Larry Mendte doing Morning Drive Talk Show on WILM / WDOV

[MikefromDelaware]

I was scanning around the AM dial on my way to work and noticed that Larry Mendte [formerly of Channel 10 news a number of years ago] is now doing an AM Drive talk show on 1450 WILM/ 1410 WDOV. Phil Feliciangeli is still doing the news, etc. I understand the show started this week. I only caught a few moments of it as I arrived at work. So can't offer a view of how good the show is.

Larry Mendte also does a weekly news magazine about Delaware "The Delaware Way" [that is recorded in downtown Wilmington - my guess Channel 12's Wilmington studio]; and a interview show that deals with regional issues that affect Delaware and the Philly area, plus national stories, "Another Thing" both air on Saturday evenings and repeat on Sunday mornings on KJWP-TV Channel 2 Wilmington's newest TV station [ME TV].

 

[Oscar Madison]

Lots left out in the original post.

Scary Larry did read news at NBC 10. He is better remembered for CBS 3 where he hacked his co-host's email account. Larry is now a convicted felon, working in Wilmington and Alycia Lane is reading news in LA.

Scary Larry also worked in LA, and hosted syndicated tabloid trash TV. Larry also worked in Chicago, where the well known media columnist Robert Feder gave him the name "Scary Larry" in columns critical of his sensationalistic tabloid style reporting. (Larry doesn't hold a grudge: He posted about his new show on Roger's Twitter feed.)

Larry - after a period of being sentenced to home confinement - was hired to do morning drive at WWIQ 106.9 FM in Philly. This station had the big three syndicated right-wing talk show hosts - Rush, Hannity and Beck - three hosts previously aired on WPHT 1210. Guess what? Their weekday schedule was identical to the one on the low power class D middle market station on which Scary Larry now finds himself. At WWIQ, Scary Larry was gone in six months; the station was gone in about a year (the new owners now play religious music). Insanity: Running the same schedule with the same hosts and expecting a different outcome.

How the mighty have fallen. Scary Larry must be pretty desperate. So must WILM. Owner IHeartMedia sacked the former host imported from Baltimore, Bruce Elliot, January 22nd. Elliot drew some criticism for making a sharp right turn in the tone and content of the morning show. Since January they've had a posting for a new morning host on the station website (and elsewhere). Almost six months to find Scary Larry? Elliot also held the title of "program director," which at Cheap Channel stations often doesn't mean much. No word yet on who holds the title now. Larry no longer has his Sunday night gig at WABC, New York.

Wilmington's two talk stations had been running a roughly even race in recent ratings books, until the fall book (the most recent one released) when WILM dropped off significantly and WDEL experienced a jump.

http://delawarebusinessdaily.com/2015/01/elliott-runs-morning-drive-time-wilm/

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...-mendte-named-morning-host-at-wilm-wilmington

http://www.radioink.com/article.asp?id=2937865&spid=24698

 

[Bob Eubanks]

Ah, Fred. Bet you were waiting for such news.

 

[radiophiler]

One other correction to OM's post: Alycia Lane hasn't worked for the LA TV station since Fall 2013 when she was let go. Just out of curiosity, I Googled her: No report of a new TV gig since then.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Oscar Madison said: "Bruce Elliot, January 22nd. Elliot drew some criticism for making a sharp right turn in the tone and content of the morning show."

I listened sometimes to Bruce and he was so biased that even the Fox News Reporter he'd be interviewing would say on the air, you're jumping to conclusions. That's bad when you're more biased than Fox News. This happened a number of times I heard while listening. That probably is where the complaints of Bruce being too biased to the right came.

You posted that Larry Mendte had been sentenced to house arrest for a period of time. So he did pay his debt to society, as ordered by the courts. Should he have gotten a stiffer punishment? I don't know, but the court was satisfied, so based on our system of justice, like his actions or not, Larry Mendte paid his debt back to society, and now is free and clear to go live his life, hopefully in a lawful manner.

The bigger question seems to be, assuming he's not gone back to doing such things anymore, how is his reporters/broadcasting skills.

He is married as the KJWP website has photos of their on air staff that includes Larry's wife [both Wilmington's channel 2 and NJ's channel 3 {forget their calls} share staff and offices somewhere in northern NJ].

Mendte apparently has talent or he'd not have been on air on TV in either Philly or LA. His bigger problem would be staying in the Delaware Valley where his past is known, thus hindering him from moving on.

One of the links Oscar provided said Mendte is a native to the Philly suburban area [forget the township] and probably has family here and doesn't want to relocate and is trying to rebuild his life.

So again, I ask, if you've had a chance to check out Larry Mendte's new show on WILM/WDOV, what did you think ?

 

[Oscar Madison]

Oscar Madison said: "Bruce Elliot, January 22nd. Elliot drew some criticism for making a sharp right turn in the tone and content of the morning show."

I listened sometimes to Bruce and he was so biased that even the Fox News Reporter he'd be interviewing would say on the air, you're jumping to conclusions. That's bad when you're more biased than Fox News. This happened a number of times I heard while listening. That probably is where the complaints of Bruce being too biased to the right came.

You posted that Larry Mendte had been sentenced to house arrest for a period of time. So he did pay his debt to society, as ordered by the courts. Should he have gotten a stiffer punishment? I don't know, but the court was satisfied, so based on our system of justice, like his actions or not, Larry Mendte paid his debt back to society, and now is free and clear to go live his life, hopefully in a lawful manner.

The bigger question seems to be, assuming he's not gone back to doing such things anymore, how is his reporters/broadcasting skills.

He is married as the KJWP website has photos of their on air staff that includes Larry's wife [both Wilmington's channel 2 and NJ's channel 3 {forget their calls} share staff and offices somewhere in northern NJ].

Mendte apparently has talent or he'd not have been on air on TV in either Philly or LA. His bigger problem would be staying in the Delaware Valley where his past is known, thus hindering him from moving on.

One of the links Oscar provided said Mendte is a native to the Philly suburban area [forget the township] and probably has family here and doesn't want to relocate and is trying to rebuild his life.

So again, I ask, if you've had a chance to check out Larry Mendte's new show on WILM/WDOV, what did you think ?

I have never been a fan of Larry Mendte and I have no intention to listen to his program.

Paid his debt to society? I recall some people making the same arguement when the Eagles signed Michael Vick. The legal system has let Mendte out of jail. That does not mean he is a person now worthy of public trust or respect.

Larry Mendte has been willing to relocate before. Why should he not be willing to do now. There are a number of major markets within driving distance of Lansdowne (a borough, not a township, in Delaware County). Even so, after Philadelphia and New York, Wilmington is a big step down.

In Bruce Elliott's defense, it is highly likely his sharp right turn was at the direction of management (or at least with management's approval). It didn't work. So rather than tweaking the show, they threw the guy under the bus and brought in somebody whose asset seems to be name recognition.

My point is, regardless of Larry's past bad behavior, he and the same schedule failed on 106.9 not long ago. No reason to expect the same losing formula to work now.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Society tends to not forget or forgive these kinds of crimes as Mendte and Vick committed even though they served their time in the penal system. So Larry is probably doomed in this area and should just pack up the wife and move some other market and try to start again.

I listened to a bit of Larry's show during the 8:30 am segment, Larry gets maybe 12 minutes out of that 30 minute block. Once you subtract spots/psa's, traffic /weather, news, Rush's commentary, Blumberg Market Minute, there's not much time left for Larry to engage folks in talk. I had listened to Phil anchoring/hosting after Bruce's departure a number of times and frankly liked it better than either Bruce or Larry. Larry seems to just get in the way of the information and commentary. But maybe it will improve with time.

I think what WILM needs to do is put Phil back as anchor/host and hire someone to do more of the behind the scenes work and do a news/information/commentary format and not bother trying to do a talk show during AM drive. My guess is if done properly WILM could compete with WDEL better doing this, as they have far less commercials than WDEL. So from a listening point of view WILM would be more enjoyable than WDEL's constant spot breaks after each feature during Peter's AM drive news block.

WDSD-FM has a statewide signal, that would be the one to do an AM drive newsblock and at 9am go back to Today's Country Music. Have WILM/WDOV air the Fox News Radio network news/talk show that airs at that time, I believe its Kilmeade and Friends. That would appeal more to WILM/WDOV's core audience.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Society tends to not forget or forgive these kinds of crimes as Mendte and Vick committed even though they served their time in the penal system. So Larry is probably doomed in this area and should just pack up the wife and move some other market and try to start again.

I listened to a bit of Larry's show during the 8:30 am segment, Larry gets maybe 12 minutes out of that 30 minute block. Once you subtract spots/psa's, traffic /weather, news, Rush's commentary, Blumberg Market Minute, there's not much time left for Larry to engage folks in talk. I had listened to Phil anchoring/hosting after Bruce's departure a number of times and frankly liked it better than either Bruce or Larry. Larry seems to just get in the way of the information and commentary. But maybe it will improve with time.

I think what WILM needs to do is put Phil back as anchor/host and hire someone to do more of the behind the scenes work and do a news/information/commentary format and not bother trying to do a talk show during AM drive. My guess is if done properly WILM could compete with WDEL better doing this, as they have far less commercials than WDEL. So from a listening point of view WILM would be more enjoyable than WDEL's constant spot breaks after each feature during Peter's AM drive news block.

WDSD-FM has a statewide signal, that would be the one to do an AM drive newsblock and at 9am go back to Today's Country Music. Have WILM/WDOV air the Fox News Radio network news/talk show that airs at that time, I believe its Kilmeade and Friends. That would appeal more to WILM/WDOV's core audience.

Might make sense if "one (other) Wilmington radio station" weren't already doing a morning news block - more established and with more resources. If you can't beat them, counter program them. And WILM can't beat them with a weaker signal and fewer resources. Heck, they didn't beat them even when they had more people.

The lack of flow and constant interruption in morning drive seems to be a chronic problem for talk stations, especially those owned by the largest group owners. I don't know how many different markets you follow here, but similar comments come up from time to time on other sections of this site. WDSD is a much stronger performer. Doesn't make sense to simulcast a weak performer during prime time (morning drive) at the expense of a better performer, albeit in the face of competition from a stronger competitor.

Larry getting in the way, may be Larry trying too hard. Given all the canned (generally sponsored) content, he has to justify his presence. I suspect that all that clutter on both talk stations comes as a result of spots sold cheap or given away as part of a package buy.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

What you say makes sense. Maybe a better choice for WILM/WDOV would be to air the Fox News Radio talk show "Kilmeade and Friends" that airs during that time slot. Have Phil do the news updates with the WDSD traffic and weather folks. Throw in the Bloomberg Market Minute and the required Rush Update. That would probably meet their regular listeners taste better maybe even get better ratings than Larry Mendte's show. Probably would be less expensive than paying Mendte's salary.

 

[Oscar Madison]

What you say makes sense. Maybe a better choice for WILM/WDOV would be to air the Fox News Radio talk show "Kilmeade and Friends" that airs during that time slot. Have Phil do the news updates with the WDSD traffic and weather folks. Throw in the Bloomberg Market Minute and the required Rush Update. That would probably meet their regular listeners taste better maybe even get better ratings than Larry Mendte's show. Probably would be less expensive than paying Mendte's salary.

Makes sense. I see on the Boston board the Clear Channel is running the same syndicated line up plus Fox Sports in the morning but they've already got that on 1290 in Wilmington. I would not be surprised if the company would like to find a viable morning show host they can syndicate along with the rest of their standard talk line-up. Imus is wearing sort of thin, although Fox is still running him on their Business channel. CC tried syndicating Quinn and Rose from Pittsburgh in the morning on several stations but that didn't take off. CC does have strong local morning shows on their talkers in Harrisburg and Allentown stations but those are long standing hosts with their own followings. It still seems sort of telling that CC's local management took six months to settle on Larry. Clearly, when Bruce left (willingly or not), they didn't have anybody in place to take over. And it doesn't seem like Larry jumped out as the immediate and logical choice. Maybe nobody any good wants to work there. They seem to have fired or chased away anybody who was there when they took over.

 

[wadio]

I just thought of Bruce Elliot in connection with Martin O'Malley who's debating tonight (Bruce of course mentioned him a lot on his WBAL show) -- so I Googled him and see he's gone from Wilmington. Anyone know where? I couldn't find anything recent -- guess he's out of radio?