• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Michaels being ousted from Tribune?

"Tribune Company today announced that its board of directors has appointed an Executive Council "

Replace the radio boy with a committee of accountants and MBAs. That'll fix things, won't it.

I predict more layoffs and asset sales. You could buy a condo in the new Tribune Tower Apartments.
 
Michaels is one of the smartest people in radio today. The talk of bringing back the old WGN won't fix it, just destroy it. Michaels brought WLW into the present over 2 decades ago.

Because there are people offended their kingdom has been upset is rightfully so. When you build a radio station on what other people have done (Wally Phillips) and don't consider the changes in age, culture, or professionalism...you will be upset.

Emerging from bankruptcy won't last long. The same idiots who got it there are now running the show.

BTW - I worked for Michaels. He educates people and empowers them to do great things. I hope he takes all of hsi contract money with him.

God Bless You Randy
 
I totally AGREE.

The station sounds GREAT. As a 50+ year listener of wgn, I really enjoy the changes, the personalities (new and old) Laski, Jarrett, Meier, Steve and Johnnie, Manferdini, the farm stuff, and the rest.
I LIKE their news. I'm NOT a big sports guy, but their presentation is remarkable. I listen to wgn 3-5 hours daily. Since I began listening (roughly 1961) WGN was always good. Today, it's the same quality as before.

I grew up in Chicago and now live in Michigan, 150 miles from Chicago, and the "poor excuses" for radio HERE are what sucks. WGN has NO competition. It's 2010. WLS and WBBM and WIND all come in here well, but they put me to sleep,
 
TheBigA said:
"Tribune Company today announced that its board of directors has appointed an Executive Council "

Replace the radio boy with a committee of accountants and MBAs. That'll fix things, won't it.

I predict more layoffs and asset sales. You could buy a condo in the new Tribune Tower Apartments.
Click to expand...

Notice there is no "broadcasting" people running it. I would hate to be working at any of Trib's broadcast properties right now. It's not going to be fun when the people running your company have no idea what they are doing.
 
The Abrams e-mail is instructive as to how tied Tribune was to the past. Some are hoping Metheny is fired next, and Kathy and Judy return Monday, then WGN can go back to being a 65 to dead radio station. Feder no doubt is among them.
 
How many thousands of times have I read on this board how bad it is that radio people aren't running radio stations, but were salivating over the radio people at WGN being ousted and being replaced by a Gang of Four non-radio people.
 
Bengalsfan said:
Notice there is no "broadcasting" people running it. I would hate to be working at any of Trib's broadcast properties right now. It's not going to be fun when the people running your company have no idea what they are doing.
Click to expand...

Sooner or later Trib. will have to submit a “plan” to get out of bankruptcy. I wonder how this will play with the banks and whoever else is owed money? Having worked for a “trustee” in the past, management has to either present a plan that will “wow” the bondholders and banks how the new company is going to make big money in their core business and the new stock is going to worth many times what a liquidation would bring in, or show a financial plan that has enough cash in it (from selling assets) that they can get out with the least amount of $$ damage. I suspect there will be a slow and painful selling off of the assets to infuse cash into the print assets. IMHO the logical solution would be to spin off the printing part of the business, but Tribune doesn’t own me any money.
 
In this case, you had radio people running an entire media company. Few of them had any experience outside radio. WGN-AM is such a small part of the Tribune family.

Some of you need to understand how the business world operates. CEOs and upper management in large companies don't carry on the way these guys did. Michaels got hired only because of Sam Zell, & the rest of the gang got hired only because of Randy.

I worked for Michaels at 2 different stations. I never once thought he was a genius, and I still don't. He was a successful programmer at some of the stations he worked at. Nothing more, nothing less. As a manager, he was terrible.
 
ouuc said:
In this case, you had radio people running an entire media company. Few of them had any experience outside radio. WGN-AM is such a small part of the Tribune family.

Some of you need to understand how the business world operates. CEOs and upper management in large companies don't carry on the way these guys did. Michaels got hired only because of Sam Zell, & the rest of the gang got hired only because of Randy.

I worked for Michaels at 2 different stations. I never once thought he was a genius, and I still don't. He was a successful programmer at some of the stations he worked at. Nothing more, nothing less. As a manager, he was terrible.
Click to expand...

And with that important thing taken care of, one more thing about WGN--you do not make changes there willy-nilly the way that Michaels and Pig Virus were. Changes at WGN are done gradually and when it's time. The WGN of Y2K was never the WGN of 1985 or 1970 or 1955, but it still had its unique outlook, which is an outlook of serving Chicago and being a part of Chicago. Michaels and Pig Virus simply pulled out their standard right-wing talk playbook and tried to force WGN into that cubbyhole, and it didn't work, especially in a market where WLS and WIND serve those needs quite adequately.
 
Prais said:
"Michaels and Pig Virus simply pulled out their standard right-wing talk playbook and tried to force WGN into that cubbyhole,"
____________
Seemed to me THAT was better than all the North shore "lefties" that have controlled things for a few years.

Steve & Johnnie, Roy Leonard, John Williams, Kathy and Judy, etc. All libs. Just this morning, Steve King was talking about how he "respects everyones viewpoint. " Sure, as long as that view matches his own,
or, has Les Paul's or Son of Svengoolie,s or Website Wednesday or "Annette's (had to hear him use the same inane joke about 5 times today) name on it.

Glad s&j are off on vacation, but really stuttering Nick and anti-Catholic Brian aren't any better.

Really,, I'm GLAD there is a "local" overnight show" but sometimes they are a bit over the top. Playing their theme song at 2:05 Monday morning, and killing 30 minutes talking about their "great weekend."
Click to expand...

I like Steve King. I've been listening to him since 1967 when he was on WLTH.
 
Mark Jeffries said:
nd with that important thing taken care of, one more thing about WGN--you do not make changes there willy-nilly the way that Michaels and Pig Virus were.
Click to expand...

No, better they should wait untill the station, outside of baseball season, goes below 30th instead of just outside the top 20 in 25-54... and wait till billing is 60% or so off its peak instead of just off by a third or so.

Changes at WGN are done gradually and when it's time.
Click to expand...

It was time 10 years ago.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Mark Jeffries said:
Changes at WGN are done gradually and when it's time.
Click to expand...

It was time 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

More like 20-25 years ago. Back then, Bob Collins was the only reason for anyone younger than 80 to listen to WGN ouside of sports.
 
Nobody is ALL good or ALL bad..and I'm here to tell you that Randy Michaels AND his cronies damn near saved my life. There are things about that guy that I guess few will know, but he always treated me fairly, and professionally and I will be grateful to him for a long long time.

As for working with him? Sure, it was edgy, uber-competitive, and at some times fraternalistic, and a lot of the time..fun! This is Randy's style..different yup, but not all bad. I have worked for him at no less than three stations, and with him and his companies as a vendor for over 25 years. Randy knows radio.

As for newspaper and TV..it's certainly a different venue with much more stoic and sterile cosmetics than "boogie radio" however a lesson in change could be learned. Certainly WGN is a monolith and a heritage, but the Tribune papers, and several of thier TV outlets can use a facelift..become more compelling, and get talked about more.

With the mere presence of Randy Michaels at the helm of that company..I would bet that the word "Tribune" has never been typed into more computers as part of a running commentaray about media as much as in the last few years..and as they say..all press is good press.

He'll land on his feet, and I'd be pleased to work with him again.
 
And, by the way, the WGN-AM cume & AQH are both down again. So goes the "genius" argument. Yeah, it's 6+, but that's all I have access to.
 
And, by the way, the WGN-AM cume & AQH are both down again. So goes the "genius" argument. Yeah, it's 6+, but that's all I have access to.
ouuc
The "genius" argument is still valid. WGN IS down a bit, but it should have been down even more. Down a few thousand listeners in the CUME and 4/10ths of a point in AQH. 'Tis October. Baseball interest was waning. Football interest is slim at best. And, this is an election year and most folks are checking the Conservative talkers and the News stations. All in all, WGN was respectable.
 
Goldear said:
And, by the way, the WGN-AM cume & AQH are both down again. So goes the "genius" argument. Yeah, it's 6+, but that's all I have access to.
ouuc
The "genius" argument is still valid. WGN IS down a bit, but it should have been down even more. Down a few thousand listeners in the CUME and 4/10ths of a point in AQH. 'Tis October. Baseball interest was waning. Football interest is slim at best. And, this is an election year and most folks are checking the Conservative talkers and the News stations. All in all, WGN was respectable.
Click to expand...

WGN is not even in the top 20 in 25-54 outside of baseball.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom