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Major Meltdown at WEBE this morning

R

RadioMan203

It looks like this morning was a casualty of the recent cuts at Cumulus:

Among the mess included the news sounder playing at 5:26am followed by seven minutes of dead air. The automation fires traffic sounder and guess what? More dead air. Bunch of songs play and a repeat performance of guess what? More deal air. Similar chain of events occurred after 6am. No Stormin' Norman. No news. No weather. No school closings. Nothing. 7am. - nothing but music until Danny Lyons came in around 8.

Wait, no school closings? What the heck? On a day like this? This was not the kind of morning to be asleep at the switch. Hopefully this was a one-time mishap and not a sign of things to come.
 
Holy CRAP! There is absolutely NO excuse for that! When I started in radio over 25 years ago, the person(s) would not only be fired, they'd end up working in Fort Kent, Maine.... AT K-MART! Tragic, for a popular FM with a great signal.....

First of all, I hope that nothing bad happened to Stormin' Norman on his way in (I assume that he is live in the morning). Secondly, if the building is not occupied overnight, the morning drive elements should never be pre-inserted into the on-air software for this very reason. You never know....
 
WOW, someone told me about this today. Seems ironic after they got rid of so many people..(Karma's a ...) It couldn't have happened on a worse day!! OUCH WEBE!!!!

X
 
And on the morning after their 25th anniversary show, which touted everything "good" with WEBE.

They get what they pay for.

Was it possible to patch WICC on? Or have someone from WICC take over?
 
Wonder if Hansen's Head will roll for that major early morning automation technical cloisterfock. If that happened at a 500 watt AM in Tuscaloosa, Alabami there would be hell to pay. Some things never change.
Armagedon in WEBE LAND! Hide the woman and children! :eek:
 
I don't want to say where I heard it, but unconfirmed reports state that there was to be a fill-in by one of the former staffer who had been recently been cut. I can't say that I blame the person for not showing up. if I saw the weather and in light of being cut I doubt they would have too much allegiance to the place after all that happened. I probably would have pulled the phone out of the wall and gone back to bed too.
 
am I reading this post right... Did someone miss their shift? or was their no one assigned to come in...
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I don't want to say where I heard it, but unconfirmed reports state that there was to be a fill-in by one of the former staffer who had been recently been cut. I can't say that I blame the person for not showing up. if I saw the weather and in light of being cut I doubt they would have too much allegiance to the place after all that happened. I probably would have pulled the phone out of the wall and gone back to bed too.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then the RIGHT person was let go in the first place. Yeah, you were let go, but since they were going to give you a shift, it's obvious you weren't let go for performance reasons...probably a decision made thousands of miles away. To then not show up is bush-league. This business is too incestuous to pull stupid stuff like that. There are too many good people out of work right now, if this story is true, that person doesn't deserve to work in radio.
 
You people need to give this a break.
The long and short of it is.
Norman had the day off Marylee was to do the show
she developed car trouble on the way in. Danny Lyons
ran the automation by remote for a very short time than came in to do the show.
The WICC crew helped out a little but they had there hands full with all the weather related
items to get on the air at WICC, like the phones ringing off the wall with cancellations which did not give them much time for the WEBE issue. Can WICC be patched to go on WEBE ? yes but opted to not do that. no one will fry for what had happened
There you have it the great WEBE melt down as I guess people like to call it which had nothing to do with the Cumulus layoffs.
 
mistermicrophone said:
Bill DeFelice said:
I don't want to say where I heard it, but unconfirmed reports state that there was to be a fill-in by one of the former staffer who had been recently been cut. I can't say that I blame the person for not showing up. if I saw the weather and in light of being cut I doubt they would have too much allegiance to the place after all that happened. I probably would have pulled the phone out of the wall and gone back to bed too.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then the RIGHT person was let go in the first place. Yeah, you were let go, but since they were going to give you a shift, it's obvious you weren't let go for performance reasons...probably a decision made thousands of miles away. To then not show up is bush-league. This business is too incestuous to pull stupid stuff like that. There are too many good people out of work right now, if this story is true, that person doesn't deserve to work in radio.
Click to expand...

Mistermicrophone...I'm glad this incident happenned to CUMULUS. They deserve it. Every ounce of it and more. I hope it happens again tomorrow. Cumulus is a JOKE. Most of management, engineering and programming are SMALL MARKET MENTALITY. Just ask anybody at KGO, KABC, WABC, WLS, Etc. I hope they die a slow death and have to suffer just like the people they screwed over. I have dealt with all of the groups in one way or another and CUMULUS OWNERS are a bunch of immoral people with no sense for business or treating people with dignity and respect.

I've heard CUMULUS will be bankrupt in 9mos and will start the fire sale. I hope so!
 
Reading this story gave me a pit in my stomach, realizing how far radio has fallen. Here is a situation where stations needed to be at the top of their game and Culmulus fell flat on its face.

It appears layoffs had everything to do with it. There obviously were not enough bodies around to get the job done.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I don't want to say where I heard it, but unconfirmed reports state that there was to be a fill-in by one of the former staffer who had been recently been cut. I can't say that I blame the person for not showing up. if I saw the weather and in light of being cut I doubt they would have too much allegiance to the place after all that happened. I probably would have pulled the phone out of the wall and gone back to bed too.
Click to expand...
Typical CT radio bs. Fire an employee and then make him or her grovel to come back because it's RADIO. If it were a union enviornment that kind of garbage would never occur.
 
Ed B said:
You people need to give this a break.
The long and short of it is.
Norman had the day off Marylee was to do the show
she developed car trouble on the way in. Danny Lyons
ran the automation by remote for a very short time than came in to do the show.
The WICC crew helped out a little but they had there hands full with all the weather related
items to get on the air at WICC, like the phones ringing off the wall with cancellations which did not give them much time for the WEBE issue. Can WICC be patched to go on WEBE ? yes but opted to not do that. no one will fry for what had happened
There you have it the great WEBE melt down as I guess people like to call it which had nothing to do with the Cumulus layoffs.
Click to expand...
You come across like it's no big deal and give the management of the station a pass. Brother at a 50k station that is a HUGE deal. When that kind of programming cloisterfock happens heads roll. Morning drive on a Monday during a Nor'easter. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!! The problem is the management at Cumulus can't think and chew gum at the same time.
If Lyons ran the automation for a short time from his home, he obviously doesn't know how to operate it. Again, the buck stops with the top guy and that would be Hansen.
 
BossJock1947 said:
mistermicrophone said:
Bill DeFelice said:
I don't want to say where I heard it, but unconfirmed reports state that there was to be a fill-in by one of the former staffer who had been recently been cut. I can't say that I blame the person for not showing up. if I saw the weather and in light of being cut I doubt they would have too much allegiance to the place after all that happened. I probably would have pulled the phone out of the wall and gone back to bed too.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then the RIGHT person was let go in the first place. Yeah, you were let go, but since they were going to give you a shift, it's obvious you weren't let go for performance reasons...probably a decision made thousands of miles away. To then not show up is bush-league. This business is too incestuous to pull stupid stuff like that. There are too many good people out of work right now, if this story is true, that person doesn't deserve to work in radio.
Click to expand...


Mistermicrophone...I'm glad this incident happenned to CUMULUS. They deserve it. Every ounce of it and more. I hope it happens again tomorrow. Cumulus is a JOKE. Most of management, engineering and programming are SMALL MARKET MENTALITY. Just ask anybody at KGO, KABC, WABC, WLS, Etc. I hope they die a slow death and have to suffer just like the people they screwed over. I have dealt with all of the groups in one way or another and CUMULUS OWNERS are a bunch of immoral people with no sense for business or treating people with dignity and respect.

I've heard CUMULUS will be bankrupt in 9mos and will start the fire sale. I hope so!
Click to expand...

What does your post have to do with me or my post? If someone had car trouble, as it was posted after my original post, then that's a tough break and it happens. My response was to the "someone just didn't show up" scenario (as a matter of fact, I did say "if" in my original post, just in case the person I responded to was mis-informed).

To defend my original post, if that scenario did happen, I stand by what I wrote. Regardless of company, if you agree to do something, you do it. What about personal accountability? What does how they program other stations in other markets have to do with someone not showing up (once again, if that was the scenario)?
 
Isn't this what voicetracking could solve? Have a DJ at a small market station where it isn't snowing announce the school closings on WEBE 108. There's a foot of snow, almost every school in Connecticut was closed, including Yale and UConn, do you think people would make it to work on time? I bet Star 99.9 got all the kids and parents listening to find out if it's a snow day. Morning show listenership doubles if there's a possibility of a snow day.
 
Boy how the mighty have fallen. It's amazing how a station can ruin 25 years of heritage in a single morning! Ironic that it came the morning after their big anniversary!

I can't understand why you'd have the name "Stormin' Norman" and take a morning off because it's going to snow. That doesn't seem right to me. And as for Marylee's "car trouble"... I hear a different angle - she saw the weather, thought about what Cumulus had done to her and decided to no-show.

From what I gather, Star 99.9 was on with school closings right at 5a along with news and traffic. I wonder how many listeners went to Star for that info Monday morning and may never return to WEBE.
 
Thanks, Ed, for the explanation..

Ok first off...an event like this...a couple hours without delays and closings won't make a difference for a few reasons:
1. The majority of people who listen to Webe, also listen to Star..on a regular basis..so it's not like people would DEDICATE themselves all of a sudden to one station over another
2. It's 2009...do you seriously think people would sit and wait and wait and get so pissed off they aren't hearing it on their radio?
Ever think about websites...webe108.com was working fine....how about local TV listings of closings..
3. People could only hear the same cox radio 300 songs over n over again before they'd "go back"

Cars break down..especially in winter..

A radio personality wouldn't "intentionally not show up" for a shift b/c of recent events.....ever heard of "you never know who you'll work with again" ?

In their 25 yrs ... you think this is the FIRST time have had a problem like this? Every station's had their disasters..just bad timing for this one..

Get over it....In the big picture...who really cares? .... More importantly, when does Spring arrive? :)
 
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