Gotta love it when the chickens come home to roost!
> The following is an open letter to the Radio-Info.Com
> participant who goes by the user name CCCOXRENDA (an
> amalgamation of the names or abbreviations of three
> corporations who do radio in Jacksonville):
That was the name I posted under back then. Here it comes... (braces for impact)
> In the spring of 2004 you used this forum to run through
> a list of people who had recently been fired by
> Cox/Jacksonville, citing the "official" reasons why they
> were let go, then offering your "insider knowledge" of the
> REAL reasons why they were sent packing.
Which were things I had heard from what I considered to be reliable sources, and were in no way meant to represent tangible reality (I wasn't being a journalist) or make me seem like a bigshot. We'll get into that later.
> In many cases your
> information was correct.
Thank GOD.
> However, in several instances you
> simply regurgitated the kind of rumors one hears from the
> smokers out back by the dumpster, or the kind of "official"
> justification for firing people that a corporation offers in
> order to hide the fact that they're making massive budget
> cuts because they can't really afford the fancy new digs
> they're broadcasting from.
I'd like to know which ones were wrong, since I only care about knowing the truth about things, and hopefully spreading it as well. I never meant to advertise what I posted as anything more than "what I heard", and I'm sorry if anyone took them more seriously than they were meant. I thought this was an inherent understanding on internet message boards.
> In these latter instances, your effort to make yourself
> look like an enlightened bigshot served only to damage the
> reputations of people who didn't deserve to be fired and who
> had done you no harm.
If I hurt anyone's feelings, I'm sorry about that. None of the parties I mentioned were ever unkind to me in any way, and my frankness probably came off as callousness. I liked all of them I mentioned.
By the way, if you actually knew me, you'd know I never seek to grandstand or look like an "enlightened bigshot". I was merely sharing what I'd heard (and foolishly, apparently, if some of the information was incorrect). I do think that generally people who work in a facility with people tend to know a little more about why they were let go if that time arrives. Perhaps I'm wrong about that. Rumors are lame no matter where they originate, and I helped spread them. That was stupid on my part.
Again, apologies to Pat, Jay, Paul, Trane, Hoyle, Ashley, Tony, and Billy. I sincerely enjoyed working with all of you, and was very unhappy when Cox let you go. Doesn't change the reality of the situations, but please know that my post meant no harm and was merely attempting to clear up otherwise bullshit rumors that were going around. Apparently I failed, since some information was incorrect. For that, I'm sorry. Perhaps you, "Largo", are one of the ones hurt by my post. For that I sincerely apologize.
> I only hope you never find yourself
> the victim of such misinformed grandstanding if Cox ever
> decides to turf YOU.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, though it would be sour grapes to go into it. I just resigned from Cox three weeks ago after a period of inactivity (they no longer needed me after the weekend shows' contracts were up at the end of March) and a year spent as a part-timer after RESIGNING my FULL-TIME (as in, salaried) imaging/production director position in January 2004 so I could take care of my kids while my wife attends law school.
> Then again, you'll probably never be a
> significant enough (or highly-paid enough) employee to
> warrant termination; I suspect you'll always be a low-level
> part-timer.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. Obviously you were deeply hurt by something I wrote to move you to callously cast me off and impugn my credibility and talent in such a way. Does it make you feel better to rip me in such a way? I hope so, because it certainly craps all over your argument that you're somehow better because I mentioned some potentially disparaging things about my former co-workers who I actually liked (that in reality, were sometimes true, though not necessarily nice) - it didn't change how I felt about them, though, and it certainly shouldn't have affected their employability - after all, I'm never going to be more than a "low-level part-timer", right?
> By the way, where was your "insider" response to Cox's
> Christmas Day massacre at the old WKQL? Did that one hit a
> little too close to home for you?
It's sad that you'd bring this up. Shows some serious class deficiencies on your part. Well, we have these things called "non-compete clauses", and I really didn't want to jeopardize my wife's situation or my own part-time job (I worked regularly for The Eagle until the end of March - doing grunt production stuff) by expressing how I felt about the situation. I'll have you know that I thought it was pretty crappy the way it went down, and I know Heather loved working with Dave at the old Cool, but more than anything, I understand it, because I accept this business. It's tough, it's unfair, and it's hard to deal with sometimes, but in the end, it's BUSINESS. Getting emotional about it only hurts YOU, because in honesty, everyone else has moved on. I enjoyed the nice six-month partially-paid "vacation" I've had with my wife (we're smart - we had savings, though it was still SCARY), and she's getting ready for her new job at 106.5 The Promise. She starts July 5th (strangely, exactly 180 days from her termination date).
> And couldn't you have found a better user name than
> CCCOXRENDA? From what I hear, a more appropriate name for
> you would be SLAP HAPPY.
Well, not anymore, since that band (whose name you spelled WRONG - it's one word: SLAPHAPPY) has been defunct since early February.
I picked CCCOXRENDA because I wanted to be able to "speak freely" without jeopardizing my job. Companies are really crappy about that sort of thing these days. I know many who do that sort of thing. I thought it was quite fun. Looking back, I wish I had included Salem, too.
Of course, anyone who thinks they're truly anonymous on here is deluded, but that's beside the point.
If you're so keen on all this, why not share who you are?
I'm not afraid to tell everyone who I am now that I'm no longer employed by Cox.
My name is Brian V. (if you read this post last night, you would have seen my last name - my wife removed it) I worked for over 7 years in various jobs for what is now Cox Radio, Jacksonville. I LOVED working there. I LOVED my co-workers (still do). I had jobs ranging from such low-level, part-time gigs as running the board for WOKV, producing the morning show on the old Mix 103 (which was fun...
), briefly (and really miserably) as a news reporter for WOKV (thanks to Mike Dorwart for the opportunity - sorry it didn't work out), and eventually as a medium-level, full-time Imaging Director/Production Manager for WKQL (although my production work was for all five (or six, when we had AM 600) stations).
I harbor no ill will toward anyone there, including the local people who were directly involved in the flip from Cool to Eagle (which affected my family profoundly, since I'm married to Heather White), in fact, we just ran into one of them at the Avenues the other day and invited him to sit down and have dinner with us. It was nice.
I am sad if things I've posted in the past have hurt people's feelings or have been interpreted in a way that doesn't take into account that they were merely statements of things I had heard from reliable (so I thought) sources, mostly in management at Cox.
To anyone who my statements may have hurt - I AM DEEPLY SORRY.
I think Cox Jacksonville is a great place to work - they have great, talented air staffs full of awesome people like Heather Shea, Cole Pepper, Mike Cella, Chase Daniels, Tony Mann, Don Garrard, and Patti Haze. They have great behind-the-scenes guys (and gals), like the supremely talented gents I worked with in Production - Matt Ray, Rob Barr, Scott Thomas, and Terry Reynolds (my successor in my full-time job). A great promotions crew, great traffic ladies (I love you gals!), great people in sales, and great people in management like Michelle Hegeman, Dick Williams, and Ken Brady. It's truly a class operation. I was proud to work there, and I am thoroughly proud of the work I did there.
No matter what I posted in early 2004, I wouldn't have posted it if I thought it wasn't true, and I didn't post that stuff to "puff myself up" or try to act like a bigshot. I was just trying to clarify some of the situation because some really lame rumors were swirling and I wanted to share my perspective, which I thought (callously) was accurate.
It is not my interest to bash anyone or any company (except in fun...but that's usually followed by a winking smiley face). I bear no ill will towards Cox Radio or anyone who worked there past or present.
I'm currently a musician - I play in three cover bands that play around Jacksonville, including as a fill-in for Big Al & The Kaholics (for my friend from Cox, Mark Frank). That's my current "low-level, part-time" job.
May God bless your tortured soul, "Largo". Since you know who I am, you could have easily reached me personally and aired this stuff out, but instead you chose the coward's path and decided to air it out here, on a public forum, specifically to call me out and discredit me because I obviously hit you too close to home in some way, which, I'm sure, is why you chose to challenge my talent and my success, or lack thereof, by spreading lies of your own about them.
I forgive you for your trespasses. Please forgive me for mine. I am sorry.
I'm deeply sorry if I offended anyone with my posts, and I'm especially sorry if I participated in spreading lies. If I was spreading difficult truths, well, I'm sort of sorry about that, too, since they can still hurt people. But hey, the truth hurts. Thinking about my career path at Cox kind of hurt a little...
Take care, God bless, and I wish the best to everyone...including you, "Largo".
Brian V. (again, last name removed by my wife...she's so protective!
)
