• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Doug's Farewell from Red Eye seemed a little fake.

W

westfield60

I respect Doug more than any other radio host, but in listening to Doug explain his farewell last night, I have to say it sounded a little fake.

He made it seem like management called him up and asked him to become the savior at KABC. But if you look at it, that explanation doesn’t make sense. He clearly didn’t want to leave (which he stated) and it seems like a clear demotion (going from National to Local) and back at a station and time slot in which he tried and failed at. No one can beat Handel at this point.

This seems like it happened very quickly. The impetus was the firing of the PD at WABC. Once that happened Doug and Joe Crummey were immediately at Risk. Crummey was out and Doug is being shuffled back to KABC mornings.

Doug revealed that everyone was against the decision to start the Red-Eye show and didn’t think it could work. So right from the start the heavy brass management was against this idea. Once the only cheerleader (PD at WABC) was removed it became an easy decision to replace Doug.

However Doug has had some success over the past two years. His show has amassed close to a hundred stations. But that doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t generating money. His show didn’t seem like it was. He had hardly no commercials and none from any major sponsors. Also the show was run like a shoe string local show (Doug operating from his house and the screener in Texas). I feel Management felt they had enough stations to really try and make a go at an overnight profitable venture (similar to Coast to Coast) by adding in corporate hosts and attract national sponsors. So Doug had a target on his forehead. Now given Doug’s success over the past two years they felt it would be bad PR to fire him so they shuffled him back to KABC and if he fails there they have a reason to let him go. Crummey had no success to show and was immediately let go.

The move made was consistent with what you see in corporations happening across the country and the world. Profit, profit and profit is the only thing that matters.

The new show will be a formula show with hosts that will be clones of the hundreds of other political hosts, canned synth bumper music and a drive to attract nation sponsors.

I wish Doug well since I do believe he is the best radio host I have heard, but it is a cruel business that doesn’t tolerate “real” talented Hosts that talk WITH people, rather they want hosts that talk, talk and talk and then occassionaly talk TO people.
 
westfield60 said:
The move made was consistent with what you see in corporations happening across the country and the world. Profit, profit and profit is the only thing that matters.

The new show will be a formula show with hosts that will be clones of the hundreds of other political hosts, canned synth bumper music and a drive to attract nation sponsors.

I wish Doug well since I do believe he is the best radio host I have heard, but it is a cruel business that doesn’t tolerate “real” talented Hosts that talk WITH people, rather they want hosts that talk, talk and talk and then occasionally talk TO people.
Click to expand...

Uhh, yeah that is right, profit is all that matters. This is not public (i.e. forcibly subsidized by government) radio. You can find that down at the bottom of the FM dial. This is a business, see, and for businesses, profit IS the only thing that matters. This may come as a shock to you, but the company has shareholders that don't care what the quality of the content is, so long as it makes money, just as the stockholder's of McDonalds don't care that they don't make the best burgers, they just sell more of 'em than anyone else. And as long as enough people are made happy to support the station (or restaurant) and earn a good rate of return for the shareholder's, that is all that matters. They are, after all, the only ones who have put their hard-earned money into this - you're just a freeloadin' customer . So if you don't like what will be on KABC, try something else. I prefer In-n-Out burgers myself.
 
I wish KABC was run like a business. For the past 15 years they have been bleeding "customers" and yet management chose not to do anything about it and infact made decisions that made it worse by bringing back Mr Snooze (Peter Tilden), Mr. Failure (Larry Elder) and the GLEE club'ers in the evening talking about fingernail polish with Mr. Enquirer.
 
westfield60 said:
I wish KABC was run like a business. For the past 15 years they have been bleeding "customers" and yet management chose not to do anything about it and infact made decisions that made it worse by bringing back Mr Snooze (Peter Tilden), Mr. Failure (Larry Elder) and the GLEE club'ers in the evening talking about fingernail polish with Mr. Enquirer.
Click to expand...

In this I agree with you.

Larry is not the problem per se - I think he has a compelling enough personality and his libertarian views that provide plenty of material for interesting talk radio. I think it has been a long time since any program manager pushed him to push the envelope.

For example, the Occupy LA thing. Larry just sat in the studio and talked about it. John and Ken got out there, mucked it up a little bit with the occupiers and made were able to cut their own angle on it and make compelling content for days and weeks out of it, not to mention getting themselves on local TV news as part of the story (bonus free advertising for the show!). They simply out-hustled the competition. KABC would never do something like that and that is why they are now a permanent also-ran.
 
That was Larry's problem when he was in the afternoon slot. He is too occupied with Washington Politics. As major news was breaking I would tune over to Larry and he would be obssessed with Hilary Clinton. No wonder he had no listeners in Los Angeles. I've never listened to him at his new time slot, but the latest ratings show that no one else is listening either.
 
Is going from syndicated overnights to morning drive in market #2 really a demotion? Personally I'd rather have that than the overnight show. A lot of local gigs pay better than syndicated ones, so maybe Doug will be better off.
 
That is a stretch. Doug failed at mornings on kabc hardly. Like you said noone will beat handle and they thought putting peter tilden on might hurt kfi in t he mornings hardly. The problem is not the talent they just let the station go for so long and are now playing catch up very very very difficult to do. I think doug and terri will hold there own but if cumulus expects miracles they got another thing coming and it has nothing to do with doug and terri.

He must like la i am sure he has had opportunities to leave. I think kabc is lucky he puts up with them!!!
 
I'm not one way or the way on Doug but the thing that gets me is that they tried him before and (for whatever reason) he didn't make it. So they're bringing him back again? And let's face it, in the radio world KABC is and for a long time, has been a joke. Just seems like the train wreck is continuing to me.
 
livingfruitvirus said:
Is going from syndicated overnights to morning drive in market #2 really a demotion? Personally I'd rather have that than the overnight show. A lot of local gigs pay better than syndicated ones, so maybe Doug will be better off.
Click to expand...

Doug himself had said several times that he loves and prefers the overnight show since he feels he is not pressured by manic traffic and weather reports every 15 minutes and all the other stuff that comes with a morning slot. He loves the relaxed feel of the overnight gig. He loves talking with people. I can't think of a morning show that primarily talks with the audience.

He clearly didn't sound like he was jumping for joy when he made his departure annoucement so I don't think he is picking up any more money and certainly I don't think it sounds like a promotion. Doug is too smart a guy to fool himself that he can go down the same path (against Handel) and expect any different a result. Infact it's even more difficult since KABC has lost even more of an audience share over the past two years, particulary with Peter Tilden at the helm of the Titanic.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom