" WRFM) was the very first "soft rock" station in the country when it flipped in April 1986.

That would be incorrect.

Regards,
TSB
 
DToTheJ said:
And to all you "soft rock" fans: I believe WNSR in New York (the former "beautiful music" WRFM) was the very first "soft rock" station in the country when it flipped in April 1986.
Click to expand...

"Soft Rock" was the slogan of what is now WODS (then WEEI-FM) when I was in college in the 1970s; the station's rainbow logo was on billboards all over town. As far as I know the slogan was indeed coined by Clark Smidt, who was programming WEEI-FM at the time.

I worked with Clark for six months in the summer and fall of 1982, where he created what was probably the first ever Adult Album Alternative format. Clark was about ten years ahead of his time, and the format didn't last; the station's owner was a non-broadcaster with (in my opinion) unrealistic expectations. After a brief attempt at "new wave" rock in the spring of 1983 under Barry Skidelsky and Maxanne Satori, WBOS went country in July.
 
So easy for you armchair critics to complain about the book.

But, I don't see any of you wind machines taking the time and trouble to actually try to put something like this together.

No book is perfect. But without Donna's dedication, there would be NO book at all.
 
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