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Frankie and the Baby

E

emo474

Ok, I started to write this the other day and quit since, hey it's a new year.. give a guy a break. I know Frankie from Magic 93, a really swell person. I was not thrilled to see the amount of promotion he was getting involved in with the adoption, the promos from last year were getting a bit sappy. I'm happy for him and think he'll make a great Dad, but the promotion is getting out of hand. Remember Kathy Lee Gifford and Cody & Cassidy? Big media events, but after a while Kathy realized there was too much attention on her kids and she resented it.. but she helped create it too! Now I'm hearing promos for Live remotes that pitch.. "come to XYZ Company, maybe you'll see my child enjoy her fist taste of ice cream..."
Ok, enough is enough... I can forsee the sales department saying "Hey Frankie, I got this remote, but you have to bring and promote the kid at it or else it wont fly!" Enjoy Fatherhood and all it's joys, but don't use your adopted child as a promotional tool.. someday soon, you'll wish you just enjoyed the time you have together in private. As your child grows up you'll wish you could spend more time with her and your family and less time doing remotes. I know they're part of the business but your child should not be a promotional tool. Thoughts anyone?
 
I don't listen to Frankey. I had no idea any of this was happening. My advice? Get a goddamn grip Frankey. You're, like others here, a radio "personality" in northeast PA. Slim line between that and "You want fries with that?" Promoting your adopting of a baby, okay, maybe there's an argument to be made for promoting adoption in general. Anything else is at best ill-advised and at worse, borderline abuse.
 
My own thoughts, not necessarily connected to Frankie, are: Leave the kids at home (on the air or off). When you are a well-known air personality, you don't need to deal with stalkers, kidnappers or weirdos. You are potentially putting your family in danger when you do. In this present case, at least Frankie does not have his IRL name in the phone book.
 
My advice? Who needs it, right? Here it is anyway; Frank E., put yourself in your own place, step outside of you and have a look at you, and a listen, too. Would you find it annoying? If not, cool. If so, act accordingly. Me? No way I'd keep at it. Yeah, I'd mention it now and again, not make a career out of it.
 
Frankie is arguably NEPA's most successful Air personality on the radio at this time. His station targets mom's and all things family. Most would agree, he is one of the nicest people in this business. His exuberence comes thru the promos where he mentions his daughter.I thought it sounded great. It wouldn't work on the X but fits perfectly on WMGS. I think it is his call. His call's have been pretty good so far.
 
It smacks of the guy who gets a puppy so he can walk it in the park and get women's attention. I know his job is to get women's attention, but using his baby to do that drops him out of the "oh what a nice guy" category altogether.
 
All points are well taken but you can't argue with success. Frankie is a ratings powerhouse. He may just be the most recognized name in this market. (women 25-54). He has the midas touch, anything he talks about from the first adoption issue to bringing this baby home has worked. He has the female workforce (and everyone else) talking about him at the office watercooler, at lunch and even at the dinner table. Love him or hate him people notice what he says.

All of that being said, the latest news heard is Citadel's suits want him to have a co-host. Ads have been placed in R&R along with other trade magazines. T&R's are coming in it will be interesting to see who they choose.

There have been other changes with the airstaff recently, they have added Suzanne (doesn't use a last name) Danny Ocean (not the D.O. from the HOT 97 days) and lips are sealed shut on what happened to Jeff Neal. Is Jeff Gordon staying? Rumor mill has him at odds and under fire from management.
 
Sgt Friday said:
All points are well taken but you can't argue with success. Frankie is a ratings powerhouse. He may just be the most recognized name in this market. (women 25-54). He has the midas touch, anything he talks about from the first adoption issue to bringing this baby home has worked. He has the female workforce (and everyone else) talking about him at the office watercooler, at lunch and even at the dinner table. Love him or hate him people notice what he says.
Click to expand...

Thanks Frankie.
 
I don't listen to Magic, except the 70's hour when I'm in the car. I haven't heard Frankie's "baby talk." The guy's been around a long time. He's a solid broadcaster. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. There's a fine line between letting listeners in on your personal life and overdoing it. Frankie, best of luck personally and professionally.
 
I think people are missing something here concerning the formula for "successful" morning shows. There are a few categories:

-- Shock people

-- Be a commedian non-stop

-- Bring bits of your personal life into the show

-- A combination of any/all of the above

Frankie is just bringing his life into the show to open himself up to the listeners, which will, in turn, make them feel more connected to him (and stay more loyal to him). And if it works, why question it? If you don't like listening to it, there are other stations to turn to.
 
I'll give this another shot...In this day & age of XM, Sirius, and countless cookie-cutter stations owned by comglomerates that own more frequencies than we have employees at our desk jobs, the one thing a good old fashioned radio station can offer that no one else can is companionship
If you build a BOND with your listeners, they will forgive you for occasional songs they don't like, promotions that sound silly, breaks that are cheesey, and too many spots. It's about reaching through the speaker and making the person on the other end feel you are there, you understand, you sympathize, you want sympathy, etc. You need to illicit emotional responses to do this effectively. If that means sharing your emotions over the adoption of a child, and that's the most important thing going on in your life, you need to share those moments to build the bond. That way when you go to the local car dealer for the remote, people want to meet you and know even more about you. It's about walking through the mall and being recognized & people say hello. Whatever you can do to build that bond is a good thing, anything that destroys the myth is bad.
Now obviously you also need to keep your family's safety an important issue as well. But if it's privacy and being annonymous is what you want, you're in the wrong business as a radio announcer.
Geez, I just wish I could get someone in this town to realize I get it, hire me to lead their team, and blaze a trail of success this market hasn't seen in years.
 
But if it's privacy and being annonymous is what you want, you're in the wrong business as a radio announcer.
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Probably the best weatherman in the Connecticut tv market manages to keep family and work separate. I realize this is a different market and I think Frankie did a good thing in advertising his adoption process. That he gushes over the baby, in this market, works. But I'm afraid the wrong kind of people find out where he lives, there might be a problem. You need $$ for drugs, you go after the popular guy's kid. That's my worry.


Geez, I just wish I could get someone in this town to realize I get it, hire me to lead their team, and blaze a trail of success this market hasn't seen in years.
Click to expand...
Shall we genuflect? Or will altar boys with incense pots be sufficient?
 
I'll take the genuflecting. These days altar boys & incense could lead to far too many hassles and scandals ;D
I agree with you about the weatherman in Conn., but I guarantee you that he/she has found ways to bond with viewers in similar ways that just don't involve their personal life. You don't have to work your family into the mix, and in fact if you find ways to bond without doing so that's great and shows you've mastered the technique even better. Frankie has made himself vulnerable by sharing his family life, and we should applaud his willingness to take those risks to get the job done right.
 
I think Frankie should stop talking about the Baby. It was nice to hear about the Baby but it has to stop very soon. I think Frankie should be teamed up with a female for the morning show and that will give Brian more time to do the news on Magic and JR.

I know of a very good female that he should be teamed up with.
 
Hi...I think Frankie is a great guy....and but I agree talking about baby...it can get to be a bit much....and it can turn against you....people can begin to tune out. As for someone teaming up with Frankie in the morning...I don't know about that....some Morning teams work well....but Frankie maybe too big of a personality to share the duties. I have notice that Magic 93 did get more edgier after Christmas. Maybe it is just me....but it sounds like all the jocks stepped up their game on air (maybe they are all underfire from management). They all give these little details about the songs...and their lives...and what they did last night...they chatting it up more...
And I was wondering where Jeff Neal ended up I thought he did a good job.
 
All of that being said, the latest news heard is Citadel's suits want him to have a co-host. Ads have been placed in R&R along with other trade magazines. T&R's are coming in it will be interesting to see who they choose.There have been other changes with the airstaff recently, they have added Suzanne (doesn't use a last name) Danny Ocean (not the D.O. from the HOT 97 days) and lips are sealed shut on what happened to Jeff Neal. Is Jeff Gordon staying? Rumor mill has him at odds and under fire from management.

Finally, I was wondering when the suits at Citadel were going to try and screw up Magic like they did WARM.

Frankie is just bringing his life into the show to open himself up to the listeners, which will, in turn, make them feel more connected to him (and stay more loyal to him).

Harry West did that for years talking about his boys Scotty and Christopher. I don’t think anyone would say he was using his two challenged sons for any type of gain. But it humanized him and his family. When you saw him at a remote, he was the “radio star” but he had problems, problems maybe even bigger than the rest of us. Plus by Harry talking about his sons, he raised awareness of Mental Retardation issues.

If you build a BOND with your listeners, they will forgive you for occasional songs they don't like, promotions that sound silly, breaks that are cheesey, and too many spots. It's about reaching through the speaker and making the person on the other end feel you are there, you understand, you sympathize, you want sympathy, etc. You need to illicit emotional responses to do this effectively. If that means sharing your emotions over the adoption of a child, and that's the most important thing going on in your life, you need to share those moments to build the bond.

Do you think you can bond with anyone on The River or locally ESPN Radio or God love him, George Graham? Whether it’s Frankiie’s baby, John Webster’s American Legion connection, Sue Henry’s identity theft issues, Kevin Lynn’s loss of his dad or Eric Logan’s love of sports, they all make a connection. A bond.

Geez, I just wish I could get someone in this town to realize I get it, hire me to lead their team, and blaze a trail of success this market hasn't seen in years.

I’m still playing that Powerball my man. You’ll be the first guy I call.
And I’ll give you free rein too because the second call will be to Geena Davis and the third call will be to the Jamaican Real Estate Board. You can send me some tapes.

Yonkstur
 
I know of a very good female that he should be teamed up with.
Click to expand...

I can think of a few myself. Frankie, though, would be resistant to doing anything but a solo act, IMO. I don't see him sharing his "star of the show" status with anyone. All in all, I don't blame him, it is his show. Fixing what isn't broken is a long tradition with radio suits. Yonk's right, it could be WARM all over again.
 
Yonk,
Normally I would agree with you about Citadel screwing things up but...... have you seen the newest Lehigh Valley numbers? Their AC-WLEV, just kicked some serious butt with a new morning team and imaging. Maybe they found the right formula???? Just a thought.
 
they all make a connection. A bond.
Click to expand...

And your audience will let you know just that, they'll walk up and say, "I feel like I know you, hope you don't mind." Mind? Nah, it's the highest praise you can get, it means you're very effective at what you do.
 
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