Great Voice of the Great Lakes Sinking Fast

[b344077]

Maybe it has something to do with the area's economic condition? Whether we like it or not, WJR must make fiscal contribution to whoever owns it and well, Detroit has seen better days.

Don't get me wrong, I also lament when I hear other stations, like KDKA, reduce themselves to nothing but glorified repeater stations.

I live in Chicago and we're fortunate that we still have WGN, WBBM and WSCR as mostly local stations.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

You can't put Humpty together again.

Management could have kept it together. But nobody can put it back together.

 

[zook]

The loss of David Newman was a big blow. Had he stayed healthy, I think JR would be a lot different today.

 

[Rusty Muck]

As a long time fan of WJR, I too am sadden by the demise of this once great station. However, I have a few different suggestions to get this thing rolling again.

First, dump Rush. He is old, tired and quite honestly I am sick of his bullying and not checking information before he shoots his mouth off. The phony-soldier thing was the last straw. Besides, the dittoheads lack the intelligence to know when they ae being lied to.

Second, Dump Hannity. Like the previous post, I agree he is a wind bag that puts his foot in his mouth every night and his followers should not wait for the mailperson to deliver their invitations to join mensa.

Third, All programming should be local. Look at WGN in Chicago for an example of how a real full-service radio station should operate.

JR still has the opportunity to pull it out but it will take some courage by management, which I don't think they have.

Well, now that GM Mike Feezey is leaving to take a job at Huntington Bank, it won't get any better. In fact, considering that Phil Boyce (former WABC PD), Mickey Luckoff (former KGO-AM GM) and Feezey have all bailed recently, that's crippling for the former ABC station group.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The loss of David Newman was a big blow. Had he stayed healthy, I think JR would be a lot different today.

I'd say the same thing about losing both the Tigers and Red Wings PBP to WXYT/1270.

 

[umfan]

"Third, All programming should be local."

Why? In the true 'Golden Age' of Radio, programs like 'The Shadow', 'Lone Ranger' and 'Amos & Andy' were network programs. Should audiences in all but one market been deprived of these gems? What about network news content? Why have multiple markets repeat the same thing when it can be broadcast from a single location?

WJR is local in the key dayparts and clears syndicated content with a HUGE following during midday. The audience that followed JP, a great man and great radio host, is not nearly as large as it once was.

WJR has a LOT of local content. There is no problem with syndicated content either.

As to losing the sports, Mr. Illitch frankly wanted too much money and CBS foolishly paid it. This was a losing proposition for them until they moved the product to FM. I don't blame ABC for not paying the prices that were sought in 1999. It would've been a bad business decision.

 

[umfan]

WJR's President, Mike Fezzy has retired to take a job with Huntington Bank. Don't know if this means changes will be coming to WJR.

Fezzy should do well at Huntington, with weak competitiors like Fifth Third in the market who has a horribly incompetent staffs, particularly in commercial lending, the company is ripe to steal a lot of business from them.

 

[MattParker]

I don't think comparing "golden age" radio to today is valid. Radio was a different medium then, more like TV is now (except without pictures). Of course, when George W. Trendle bought WXYZ, he immediately dropped CBS and went all local. Some of his shows were so good, he started feeding them to the networks.

Still I think there is a place for satellite-delivered programs on smaller stations that lack the resources to program effectively themselves.

But it is shameful for a 50kw class A AM station to have most of its schedule off the bird. Stations like WJR, WLW, WGN and others were at their most effective and most successful when they were local (but sounded network). In their desire to cut costs, they destroyed what made these stations "must hear" radio in their markets and highly profitable.

 

[umfan]

The comparison was to the very questionable assertion that syndicated content has no place in radio. The stations you cite are in much larger markets where there are more stations to clear the syndicated content that has proven its popularity with audiences.

In WJR's case they have an opportunity to groom new local content for the spot vacated by Dr. Laura. A problem may be a lack of talent. It's the chicken and egg scenario. There are no local available talents like David Newman or Kevin Joyce but then opportunities for that talent to develop are few and far between. As I also noted, WJR has a great deal of local content. Some of it is even syndicated to other markets, an example being the C.A.R. show.

"they destroyed what made these stations "must hear" radio in their markets and highly profitable."

Frankly, that talent died, specifically JP and David Newman. JP they replaced with locally generated content. Paul W is not bad at all, but JP was one in a million. The audience for such middle of the road content has dissipated as well. The nation is polarized so it's logical that radio audiences are too. The economics have also changed. If I were to pick one time slot that WJR should make an attempt to take local I would advocate moving Mark Levin to the later slot previously occupied by Dr. Laura and trying to develop a local talker from 8-11 PM.