Hey:
HOPPERFIELD...good to see you're still around bro. I haven't talked to you since you left Maverick, so it's good to see you're still alive and well!
My thoughts on the topic are like this, and I'll start from the bottom and work my way up (kind of like my real life anyway, haha).
Any-who, I do believe that morning shows in small markets should be live and local too. I don't think that any PD, or past PD for that matter, will tell you in any different. So, I think you are correct in that. Unfortunantely, a lot has changed in our time in the biz with money and consolidation. The ability to buy three to four stations and place them in a cluster within a market the size of Lima and expecting it to make all of the $$$ is like asking someone to place a ham-bone in a room full of three or four pit bulls and telling them all, "OK, you guys share this and make sure there's plenty to go around for everyone".
It's somewhat impossible for that kind of scenario to work. Much like it's impossible for a market like Lima to have two clusters of stations, one owned by Clear Channel (the largest broadcast property in the world), and another owned by Maverick Media (a small ownership group based out of Connecticut), and both sides expecting to make the money in that market where the average household income ranges anywhere from $0.00 - $18,000, maybe $20,000...and anyone who has a "local" business within a market such as that will feel that pinch of those numbers as well. So, money from current and potential advertisers in a situation like that is sometimes hard to come by. Therefore, when there is little to no money from advertisers, management has to make the appropriate business decisions to keep business running. I may not like it, and the public may not like it either, but I (in the right mind that I have) am not able to look them in the eye and tell them, when a decision such as that is made, that they made the wrong one. They did what they had to do to keep the ship afloat (so to speak).
The fact is, it's a whole lot cheaper in a market like Lima for a small company like Maverick to put a syndicated morning show on that has a one time cost (and then once a year after that) when the contract is signed and just have it automated, then having to continuously worry week to week how the product that they are trying to sell will stay on the air intact and entertaining. Syndication is easy, and it's the easy way out if there is no money. That's my reply to that!
However, with that being said, I do think "Kidd Kraddick" was, and still is, an EXCELLENT addition to the Star 92.1 line-up. I think that it goes right after the target demo that Star, and Kennedy, are going for, and do believe that it will make the money that that station so desperetly needs. Will the other stations benefit (especially financially)? ...that's up in the air. I think the end result of it being truly successful will ultimately lie in the hands of those that are selling the program to the advertisers.
As a very good production friend of mine once told me, "you can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows it's there, it will continue to be that way!".
...and finally, in response to the issue of school delays and why for a short while they were incorrect, or why they were not airing at all...you would have to ask Splash Gordon (who is no longer employed by Maverick Media) that question as "HE" was the one responsible for making sure they went to the air during that specific time period. Management made that choice, and placed him there. When they did, the quality went down. Now that the man (the big man) who was doing the morning tech job prior to SPLASH is back in place and taking everything back to the organized way it was (and should be), you should notice a change for the better!
Hopefully that covers all of the ground that you covered in your post earlier Hop. If not, let me know. I'll be home all day today, and we can sit and have a beer and catch up! (by the way, let me know if you're going to be able to come to my wedding in May...I'd love to see you there!)
Chat with you soon man...
