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Just Marti in the morning?

Anyone notice that it just seems that Marti is going solo on WFKL? Ace is missing from the website. Wonder what it means.
 
Just in case you're not being sarcastic and honestly don't know ... George was let go late last week.
 
Just in case you're not being sarcastic and honestly don't know ... George was let go late last week.


Nope, not being sarcastic. I just happened to be listening this morning and noticed that Marti was just calling it Marti in the morning. I am surprised I haven't seen anything about it before on this site. There have been mentions of rumors of changes at the station.
 
Could it be that we are witnessing a trend here? What I mean is the elimination of morning teams to just one person as a way for stations to save money?

No more Tony and Dee and now Ace and Marti. What's next, Beth without Chet; Just Spezzano in mornings. How about the teams at WBEE and the Buzz?

While broadcasting would never win any awards in the category of job stability, it has to be tough going to work every day wondering when the guillotine is going to chop your neck off.
 
The way the CC axe has been wielded lately it wouldn't surprise me to see either Chet or Beth shown the door. I hope it's not true but ...
 
qman said:
The way the CC axe has been wielded lately it wouldn't surprise me to see either Chet or Beth shown the door. I hope it's not true but ...

One would think that if that were the case it would have happened this week when Clear Channel fired Bill Lowe, Barry Vee, and a few others. Yet I would not be surprised if more layoffs take place, not just at Clear Channel, but other media organizations this coming year.
As for the suggestion of eliminating morning teams down to just one announcer or perhaps two would not come as a shock either.
The days of paying six-figure salaries for announcers is over my friends. The way things are going it would not surprise me that radio stations in the future will depend solely on part-timers, retirees, and people willing to work for minimum wage. And let's not forget voice-tracking, syndication and automation.
 
Chet without Beth would be messing with a veritable institution, but the precedent was set with Tony without Dee.

As for me, I'm hoping for "Lonsberry without Lonsberry"... ;D
 
As for me, I'm hoping for "Lonsberry without Lonsberry"
Not a bad idea.

As for Marti without Ace, at this point in time, does it make any sense at all to continue to pursue radio as a full time career, unless you're established big time in a particular market? Unless you're Larry Norton or Wease or a few of our regular posters here who are established in radio ownership or public radio, I don't see the practicality of it in the least. I believe Ace came here about 4-5 years ago from California. Now he's out. Tom Tiberi worked for countless years at 97 Rock and now he's out. Dee Alexander - a major morning player here in Rochester - now she's out at Warm and doing what - traffic reports or something for Entercom? Radio was never the most stable of career options, but people who loved it were willing to put up with the risks. I'm sure there are a lot radio people looking at new career options right now. Even if the radio industry comes to it's senses someday and returns to more emphasis on live & local, who'd going to be left?
 
As someone who started down the broadcasting career path and then made a hard right turn into something else right after Freshman Year in college, I must say that there are times I wish I'd tried harder for a career on the air...

...but this isn't one of those times.
 
umtrr-author said:
As someone who started down the broadcasting career path and then made a hard right turn into something else right after Freshman Year in college, I must say that there are times I wish I'd tried harder for a career on the air...

...but this isn't one of those times.

My wife, children, and close friends told me the best professional decision I ever made was to get out of radio back in 2004.

At first I thought they were wrong. But after seeing what has happened not only recently, but over the past few years, I have to agree that changing careers was a good idea after all.

I shutter to think what might have happened had I stayed where I was.
 
It's not radio

Are you kidding? Clear Channel let like 14 people go in Rochester...mostly to pay for Wease...and you guys blame radio ! Xerox is letting like 275 people in Rochester go. Do you think young people are saying...I don't want to work in copiers or radio. Young people are afraid there won't be any jobs. What about banking or newspaper.

Bank of America is letting like10,000 people go. Gannett has been cutting back and is making people take unpaid leave. I have a friend in computer biz...same thing. Yahoo and Inte just announced layoffs.

It's not radio...it's the economy,stupid. (to quote the Bill Clinton campaign). I'm not a fan of Clear channel, but let's be fair here, all businesses are cutting back or closing...

Blame the republicans, not the radio industry.
 
Re: It's not radio

bobn said:
Clear Channel let like 14 people go in Rochester...mostly to pay for Wease...and you guys blame radio !

Blame the republicans, not the radio industry.

If you think the Rochester CC riffs were done solely to pay for Wease - you're sadly mistaken. In case you missed it, CC cut 9% of its staff NATIONWIDE.

And if you truly believe the current economic crisis can be solely blamed on the Republicans - you're sadly misguided. 'Nuff said.
 
I suspect if this thread continues down it's new path chosen by bobn it will end up in the sin bin. With that in mind I'm wondering how the Republicans are to blame for what's happening in NY where the Ds control everything but conservative radio and the Ds are working on that. Maybe it depends on what one's definition of is, is. (another Bill Clinton reference)
 
I know people are losing their jobs in other industries. Eventually, the economy will rebound and many big companies may start hiring again or new companies in those industries will spring up. On-air radio jobs are drying up and will continue to dry up. They started drying up in the 90s with voicetracking automation, consolidation, etc. A PD of mine warned me around 10 years ago that this would happen: "as I say, it will happen very gradually till there's only a few very important on-air people in each market." The current economic mess is just accelerating the process. If you wanna keep your radio gig, nobody's stopping you. But a friendly warning from someone who found out the hard way -- make plans for the future or...you'll be sorry.

Blame the republicans, not the radio industry.
I don't blame republicans, though I'm an Obama democrat. If Jerry Ford, Ronald Reagan or Bush the elder were in charge the last 8 years, we wouldn't be in this mess. My problem was with the 2 guys who just left office.

I suspect if this thread continues down it's new path chosen by bobn it will end up in the sin bin. With that in mind I'm wondering how the Republicans are to blame for what's happening in NY where the Ds control everything but conservative radio and the Ds are working on that. Maybe it depends on what one's definition of is, is. (another Bill Clinton reference)
D's have controlled everything in NYS since the start of this month. We've had republicans in office, we've had democrats in office, things in NYS always suck. On the bright side, we never suffer the shock of going into a recession as badly as our fellow americans in other states. We're always in a recession, so it's often hard to tell the difference.
 
The Telecom Act was signed into law by William Jefferson Clinton. Years later, when the devastation began to rear it's ugly head, Clinton, one of the smartest wonks on the planet, was quoted as saying, "When I signed that bill, I sincerely believed is would affect only the cell phone industry." This moderate democrat says, "Balderdash!"

Clear Channel is up to its toupee in refinanced debt; I suspect whatever happens in Rochester is the result of decisions made at CC home office in Texas. Wease has little to do with the immediate decision. However, this being said, having a guy with a hefty six figure contract on your staff might not give you a sense of security if you're pulling down 36G's doing production for three stations and voice tracking a shift. The larger salary is going to be protected because it's tied to a contract that's probably airtight, especially if the contract was drafted by Bob Eatman. Wease isn't the cause, nor is he the catalyst, but he may be a very small part of the equation by virtue of the scenario I described.
 
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