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Elliot in the Morning on WILM/WDOV

M

MikefromDelaware

I've been listening to Elliot in the Morning on WILM/WDOV for the past two weeks and they've been adding features and making improvements to where it's a viable newscast that can now compete with WDEL's morning news block with Peter McArthur and Melanie Armstrong.

I had originally complained that WILM was airing way too many PSA's. They now are airing more spots, probably many of these are network make goods, but at least you only hear one or two PSA's in a 30 minute block rather than 8-10. Bruce Elliot is acting more like an anchor/host who adds those interesting stories and interviews that add to each half hour segment. Phil Feliciangeli (sp) does the local news, Allan Krakaour (sp) does sports, along with the traffic net guy and Weather Channel guy. They've added a commentary by John Watson and also air commentaires by Rush, Hannity, Kim Kommando, Wall Street Journal, Barron's, etc. It's a fast moving show, and seems to contain less hype than WDEL's morning news block. Elliot's shows now has a decent rhythm to it, its now flowing nicely, for my ear.

Both WDEL's and WILM/WDOV's morning news blocks have a major market sound. So it will be interesting to see how well WILM's morning news show competes with WDEL's, especially IF CC Delaware does any serious promotion via billboards, ads in News Journal, etc, for WILM/WDOV's new morning news show. I think they've got a good show. Of course if CC doesn't promote the show other than on their own stations (WILM/WDOV/WWTX/WDSD/WRTX), I'm not sure if the show will grow in ratings as I'd assume that most people who aren't former radio folks or radio geeks don't scan the dial, but get locked in to a station and stay there. So if those WDEL listeners don't know WILM has a new show they probably wouldn't scan over from 1150 to 1450 to see what WILM is doing. Of course, promoting the show during Rush/Hannity might help grow the ratings as WILM does get good ratings during Rush/Hannity. Time will tell.

I noticed today that Valerie Mack is still producing Watson's show and is doing newsbreaks during Limbaugh's show.
 
WILM sounds better in the morning, and I think Bruce Elliott has a better handle on the morning slot than prior hosts who have occupied that time period. Bruce worked part time for many years at Baltimore's once dominant station, WBAL, and it sounds like he is patterning his show like the morning news block at WBAL, hosted by Dave Dorian. Like WILM, WBAL is a shadow of its former self, both in terms of ratings and personnel. WILM needs more listeners, so you are right Mike, they need to get billboards to build their cume.. That shouldn't be a problem, as their parent company owns the billboards in Delaware. However, they are on the verge of bankruptcy, so it's my guess that they won't do any trade for advertisng. Cash is king. By increasing the number of listeners to WILM, it would vastly improve the quality of their callers. WDEL's 35-54 demo, are more intelligent and a little more hip. Callers like Jeff, Christine, Liz, and some of the other knuckleheads that call WILM really bring down the quality of their product. Plus at WDEL, they have the Tom Bigby rule of one caller per week, per listener. Again, WDEL can do this, because they have more listeners. In WILM's defense, they have made some improvements in the Watson show, by making him have more guests and experts on, for longer periods of time. He's much more courteous to his guest than he is to the senior citizens who call his show. Until management decides what they want to do with late mornings, the new practice makes perfect sense. Do good, be well and happy.
 
John Watson is clearly at a disadvantage when it comes to callers. That is why Rush and Hannity take so few callers. They have a national draw and still focus on only a few good folks. The callers are part of the entertainment. A poor caller can give you two or three minutes of bad programming. Tune out time. I do it on C2CAM nearly every morning. Rush's "Open line Friday" is my least favorite day of the week, even though he still takes few calls.

Near the end of my days of doing talk, I learned my lesson and prepared to do a monolog for the whole show. If I got enough callers, cool. But I was prepared for the whole show.
 
MFD: You've mentioned you once worked there. You go to the trouble to listen, to call with suggestions, to write up critiques of their work and to defend them against negative comments. It would seem the least you can do, as a professional broadcaster, is spell their names correctly. Their names are on the station website. It only takes a few seconds to check the spelling.

Allan Krakower

Phil Feliciangeli
 
Matt, as neither Feliciangeli or Krakower are names that you intuitively know how to spell (at least I don't) and I do not use, or more specifically write their names very often, the odds are I'll not remember the spelling the next time I use them here, hey I might not remember their names unless I hear them on the radio periodically- haha! So I'd end up having to take time to go to WILM's mediocre website just to look up their names to write something here. As I don't get paid to do this, I'm not going to bother. It's like someone got up set, possibly you, one time I misspelled Melanie Armstrong's name (it may be misspelled now as I don't remember how SHE spells it and no offense intended towards Ms. Armstrong, Phil, or Allan, I just don't care).

Not trying to offend you, but I do try to spell my postings here as well as possible, but THIS ISN'T school or a job. So if the grammar or spelling isn't perfect, oh well. Sometimes it could be a typo that gets overlooked. It is what it is. If that means you take what I write less seriously or skip over my postings, that too is your choice, it is what it is. In the grand scheme of things it truly doesn't matter. So we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

For a radio person, it's more important that you pronounce the name correctly and more often than not, with names like these the professional radio newsperson will write it phonetically so they do pronounce it correctly.
 
MikefromDelaware said:
Matt, as neither Feliciangeli or Krakower are names that you intuitively know how to spell (at least I don't) and I do not use, or more specifically write their names very often, the odds are I'll not remember the spelling the next time I use them here, hey I might not remember their names unless I hear them on the radio periodically- haha! So I'd end up having to take time to go to WILM's mediocre website just to look up their names to write something here. As I don't get paid to do this, I'm not going to bother. It's like someone got up set, possibly you, one time I misspelled Melanie Armstrong's name (it may be misspelled now as I don't remember how SHE spells it and no offense intended towards Ms. Armstrong, Phil, or Allan, I just don't care).

Not trying to offend you, but I do try to spell my postings here as well as possible, but THIS ISN'T school or a job. So if the grammar or spelling isn't perfect, oh well. Sometimes it could be a typo that gets overlooked. It is what it is. If that means you take what I write less seriously or skip over my postings, that too is your choice, it is what it is. In the grand scheme of things it truly doesn't matter. So we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

For a radio person, it's more important that you pronounce the name correctly and more often than not, with names like these the professional radio newsperson will write it phonetically so they do pronounce it correctly.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, Mike. I don't mean to offend. I have my pet peeves, just as you do. You have expressed your desire for good manners and civil behavior on air. Well mine pet peeve is an lack of respect for the mother tongue. Broadcasters, hosts and journalists are communicators by virtue of our gifted ability to use words and language. People come to this calling or vocation, in part, because they love language and other means of expression. No, you are not getting paid to post but it's not about pay, it's about pride.

And it's not about typos. We all make them. We don't always catch them. This was about not bothering to check the spelling of a name you knew you didn't know how to spell. And the medium here is not the spoken word, so spelling matters, just as a pronunciation does in radio.

You say you don't care but I think you should. I think we all should.

PS: In my journalism school, any misspelled word on any assignment was an automatic F. This was using typewriters and dictionaries, not spell checkers. But this policy had the desired effect. Things have slipped a lot since then.
 
Matt, I hear you and understand your point of view.

I didn't go to journalism school or broadcasting school. I was an Air Craft Electrician in the Air Force during Viet Nam also was on Armed Forces Radio while stationed in Alaska, and was a Lab Technician and now an Instrument Repair Specialist by trade. Radio was a hobby for me. I learned, as a kid and later a teen, by listening to the radio and visiting the local stations (WNRK, WAMS, WDEL, and WILM) and watched what they did. I've worked, as an adult at all of those, but WDEL. as a part timer during the past 30+ years ( My last radio gig was at WILM for 7 years as news anchor, reporter, and talk show host). I don't have your schooling or your knowledge apparently, but believe (based on what my PD's and News Director's would tell me) that I did a good job at each station I was employed, whether that was as a jock or reporter/anchor/talk show host. I learned a lot at each station and enjoyed working with all sorts of great people, many of whom went on to make it in the big time, others are still around the area either still in radio or in other professions.

I understand your pet peeve, I just am not willing to worry about spelling everyone's name correctly if I don't remember how it's spelled. So I guess you'll have to give me an "F" when I misspell a name. As I said, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
 
Mike, as one of your former PD's, I had no complaints and enjoyed your time at WNRK.

As to the new WILM morning show, it is the best I have heard on that station in years. Sounds tight, professional, like radio in this century is supposed to sound.
 
It does sound better, but I fear that only people on this board know that his new show is even on the air. To my knowledge, they have not purchased any billboards or bus cards to promote the show in Dover or in Wilmington. If the management team does not build the stations cume, they're destined to be stuck with a middle 3 share, 12+. Most of their audience is over 80, and they really need to be in the top 3, 25-54 to be competative and to get advertisers. Do good, be well and happy.
 
Thanks jhguthlac for the kind words. I agree that Elliot in the morning is the best sounding morning show to be on WILM for quite awhile. I listen to it now while getting ready for work. So I guess I help pull down that 80 year old demo a tiny bit - haha !

It is a real shame that CC Delaware won't try to sell it as Porky Hooton said via billboards or bus cards. You've got to give people a reason to check out your station or they'll just stay where they are now, which apparently isn't WILM. I'm not sure how well WDOV actually does ratings wise since Dover isn't a diary market, but I believe WDOV has a higher local spot load than WILM. My guess is, WDEL is hoping that CC Delaware won't advertise Elliot's show as it could compete easily with WDEL's excellent AM newsblock.
 
Good observations Mike, and you are right, if I am WDEL I just keep praying that they don't start to promote the new WILM morning show. CC Station Manager Chris Walus is real strategy big picture guy, and according to informed sources, charged Sky Phillips (the ops guy) to find a killer morning host. WDEL's weakness has always (in my opinion) been the 6am to 9am block. The news duo is fine for the news, but you really need a Joe McCauley type to play traffic cop, to bring all the elements of the daypart together. Mike Waite from WJBR or John Wilson foremerly of WSTW might fit this bill, but I don't think even WDEL is willing to come off of 50 or 60 thousand dollars a year to accomplish this. For the young listeners, Joe McCauley was a famous radio announcer at WIP in Philadelphia, know as The Morning Mayor, and was the host of 6-10am monring drive show. Prior to that, he did the WIP midnight to six Dawn Patrol. Joe has since passed, but he leaves quite a legacy. His grandaughter is Hollywood movie star Anne Hathaway. Joe's daughter Kate Hathaway (Annie's mother) is also a very accomplished actress. Do good, be well and happy.
 
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