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iHeartMedia FIRES Steve Sommers of 700WLW's America's Truckin' Network

RadioKid

RadioKid

Link to the story here: https://www.wvxu.org/post/steve-sommers-out-wlws-overnight-americas-truckin-network-host

After his show ended this morning, Steve Sommers was let go by iHeartMedia. Details are scarce as of this writing. We have no clue who will be doing the show on Sunday night at Midnight if there even IS a live weekday 12AM to 5AM show on the Big One anymore.

Do you think that Steve was another casaulty of the iHeartMedia budget cuts or is this tied to him being forced off of talking about politics a few months ago? I noticed that he was doing a lot of coverage of the election situation earlier this week...
 
RadioKid said:
Link to the story here: https://www.wvxu.org/post/steve-sommers-out-wlws-overnight-americas-truckin-network-host

After his show ended this morning, Steve Sommers was let go by iHeartMedia. Details are scarce as of this writing. We have no clue who will be doing the show on Sunday night at Midnight if there even IS a live weekday 12AM to 5AM show on the Big One anymore.

Do you think that Steve was another casaulty of the iHeartMedia budget cuts or is this tied to him being forced off of talking about politics a few months ago? I noticed that he was doing a lot of coverage of the election situation earlier this week...
Click to expand...

Good question. Who replaces him? Dave the weekend guy?
 
I'm not sure if this ends the show (it wouldn't be surprising...I can't think truckers are listening like they used to, with SiriusXM having a trucker channel, not to mention if sales are still there.

If this is the end, then what goes in the all-night slot. Moving Coast to Coast from WKRC? RedEye? Reruns of daytime talk shows?














TheBigA said:
That seems likely. The website still lists "ATN" in the time slot. So it probably will be Dave.
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gr8oldies said:
If this is the end, then what goes in the all-night slot. Moving Coast to Coast from WKRC? RedEye? Reruns of daytime talk shows?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't think so. This IS in fact WLW and they've really sought to keep this crown jewel live & local 24/7. So it appears that the station owns the show name, because it's still on the web site, and I guess they could make the weekend host Dave Martin permanent. There are becoming fewer syndicated options for this time period because there are limited funding options.

You mentioned SiriusXM, and it's possible we might begin to see a closer relationship between them and iHeart.
 
CTListener said:
So are we talking about budget cutting here, or were both hosts insisting on promoting their political views on air despite orders from top brass not to do so?
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Honestly, it's likely a mix of column a and column b.

There were definitely budget cuts within the company. Many iHeartMedia markets beyond Cincinnati fired talents this week. Columbus's Joel Riley (WTVN) comes to mind as he was let go on Monday. I've even heard that a salesperson and another FM talent were let go today, but I can't find any public verification on that.

However, Steve being told to not be so political on his trucking show was a likely a serious warning that was ultimately ignored only a few months later. If you listen to the shows that he was doing earlier this week, they were as political as they've ever been. It might have been easier for the company to pick him as one of the talents to cut loose after he stirred up controversy with the politics earlier this year. That's just baseless speculation on my part, though.
 
Sounds like Sterling is going to fill in on the overnight tonight. He made reference to the fact that he was there instead of ATN.
 
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So, did Sterling go until the usual 5AM stopping point today? I saw that he started at 9PM on Friday and was calling it a "Marathon Show".

That's a LONG shift to do at such a late hour.
 
gr8oldies said:
Dan Carroll filling in live tonight (Sunday morning).
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He's been frankly discussing what's happened. Admitted that America's Truckin' Network has been permanently discontinued and that the decision was made on a corporate level. Said he had respect for Steve and Bozo based on having worked with both of them in the past. Has no clue what the future of the morning time slot will look like beyond this upcoming week.

Lot of questions to be answered for the long-term. I wonder if 12AM to 5AM will be the same as 9PM to Midnight in that it'll just be a series of interchangeable hosts brought in a on a semi-regular basis for variety and to avoid paying any one host a full-time salary. I doubt any one host or show will be replacing ATN.
 
RadioKid said:
Link to the story here: https://www.wvxu.org/post/steve-sommers-out-wlws-overnight-americas-truckin-network-host

After his show ended this morning, Steve Sommers was let go by iHeartMedia. Details are scarce as of this writing. We have no clue who will be doing the show on Sunday night at Midnight if there even IS a live weekday 12AM to 5AM show on the Big One anymore.

Do you think that Steve was another casaulty of the iHeartMedia budget cuts or is this tied to him being forced off of talking about politics a few months ago? I noticed that he was doing a lot of coverage of the election situation earlier this week...
Click to expand...

Looks like Motorkote is pulling their sponsorship of ATN in response to Steve's firing.

https://motorkote.com/blogs/news/motorkote-suspending-iheartradio-wlw-relationship
 
Imlivinontheair said:
Looks like Motorkote is pulling their sponsorship of ATN in response to Steve's firing.

https://motorkote.com/blogs/news/motorkote-suspending-iheartradio-wlw-relationship
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Doesn't look like iHeartMedia seems to care about that one lick. Haven't heard a whit about losing that sponsorship from anyone related to the radio station. Not even Bubba Bo. The company must have decided that it was financially worth replacing Steve Sommers and his (presumably high) salary with a much less expensive option like Dan Carroll even with the loss of some of their more overt trucking sponsors.

On today's broadcast, Dan was asking his audience what they should call the show so it sounds like he'll be "the guy" in that time slot for the foreseeable future.
 
TheBigA said:
The website has been updated to reflect that.
Click to expand...

The website also has him listed doing it every night of the week except for Monday where ATN is still listed as one of their shows. I'm assuming that'll change at some point. You can't expect one man to work a five hour radio shift 365 nights a year.

Also, just checked on his Twitter. The show sounds like it'll be called "Early Morning Outpost". Not sure how I feel about that one.
 
Why does that remind me of the 2-part WKRP in Cincinnati episode where Johnny leaves, then comes back and fills overnights as "Heavy Early"


RadioKid said:
The website also has him listed doing it every night of the week except for Monday where ATN is still listed as one of their shows. I'm assuming that'll change at some point. You can't expect one man to work a five hour radio shift 365 nights a year.

Also, just checked on his Twitter. The show sounds like it'll be called "Early Morning Outpost". Not sure how I feel about that one.
Click to expand...
 
Is/was Bubba Bo still connected with iHeart? I remember many years ago when iHeart furloughed Bubba Bo and decided to run a rerun of ATN on weekends. One of the advertisers stepped up and offered to cover Bubba's pay to keep the show live on weekends.



RadioKid said:
Doesn't look like iHeartMedia seems to care about that one lick. Haven't heard a whit about losing that sponsorship from anyone related to the radio station. Not even Bubba Bo. The company must have decided that it was financially worth replacing Steve Sommers and his (presumably high) salary with a much less expensive option like Dan Carroll even with the loss of some of their more overt trucking sponsors.

On today's broadcast, Dan was asking his audience what they should call the show so it sounds like he'll be "the guy" in that time slot for the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...
 
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