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Len Shackelford strikes again at Cox

radpro said:
You guys make me laugh. Again, say what you will but this is NOT Len. I do know the guy and I know Steve. Steve IS a great guy.
All these boards turn into sometimes are personal attacks by very miserable people.
Look, life is way too short. If you don't like what you're doing or the business you're in, get out of it. You can control your destiny.
Good lord, folks, move on already.

As far as the radio business, it has changed a TON. It started when consolidation really took hold in '96. Now with public companies, and investors and more pressure to perform, its a VERY different business than it was. Consequently, there are a LOT of very good people who have left the business or who have been booted from it for some reasons that are BS. Is it right? No. Is it pleasant? No. But its reality. Most on the programming side of the business in particular are just trying to do their job the best they can, make a difference, work for the advertisers and connect with the listeners. Many of the folks who aren't in the business weren't able or willing to change with the times (and NO, I'm NOT talking about Steve here. Its a general comment.)
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Hmmmm......Where did I ever say I was miserable??? I love what I do, and life is great! :)

My comment was about Len and just how wooden he is as a person. I have no issues with the guy, but I find it extremely funny that you have come here to defend him, and I'm going to have fun with it.

Let him fire everyone in the building for all I care. I got out of that place just in time......

and I still work in radio for a great company thank you very much. 8)
 
I figured some of the folks here were just trying to push buttons. I think its funny too.
I'm not defending the guy, I just dont like a bunch of people ganging up o someone. Its really easy when its anonymous :)
Glad you're doing well!
 
Holbrook was not loved by everyone building. Holbrook was not loved by everyone in the building for years. Holbrook hired Len Shakelford back in the day, and Holbrook has fired good people before and often. Holbrook is also a person who is easily intimidated by smart people and the culture of the Cox mind control-like yes men/women continues. Rich Reis selectively acts like he does not know what's going on, but he has the spine of a wet shoe lace and he knows what goes on because he is responsible for the outfit, and all of those stations. So here we have someone who is supposed to be not one to be fired (which is stupid because it's radio) and he gets fired. Get over it, and so what. So what he got fired. Unless you own the company, in radio you will get fired. And that's the way it goes. But for the record, Holbrook hired Len, and he fired Holbrook and Reis stood there and watched. So what. That's who they are at Cox Radio Orlando. Let'em all rot.
 
...and now it's finally time for the Susan/Debbie show to be over. too. If you google 'backstabbers', chances are you'll see their headshots.
 
I guess the while JYP place will be run out of Atlanta eventually. If they don't sell all of radio.


As a former employee, it's all a damn shame.
 
Who deserves the credit of dumping all mentions of AM 580 on the liners and station drops? Does anyone know the AM still out covers the FM, especially in the Lakeland area where 20-30K people a day migrate in and out of Orlando?
It does appear someone might have been hired to cure SOME of the audio problems of various audio sources feeding the Hidef FM processing. Now only a few sources are distorted, while the others are virtually unprocessed, aside from the usual FM multiband clip-filtered energy and pre-distortion platforms. For the longest time, they left the DBO AM audio alone as Clear Channel humped up the bass in both Tampa and Orlando to levels making talk audio completely unlistenable on most car radios from the factory should the listener turn up the sound to decent levels. But with the DBO FM-only spin, its a matter of time before the AM does disappear and by default other AM signals gain audience if they go to work more often.

PPM decoding can be proven to NOT effectively work on noise-floor-sensitive AM receivers. (Do the post 2004 radio sets suck or what? NO skywave distortion thanks to the digital freaks and their RF dimming software that fades down the signal rather than introduce selective fade noise.) If you are a PPM client you have full rights all the time to test your demodulated component. Try some tests with folks at Arbitron and go figure. Clearly for PPM decoders to work consistently (as in cume sample time frames of 5 minutes or less) you must have loud AM audio on low noise receivers or your goose is never gonna cook. Folks simulcast on FM and say they see new numbers on PPM counts. FM is less noise prone. But hey, FM freaks stay away from your wifi gear or you'll have base line noise at near AM like levels and won't see your body counts going up from the Arb folks.

There are people (real listeners) asking 'what happened to the AM?' I've sat in cars and observed they are tuned to AM 580 but think they're on FM because of 20 sell liners in 5 minutes of the morning show tease and hype screen image liners. Cox bought their way into the market on someone else's hardwork over the past 80 years. But money can't buy love for more than a one night stand or two on the radio dial.
 
Really Real Radio said:
Who deserves the credit of dumping all mentions of AM 580 on the liners and station drops? Does anyone know the AM still out covers the FM, especially in the Lakeland area where 20-30K people a day migrate in and out of Orlando?
It does appear someone might have been hired to cure SOME of the audio problems of various audio sources feeding the Hidef FM processing. Now only a few sources are distorted, while the others are virtually unprocessed, aside from the usual FM multiband clip-filtered energy and pre-distortion platforms. For the longest time, they left the DBO AM audio alone as Clear Channel humped up the bass in both Tampa and Orlando to levels making talk audio completely unlistenable on most car radios from the factory should the listener turn up the sound to decent levels. But with the DBO FM-only spin, its a matter of time before the AM does disappear and by default other AM signals gain audience if they go to work more often.

PPM decoding can be proven to NOT effectively work on noise-floor-sensitive AM receivers. (Do the post 2004 radio sets suck or what? NO skywave distortion thanks to the digital freaks and their RF dimming software that fades down the signal rather than introduce selective fade noise.) If you are a PPM client you have full rights all the time to test your demodulated component. Try some tests with folks at Arbitron and go figure. Clearly for PPM decoders to work consistently (as in cume sample time frames of 5 minutes or less) you must have loud AM audio on low noise receivers or your goose is never gonna cook. Folks simulcast on FM and say they see new numbers on PPM counts. FM is less noise prone. But hey, FM freaks stay away from your wifi gear or you'll have base line noise at near AM like levels and won't see your body counts going up from the Arb folks.

There are people (real listeners) asking 'what happened to the AM?' I've sat in cars and observed they are tuned to AM 580 but think they're on FM because of 20 sell liners in 5 minutes of the morning show tease and hype screen image liners. Cox bought their way into the market on someone else's hardwork over the past 80 years. But money can't buy love for more than a one night stand or two on the radio dial.
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Well put. It's a shame they forgot where they came from. Perhaps when hurricane season is over they'll change formats on AM 580. I still think automated classic country is better then what they are running now. How much could it cost them to operate that? You would think with all the people that got the ax there would be some spending money.
 
That could be blames on 1 person and the AX ing part is what he does best. i would bet that part of the reason Lenny ( as Steve Smith loves to call him ) ran into a headbutting issue with Holbrook on the value of the AM staying attached to the FM.....So Lenny whacked him, has no exit plan for a super signal AM, and as the ops director, isn't he to answer for all the stations? Well lenny, 96.5 is down to a 4.0.............what you gonna do about it? Fire more people?
 
Really Real Radio said:
Who deserves the credit of dumping all mentions of AM 580 on the liners and station drops?
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I wondered and noticed that too. It's funny, when you listen to WWSB or WOKV, the liners still identify the AM and FM. I believe they even identify the AM first. Wouldn't it just have been beneficial to stay on 580 and broadcast in HD? I have listened to many HD talkers on the AM and they sound wonderful.
 
Hidef on the AM spectrum is a true train wreck. Might sound clean in the 25mv/m contour. But it is very ineffective under power lines and with approaching storms. Take for example the spectrum destruction on 990 AM around Orlando. On decent (when you can find them) AM Radios like those built prior to 2003 you can no longer hear 1010 or 970 from Tampa area. As you travel toward Tampa 990 and 950 kiss off about Lakeland. Might as well lower power on ALL these stations and save utililty costs and prevent spectrum destruction. This is one of the precursors of 'restless leg syndrome' for those not prematurely deaf from subsonic cool street audio machinery (hip hop brain trust).

If we held trade publications and our broadcast licensees responsible for their experiments and could file suit again the NAB and the FCC life would be far better for the unemployed lawyers and ex-radio people laid off to cover the great experiment of digital this and digital that.
 
The new PD of WDBO is one of the brightest PDs in Cox. He will not only do a great job with DBO, but you will see him help transform the culture of that building. I don't know Len, so it would not be fair to comment. Just everything I am reading here is the opposite of Drew's management style. I would suspect the air staff is very happy with Atlanta's choice.
 
Doesn't matter how great and how wonderful a new guy is! He could be Dale Cargegie himself and it won't matter. The "tone" of any workplace is set by the attitude of management. If you have negative management, it spreads like cancer. Ever walk into a business where the workers all had bad attitudes...all seemed scared to say anything...all seemed to be doing only as little as possible to get by??? That tone is set by management. If employees work under a jerk, they will quickly switch to "protection" mode...keep their eyes open, don't make waves, don't do anything extra because the jerk may be lurking around ready to condemn, criticize and complain. They are only there as long as they can stand it or until something better comes along. If this guy is as bad as many of you have said, then smart management should realize he's like having a uncleaned porta-potty in the office. But radio management these days have a demonstrated track record of an IQ which varies at room temperature.
 
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