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Rumor-Roney out,Beck In

C

ChuckRoast

I've just heard that WGY has fired Al Roney and will be running Glenn Beck.

If this is true it's too bad, unless you're a fan of right wing rants. I see a great opportunity for Paul Vandenburgh who used to be Al's boss on WROW. I hope Al goes to Talk 1300.

WGDJ-Local Talk

WGY-Take the money and run loco talk.
 
I don't think Vandenburgh could afford to pay Al Roney enough so that he could make a living. WGY IMO made a huge mistake by shutting out local talk. The only time I listen to WGY is for news, the rest of their programming is garbage. Gallagher is nothing more than foolishness, they ought to get rid of him. Don Weeks who is 71 years of age should step down, retire and give someone like Roney that has a wife and 2 kids to support a job. I am sure Don can pick up some supplemental income by doing spots for clients.
 
Did it come out from WGY that shortly after Glenn Beck lost WROW that in effect WGY was not interested? I am willing to bet that Chuck Custer said "no". And of course WGY is owned by Clear Channel which airs Glenn Beck in most of its many markets. I am willing to bet that after being turned down by Custer, The syndicator for Glenn Beck went to Clear Channel corporate and "twisted their arms". Clear Channel of course is in very deep financial trouble saw this as a way to substitute less expensive syndicated program and overruled Custer. Custer said that he hopes for improvement in the ratings for 9AM until 12N. What were the ratings, were they any different than previous to Roney? How did they compare to Talk 1300 which has Paul V. and Fred Dicker on in that timeframe? Better yet, how did Roney's ratings compare to Becks on WROW? I think it would be absurd to compare talk format ratings with music format ratings.
 
Poor Al saw this coming. Last week he took a call just before the top of the hour from some unemployed guy who had been out of work for 80 weeks. Al said he too could be out of work anytime soon.
 
This is a very stupid move on GY's part. Record Beck then play him back in some other day part. If you look at the TU comments, AM just lost another "clump" of listeners.
 
cspence said:
Poor Al saw this coming. Last week he took a call... from some unemployed guy who had been out of work... Al said he too could be out of work anytime soon.
Click to expand...

While it's no surprise that WGY would grab Beck because it would be less costly than paying a Roney to do a local show, the fact of the matter is, I'm sure Al would be upholding this lament had WROW still been on the air - that's the radio business...

And I'm with Knickman, I'm curious as to how Beck and Roney feared head-to-head up until WROW's demise.
 
You all fail to understand one point critical to what happened to Al. That WGY's parent is owned by a venture capitol holding company that got stuck holding the Clear Channel bag - when destructive and immoral business practices converged with an economic depression for the perfect storm.

Bain (Mitt Romeny's company) had planned to flip the company in the over heated market. Oops, their bad. Now they are stuck, like many who bought homes in the sunbelt in the bubble, with a property worth maybe half of what they owe, on a good day.

Beck is the hottest property in talk media right now. Moreover, he is multi-platform hot, something only a Disney product ever achieves.

But, beyond that....

CC's day to day operations are still run by the Mengele Family, which means that the long term plan to run the entire operation - all 800 & some stations - from one location, using just one big building full of "talent" is still on target. "Local" traffic in many markets comes from a studio hundreds of miles away, ditto the news. Local personalities and support staff are being tossed enmass.

Albany is market #63, which in a good year has a total market revenue, all stations, all owners of maybe a week's worth of CC NYC cluster take alone. The value of a radio station is not its ratings but that it is. So long as they are not dark the FCC could give a fig. CC is in such a mess right now that they are going to run the entire operation as close to dark as possible.

Listeners are no longer the point, not since broadcasters were relieved of their license obligation to serve their communities by Mr. Clinton's FCC.
 
Understood MT1. Lets stop listening and send their ratings in the toilet, and their revenues drop even farther and they go dark or sell for 20 cents on the dollar to someone who will run it correctly.
 
It's all already for sale and yes, ratings in any single market going into the toilet or beyond the moon - either way, are no longer part of the equation.

They have not been since consolidation.

WGY is one of several in a cluster. The cluster is marketed as a package. Weakness in any single station or demographic is compensated for by the others.

That said, agency buys (the only ones that use ratings to place buys) are chump change below market #25 (the rest are covered for pennies a market by placing ads on...wait for it.... shows like Glenn Beck's!

Local sales people in Albany trade in personal relationships, favors granted and returned, and then again in personal relationships. I offer up Paul V as my only exhibit and rest my case on that point. Who else in a post analog world could ever pull off a stand-alone, 1300 AM signal that has a .05 mv of like three blocks and not only make money BUT have the infleuence that he has.

That also explains the utter failure of Pamal, a company in business to seemingly lead the league in bridge burning with critical people and institutions who would have insulated them somewhat from their now inevitable, eventual demise as a viable business enterprise.

I don't know what you mean by running WGY correctly, from a venture investor's point of view it is being run very well.... very well to a venture investor is exactly opposite to the interests of the community. That leaves Paul V as the last standing real broadcaster serving the market.
 
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