F
FloridaBear1776
Guest
The firings of Krueger, Agnew, et. al. are completely in keeping with the character of Susquehanna as a timid company that should not be in the business of operating high-profile radio stations, personality shows in any format, or anything more demanding than a lite AC or AAA station.
Back a couple of years ago, Susquehanna fired Mark Owens of Q100 in Atlanta.
Did Mr. Owens send people into the streets dressed as prison inmates, kill a wild boar, or tie up a major bridge? No, he went to a car dealership and pretended to be a customer who shouted back various car-ad cliches at the
salesmen. ANOTHER car dealership (not the one Owens visited) complained, and management canned Owens.
This is part of the Susquehanna approach to radio, which was corporate bland before corporate bland really got going. Susque's philosophy, at least as far back as the 80s, was to construct a radio station vanilla enough to be saleable, then beat revenue out of it no matter how anemic the ratings might be.
I saw this philosophy at work in the Tampa market in the late 80s. Susquehanna purchased one of the early talk radio stations in that market, which had attracted attention and made the top 10 in Arbitron with a local lineup of colorful and opinionated personalities. It fired most of those personalities,in order to remake the station as an "At Your Service" clone of KMOX in the early 1960s. Unfortunately Susque couldn't find the next Bob Hyland, and the ratings fell to the cellar. Meanwhile, Jacor had just acquired a competitor and was in the process of remaking it into the prototype of its "in your face" talk radio stations that dominated AM for the rest of the twentieth century. Susquehanna's response? Its sales package decried the "shock jocks" and urged advertisers to "CHOOSE RESPONSIBLE RADIO!"
The advertisers chose "irresponsible radio" that got better numbers, and Susque was forced to sell out of the Tampa market.
There is plenty of history to show that, when push comes to a nudge, never mind a shove, the Pennsylvania Platemakers will cave and fire the talent. Their spinelessness helped to make their lone major market talker, KLIF in Dallas, a sad second place to WBAP over the years. They can't get out of radio soon enough IMHO. I can only hope the current management fails in its buyout attempt and that totally new owners acquire the stations and erase the Pennsylvania Dutch (oops, stereotyping again, don't Krueger me please) brand of radio bland from the earth.
Back a couple of years ago, Susquehanna fired Mark Owens of Q100 in Atlanta.
Did Mr. Owens send people into the streets dressed as prison inmates, kill a wild boar, or tie up a major bridge? No, he went to a car dealership and pretended to be a customer who shouted back various car-ad cliches at the
salesmen. ANOTHER car dealership (not the one Owens visited) complained, and management canned Owens.
This is part of the Susquehanna approach to radio, which was corporate bland before corporate bland really got going. Susque's philosophy, at least as far back as the 80s, was to construct a radio station vanilla enough to be saleable, then beat revenue out of it no matter how anemic the ratings might be.
I saw this philosophy at work in the Tampa market in the late 80s. Susquehanna purchased one of the early talk radio stations in that market, which had attracted attention and made the top 10 in Arbitron with a local lineup of colorful and opinionated personalities. It fired most of those personalities,in order to remake the station as an "At Your Service" clone of KMOX in the early 1960s. Unfortunately Susque couldn't find the next Bob Hyland, and the ratings fell to the cellar. Meanwhile, Jacor had just acquired a competitor and was in the process of remaking it into the prototype of its "in your face" talk radio stations that dominated AM for the rest of the twentieth century. Susquehanna's response? Its sales package decried the "shock jocks" and urged advertisers to "CHOOSE RESPONSIBLE RADIO!"
The advertisers chose "irresponsible radio" that got better numbers, and Susque was forced to sell out of the Tampa market.
There is plenty of history to show that, when push comes to a nudge, never mind a shove, the Pennsylvania Platemakers will cave and fire the talent. Their spinelessness helped to make their lone major market talker, KLIF in Dallas, a sad second place to WBAP over the years. They can't get out of radio soon enough IMHO. I can only hope the current management fails in its buyout attempt and that totally new owners acquire the stations and erase the Pennsylvania Dutch (oops, stereotyping again, don't Krueger me please) brand of radio bland from the earth.
