HAPPY TRAILS FOR MORGAN BOHANNON......

[johnqdoe]

Isn't Toulas the CC "mid-major" czar?
This kind of thing has a LOT to do with these groups failing, IMO. Instead of simply hiring good people at a local level and letting them do their jobs, CC likes to skimp on local stuff, and give plum, 6 figure jobs to guys to be VP of this or that region and this or that format. They travel around, moniter the station and tell you to..."tighten the playlist, play the hits, keep the breaks short and concise". Really. YOu mean if you play the hits, you'll get ratings??? These guys are changed out every 12 months or so with the latest "Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" deal when upper mgmt changes. I'd bet those contracts are written to include a lil more than the CC standard of 3 months severance. There seems to be alil more dead weight at the top than the bottom. But why cut 1 suit makin 150K when you can cut 5 locals making 30k???

 

[johnqdoe]

Morgan is only the beginning. Tool Ass (toulas) has taken over the market and you can already see the cost cutting with the Raleigh morning show "Showgram".

Is MsBBT really an insider? If she/he/it were you would think they would know that George Toulas is not over Charlotte and had nothing to do with Mr Bohannon's departure.

ever heard of Greensboro???

 

[MsBBT]

Toulas (tool ass) is overseeing Greensboro. I think Schurr oversees Charlotte.
They changed the regional in Greensboro, it was Dave Crowl. They don't change regionals if things are hunky dory.
The point being things are not good here.
I was just trying to be informative.

 

[dittohead1]

Things are not good ANYWHERE and we are all aware that things are significantly WORSE at CC. I feel for all the people there (lots of great talents), but we have all been in "not good" situations. Sadly, for them, it's not going to get any better any time soon.

 

[MaskMan]

Allow me to draw a humorous, yet fairly accurate picture of the three CC managers being discussed...

If (hypothetically) there were a large explosion and the only standing CC employee was a CC Mkt Manager, here's how I see their priorites:

Dick Harlow: Saving every other life in the building regardless of the loss of corporate information / $$ / etc.

Kim Pyle: Though feeling VERY torn, saving the corporate info, $$, etc. then heading to Butlers for a cocktail.

Bohannon: Using injured employees as a human shield to get the corp info, $$ and his golf clubs out of the building. Stopping only to see if there were any wallets laying around with extra cash in them.

Ha-ha-ha! Lots of truth in them thar words! Spoken by someone who obviously knows or at least worked with all three! ;D Bohannon would have sold his own Mother down the river to keep corporate happy.

 

[MaskMan]

I thank MsBB&T for her insight and welcome her to the board. I also feel for the employees of CC GSO. Yes, they are at the mercy of CC Corporate and must deal every day with the hand they are dealt. That is one sad, sick environment, but hey, a paycheck IS a paycheck. And yes, it's not going to get better for those employees anytime soon.
As for JohnQDoe's assessment of why cut 1 suit making $150k when you can cut 5 locals making $30k - I would have to say that has been CC's plan all along! They fully intended to cut out MOST of the salespeople and MOST of the on-air staff, leaving the Managers to run the company by switches and computers. That's always been the grand scheme! What a noble quest it is! Anyone working there who can't see that by now is just kidding themselves.

 

[eyewitness news]

since the beginning of consolidation the mindset at CC has been "volumn". Owning a ton a stations, dominating markets and delivering sheer tonage of ratings. Sadly for the industry they became the largest and had some initial success with these tactics.

Of course we can see those tactics failing everywhere now, but like turning an aircraft carrier, CC is not able to adjust tactics and with owners now who are not broadcasters, I'm sure that is not even a priority. CC has become so infatuated with economy of scale that they can't see the forest. Good, local, entertaining radio will still win out over time, and who knows...new companies may emerge very soon that can grab stations and return to more sensible tactics and goals.

CC employees who hang on and keep their heads up could benefit in the not to distant future. There will be room for talented folks again in the future..and that is not a pipedream.

I know of one company already that has begun buying stations and is operating in more traditional way, and these are not small markets. They are already making moves like eliminating voice tracking and staffing their stations will full live local jocks. Let's hope others see this and start thinking the same way.

 

[iamdrunk]

I know of one company already that has begun buying stations and is operating in more traditional way, and these are not small markets. They are already making moves like eliminating voice tracking and staffing their stations will full live local jocks. Let's hope others see this and start thinking the same way.

Care to inform some of the unemployed here who and where this company is? lol.

 

[johnqdoe]

I know of one company already that has begun buying stations and is operating in more traditional way, and these are not small markets. They are already making moves like eliminating voice tracking and staffing their stations will full live local jocks. Let's hope others see this and start thinking the same way.

Care to inform some of the unemployed here who and where this company is? lol.

I was thinking the same thing. I reallllly doubt there will be a huge number of jobs opening back up. CC and Cumulus will have to sell off stations.That's no secret. CC already did that with the small markets. Gap Broadcassting bought ema nd guess what.....They're lucky to have more than 1 live daypart. VTs from all over, Syndication from all over, etc etc. I think there WILL be more jobs this time next year...but the days of full news staffs and 24/7 live jocks are gone forever

 

[Sniffthamic]

I doubt that. We will rebuild this bidneh. We'll make it better. Stronger. and better~! Ahhhh, but seriously folks. Is this thing on? When we have the CC and the likes selling off lots of sticks, we have new blood. In 3 years, there WILL be live dayparts and news and all and everybody better look out! Write it down and write down when you read it. I've never been wrong. BOO-YA! Copy this to your browsers favorites or bookamarks now! BOO YA!!!!!!!!!! 8) :-*

 

[mediaspeaks]

I now remember why I quit posting on these boards.......

 

[quadraphonic]

But you came back! ;D

 

[Hourly]

Odd time for Mr. Harlow to go on a long vacation.....

 

[dittohead1]

Before we congratulate MsBBT too much, let's not forget the cheap shot she took at Mr. Satterfield and Ms. Ward, who are just trying to get along the best they can. MsBBT is no hero.

 

[MaskMan]

I happen to know Mr. Satterfield and . . . well, my Grandma used to say "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything." :-X

 

[eyewitness news]

A lot of hand-wringing and empathy for the CC GSO folks, but let's consider this:
Clear channel clusters around the country are not all in the toilet, ratings and revenue wise.

So perhaps, what CC GSO needs is a fresh group of people, who can actually operate in that environment.

Rather than a building full of people who are, according to a lot of these posts... very talented and just trying to get along and collect a paycheck.

Are we saying that CC GSO is worse, in terms of what employees face than other CC clusters?

How is it that other CC clusters have winning stations?

It's worth considering that Mr. Satterfield is not up to the task, given the performance of his stations over the past years. That is not a personal attack, but a statement of his track record.

Is it likely that the entire reason the CC GSO stations are floundering is the CC work environment? I find that highly unlikely.

I think it is also unlikely that every dumb move that CC GSO has made in the past few years was forced on them by corporate. Plenty of blame to go around, I think.

It's always easy to blame corporate and in many cases corporate does meddle and cause problems, but this notion put forth on this board that the building is full of highly talented people, who are just caught in some meat grinder is a little hard to stomach.

Every work environment has it's challenges, yet others do succeed.

 

[johnqdoe]

Compared to other CC properties, GSO isn't a bad place to work. Well it wasn't before the corporate slashing began. Morgan's "country club" kinda pissed some folks off that weren't in it...but lots of that dead weight was weeded out a few years back. Salespeople get frustrated with new managers and restructuring every 12 or so months. "Are we selling the whole cluster?? OR are we back to selling only 1 station??? What is it this week?". The CC mandate to hire 50 salespeople or whatever it was a couple years ago was a turkey. On the programming side, Satterfield's a good guy...but he's stretched waaaay too thin. He's also much too conservative on the music. You know why WVBZ FINALLLLY has some balls??? Cause it was shoved down by corporate. Maybe it wasn't "change formats NOW!"..but they cut the budget so much, they HAD to get the CC content. The Buzzard should've been much more active all along. WTQR simply hasn't been the same since Paul died. On air or in the halls. I've never seen a staff so dedicated and loyal to a PD...and rightfully so. He treated you with respect and let you do your job. Basically, the cluster fell off when they started stretching folks between CLT and GSO. It used to be a great place to work. Now it's a ghost town in the halls and simply not a fun place to be.

 

[FIDELIPACK]

There have been something like six or seven different market managers at CCGSO in this decade. No operation can weather through that kind of change unscathed. If you stand back from the cluster with two heritage stations and three more FMs you would have to think it would take some real effort to f--k that up. But man did they ever. I am no Entercom fan but they sure took CCGSO to the woodshed over the last three years. I don't see that cluster ever coming back to its former glory.

Now head east and look what CCRDU did to WTRG, WRDU and WRSN. Eight or nine years ago they were all near the top of the market in sales and ratings. Today only G105 can claim that. What the hell is wrong with these people? It sure ain't the employees.

 

[dittohead1]

What the hell is wrong with these people? It sure ain't the employees.

I'll take management for $1,000, Alex. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Pencola is good. If they gave him a decent partner and maybe a producer, he could make a run at 2 Gays named Chris.

But, they'll probably half-ass it and make him the scapegoat when they get no numbers.

 

[MaskMan]

Compared to other CC properties, GSO isn't a bad place to work. Well it wasn't before the corporate slashing began. Morgan's "country club" kinda pissed some folks off that weren't in it...but lots of that dead weight was weeded out a few years back. Salespeople get frustrated with new managers and restructuring every 12 or so months. "Are we selling the whole cluster?? OR are we back to selling only 1 station??? What is it this week?". The CC mandate to hire 50 salespeople or whatever it was a couple years ago was a turkey. On the programming side, Satterfield's a good guy...but he's stretched waaaay too thin. He's also much too conservative on the music. You know why WVBZ FINALLLLY has some balls??? Cause it was shoved down by corporate. Maybe it wasn't "change formats NOW!"..but they cut the budget so much, they HAD to get the CC content. The Buzzard should've been much more active all along. WTQR simply hasn't been the same since Paul died. On air or in the halls. I've never seen a staff so dedicated and loyal to a PD...and rightfully so. He treated you with respect and let you do your job. Basically, the cluster fell off when they started stretching folks between CLT and GSO. It used to be a great place to work. Now it's a ghost town in the halls and simply not a fun place to be.

Let me get this straight . . . you're saying the loss of some of their top sales talent and other support staff to other stations, groups, and ad agencies was "weeding out dead weight"??!!! Many of those people are now thriving at other stations and area ad agencies and are part of the reason for CC's downfall. Sounds like you might have been part of the "country club" that lead to the cultural demise of some of those great stations. The "dead weight" you're referring to was part of what made those stations great in the first place! Now that the "dead weight" is gone, you have a "ghost town in the halls and simply not a fun place to be"? Certainly, the death of Paul was horrific and a big blow to WTQR, but the gradual decline of morale had more to do with poor management than the loss of a single employee. Also, most of the "dead weight" you mention being weeded out left of their own accord. Not exactly "weeded out"! I might also add that many of the people who left found it gut-wrenching to leave stations that they were part of building in the first place, but could no longer stand to watch being systematically ruined. When many of those people left, they took the long-term relationships they had built with advertisers with them not to mention the knowledge and history that left the building.