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Former WGST PD to Interim New York Position

R

RoddyFreeman

Eric Seidel, the PD who was at WGST when it last getting good ratings, has joined Merlin's WEMP-FM/New York as interim PD. Merlin's CEO is Randy Michaels, former CEO of Clear Channel, Jacor and Tribune.

WEMP was launched last year as an FM competitor to all-news stations WCBS-AM and WINS-AM, and has gained no traction whatsoever. Michaels recently hired Al Gardner, his former news director at WGST, in a management position at Merlin.

I've always considered Seidel a visionary. He hired Neal Boortz, Clark Howard and Sean Hannity, recognizing their talent before WSB hired them (Boortz and Howard) away at higher salaries. The story I heard about Clark Howard is that Seidel knew Clark from his synagogue. Clark was a travel agent at the time, and Seidel wanted to start a Sunday travel show so he asked Clark. Funny.

WEMP has a tough roe to hoe. It will be interesting to see if Seidel succeeds in making the station a serious competitor.
 
Eric has the ability to find top notch talent but I think the hill WEMP has to climb is too steep, even for him. Al Gardner, who was hired immediately after my departure from WGST, ran a credible morning show but he could not replace Tom Hughes. WBT was a better fit for Al, a really good guy who may also hit a wall at Merlin.
 
fussbudget said:
Eric has the ability to find top notch talent but I think the hill WEMP has to climb is too steep, even for him. Al Gardner, who was hired immediately after my departure from WGST, ran a credible morning show but he could not replace Tom Hughes. WBT was a better fit for Al, a really good guy who may also hit a wall at Merlin.
Click to expand...

I agree it won't be easy for Eric at WEMP. By the way, in my post, that should have been "tough row to hoe."
 
You almost have to wonder if WEMP is actually planning a format change, from all news to either news-talk or just talk where there is far less competition. Roddy is right in both observations; Eric was a premier talk talent developer and WEMP has run into a complete wall trying to compete directly against 1010 WINS and Newsradio CBS 880 in the all news format. I just don't "buy it" that you bring in Eric to be a news director.
WABC is the only real Talk competitor and mostly syndicated at that. WOR is just flat out awful.
 
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