• 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

Shake up at Curtis Media Winston-Salem/Raleigh

Maybe this is all wrong but I'm told Mike Blackman left last week after a going away party. What is the big deal with you rkramden? What I know about Max he told me this morning. Happy Thanksgiving.
 
I'm just going by what you said....

(quote) "he is retiring at the end of this year. He also said he had not thought much about it until the last year or two. Mike Blackman planned to retire this year and has."

Is he going to retire at the end of the year (like you said) or he has planned to retire and has. (like you also said)

Words mean things...use 'em!
That's all.
 
YoungRadioBlood said:
There is 790 the ball out of Winston-Salem which airs Mark Pacman from Charlotte from 3-7pm and airs Fox Sports Radio/Dan Patrick throughout the rest of the day. Their ratings are absolutely horrendous. I don't know if 24 hours of Sporting News Radio with no local shows is much of an upgrade.

Does SNR ever do well?? I've lived in a bunch of different areas in the country and it always seems SNR is always on a low level AM station that doesn't do well.
High Point, not Winston-Salem. With their limited nighttime signal, it makes a big difference where they are.

WAAA, which is in Winston-Salem, was all-sports for a while but Truth Broadcasting bought them. Actually, the format probably hasn't changed.
 
Hourly said:
Maybe this is all wrong but I'm told Mike Blackman left last week after a going away party. What is the big deal with you rkramden? What I know about Max he told me this morning. Happy Thanksgiving.
My father went to college with Max Meeks and he said even then, it was clear this man had the ability to make something of himself. I don't remember the exact words, but that's the general idea.

I only lived in High Point for two years but Max Meeks was a pretty big deal.
 
I wish Max Meeks the best. He is one of the nicest individuals I have ever worked with.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my humble opinion, WMFR dropped their news/talk format a long time ago. Its a shell of the station it used to be and I am disappointed in CMG for not attempting to revive WMFR rather than prostitute it. If there's anything positive about this format change, and I'm really searching to come up with something positive, at least for the time being, WMFR will not be all religious or Spanish.

And one more thing. All these folks telling us what's going on inside the bowels of CMG over in Raleigh reminds me of a story. I knew a person who used to work at 1470 WBIG in the eighties. Every time I talked with them they told me Jefferson-Pilot was moving heaven and earth to get an FM in the Triad. To me it sounded like they must have had a desk in the corner of the office of Jeff Pilot's President. JP's corporate HQ offices were in Greensboro and most of the broadcast bigwigs were in the Queen City. Not only did Jeff-Pilot not get a Triad FM, it seems the Charlotte bigwigs convinced the folks at JP HQ in Greensboro to give the WBIG license back to the FCC and sign the station off. So much for having the inside scoop.
So my question is, are all you boys and girls with the news about CMG eating supper over at Don Curtis' house?
 
I have been silent on this discussion board for quite a while, just been too damn busy. However, this issue brings me to life on a couple of points:

1- To say Freeman is "out" at WSJS implies he has been fired. I would suggest that the move to PTF is a step up within the dame company. There is no doubt that the success of WPTF is higher on the list. An advertiser told me about the deal, so it appears to be the real thig. JR will take over morning duties and drive the train.

2- Max is a great broadcaster. Unfortunately, it was not CMG that let WMFR languish. In fact, it began under the AM/FM watch as what was once an heritage AM, began to decline. The sale to Clear Channel and the ultimate spin to CBS really marked the death knell for the station. WMFR is an expensive operation that can no longer generate revenue to support itself. A horrible lease on the "Radio Building" has become a very expensive "transmitter site" lease. Most of WMFR's programming comes through 5th and Summit - and if it were aimed at a rural transmitter site, it could still make sense (and some money). Clear Channel stuck CBS, and ultimately CMG with an un-winnable deal on the building. Too expensive to move the tower to make sense either.

3- The real question mark is what will WSJS do to replace Rush and Hannity? If it were my station, I would take the royalty savings from Rush (my guess is between WPTF and WSJS to be close to $250,000 a year) and hire a pair of good hosts (create a Hannity & Combs atmosphere) and solid producer and simulcast a North Carolina oriented program on 600, 680, and 1200. Don't ignore the national issues, but approach them fro the NC perspective AND hold the feet of the Governor and Legislature to the fire. This is something Rush can't do, but could compete with him! Run it t 4PM.

From 4-7PM, do an NC/ACC/NASCAR oriented sports talk show, with news, traffic and weather, and put the "all sports" signals out of their misery/

What do ya think?
 
Thanks for the kind words.

I am happy where I am at the moment, have always been interested in improving my position. I have never burned a bridge and am always open to suggestions. I love radio - spent 40 years doing virtually every job in the building - and it doesn't leave the blood easily.

I don't see myself retiring in the next ten or 15 years unless it is for health reasons.
 
Powerdon is right!!!!! Hobos do loves some ham sandwiches!!!! Mike Finney is right, too!!!! Hot damn, he even TYPES like TT!!!!! ;D ;D ;D
 
triadradionewsman said:
I wish Max Meeks the best. He is one of the nicest individuals I have ever worked with.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my humble opinion, WMFR dropped their news/talk format a long time ago. Its a shell of the station it used to be and I am disappointed in CMG for not attempting to revive WMFR rather than prostitute it. If there's anything positive about this format change, and I'm really searching to come up with something positive, at least for the time being, WMFR will not be all religious or Spanish.

And one more thing. All these folks telling us what's going on inside the bowels of CMG over in Raleigh reminds me of a story. I knew a person who used to work at 1470 WBIG in the eighties. Every time I talked with them they told me Jefferson-Pilot was moving heaven and earth to get an FM in the Triad. To me it sounded like they must have had a desk in the corner of the office of Jeff Pilot's President. JP's corporate HQ offices were in Greensboro and most of the broadcast bigwigs were in the Queen City. Not only did Jeff-Pilot not get a Triad FM, it seems the Charlotte bigwigs convinced the folks at JP HQ in Greensboro to give the WBIG license back to the FCC and sign the station off. So much for having the inside scoop.
So my question is, are all you boys and girls with the news about CMG eating supper over at Don Curtis' house?
Theree was a WBIG-FM, at least briefly. The music was a joke, but they tried to bring back WBIG the way it was with the personalities. The problem was trying to mix country with other musical styles. I always thought that should have been an oldies staton.

Now we know it as 102 Jamz.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom