• 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

Quote of the Day

B

bierkenstock

Guest
This is not an auspicious start.

The lead from Mikey Klein's column in today's Inquirer:

"My husband says I'm a good talker. Why not get paid for it?" says Susanne LaFrankie, Philly's newest call-in host.

LaFrankie starts Tuesday on WPHT-AM (1210) as part of the Big Talker's revamped nighttime talk lineup.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13524314.htm
----

This brings other questions to mind:

What else does your husband say you're good at, and does he think you should get paid for that, too?
Does this guy work, or are you supporting him?

Klein also quotes LeFrankie as saying, "There are not too many females on the air in talk radio." Ironically, as Klein points out, coincident with hiring LaFrankie, the station dumped Rollye James. Maybe LeFranke is math-challenged and does not realize there is no net gain for women in talk radio here; maybe even a loss because an experienced female host with a following is out and replaced by a female host with no radio experience and no following. (LeFrankie used to be an Action News stand-up Barbie put now she's well past 40 and Disney tends to favor the post-Mouseketeer look in street reporters). Well, at least her husband will listen.

Some PHT programming decisions are corporate mandates (like Jay Severin), but for this one PD Grace Blazer probably has only herself to blame. Blazer is no ball of fire; she may even be incompetent enough to program Air America Radio if her latest hire is any indication. Whom will she hire next? Gwen Scott? Sally Quinn?

Word is Blazer is keeping Dom Giordono around because if Clear Channel/Premiere Radio does pull their shows off "The Big Talker" (Beck, Rush, Noory) in order to flip one of the company's own FM stations to talk, Blazer will have slots to fill. In which case, Rollye may be back. Could be why Rollye is quoted in Klein's column saying only nice things about 'PHT.
 
Not radio talk experience, but LaFrankie does have radio news experience on Lehigh Valley and (I think) Harrisburg radio stations. And not an FM co-host news reader. She worked at AM stations with real news departments. This was before her time at Channel 6.
 
> Not radio talk experience, but LaFrankie does have radio
> news experience on Lehigh Valley and (I think) Harrisburg
> radio stations. And not an FM co-host news reader. She
> worked at AM stations with real news departments. This was
> before her time at Channel 6.
>
And to be fair, one cannot take two quotes in a gossip column completely out of context, in what was almost certainly a much longer interview, and assume it says anything about one's philosophy or qualifications.

Furthermore, it isn't accurate to suggest she was pushed out at WPVI due to some imagined age discrimination campaign. Suzanne herself has said she chose to leave the station because she didn't want the full time gig--they wanted her there full time, "post Mousketeer" or not.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom