• 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

Smith Patterson at WSJS?

S

stafferman

Hate to be typical "Rumor mill" poster but a little birdie told me that Smith Patterson is out at WSJS.

His profile has been removed from the WSJS website, it has been there FOR YEARS, I would imagine that would mean he is gone

http://wsjs.com/staff.asp

I knew there was too many happy press releases from Curtis Media, there had to be some people getting the axe with the "new lineup"

I honestly don't know how much Smith was making but Curtis Media, shame on you, trying to hang your hat as the "only local" outlet, you just got rid of the most local voice in the Triad. 3 decades of doing radio in this market.

Why would anyone tune into WSJS in the mornings now? I can't wait to hear who's replacing the news that Smith did, will the just use a national feed? NCNN?
 
For all of you who constantly bash Clear Channel for how they do business yet praise Curtis Media for being the "little guy that could", here's a reality check for you. I thought it was downright disgraceful that Clear Channel let a guy like Bill Flynn go without allowing him the opportunity to "say goodbye" after so many years of service in the market. Well, fast forward a year-plus and Curtis Media does the same damn thing. I realize having a live mic makes the suits nervous when allowing someone who is being let go to have their last hurrah, but come on. Be a freakin' human being!

Shame on Don Curtis, Phil Zachary, Ken Salyer, and Matt Clark for allowing Smitty to go out like that. A man with as many years behind the mic as he has deserved a proper goodbye, not a meeting in an office followed by an abrupt removal of his website profile page.

If that's not how it went down, I'll be the first to apologize to those I called out. But something tells me I'm pretty much right on the money here.
 
tcutini said:
For all of you who constantly bash Clear Channel for how they do business yet praise Curtis Media for being the "little guy that could", here's a reality check for you. I thought it was downright disgraceful that Clear Channel let a guy like Bill Flynn go without allowing him the opportunity to "say goodbye" after so many years of service in the market. Well, fast forward a year-plus and Curtis Media does the same damn thing. I realize having a live mic makes the suits nervous when allowing someone who is being let go to have their last hurrah, but come on. Be a freakin' human being!

Shame on Don Curtis, Phil Zachary, Ken Salyer, and Matt Clark for allowing Smitty to go out like that. A man with as many years behind the mic as he has deserved a proper goodbye, not a meeting in an office followed by an abrupt removal of his website profile page.

If that's not how it went down, I'll be the first to apologize to those I called out. But something tells me I'm pretty much right on the money here.
Click to expand...
Yeah, exactly - and comparing their stations in Raleigh, I don't see Curtis having more local/live people than Clear Channel - 96.1 is totally automated (I assume that's still the case)....
 
amos I think you Googled that link, there must be some outside link still up that leads to Smith's bio, if you go to www.wsjs.com then go to On Air Hosts, Smith has been removed.

WSJS's website probably hasn't change on iota in 7 years....But hey the stream works!
 
30 years at one radio station? Sounds pretty good to me. How would you expect him to go? A parade? A Friar's Club Roast?

None of us know what's going on in that building. This board has turned into "The Beef Box". No fun here. Must be out of Xanax at CVS.

Congratulations to Mr. Patterson on a job well done!
 
stafferman said:
www.wsjs.com then go to On Air Hosts, Smith has been removed.
Click to expand...

yes, that's why i said it probably didn't mean anything.

it just suprised me that it was still up, even though without any links from within their site.
 
surfdude said:
30 years at one radio station? Sounds pretty good to me. How would you expect him to go? A parade? A Friar's Club Roast?

None of us know what's going on in that building. This board has turned into "The Beef Box". No fun here. Must be out of Xanax at CVS.

Congratulations to Mr. Patterson on a job well done!
Click to expand...

When people spend as much time at one radio station as Smitty has, one would expect some sort of proper sendoff. Instead, he's there one day, gone the next with no explanation offered to the community of folks who grew up listening to him. That's what I'm pissed about. I understand that business is business and he was likely making more than anyone else there. That's fine. Nature of the business. But come on...you don't even give the guy a chance to say goodbye?
 
Smith has been a friend of mine since 1973 and is a "top[ notch" news man.. I hate to hear this!!!BIG APE
 
tcutini said:
surfdude said:
30 years at one radio station? Sounds pretty good to me. How would you expect him to go? A parade? A Friar's Club Roast?

None of us know what's going on in that building. This board has turned into "The Beef Box". No fun here. Must be out of Xanax at CVS.

Congratulations to Mr. Patterson on a job well done!
Click to expand...

When people spend as much time at one radio station as Smitty has, one would expect some sort of proper sendoff. Instead, he's there one day, gone the next with no explanation offered to the community of folks who grew up listening to him. That's what I'm pissed about. I understand that business is business and he was likely making more than anyone else there. That's fine. Nature of the business. But come on...you don't even give the guy a chance to say goodbye?
Click to expand...

Also a total slap in the face to the listeners.....the demo for a station like WSJS is already old as heck anyway. You're doing nothing but just pissing them off by getting rid of the guy they've been listening to for YEARS and providing no explanation.

Will J.R. Snider just quit or keep collecting a check until he's forced out? I don't even know why he'll keep at this.....Him & Smith did sound good on the air together when I would tune them in during the mornings. Now it's him and Bob Campbell? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense....
 
I heard him doing the news at 6:30....I remember hearing him on 94.1 a while back and he wasn't bad, he's just a DJ though....he's not a newsman. Sounded like he couldn't give two craps about the stories he was reading this morning.
 
tcutini said:
For all of you who constantly bash Clear Channel for how they do business yet praise Curtis Media for being the "little guy that could", here's a reality check for you. I thought it was downright disgraceful that Clear Channel let a guy like Bill Flynn go without allowing him the opportunity to "say goodbye" after so many years of service in the market. Well, fast forward a year-plus and Curtis Media does the same damn thing. I realize having a live mic makes the suits nervous when allowing someone who is being let go to have their last hurrah, but come on. Be a freakin' human being!
Click to expand...

I don't agree with this TJ, based on my own experience and others. I think Zac Davis was on the air until the last minute when they flipped The Beat, and also I was on the air until the last minute before they flipped La Preciosa. In both cases the change was known for a while.
 
tropicanamedia said:
I don't agree with this TJ, based on my own experience and others. I think Zac Davis was on the air until the last minute when they flipped The Beat, and also I was on the air until the last minute before they flipped La Preciosa. In both cases the change was known for a while.
Click to expand...

Right Carlos...but was the same courtesy extended to Bill Flynn? Rod Davis? And now, Smith Patterson? And the fact that management trusted guys like you and Zac not to embarrass the station was a testament to you guys as people. I know Smith very well and am 100% confident in saying he wouldn't fire off any parting shots on the way out, if he was given the opportunity to retire gracefully.

Someone over there didn't do a damn thing to convince the suits to let Smith have his day in the sun, and I suspect that person is the same one who didn't have the balls to look him in the face, shake his hand, and wish him well, instead choosing to hide in his office with the door closed. He must've been busy planning the next episode of Computer Talk.
 
tcutini said:
tropicanamedia said:
I don't agree with this TJ, based on my own experience and others. I think Zac Davis was on the air until the last minute when they flipped The Beat, and also I was on the air until the last minute before they flipped La Preciosa. In both cases the change was known for a while.
Click to expand...

Right Carlos...but was the same courtesy extended to Bill Flynn? Rod Davis? And now, Smith Patterson? And the fact that management trusted guys like you and Zac not to embarrass the station was a testament to you guys as people. I know Smith very well and am 100% confident in saying he wouldn't fire off any parting shots on the way out, if he was given the opportunity to retire gracefully.

Someone over there didn't do a damn thing to convince the suits to let Smith have his day in the sun, and I suspect that person is the same one who didn't have the balls to look him in the face, shake his hand, and wish him well, instead choosing to hide in his office with the door closed. He must've been busy planning the next episode of Computer Talk.
Click to expand...

I didn’t have the opportunity to meet him and I’m sure that he is a professional, and I agree in the sense that people (on-air talent) should have the same opportunity that me and Zac were given.
 
tcutini said:
tropicanamedia said:
I don't agree with this TJ, based on my own experience and others. I think Zac Davis was on the air until the last minute when they flipped The Beat, and also I was on the air until the last minute before they flipped La Preciosa. In both cases the change was known for a while.
Click to expand...

Right Carlos...but was the same courtesy extended to Bill Flynn? Rod Davis? And now, Smith Patterson? And the fact that management trusted guys like you and Zac not to embarrass the station was a testament to you guys as people. I know Smith very well and am 100% confident in saying he wouldn't fire off any parting shots on the way out, if he was given the opportunity to retire gracefully.

Someone over there didn't do a damn thing to convince the suits to let Smith have his day in the sun, and I suspect that person is the same one who didn't have the balls to look him in the face, shake his hand, and wish him well, instead choosing to hide in his office with the door closed. He must've been busy planning the next episode of Computer Talk.
Click to expand...

I've heard the stories about "Mr. Computer Talk" from someone else who was shown an early exit from the 5th street building. About how he brown nosed Tom "DUI" Hamilton into his position that he's in now and how he doesn't have the faintest clue of what he's doing. It doesn't shock me either, look at the decision making go on with their stations and they're getting rid of market legends who do great work to put in an out of work rock DJ to broadcast news.

Curtis Media just cares about the bottom line, everyone in that Winston-Salem building is probably making $25K a year other than the Smith Patterson's of the world......and in the end, that's all that matters. As long as their not broadcasting expletives everyday, who cares. Consolidate and stack up the piles of s*** and hope some of it sticks.
 
I would like to say that I'm shocked by this new, but I'm just not. I agree with you, T.J., Smith deserved more than a quick meet and a walk to the door. But, Smith is talented and a great person so I know he'll land on his feet. Shame on Don and Phil and especially Matt. I always knew he had an agenda, but wow.....It's all about business....I know that letting me go was business because I was so unhappy working there. Trust me, I get it. But, the listeners love him and he is good at what he does. Where is the gain? What does CMG have to gain from firing Smith and doing in such a "whatever" way?

Drey
 
I dug Smith Patterson too, from what I know about him.

But really, outside of us radio geeks, does the general public even notice the hosts, even the greats, these days?
Only people who had a shared history of at least listening to him would care, at all.

Given the shambles that WSJS seems to have fallen into, the number of those people must have dwindled downdowndown the last decade or so, and his departure is probably getting more notice here than it would if it had been covered on the radio, even if they stretched it out for a whole day.

Didn't Bart Ritner and Mike Blackman get the same essential treatment at WPTF?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom