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Gerry Fulcher leaves WDEL

B

Bald Eagle

Guest
I had WDEL on this afternoon and heard Rick Jensen say Fulcher was no longer with the station. It sounded like maybe he left of his on accord, because Rick said he was going to write a couple of books and start an Anti-Gambling group.

I'm sure this news will make a lot of people happy, since Gerry rubbed a lot of people the wrong way while he was there.
 
I remember Gerry when he first stated at WILM and he was less angry then. At WDEL he seemed argumentative and angry a lot. He reminds me of the ultra conservative talk host WDEL had a number of years ago, Bob Mercer, who would be insulting to any caller who didn't see things the way he did, and would literally bash them. Bob was an angry conservative. Can't say that I miss his show. The difference between Gerry and Al Messetti is that Gerry came across like the stereotyped "angry liberal", where as Al Messetti is a liberal, but doesn't foam at the mouth. If you call in and disagree with Al you can have an intelligent conversation with him and he will allow you to make your point before he disagrees with you.

In fairness to Gerry, it seemed the last few weeks, at least to my ear, he seemed to calm down and was less angry and argumentative, possibly because he had decided to leave and was focusing on these new projects he's starting. Even though I wasn't a fan of Gerry while at WDEL, I wish him the best. Gerry has a lot of energy and drive, if he can channel that into these new projects and keep a mellow tone about him, my guess is he'll be quite successful.

From what I gather, from what Rick Jensen said on the air, WDEL isn't going to back fill Gerry's position at this time. This works as WDEL has the liberal point of view from 9am-12noon with Al Messetti and the conservative point of view from 1pm-4pm. It will be interesting to see how Rick's show competes opposite Rush on WILM as both shows are now conservative shows. One big plus for Rick's show is you can actually get through and get ON the air with Rick without too much hassle. What would be interesting to hear WDEL do would be say one Friday a month, have Al and Rick team up as the point/counterpoint for the 11am hour, so let's say every last Friday of the month 9am-11am just Al, then 11am-12p Al/Rick, 12pm-1pm Loudell News, and then 1pm-4pm Rick. Or 9am-12noon just Al, 1pm-2pm Al/Rick, 2pm-4pm just Rick. They can hand pick a good liberal vs conservative topic and go for it taking phone calls too for that hour. My guess is it would be a great show especially as we are entering a Presidental election year.
 
Given the recent cuts at WXCY, this move may be economic as well. It certainly makes sense.

Regarding Bob Mercer. To classify him as an angry conservative is a bit off the mark. Bob, as operations manager for the DBC chain, is neither angry nor all that conservative. In fact, WILM got Rush the first time because he was too conservative for the WDEL philosophy.

Bob is a good radio person who did a reasonably good talk show back in the day when he had time to actually do on-air work.
 
Gerry simply came into WDEL at a time when the afternoon was all conservative..Rush, Rick, and Hannity. They needed any voice of liberalism, no matter how grating it was on the ears. Now with Al Mascitti firmly in place, Rush and Hannity gone, Gerry is expendable.

I'd like to see the team of Al & Rick on the air at the same time. They need to keep each other's egos in check a bit. Plus, I think there could be some honest, intelligent debate between the two of them, and that would make for some excellent radio.
 
Don't forget the liable suit that Gerry got Delmarva Broadcasting hit with earlier this year (by Norman Oliver, was it?).
Anyone know if, or how, that case has been resolved? Perhaps Gerry's "departure" was a part of a settlement package.
 
WTUX, you remember a very different Bob Mercer talk show than I do. I didn't know him personally (you probably did as you used to work at WDEL), but he had a habit of accusing people of being paid liberal operatives who were hired by the DNC to call conservative talk shows to push the DNC agenda as he'd rant at the individual. I know, I was accused of this on the air one day during his show. I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about which only made him louder. I tried to tell him that I was a registered Independent and was conservative on some issues and liberal on others. That didn't sit well. What he wouldn't tell me was how to get on this so called payroll at the DNC so I could "cash" in. As a registered "Independent" though my guess is the DNC wouldn't be interested or the RNC for that matter. What made this really bad was that he continued to bash me for the remainder of his show. I apparently hit a nerve in a real bad way. This was over the top and uncalled for.

In fairness to Bob and the "rest of the story", I called him off air just after his show had gone off so that I could figure out what his problem was as I agreed with him on numerous issues and had good conversations with him on his show previously, but I didn't agree with him on whatever that issue was and his attack floored me, frankly. He apparently realized, after going off the air that he went over the top with me that day and apologized to me then and again on his show the next day. We all make mistakes. Bob seemed to have a difficult time discussing the issues with folks from "the other side" without getting a bit on his "high horse" ( a I can't believe you're that stupid attitude), which was unfortunate as he is a intelligent person and when he wasn't "worked up" would offer a solid arguement for his point of view making for an interesting talk show. Rush can get away with that sort of "high horse attitude", because he has a lot of humor in his approach it doesn't come across in an offensive way, where as Bob was a pretty serious type of person and that came across on his show making those types of "cuts to a person" feel more vindictive and would fit more of a "Joe Pyne" type show than what Bob was trying to do, in my opinion.

I did a talk show on Saturday nights for several years on WILM and what I decided to do from the first day was to realize that any caller I'd get could be the biggest idiot walking the face of the Earth, but they were entitled to their opinion. Discuss it with them, disagree with them, but don't talk down to them or insult them, or bad mouth them. If everyone who calls a talk show agrees with the host then it's a boring show where they all are patting each other on the back and saying "mega dittos". Rush's show is more interesting when he's got a liberal on the phone and they are both discussing the issue in an honest and frank way.
 
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