As I recall WLUP brought Steve Dahl in to play "Highway to Hell" stuff before the flip to K-Love
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Radio of the Past: Revenge of the fired jock.
- Thread starter b-turner
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
At the last station I did any hands on air work for, new owners were changing the format, let us announce on the air for a whole week that there was going to be a format change, then on the Saturday night before the all-day Sunday stunt loop started, I got to be the primary air talent for a six-hour, no hot clock, farewell show. The audience kept all the phone lines busy with their calls, all of the other full-timers came in and participated (I was AM drive/APD/MD) and I never had a more rewarding experience in my life.
The new owners' trust in us was well-placed. We even asked the listeners -- several times -- not to call them and complain, because it was their station now and they had every right to program it as they wanted.
I still have all six hours archived, unscoped.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
You jogged my memory back to when NBC's CHR/AOR network The Source issued a bunch of gag commercials on vinyl for affiliates to use as they saw fit.
Someone actually digitized them and put them online at some point (although I cannot locate the site now ... maybe it's gone offline). My favorite was "Mama Muchos frozen Mexican entrees" in which a "balls to the walls" announcer mispronounces the name of every variety:
"Free-jollies!" "Tay-kos!" "Toast-a-duhs!"
Probably couldn't get away with airing them nowadays ... *sigh* 🙄
Reminds me of about day 2 on the air, a kid from Dallas in a border town that's 97% Hispanic. I announce a weather sponsor as these words: villa-real sausage. I had a friend in high school with that last name and that's how everyone pronounced it. After the office erupts in laughter, they teach me Vee-uh-ree-ahl. They began teaching me how to pronounce each letter in Spanish so I could sound out words.
I'm surprised he didn't electrocute himself!
One time the local BBN affiliate was off the air or having signal problems and when I tried to listen I heard a heavy metal station on a nearby frequency playing a song with the words "Our father who ain't in Heaven".
It's common in every business these days to get the fired employee out of the building immediately. It ain't just radio.
However, I've been given notice at two stations and permitted to finish my last shows so a very belated shoutout follows:
KROQ/L.A. - I gave two weeks notice that I'd be going to K-WEST (not only another station but a format competitor). The station manager knew how hard it was for me to leave (I was there to sign the station on) and wasn't afraid I'd do anything to hurt the station. My last 15 minutes was the most emotional quarter hour of my career.
KMEL/S.F. - I was doing mornings (which was a total mismatch) when the station hired Alex Bennett to replace me. I worked my last shift, had a cup of coffee with GM Rick Lee (RIP Rick, a class act and one of the finest men I've known) and went home to recover from two years of sleep deprivation (I never was a morning person)!
I never forgot the trust these GMs had in me. They inspired me to be a better man.
- Bob Gowa
However, I've been given notice at two stations and permitted to finish my last shows so a very belated shoutout follows:
KROQ/L.A. - I gave two weeks notice that I'd be going to K-WEST (not only another station but a format competitor). The station manager knew how hard it was for me to leave (I was there to sign the station on) and wasn't afraid I'd do anything to hurt the station. My last 15 minutes was the most emotional quarter hour of my career.
KMEL/S.F. - I was doing mornings (which was a total mismatch) when the station hired Alex Bennett to replace me. I worked my last shift, had a cup of coffee with GM Rick Lee (RIP Rick, a class act and one of the finest men I've known) and went home to recover from two years of sleep deprivation (I never was a morning person)!
I never forgot the trust these GMs had in me. They inspired me to be a better man.
- Bob Gowa
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I found them again!
The "Mama Muchos" spot is on disc 1, side 2.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
As long as I am in this thread again, and reading Bob Gowa's post (hi, Bob!) about those rare instances where you get to literally stay until your last day, it occurred to me that I had posted such an example from my own career in another thread.
For those who did not see it there, here's a link to it:
For those who did not see it there, here's a link to it:
Kinda reminds me of the opportunity I had to say goodbye at an AM that went dark. See the video of the on air farewell here- Last minutes of KSTN AM
After I got cut off the AC and classic rock stations at the cluster where I was working, I was tempted to play “Take This Job (And Shove It)” on the news/talk station when the Real Estate Show gave me a few seconds to say goodbye. I decided against it because my OM was such an evil monster I was afraid he’d punish the real estate agents who came in to do the show.
When I showed up at the competition a few weeks later, I dedicated “Leave (Get Out)” by JoJo to him on the Top-40 station and, when voicetracking at the country station down the hall, I mentioned him by name after playing “Kiss This” by Aaron Tippin.
God, what a nightmare working for that guy was! He wasn’t running a radio station. He was playing a game, and he thoroughly enjoyed all the damage he was inflicting on his employees’ lives.
When I showed up at the competition a few weeks later, I dedicated “Leave (Get Out)” by JoJo to him on the Top-40 station and, when voicetracking at the country station down the hall, I mentioned him by name after playing “Kiss This” by Aaron Tippin.
God, what a nightmare working for that guy was! He wasn’t running a radio station. He was playing a game, and he thoroughly enjoyed all the damage he was inflicting on his employees’ lives.
Did his first name start with "G"?
No. I was actually excited to get a chance to work with him at first because he had previously been a format director at EZ Communications and had worked in several major markets. I was hoping to learn a few things from him, but I, unfortunately, quickly found out why he was suddenly in our small market. The decision had been made to sell the company, and the owners didn’t want to trim the payroll themselves. So, they brought someone in who enjoyed doing that job. That someone was him.
Radio is one of the businesses where even if you do a good job you still can get shafted. At least in telecom you had a good severance package.
Well, I didn’t, but some people did. When I got the telecom job I left for radio, I arrived early enough to have access to the company’s big benefit package but too late to cash in on it. I remember some people who saw their stock options go up by tens of thousands in a single week, but, by the time I got there, the industry was about to go on the downslide. My options were never worth very much. By the time I converted them to actual stock, the stock was on its way down. On the bright side, I got to take the maximum loss deduction on my taxes for a couple years after selling the shares of stock a few years after I left.
I took a major bath in that stock, but, after the radio stations sold to Cumulus, I, fortunately, didn’t buy any of its stock. It was trading at over $20/share the day Cumulus walked in, and it was worthless 15 years later.
I heard from numerous folks a smarter than me who say never buy stock in the company you work for. You will get plenty on it in the 409k. If things go south you lose your job and your investment.
My old company let us self invest, so I bought index funds. When I left they were (and are) still worth more than my old company’s stock would be if I were fully vested (which would have taken 5 years and it wouldn’t have been worth it).
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The last publicly traded company I worked for was Cumulus, and that was 20 years ago. I'd say that's probably sound advice, but the telecom stock I had did pay dividends, at least for awhile. That's what I look for when I buy stocks. I do, however, have several different portfolios in addition to stocks I chose, and they tend to be invested in multiple stocks and funds. In the end, you don’t have control over where those funds put your money.
When I worked for Cumulus, if I remember correctly, the employee stock purchase program allowed you to invest a percentage of your paycheck. It would be stored in an account, which would then buy the company stock at the end of the year at the lowest price it traded at all year. It's been 20 years, though, and I might not remember the details exactly. I didn’t make enough to buy company stock and only stayed a little longer than three months. Don't know if it still has a plan today, but it looks like the company is still publicly traded. If there's ever a resurgence in advertising and it still has the same plan, employees will probably end up making a steal. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen, though.
Leaving telecom for radio was a huge paycut, but I never regretted it. Didn’t regret leaving radio full-time a few years later either!
If your employer has a stock purchase plan you can usually buy the stock at a 15% discount and then, in most cases, sell it immediately for a guaranteed 15%, or more gain. That's a no brainer.