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Kelly West and Bobby Quinn Fired from WARM 103 today

Ask any credible media broker and they will tell you that the multiples in today's depressed economy is 3 to 5 times annual cash flow. If the cluster is cash flowing 1 mil, then it's worth 5m max. These properties were all purchased when multiples were 10 to 12 sometimes 15 times cash flow. So nobody in their right mind would pay more than 5 times right now and even if they wanted to, where is the financing coming from?
 
Well, for starters, if Cumulus/York were to be purchased by someone with some $$$$$ (perhaps me and a couple friends with deep pockets), here is what needs to be done immediately.

1. Return the workplace to a more stable work environment. That would be accomplished by taking the following measures:

Fire the Market Mgr----this Todd guy might be a good guy as some have said on threads but he has allowed morale to drop to an all time low.
Ultimately, the responsibility is his. He can't blame corporate for everything that has happened there on his watch.

Fire Bobby D-Lancaster aside, his ratings record with WSOX in York has been horrendous since his arrival. He hasn't come close to competing with 98.5 the Peak. And there is no reason to believe that's going to change anytime soon. And how is he rewarded for this effort? He's given WARM. What? So he can make WARM a vanilla station like he has SOX? They're laughing at the Rose. Another bad decision by Todd. Again, a more stable workplace is needed. Bobby D and his manipulative girl friend are not the answer. Mornings are a joke right now. Pleasant voice but absolutely no personality. What was he thinking? Where's the sparkle?

Make Jim Horn the Ops Mgr over all 4 stations until new programmers are found for the FM properties. He's been there a long time and that move alone would calm down long time advertisers, who by now have got to be asking "What the hell are they doing?"

2. Evaluate the formats. SOX needs to grow some balls to be competitive with the Peak. Ever hear of AC/DC? How about that Led Zeppelin? Or perhaps Donny Iris---Ah Leah? WARM probably needs an entire identity change. Too much baggage exists with the name at this point. WARM and Kelly West are forever tied at the hip. Star 103.3 anybody (if you stay in the A/C arena?) I have been advocating a flip to CHR for awhile. The Rose's street effort will ultimately win the at work battle in York as it has in Lancaster. Count on it. By next year at this time at the latest.

3. Just sell baby. It's a new day. It's ok to smile. Happier days are coming. The black clouds are gone. Hire some happy sales people and let them loose. Give them opportunity to make gobs of money.

4. Market & promote. But not one dime should be spent until the programming is in order.

Now, I need to make some phone calls......
 
Seltzer, things take time to come around. They don't happen overnight. As for your comments about Traci, you don't really know anything about her do you? Manipulative isn't a word I'd use to describe Traci. Passionate is. Do you really think that she only got where she is because of who she knows? If anything, Traci has had to prove herself that much more because of the people she knows. I worked with her in Albany and she's got one of the biggest hearts and is one of the hardest working people I've ever met. Traci was always the one willing to step up and help out when no one else wanted to. Always the one working long hard hours and still holding a top rated show. So it sounds to me like maybe you think she's manipulative because she steps up while others sit behind doing half assed jobs and then get pissed when their ratings aren't good. Maybe if other people stepped up like she does, there wouldn't be so much hate and all of our stations would do a little better. We all need to start getting our hands dirty again and stop thinking that we can just sit back and get by on our names. It's the only way this business will survive.

Matt
 
Ok Matt. I'll take your word for it. You worked with her. And perhaps I'm being unfair to her. If what you say is true, then she will go far.

Let's see how she does. Lots of people are passionate. But being passionate doesn't mean you're always right. Doesn't mean others don't work hard

as well. Doesn't mean other people don't have things to contribute. Doesn't mean your opinion or take on things is the final word. People do change

Matt, and perhaps Traci isn't as you remember her. How long ago was Albany? Let's just say others who have worked with her haven't had the same

experience. It's the "job behind the job" co workers don't appreciate. But one could say this change has more to do with who she spends her time

with. Hang with the devil long enough and you'll begin acting like the devil. We do agree on one thing; people can't expect to get by on their name

as the person Traci has replaced probably knows now. She supposedly had left many people over the years in the dust as well. I will stand by my

previous post though. Nice voice. But that's it.
 
Seltzer said:
Make Jim Horn the Ops Mgr over all 4 stations until new programmers are found for the FM properties.

You do realize that he is a major component of what has brought WSBA down to a realistically non-existent level. He not only sounds old he thinks old too, and tries too hard to be hip to attarct the younger listeners he claims listen to the station, when they're actually tuned into music and FM/Satellite formats. He's so overblown that he is regularly laughed about by staff behind his back.
 
Check out this morning's York Daily Record....or log on to www.ydr.com and read the comments from WARM general manager Todd Toerper. He states that WARM is going back to it's mentality of 26 years ago....SOFT ROCK, LESS TALK, with even more music in the morning. If this worked 26 years ago....could it still work today? Alot has changed since then. I think this is more of a case of reducing costs.....which is not a bad thing. If you don't have the cash flow, you've got to find a way to make it work with what you've got. This should put any speculation about the future of WARM to rest.....for now.
 
Todd Terper has no clue. Soft Rock....Less Content equals bland dull radio. But check around, with the exception of the morning show, the same can be said for SOX. What's the common factor? The PD, of course. And doesn't take a whole lot of work or creativity. John O'Dea....Help...York needs you badly.

Back to TT (that's Todd Toerper, not Tracey Taylor) To think what worked 26 years ago will work today shows even more why this guy is clueless.

Oh Gen. Mgr. at Cumulus Harrisburg........Help......York apparently needs you badly too.

On second thought, stay where you were. This is going to be fun to watch.
 
Let me see if I have this correctly. Todd Toerper states from the York Daily Record (9/30/09) that "the station is bringing back the mentality it started 26 years ago...soft rock and less talk." What was the 'team' on the air in morning drive back in the '80s? Kelly West and Rick Sten. Yet, TT wants to bring back that mentality? This is nothing more that a budget-cutting move by Cumulus Media, just as the previous moves pulled by Clear Channel. Toerper is as clueless as a bull in a China shop. He was a former account executive who does not comprehend radio programming. Toerper and Cumulus didn't want to pay the higher salaries and benefits. Therefore, they will have one person doing the work of two. Sounds like Clear Channel philosophy to me.

As for a previous comment, Jim Horn is not the answer to program this station or any other for that matter. He and a previous GM ruined WSBA and what it meant to the greater York listening area. Horn seriously needs to think about another career.
 
While AllHart's simile construction is outrageously absurd (clueless as a bull in a china shop?), he brings up one exceedingly good point: Jim Horn is an utter bozo and the architect behind WSBA's sub-1 ratings around the turn of the 21st century. Only after Horn abandoned his heinous Frankenstein hybrid format of news/talk and sports talk, and brought in 60% of WHP's programming (Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rusty Humphries, Michael Savage, Resnick, et al) did WSBA finally graduate from "piss poor" to "nearly adequate."

It's amazing this walking mid-life crisis is allowed to manage one radio station--putting him in charge of three would be as foolish as ... a bull in a china shop. Or something really foolish.

An example of Horn's innovation in the world of radio programming: Monday through Saturday, you can hear the calming tones of Dave Ramsey between midnight and 1am. On Saturdays, you get a bonus dose of Dave from 6pm to 8pm.

But then on Sundays, boys and girls, WSBA's listeners are treated to a whopping seventeen straight hours of Dave Ramsey. (2-6a, 9p-12a, and an unbelievable 10-hour marathon between 9am and 7pm)

I don't know specifically the names of people who could do a better job programming Sundays on WSBA, but I'm laying my bet on the space marked "ANYBODY ELSE."
 
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