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NextMedia Cuts in Canton

S

Speaker of Truth

WHBC-AM has eliminated several people this afternoon..

Jim Albright afternoon talk show host

Don Guisnger--creator of their website, tracking FM weekends, anchoring AM weekend news

John Knoblock--Production Director

Steve Luke--Assistant News Director and AM morning drive news anchor

Tom Jarrett--former midday host when music was on AM..had hosted Sunday AM "Tradio" and done PM drive traffic with the talk format

Doug Ankerman--copywriter


These are some solid, talented people..if you can..give them a buzz or send them some good karma this weekend..
 
It is, very sadly, true. Here's the item:

http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2009/02/nextmedia-lays-down-axe-in-canton.html

Eight out, six full-timers (Steve Luke on his own move), along with two Mix part-timers.

Jim Albright is replaced, as of this afternoon, by Sam Bourquin in afternoon drive. It sounds like Sam isn't doing a "sports talk" show, though as a sports guy, he's done a little in the first hour...but not the "Team A is gonna beat Team B" kinda stuff.

What is it about afternoon drive general shows hosted by sports guys? :D Don't forget a certain former NFL star up here...

Sam was quite open when someone asked where Jim Albright was - mentioned the economy and job cuts, and wished him well.

Tom Jarrett, who hung in after NM turned 1480 talk, is also out, as are what appear to be both production guys.
 
I know times are tough, but this takes the cake among the recent wave of layoffs in northeast Ohio radio. NextMedia appears set on completely dismantling its Canton stations. Isn't this the third or fourth round of cutbacks in as many years?

Hopefully all of those individuals who lost their jobs will land on their feet.
 
I can't see Bourquin doing morning drive sports, afternoon drive talk, Friday night sports, Saturday morning sports talk, and being able to keep from falling over.

I'm wondering how permanent he is in PMD, or if others (whoever's left on the existing staff) will take some of those other duties. Or if he's in PMD only until they find a syndicated show.

The poor guy was sick on Friday, and worked a marathon through today!
 
Two points:

The WHBC website "Shows" page now has changed the 3-7 slot on the schedule to "The Afternoon Drive Show". Are we leaping to conclusions that Sam's name isn't on it? See above. If the poor guy were working any harder, they'd have to change the station name to "Sam 1480"!

And there is another entrant in the afternoon syndicated general talk sweepstakes. Dial Global is pushing "The Schnitt Show" 3-6 PM ET with Todd Schnitt, based in Tampa at WFLA/970. (He's also known by his FM air name, "M.J. Kelli", on their sister top 40 station. Todd Schnitt is his real name.)

The show is produced out of a Clear Channel talker, but as mentioned, it's not syndicated by Premiere. WHLO/640 is unlikely to run it, at least live, since they have Hannity...
 
More points:

Just who is going to fill in for Fred Chevney during his vacation time on AM Drive..better yet, who is being groomed to be his eventual replacement? Or is NextMedia going to just plug in Don Imus or Mancow and be done with it? Jim Albright was pretty much the only local answer they had to answer the above question..now what?

Was this a question of the WHBC combo not billing on either side of the building?

Or is WHBC again being asked to take the brunt of Denver's inability to properly manage a small group of radio properties?

NextMedia isn't just cutting to the bone here...they cut vital organs...

The people involved here were not just back office types who are easily replaced..

And why was the FM, which is tanking, losing only a couple of part timers? Are they now wall to wall tracked over the weekend?

Here's a question worth pondering..we've all heard of several companies that may well be looking for bankruptcy lawyers in 2009 and 2010..is NextMedia one of them?
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
I can't see Bourbon doing morning drive sports, afternoon drive talk, Friday night sports, Saturday morning sports talk, and being able to keep from falling over.

I'm wondering how permanent he is in PMD, or if others (whoever's left on the existing staff) will take some of those other duties. Or if he's in PMD only until they find a syndicated show.

The poor guy was sick on Friday, and worked a marathon through today!
Click to expand...

Didn't know who Bourquin was, but did make it a point to listen to WHBC-AM on the web from 3PM-7PM last Friday to see who Jim Albright's replacement would be. Recall he was complaining of a Cold and a few listeners
called in and told him about their home remedies. Couldn't have NextMedia waited for another few days when
Mr. Bourquin was felling better? To add insult to injury, he said after his PM talk show he was going to fly somewhere to do a Basketball game Play-by-Play on WHBC and then do the the post game report. Did he do his Saturday morning sports show on WHBC? It looks like he was working for close to eighteen hours last
Friday on WHBC. I read the report on the Ohio Media Watch and see he wears many hats at WHBC.

I'm a fan of Jim Albright's and consider him very talented so I made it a point to check out the show after
the news broke on this thread. I see Ohio Media Watch was also on top on the situation at WHBC.
Mr. Albright seems to have a very loyal following so I expect to hear more people complaining of his untimely departure on WHBC-AM.
 
A couple of comments regarding WHBC: I listened to the Trade-io show on Sunday morning and Fred was hosting. He sounded like a guy who really didn't want to be there on a Sunday morning and was told to be there. He was probably wondering why their primary morning drive host was relegated to doing a call in flea market show. Secondly, I listened to Paul Harvey today during his mid-day report. I enjoy Paul, and I hate to say this, but he sounded horrible. His voice was very low, and spoke with little or no emotion, as if he was just reading the copy off of the paper in front of him. Finally, listening to Sam this afternoon, and I enjoy him, I don't know if this is going to work or not. He just seemed out of place, with many of the callers now knowing if they should be discussing sports with him, or issues about Canton. Most of the later part of the show seemed about picking a name for the show. If they ever offered a college course on what can happen when a national media group buys a dominate local station in a mid-market, WHBC and Next Media would be a perfect case study for that class.
 
Quite frankly I do not understand how a GM keeps his job when the radio group loses so much listening coupled with losing so much revenue in only two years. Maybe he is great at axing people without much emotion and that is his primary duty from corporate. We used to giggle at Q92 for making really dumb decisions in the past and we all admired WHBC for driving solid revenue and ratings. Now it is the opposite. Q92 has really done well establishing a position in the market and WHBC is a rudderless ship. Both stations. The only thing Next Media knows how to do is fire good people.

I too like Sam Berquin on sports. He's the reason I'd tune into morning drive. And his play-by-play skills are great. But a daily talk show host? I think he'll wear down in a few months and tire of it quickly. I would hate to see him leave WHBC. I can't listen to Pam Cook do sports in the morning. Ugg. I'll wait for the newspaper to get here and read about the games myself. I see Ron Ponder has taken a beating on some threads. I think his show has a nice local purpose. Some days he really mails it in but other days he can have some good local talk. But a station cannot survive off of one good local show. Oh well radio is the industry of disappointment. Good luck to Tom Jarred, Jim albright, Steve Luke and the others who lost their jobs. I hope they can find some decent work out there. If they leave radio it would be the best thing for them.
 
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