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Lee "Psychobabble" Abrams resigns from Tribune Co.

K

KingOfAllHalibuts

Burkhart & Abrams used program consult for AOR stations all over the country including WAAF back in the day.

BUT...This is what happens when you believe your own bullshit...To be fair, Lee and Burkhart
did do some cutting edge "radio" consulting back in the day, but the years must have warped Lee's
view of himself...I was totally mystified when the Trib hired him to do crossword puzzles and [EDIT]!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...e-randy-michaels-bankruptcy-judge-kevin-carey

Lee Abrams resigns from Tribune Co.
Chief innovation officer exits after outcry over companywide memo

October 15, 2010 | By Phil Rosenthal, Tribune reporter

[EDIT-offensive content]
 
KingOfAllHalibuts said:
Burkhart & Abrams used program consult for AOR stations all over the country including WAAF back in the day.

BUT...This is what happens when you believe your own bullshit...To be fair, Lee and Burkhart
did do some cutting edge "radio" consulting back in the day, but the years must have warped Lee's
view of himself...I was totally mystified when the Trib hired him to do crossword puzzles and [EDIT-offensive content]
Click to expand...

Randy Michaels, his boss at Tribune, is also a radio man. Apparently, he couldn't cover for his buddy any longer after this latest incident.

There's still a vocal contingent of longtime XM subscribers who worship Abrams and lament the day he left the soon-to-be-bought-out company for the newspaper business. Playlists on XM were really deep and "out there" during Abrams' tenure, even on channels that were supposed to be playing familiar hits such as the decades channels. He also championed a once-a-year on-air blowout of the entire popular music library, further endearing him to oldies geeks. He also loved foreign accents and had announcers doing IDs and liners in Caribbean and African accents for no apparent reason.

So, where does he go next?
 
What Abrams was not that bad (hey, he was sharing Onion News Network clips, not porn), but it just came at the wrong time (i.e., the NY Times article on Michaels and the Tribune Co.). Someone had to fall on the sword, and it wasn't Michaels, so Abrams took the dive.
 
Mark Jeffries said:
What Abrams was not that bad (hey, he was sharing Onion News Network clips, not porn), but it just came at the wrong time (i.e., the NY Times article on Michaels and the Tribune Co.). Someone had to fall on the sword, and it wasn't Michaels, so Abrams took the dive.
Click to expand...

I personally liked his influence on XM - I had satellite radio from '05 to '08, and it kicked the hell out of most terrestrial radio. Now, the channels (for the most part) sound like national clones of the AM or FM dial. Blech.

I didn't think the memo was offensive, but then again, I like that kind of working environment.
 
Wow ! No wonder radio is dying ! Editing an accepted word describing self-satisfaction ? Abrams was hired as a quid pro quo from a buddy. Nothing more, nothing less. Lee's m.o. was well known in the industry: Say nothing but take an inordinate amount of time to say it, however make sure you've had enough caffeine so you don't fall asleep during his b.s. storms. LOL ! Yes, he had one or two semi-lucid ideas in his latter years, but it didn't make up for the space he was taking up ! Perhaps I should have preceded the offending word with "mental" ?

You had to read Lee's rambling acceptance memo to the world (perhaps the result of listening to Donovan's "Epistle To Dippy") as to how he was going to breathe new life into another dying paradigm: Newspapers. It was something to behold. I'll try to find a link and post it for your amusement...

Meantime, RI weenies: try to drag yourself into the 21st century and refrain from running from reality.
 
Still looking for Lee's acceptance memo...meantime:

Editor calls damage to Tribune reputation "shameful"

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/editor-calls-damage-to-tribune-reputation-‘shameful’/39987

"The man in the middle of this is Chicago Tribune editor Gerry Kern, who ascended to his job after his predecessor, Ann Marie Lipinski, and many of her colleagues walked out early in the Zell (takeover) regime.

"If Kern truly believes they are different organizations, why did his newspaper ignore the debasement of one of Chicago’s leading corporate and civic institutions until it became a national embarrassment? And how will the Tribune cover itself from now on?"
 
Ah, ha...found the acceptance ramble...it's inside a post by P.J. Gladnick. In the brackets below is my initial, caustic comment...


Tribune Co. Hires Bizarre Radio Consultant to 'Improver' Circulation Via 'Soul'

[Lee Abrams is such a bull shitter...loves to hear himself talk...and talks in circles !]

By P.J. Gladnick | March 15, 2008 - 10:38 ET

[ Lee's blog http://leeabrams.blogspot.com/ ]

Imagine if a comedy script is submitted to a movie producer. It would be about a major newspaper conglomerate so desperate to turn around the plunging circulation numbers of its various newspapers that it hires a wacky radio consultant as a Chief Innovation Officer to help turn it around. The radio consultant is so strange that he believes the way to improve the circulation numbers is to ensure that the newspapers have soul. He plans to do this by treating newspapers as the new rock 'n' roll. The wacky Chief Innovation Officer announces his plans in a seemingly endless e-mail message that wanders aimlessly for 5 web pages in which claims that newspapers need to "morph the soul of Dylan...with with the innovation of Apple and the eccentric-all-the-way-to-the-bank of Bill Veeck." The message also conjures up "theater of the mind," Star Wars, plus a whole host of nearly indecipherable psycho-babble that includes visions of open and closed modes. To give extra "meaning" to the interminable message, the Chief Innovation Officer laces it with page after page of quotations from sources as diverse as John Cleese to Machiavelli to Carl Jung to Arthur Koestler and many, many others.

Of course, the idea of a rock'n'roll psychobabble nutcase being such a responsible position at a major newspaper conglomerate would be rejected by the movie producer as too improbable even for comedy. However, in reality this has actually happened. The Tribune Co. which owns such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and my hometown Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel has hired radio consultant Lee Abrams (photo) as its Chief Innovation Officer in a desperate bid to turn their plunging circulation figures around. To get an idea of Abrams really strange (and rambling) mindset take a look at just the first page of his overlong e-mail in all its psychedelic glory announcing his new position at the Tribune Company:

THE RAMBLE BEGINS...

Please forgive this rambling introduction letter, but I am ecstatic with no-bullsh*t excitement and pride in joining The Tribune Company.

While my background is in steeped in "Rock n Roll", I strongly believe that News and Information is the NEW Rock n Roll. Imagine it's 1952. Music has existed for centuries and part of the fabric of our culture. While music was a hotbed of activity in the Black community, in mainstream America we were in a blase era of Mitch Miller and Patty Page. Then-Rock n Roll! It had a street level connection to the Post War American Spirit. Tapped into the pulse of the American way of thinking. It was based on: imagination, looking FORWARD, respecting but not praying to the musical playbook, moved fast...met the rhythm of America, worked at innovating-it was a mission to come up with the next cool thing, revolutionized the 'look' of people, etc... Now fast forward to 2008, News and Information has been around since the dawn of Man, but it's a lot like where music was in 1952: Poised for a dynamic breakthrough that re-invest the media. The NEW Rock n Roll isn't about Elvis or James Dean, but it IS about re-inventing media with the exact same moxie that the fathers of Rock n Roll had. The Tribune has the choice of doing to News/Information/Entertainment what Rock n Roll did to music...to be the Ray Charles, Dylan's, Beatles and U2's of the Information age...or have someone else figure it out, or worse, let these American institutions disappear into irrelevancy. I think Rock n Roll is the best choice. America needs a heartbeat, and we can deliver that on 21st Century terms. Rock n Roll musically is behind us. NEWS & INFORMATION IS THE NEW ROCK N ROLL...

If you want the whole enchilda (about 9 pages !) email me at [email protected] - Put "Psychobabble" in the subject line !
 
Everything Lee did in album radio was stolen from Bill Drake. What he did for XM took it down the crapper. In the '70s, we always loved it when he came to town though; he always had a big bag of treats and cash to get more when that ran out.
 
Update on Lee-bo...

Tribune’s Lee Abrams Defends Himself: “I Will Not Stop Pushing”

http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovi...s-defends-himself/?boxes=financechannelforbes

From article...

"Apparently Lee Abrams’ hasty exit from Tribune Co. did not involve signing a far-reaching non-disclosure agreement, because the former chief innovation officer just sent an extraordinary email defending himself against a number of criticisms and justifying his record, including the email he sent that resulted in his suspension. I’m still trying to confirm that the email is authentic, but, as you’ll see, it doesn’t read like a hoax, and I was in email contact with Abrams, at a different address than the one used to send this note, shortly before his resignation. (Update: I’ve confirmed that the address used for today’s email belongs to Abrams.)"

Includes semi-recent pic semi-suitable for framing ! If you've got a big enough frame !
 
Hey Mr. King etc.. I get the message. You don't like Lee Abrams (whoever he is). Did he run over your dog or something?
 
ArtSpooner said:
Hey Mr. King etc.. I get the message. You don't like Lee Abrams (whoever he is). Did he run over your dog or something?
Click to expand...

Au contraire...No dog involved, just being catty which is pretty difficult for a fish or a walrus. For: I am him and he is me and we are all together...But, which is the walrus, Paul ?
 
Then there was The Wave-Abrams style.

Back in about 1990, Satellite Music Network launched a syndicated version of The Wave, with Lee Abrams at the helm. His concept called for mixing soft rock and accoustic AOR tracks with the ambiant instrumental core stuff of the original NAC format.

It made for interesting listening but there were way too many collisions. That atmospheric new age fare couldn't hold the men, and we know about women and classic rock.

Twenty years on trying to integrate instrumentals and rock vocals is still a tough putt.
 
Dern...Looks like the misdirected experiment (read: stunting) at one of the nation's legacy newspapers may be over...Damn, we didn't realize that one of our broadcast brethren and poster child held such a high position at the Trib. He was "The head of Tribune Co."...hmmm...the whole enchilda. A guy from broadcasting ?

Come on...who in their right mind would entrust a legitimate business model to someone from the playground and faux business of broadchasing, er, broadcasting ? The apocalypse must be getting closer !
Didya see the April Fool's Press Release from 2009 that may have been hatched from the brain (?) of the recently departed Chief Innovation Officer hired by the potentially departing and formerly modulating CEO ? Ya gotta shake yer head...it was distributed on All Fools Day via PR Newswire and spotlights the attitude of a broadcaster (used to "stunting") rather than publishing...[sound of buzzer] !

Newspaper says Tribune Co. CEO (Randy Michaels) plans to resign 10.20.10

"NEW YORK (AP) — The head of Tribune Co. plans to resign by the end of the week, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday, after assertions that he helped foster a sexist, "frat house" corporate culture since joining the company in 2007.

"Citing unidentified sources familiar with the situation, the newspaper reported that CEO Randy Michaels and the company's board have both decided the scandal is distracting employees and complicating the company's efforts to emerge from Chapter 11 protection."

"The e-mail [from a previously spotlighted radio "stunter" in this thread] landed at an especially sensitive moment, coming just after an unflattering portrait of the company's management in The New York Times. The report suggested that the iconic publisher has begun to resemble a fraternity house, "complete with poker parties, juke boxes and pervasive sex talk." "

-snip-

"It would be the second recent high-profile departure for Tribune Co. Last Wednesday, Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams stepped down after sending an e-mail to staff with links to a parody news report containing profanity and nudity."

More of the gory details at:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...n8CxXQ?docId=189a6626b99d4b6a9133c01dbcda697e

Apparently oil (stunting) and water (business) don't mix. There must be a lesson here somewhere ?

KOAH, over and out, 'til some RI weenie complains about "taking it outside"...
 
More Randy Michaels backstory from Mancow Muller...so maybe the atmosphere really was that of a frat house...

From Robert Feder's blog...

http://blogs.vocalo.org/feder/2010/10/happy-first-birthday-to-us-vocalo-blogs-on-the-move/40734

"Shocking a shock jock: Commenting on the ouster of Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels, former-shock-jock-turned-talk-host Mancow Muller told listeners to his Sunday night radio show on WABC-AM in New York about the time he met with Michaels about a possible job. “I’m sitting there in his Tribune Tower office and the first thing he asks me was how I felt about women’s shaved genitals,” Muller later recalled. “I enjoy a good joke as much as anyone, but even I was shocked that a man in his position would be so base.” "
 
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