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Has any Atlanta radio station ever been so screwed over like WGST?

F

Freebird Fantasia

Guest
You can really go back to the Planet Radio fiasco when the station manager at time fired all the key people and then went on maturity leave herself never to return. What a coward. (I recall a newspaper story about WGST becoming Planet Radio saying "The reporters who were fired were covering the Atlanta civil rights movement when the female station manager was a cheerleader in high school.")

Now, we have the latest insult to long-time listeners with Tom Hughes and company being dumped on and listeners being given canned sydicated hosts that no one cares about listening to.

What a disgrace this station is now. I hope Clear Channel is happy. If nothing else, they have perfected the model of how to destroy radio stations.
 
While I don't want to feed Freebird's Anti-Clear Channel Crusade. I really have to wonder if their ratings will even register. I don't even occasionally listen to him now like in the past. If there wasn't more listenable am's they would have lost their preset.
 
I think AM-1160 and AM-1690 are two that have been completly destroyed and now have no listeners, but then again it's AM. Sad because I'm a fan of the am band and for the most part nothing there to listen to.
 
DashRiprock said:
Did Clear Channel fire everyone and ruin GST/96/Buzz/Peach?
Yes.

Will it do anyone any good to keep complaining about it?
No.
Click to expand...

I think most of the "complaining" is about the misuse of the potential that was going for GST. CC had the money to really give WSB some competetion and give Atlanta some good radio. They did so in the early 90s, but then rolled over and played dead. That burns.

All that potential was wasted, and Atlanta radio has reached a level of mediocrity that deserves complaint. Maybe someone somewhere sometime will realize the potential and do something somehow, but it won't be CC.
 
>>>You can really go back to the Planet Radio fiasco when the station manager at time fired all the key people and then went on maturity leave herself never to return. What a coward.<<<

I guess you CAN blame the current state of WGST on 8 months of radio that happened back in 1997...but it would be absolutley ridiculous to do so!! HAHA! What about all of the BAD decisions that happened in the 9 years and 3 months after "Planet Radio"? Do they get a pass? What about the longstanding "good ol' boy" network protecting talent for YEARS AND YEARS that weren't performing?? I find it absolutely STUNNING that there are still actually people out there blaming Nancy Zintak for the current state of WGST...when she hasn't been there in almost a decade! HAHA! ....Laughable. ...Oh and by the way...it's called "Maternity Leave"...unless you're saying that she got so old that she had to take a vacation! :)


>>>>(I recall a newspaper story about WGST becoming Planet Radio saying "The reporters who were fired were covering the Atlanta civil rights movement when the female station manager was a cheerleader in high school.")<<<<

Big deal. That is a pointless statement. People who resort to low blows like the above are usually bitter, old losers who have been in the same radio station for years and never amounted to much. They get intimidated and want to look for someone to blame when they get fired or when that station changes direction, and it's very easy to gripe about younger management. Those reporters "WHO COVERED THE ATLANTA CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT" (whooptie doo) have all since found new jobs and are doing just fine, so get over it.


>>>>Now, we have the latest insult to long-time listeners with Tom Hughes and company being dumped on and listeners being given canned sydicated hosts that no one cares about listening to.<<<<


The REAL insult is that Tom Hughes was allowed to drive the station's ratings down for YEARS with his lack of effort and performance in the most crucial daypart of the radio station. He should have NEVER been brought back. It was a major step backwards. In the last 5 or 6 years he was there, Tom was never able to even come close with what the station was doing in morning drive previously, even under Planet Radio!! Sorry but that's a fact, and one that you won't read about too frequently here because Planet Radio makes for a convenient scapegoat..as you have made it with the opening line of your post.


>>>>What a disgrace this station is now.<<<

WGST actually sounds like a real radio station for the first time in YEARS. I'm not crazy about the WSJ show in AM Drive, but you have to admit that if you're going to resign yourself to getting a 1-share in morning drive, you might as well get it for free rather than paying Hughes big bucks for the same performance. And Dave Ramsey is the perfect and FREE counter-programming move against Hannity on WSB. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both WSJ and Ramsey pay WGST cash comp..so it makes it an even better move against the bottom line.

>>>I hope Clear Channel is happy. If nothing else, they have perfected the model of how to destroy radio stations. <<<<

Blah Blah Blah. Whah. Quit whining. CC, for the first time in 10 years, is actually fixing the mess left by the previous administrations.
 
Will it do anyone any good to keep complaining about it?
Click to expand...

While I doubt it would ever have the same effect for GST, the community in Madison, WI got CC to change their minds and continue airing Air America instead of flipping it to Fox Sports. So I wouldn't say they never listen to their listeners -- While they have the money, they don't have the smarts to compete with WSB for local programming. I think they've essentially written off the station and are simply letting it run on autopilot.
 
Reporters who covered the civil rights movement? Come on, I was there. The only WGST staff members who actually covered the civil rights movement, still around in Nancy Zintak's time were Tom Houck and Gene Blaine. Houck left before Planet Radio and Blaine retired. Most of the rest, such as Harry Beadle, Bill Edge and others were, like me, living elsewhere at the peak of the civil rights movement and were too young to have reported on it for radio. Certainly there were those of us who spent a lot of time with Andy Young, Daddy King, Hosea and many other patriarchs of the civil rights movement but that was long after the era of "colored waiting rooms," "white only" water fountains and other disgraceful treatment of African Americans.
 
The subtle, and horrible inference is that Nancy Zintak was some dumb little (WHITE) blonde cheerleader, who got all big and bad and fired all of those "ACE, award-winning, hard-hitting reporters who were there with tears in their eyes as Dr. King gave his speech on behalf of African Americans!!!"

The whole portrayal is as laughable as it is insidious and evil. Whoever said it sould be ashamed.
 
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