Regardless of how good this guy is, the only way he is going to be able to succeed is if Widener lets him program without having every single decision questioned. The GM should be involved in the station's product, but not to the point where his managers' authority is nil. David DeFranzo had some good ideas, but he wasn't willing to simply be Widener's "yes-man", much to his credit. I like Double-D, but he will be the first to tell you that he rubs some people the wrong way. He was just too strong-willed for David. Now that I have some distance from the situation, I can see that his tenure was doomed from the start because he had his own ideas. I agreed with most of them, but TightwadSquarepants (the other one, Widener) didn't and that's a big reason why DeFranzo is now doing something else. Best of luck to him.
One reason McKinney had such a long tenure with HVBC, however, is because he knew how to pick his battles with David and he knew how to move him where he needed to go for the station. The fact that he is a bit more conservative in programming decisions didn't hurt, either. I am not saying that Mark's way was better than DeFranzo's or vice-versa, they were just different. I learned a lot from both of them.
If Mark Baker is going to last at WTFM, however, he has got to be more like Mark McKinney...someone knows how to pick his battles and is a pragmatist. That's nothing against Dave, it's just the way it is. What can I say? Those yankees are just a little more direct than us rednecks from the south! Just messing with ya, Double-D!
