Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him up?

[Casablanca]

Again, Tom Finneran is not only a convicted FELON but a bigot. His redistricting ploy was to keep potential Blacks and minorities out of his Hibernian Dorchester/ Milton district. That is a FACT.

Secondly, WRKO holds a license to broadcast in ' public interest'. Would think that the FCC when it comes time to license renewal would not look kindly upon a station that hired a convicted Federal FELON to sit behind one of its mic.

By the way, WRKO would be doing this at the very same time it rants against "illegal immigrants" and plays The Mexican Hat Dance behind its on air taunts.

What a bunch of hypoctrites !

Expect WRKO's PR flack, George Regan, to flood this board with attacks against those who would dare to bring up the FCC, Finneran's bigotry and WRKO's hypocrisy.

 

[AvenueA]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

or that WRKO, after 7 or 8 years of being ignored, is still performing well in the ratings against a tough FM competitior

You just defeated your own argument. Kahn is scrapping everything and going a totally different way.

She has no experience, no business programming anything.

 

[Varulven]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

Mike FM is doing well, but that's a no brainer - IPOD on radio, ho hum. If I hear a song I like, I stay, if not...adios amigos...but it is on my pre-set. As stated - a no brainer.

WRKO is a travesty. MIKE FM and WEEI are not travesties. Just compare.

WBOS underperforms, but after years of floundering has brought Dana onboard. Duh. All they had to do was
copy the River. Why? Because WXRV is on my pre-set and many pre-sets of friends of mine, WBOS is not.
WBOS was missing the mark by about 25%, too much homogenized music to keep listening to it. WXRV was a bit more AAA adventurous...AAAA, they get an A, not an A+ and not an A-, but WXRV is highly listenable - the way WBOS was in 1994...Jim Heron did a decent, not great, but decent job.

KISS 108 and JAM'N are what they are. They professionally do their commercial thing while WRKO does not.

That's the test. You don't find sub-standard jocks like DePetro and Todd Feinburg - their music equivalents, on KISS or their sports/talk equivalents on WEEI (though, unfortunately, you do get high school jock mentality and talent on WAAF and WBCN)

WRKO and WBCN are under-performing. I have been most critical of those two stations.

Jason Wolfe & Glen Ordway have done an amazing job with WEEI considering they didn't have The Celtics for awhile (not that they were any real draw on THE ZONE, but they still are part of the Big 4), and that WBCN
has The Patriots.

WBCN, WRKO, WEEI, THE ZONE, and that Michael Felger sports station 890 AM ESPN
http://www.espnboston.com/personalities/felger/felger.shtml
is an awful lot of sports for one market that had only The Campbell Sports Network that I can recall in years past.

WRKO and WBCN do not put in the elbow grease. Cha Chi does a great job with what he has, but it is now an uphill battle for him. Dave Wellington is probably an OK by-the-book P.D., but he was handed a station
decimated by Oedipus's misconduct. Much like the next President is going to have to deal with the hole
George W. Bush put the world in, Oedipus sank the Titanic and it is a LOT harder to bring it back up.

Julie Kahn's failure to note her competition sinking and that she's doing the same is why she should be fired.

It's nothing personal - I don't know her, I only hear her product and it is terrible. The milk is sour and she's the delivery gal. Time for a change because everything she touches is now the fruit of the poisoned tree,
much like any appointment by lame duck Bush.

 

[johnwas5]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

The facts seem to have left you floundering Joe. All of the entercom boston stations are doing just fine by the measures that matter - ratings and profits. Get a life.

 

[Varulven]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

there's more to radio than the bottom line; like providing information and entertainment. RKO is one sided and providing a bad product. Without Entercom owning so many properties RKO would not be as awful and stale as it is. Stop defending bad radio, Johnwas5, you only enable them...unless you work there and are a plant sent here to disrupt our First Amendment right to criticize bad radio.

 

[johnwas5]

whether it is entertaining or not is, in our society, judged by ratings and profits.

Entercom succeeds on all counts.

 

[Varulven]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

by reading this board one would come to two conclusions:

a)You are in the minority

b)You are absolutely wrong; WRKO is a failure.

 

[johnwas5]

but you offer no standard for such a judgement. I've already proven you wrong. the few frustrated hacks who lament their lack of employment here are certainly not all you have to fall back on?

 

[AvenueA]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

All of the entercom boston stations are doing just fine by the measures that matter - ratings and profits. Get a life.

If WRKO was doing fine then Julie Kahn shouldn't be making all these changes, right? Pick one - either it sucks and needs her to fix it or is successful and should be left alone. You can't have it both ways.

 

[Lucylu]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

there's more to radio than the bottom line

There is little more to professional radio than the bottom line. For anything else, find a nice 100 watt pirate station in some kid's dorm room.

 

[johnwas5]

I didn't say that the station doesn't need improvement. Its been riding on howie's back for years. But the station handed to julie is performing fine because the competition is just as bad. Now they're making moves to improve what has been neglected. They were given a station that hasn't had a morning show since claprood and whitley! The blame lies on those who let it sit - now, smart people, successful people, are in place to fix it. Why not give them a break!

BTW, I have no way of knowing, but I'll bet Entercom Boston is doing better than any of their clusters. My goal is that the hair that people have across their butts for WRKO be put into some perspecitive. The programmers at 96.9 have just done something to improve their station after years of horrible programming. Where is the critique? The reason WRKO does just fine financially and in the ratings despite years of neglect can be placed largely at 96.9's feet.

Why do you think 96.9 is finally fixing their broken station? They're scared to death I'd say, because the man who is at the helm of weei is now at the helm of wrko, and wrko has the red sox, and wrko has a new morning show coming!

There's a reality check. Now, can we have a conversation that is in context, or do we have to listen to more mindless, childish wrko bashing?

 

[AvenueA]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

now, smart people, successful people, are in place to fix it.

Julie isn't very bright and was behind the worst moves that were ever made on WRKO - including "Boston This Morning", "Taste Of Boston Tonight" (which she tried to push on previous P.D.s who fought like hell against her, so she brought Whittemore in from Minn. to carry out her orders).

She isn't successful either. She's a mid-level regional manager with many layers above her. She's far too provincial and small-minded to rise any higher than this point.

She manages mostly by constantly firing people and scaring everyone who remains half to death. That's a way to deflect away from her lack of brains. She created a miserable environment and it will catch up with her soon.

 

[johnwas5]

she may be a complete idiot, but she's running a very successful organization.

And really, havne't you just described the reality of corporate radio today?

Let's hear the laments about clear channel and greater media and CBS. Look at the tedious thing that WBZ is with its 20 minutes of ads per hour and virtually no news.

 

[raccoonradio]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

Agreed on johnwas' comments

btw while 96.9 may be underperforming, other GM stations like WMJX, WROR, and even WKLB (maybe WBOS
too) aren't doing too badly at least in the 12 +

If it weren't for the fact that 'EEI exists, I'd almost think they'd 680 would want to do "talk days, sports nights"...
follow Sox and Celts games with local and then national sports talk, but WEEI is around for that.

 

[Varulven]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

The problem with JohnWas5's position is that he constantly attacks the messenger while spewing propaganda.
That is the sure sign of a failed argument.

We have noted, repeatedly, that Todd Feinburg, Jeff Katz, John DePetro, Julie Kahn, people from years ago, people from today, all failed to build a solid entity as The Rock of Boston once was. This means that they are not thinking about the future of WRKO by contemplating the hire of Finneran, about to be fired by a firm on Monday.

ATTACKING THE MESSENGER TO ENHANCE WRKO:
The attacks on what we do in life, those of us who choose NOT to be in radio (for as Lucy Lu noted, real
radio is a Pirate station or an internet broadcast where there is something to LISTEN TO), are ridiculous.
Many of us (and there are some name jocks I'm thinking of, not just us "lowly" producers) who don't want
to be verbally harassed by know-nothings appointed to positions they didn't earn, and having to deal with
hack on-air personalities hired for political reasons.

That's the reality. People reading this will write 500 responses attacking me, my private life, whatever, because I am 1000% right. Everytime they attack the messenger they prove my point.

A certain failed d.j. will lie about the resume' of anyone he disagrees with - though our efforts blow his out of the water. It's the sincerist form of flattery.

But the bottom line is that this thread is about WRKO considering hiring a man who pleaded guilty to a felony.

There is something absolutely wrong with getting that "inside information" from a Finneran type, as wrong as putting O.J. Simpson on the air on FOX. That RKO and FOX are aligned in spirit speaks volumes.

But if WRKO had high standards or higher standards they wouldn't have a yellow-tabloid's "opinion" writer (who stabbed a talk radio legend in the back) on the air now would they?

Those of us courageous enough to speak up about the injustice are to be applauded; even more so because we withstand brutal criticisms which have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

FINNERAN being considered by Julie Kahn is as bad as Regan interviewing O.J. Simpson. Putting those felons on the air does nothing for the community but endorse bad conduct.

If WTKK can get a sitting Governor and RKO gets a disgraced politician, John Was 5 has no credibility.

As that is the case we all can do the math.

 

[johnwas5]

tell me one person I have attacked. Certainly not you. I made generalized reference to people who are radio wannabes, people who are frustrated for their failure to make it in radio, and as a result pollute these boards with tedious, repetitive, unsubstantiated and obsessive attacks on wrko and its managers. You are a successful member of the Boston music community for many decades, I thought, so I'm baffled as to how you could interpret my remarks as having anything to do with you, Joe. I've never attacked you personally - I couldn't, as I don't know you.

You are the one who makes endless personal attacks. Depetro, Feinburg, Katz, whomever... all disgraces, all embarrassments, all proof that Julie doesn't know what she's doing. No argument made, just meanspirited personal attacks against dedicated professionals. There is no courage in doing this. The performers are couragous - they expose themselves to the sort of harrassment that they're experience here simply for doing what they love. There is no courage is mudslinging, which is what mostly goes on here. Your self-engrandisement is severly misplaced.

But now, suddenly, you're willing to make an argument. We're getting somewhere. You are arguing that hiring someone like Finneran is inappropriate because he's a convict.

I agree.

Just as I thought it was inappropriate for the plagarist to get a job at 96.9.

Just as I think Barack Obama as a confessed drug abuser (marijuana, coke, etc) should not be in the U.S. Senate.

Just as Bill Clinton should have resigned after committing the same crime as Finneran.

Life ain't always the way we want it.

 

[raccoonradio]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

>>if WRKO had high standards or higher standards they wouldn't have a yellow-tabloid's "opinion" writer (who stabbed a talk radio legend in the back) on the air now would they?

...when did Barnicle jump to 'RKO? (Barnicle HAS written for the Herald, btw., which is yellow journalism
in the opinions of some..the Globe could be accused of that as well, or worse.)

Howie writes an opinion column for the Herald. He writes about hacks and cronies, organized crime,
and other political foibles. As for Jerry W., HC admittedly has mentioned that he wouldn't be where he
is without Jerry putting him on the air, etc., and he also said (in that Boston Globe mag piece about
Jerry), "My name is Howie Carr, not Father Time" (i.e., he alleges that Jerry was getting up there in
years and perhaps Howie shouldn't be blamed for usurping the Dean's slot)...Whether he "stabbed him in
the back" or not is up to opinion.

Isn't Finneran a Democrat, btw, and thus has a halo over his head no matter what he does?

>>That RKO and FOX are aligned in spirit speaks volumes.

I KNEW there was another reason why I liked RKO!

 

[Varulven]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

You won't like this, John Was5, but here goes because it is the reality:

Paula Jones was reluctant until all that money got thrown at her. That ridiculous case against a sitting president and his private life made no sense. Should Clinton have been smarter? Yes. Is hindsight 20/20? Yes.

Did Clinton's personal misconduct or Obama's personal experimentation (certainly not as bad as Bush drunk driving and if you think it is we can't have a civil discussion) have as dramatic an impact as Bush's decision to lie to us about a war? Not find WMD's which they KNEW with our Satellite Technology DID NOT EXIST (and to make fun of that lie looking for weapons of mass destruction behind some curtain)...which lie is worse?

A gay person lying to their friends in 9th grade making believe he or she is "straight" or the priest lying about
raping the altar boy?

There are degrees - and some lies, like Clintons, are not as hurtful to the world as Finneran's, or to a greater degree, Bush's incessant lies.

Bush took an oath; he has lied after taking that oath. THAT is far more hurtful than Clinton's sexual escapades. Yes I'm disappointed in Bill, but infuriated at Bush. It is all the degree to how it has an effect on you. Clinton's lie did not hurt the country; Bush's did.

If you think you were harmed by two gay people getting married or Clinton lying about a stain on a dress or whatever it was...well, your priorities are way off base.

Thank you for your acknowledgment of my decades of hard work. That is appreciated. I will also continue to defend the good Democratic people that fought hard against smears, attacks and Rove to help get this country back on track. The Bush Administration is a complete failure, and little Napolean is getting ready to thin out our troops once again. Entitled little despot needs to be impeached...the sooner the better.

Bush won't have a "real" meeting with Cindy Sheehan. Here's how he supports our troops
http://www.memphisrap.com/community/article1163.html

sending letters to the family of dead soldiers asking them to re-enlist.

WRKO has supported this kind of behavior. Their desire for Finneran is bitter to any hard working dj.

I do not put DePetro or Feinburg in the "hard working" on air personality category. They just aren't good at it.

 

[johnwas5]

I have no problem with your politics.

I resent anyone who attacks artists, and find it particularly disturbing that someone who has supported musical performers his whole life would be so destructive in his treatment of performers in another media.

I wish you would reconsider.

 

[Casablanca]

Re: Finneran to plead guilty, can't run for political office; will WRKO pick him

Look Howie use the inside track sluts to attack Jerry Williams for years to hurt him and his credibility. They and Howie always tried to use
Jerry's age against him. This is RADIO what difference does it make as long as the on-air person is delivering.

No, as Jerry Williams daughters will tell you if you ask them, Howie Carr was instrumental in having their father summarily removed from WRKO which ruined his health and was a factor in his death.

Well, Howie Carr is at about the same age as Jerry was when he started attacking him for his age.

Howie, watch your back........your worst enemy is behind you...your shadow.

>>if WRKO had high standards or higher standards they wouldn't have a yellow-tabloid's "opinion" writer (who stabbed a talk radio legend in the back) on the air now would they?

...when did Barnicle jump to 'RKO? (Barnicle HAS written for the Herald, btw., which is yellow journalism
in the opinions of some..the Globe could be accused of that as well, or worse.)

Howie writes an opinion column for the Herald. He writes about hacks and cronies, organized crime,
and other political foibles. As for Jerry W., HC admittedly has mentioned that he wouldn't be where he
is without Jerry putting him on the air, etc., and he also said (in that Boston Globe mag piece about
Jerry), "My name is Howie Carr, not Father Time" (i.e., he alleges that Jerry was getting up there in
years and perhaps Howie shouldn't be blamed for usurping the Dean's slot)...Whether he "stabbed him in
the back" or not is up to opinion.

Isn't Finneran a Democrat, btw, and thus has a halo over his head no matter what he does?

>>That RKO and FOX are aligned in spirit speaks volumes.

I KNEW there was another reason why I liked RKO!