what you can't stand, TowerBuzz, is that people pay me for my opinion while your opinion is stifled with only
weakened...sorry, i meant to spell weekend - as you said, must be the keyboard - gigs with no stations banging down your door to give your opinion. VH1 reached out to me, BBC contacted me, not the other way around.
Since my opinion is valued around the Globe (and having been published in The Boston Globe...), well...we'll explain it for you in a way you can comprehend:
1)Severino lasted about 3.0 seconds on national TV. He looks like a reject from Dawn Of The Dead.
Face made for radio
2)It took him a very long time to "catch on" (if you want to call it that), they had him in the incubator pretty
much as long as DePetro got to try to find some kind of an audience. Yeah, he and Howie finally had a
ratings war. I give credit to Severin only for that. He used his foul mouth to give the bigger show a run
for its money, and top that show in some books and/or demographics if memory serves
BUT, as John Was5 pointed out, like Neanderpaul or that ex-WBCN jock you -ahem- mentioned, DePetro etc. old Severino won't go into the history books as a legendary voice of Boston radio. The biggest memory will be a mere footnote, some person from the 1990s early 00's was involved in some flap because he shot his mouth off. Ho hum.
All your posturing fails to turn blue into orange, alchemy is not your strong suit. Parenteau, Ken Shelton,
Charles, Matty in the Morning, Dale Dorman, Harvey Wharfield, these are legendary names. You keep
attacking Harv - basically, you can't. Just because you weren't around in the days when he ruled on KOX,
AAF as the Supreme Commander of the AAF Air Force or whatever, he struck the chord that you never did,
you force your opinion on this board without backing it up with the facts; facts that I like to give.
Harv hit #1 numerous times in the ratings and people remember his voice and his persona. You keep bringing
up the fact that Harv & I were associated - that was a long time ago. We also had vast disagreements -
I thought he should've taken the WZLX offer and stayed. That Chuck Nowlin has held the gig and played the game proves my point. Harv doesn't like radio politics, but he had a platform that Dale has, that Carr has,
and he should've put up with the "anti-christ" (Jerry Charm) and the "wicked witch" (Mike Harrison). It's part of the job. When Harrison got the axe the phone rang - Harv was on the line saying "the wicked witch is dead!" (When producer Jimmy Miller's wife died, Jo Jo Laine started humming "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" on the phone! Such a classic song). If the spectre of those Oedipus types is giving you an ulcer, it is time to move on. So I can't fault Harvey there. John Shomby was - in my opinion - a nice enough guy, but reactive. He was just holding on to his job for dear life and did nothing of value that I could see. I called him "John Zombie." He took orders from Charm, and Charm was one clueless individual. You can't blame Harv for not staying, and have to wonder why Charm and Shomby were so egotistical to let a star player go. It doesn't help ANY radio station to create their own competition. That's like RKO letting Carr walk to 96.9.
Chuck Nowlin is adequate, but it is trading sideways or trading down a bit so that you don't have conflict.
Nowlin is a good lieutenant. What he lacks in sizzle he makes up for in obedience. Roll over, Beg. But he's boring as all get out.
Oedipus is the perfect example of the Jerry Charm type dictatorship and its effect on hard-working radio personalities. Outside of the lap dog Oedipus had on the radio for awhile, most djs, advertising people and general staff were harassed by the P.D. on a daily basis. I know - MANY complained directly to me. Guess I became "Human Resources" for WBCN staff when people realized they could voice complaints and actually get heard and get some results! Hey, Varulven could actually get it to Mel Karmazin's desk.
HARV on CGY vs ZLX
I thought Boston proper was more valuable than Lawrence radio. Yes, he did have his freedom at WCGY and no one can put a price on the value of not living and working inside a dictatorship, yes the Sunday show was a huge plus, but we were not always on the same page and probably have differences today. That being said, Harv respects me as a writer, I respect him as a legend and on-air talent, and nothing you say can take that away from people when you toss it out into the cyberspace. People still know him. They never got to know Neanderpaul and your long reign on WBCN garnered you nothing except a paycheck. Certain jocks strike a chord with the community. There is no doubt that Howie Carr has a huge fan base, you just won't find them on this board. Severin doesn't have the newspaper column (what happened to his MSNBC blog?), the years of being entrenched in the community, and the following. You never got the following, Neanderpaul failed to connect, DePetro failed to connect, Feinburg will never connect. Got it yet? Wharfield, Dorman, Paula Street, Julie D., on a smaller level Carter Alan and Chuck Nowlin, they have been embraced by the community at some point.
Severin is not embraced. Severin is a non-factor. He doesn't matter in the long run. If he can get ratings now, if he can give Carr a run for his 800 large, they will utilize his services. Radio will have a big shake up,
when revolution sets in, Severin may be the odd man out. Carr has failed to show he can reinvent himself.
New, fresh voices are going to come in and really start pulling the numbers. Michael Graham is not one of those voices.
