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Jen Brien Officially Gets WBZ-1030 Overnight Show

katzradio said:
@wickedwritah on the conspiracy theory; you might have something there. Could be a move towards syndication...Grayson perhaps.

Isn't there some sort of union rule that prevents CBS Radio from going birdfeed for a full shift?
 
On a side note, in addition to Brien's "Mm-hmm" noise, does anyone get irritated by the excessive station ID'ing of "WBZ News Radio 1030" multiple times per hour? The way various reporters and hosts enunciate it, and that it's always stated verbatim at the close of every segment, is very annoying. Why not just say "This is WBZ" or "This is WBZ radio"? The longer ident just sounds very clunky and overwrought.
 
I just looked at her Twitter page. She doesn't tweet all that much ... the tweets she does make, I can barely read them. It's as if she doesn't know anything about spelling and grammar.
 
radiorama1 said:
I'd smoke a dooba with her.

From the sounds of her callers, I'd say that's what happened to most of them. ::)

I just looked at her Twitter page. She doesn't tweet all that much ... the tweets she does make, I can barely read them. It's as if she doesn't know anything about spelling and grammar.
Agreed. I can't believe she graduated from college.

Isn't there some sort of union rule that prevents CBS Radio from going birdfeed for a full shift?
I wouldn't think so. Grayson has 40+? affiliates (CBS) that syndicate his show.


BTW, as evidenced from this mornings' show, it is easily recognizable that she is a borderline feminist/man hater. As a guy, I am growing very weary of her constant digs/jabs at men being the cause of all the worlds problems and the cause of most problems in relationships.

Kinda explains why she is still single, lol. I don't know any man personally that would put up with her goofiness. :p
 
What was done to Bob?

BZ did an on-air talent suffle in the early 80's, and Raleigh (who, IIRC, was doing middays) was odd man out. Unfortunately for 'BZ, Raleigh's contract and union agreement required that he be paid a pretty good settlement based on his years of service. The only 'out' for 'BZ was to get Bob to quit. Bob wouldn't quit (I don't think he could have gotten another gig, his DJ style was from an era quickly passing) and since he was under contract, WBZ decided to embarrass him by having him come in every day and sit in the DJ lounge doing absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING. Those of us in the sales department were told that Bob was "unavailable" for voice work, even if clients requested him on the spot.

Those of us around at the time remember when they had him report to the top of the Hancock Tower with a pair of binoculars and phone in traffic reports, despite that fact that "Joe Green and his flying machine' had it covered and 'owned' the local traffic report market.

Then the overnight slot opened up, and they tossed Bob in there to burn off the rest of his deal. Bob was a natural, the show took off, and Bob became a regional figure. He owned the overnight for years, and I think he ended up cutting a better deal than he had as a music DJ.

It's usually forgotten, but WBZ had its share of absolutely terrible personnel mistakes...Dave Maynard is remembered for doing 12 shares in AMD, but people forget that WBZ had previously exiled him to the overnights hoping he'd jump, and he instead turned it into a cottage industry of cookbooks and cookware demos.

And the Brudnoy fiasco hardly needs to be recounted here.

Regards,
TSB
 
You are absolutely right Mr. Bench. Raleigh told me he had to much money in the pension system and he was going to hang in there as long as he could. But a lot of times BR was he own worst enemy, he thought he was a lot more talented then he was and managements attitude was BZ was bigger than any air talent. He had a hard time squeezing his massive ego into the studio and it was a rather big studio. He did what they told him but he wasn't what you would call a team player and they stuck it to him every time they could. I remember when CH 68 wanted him to host an afternoon movie show like the old dialing for dollars. For some reason he needed BZ's permission. BZ GM Bill Hartman said NO.

I do give him a lot of credit for not quitting and reinventing himself as a successful overnight host. Although, I thought it was really tacky when he would steal Lenos monologue and pass it off as his own.
 
Dave_C said:
Jen is "off" tonight and Bradley Jay is filling in. Was this a planned absence?

Yes, does any know this? I missed the sign on Friday so I didn't hear if anything was mentioned. I am wondering if we could possibly look forward to hearing Morgan White's voice at 12:07 AM Mon.?

;)
 
Any word on the street about the letter-writing to WBZ? I tuned in last night for a few minutes to see if Jen would obliquely refer to the complaints, if she knows about them. The way she talks to certain callers is also odd; her form of banter is strange.
 
I wondered if the letter writing/emails are having any effect as well. Hopefully...

When Morgan filled in the other morning, there were a ton of calle4rs who requested for the address to the station - that tells you something.

And, yes - Dave, I notice that her banter is "strange" as well. If she does know about the comments, she doesn't let on about them. I would think she would want to lay low & not draw any more attention to it than is already happening.

Surely BZ management is looking at all those neg. comments on her program page. About 95% or so negative - hilarious!
 
Regardless if the show is going well or not so far... and regardless if you like her or not... I don't wish unemployment on anyone who obviously wants to work. I'm sure she has worked very hard to get this gig. I am pulling for her.
 
radiorama1 said:
Regardless if the show is going well or not so far... and regardless if you like her or not... I don't wish unemployment on anyone who obviously wants to work. I'm sure she has worked very hard to get this gig. I am pulling for her.

I understand what you are saying about the unemployment aspect...but do you feel that way about every line of work? In other words, if a person is hired to do a job & cannot perform that job well or properly, you feel they should still be kept on board?

Not sure about that. That's as bad as keeping a ho-hum/do-nothing politician in office just because you don't want to see them lose their job & be out of work.

Is she (Jen) loses this gig, it will be because of her own doings/shortcomings. If you listen to the show, it is apparent that she is bull-headed & is not willing to listen to a thing that callers mention to her.

Read the comments on the WBZ page - If it were one or two complaints, that would be one issue, but this is an "across the board" thing; many,many listeners are upset, the quality of the show AND the quality of callers has seriously declined.

I tune in every night to listen if there is a fill-in host on board. If not, I will tune in & out throughout the night hoping to hear a familiar voice, a regular caller...but those are far & few between.

I certainly can't take a full five hr. show of this... ::)
 
I imagine the "WBZ page" means facebook; if it's the WBZ site they only list Bradley, Dan, Jordan, and Morgan as "host", no Jen. OK let's go to FB WBZ's page--a few comments saying they love her, one asking her to be on 5 nights a wk (from 2 months ago). Brian O'Connor writes that Jen should be terminated and he objects to anti-Brien posts being deleted. More pro-Jen comments. So, were there a bunch of negative comments that got deleted? If there was a screen shot of the negative comments...but from what I see, just that one from Brian O'Connor.

(That was under Comments From Others; I don't know if there were negative comments on the threads about news items, etc.)
 
Well, I think she is a breath of fresh air -- she makes me laugh -- and all the talk about Mom, the dogs, the deer, etc....are a refreshing change from what is normally found on overnight radio in any market. I go back a ways -- long john nebel and jean sheppard in NYC, Glick and Brudnoy in Boston....Doug MacIntyre.....Red Eye, Art Bell, etc.......Jen is different...and thats ok with me
 
Quite a few negative comments indeed though she does have some fans. Overnight radio is one reason I started subscribing to XM years ago...more choices. (Including rare times when breaking news happens then; the night of the
Japan tsunami I went back and forth between the audio of CNN and Fox News on my sat. radio)
 
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