Tessa said:
COAKLEY MAY BE A HACK, BUT HE'S THE MOST BORING HACK I EVER HEARD. WHAT IS WBT THINKING? A COMPLETE LIGHTWEIGHT WITHOUT HIS TELEPROMPTER, HE'S ONLY AT HOME TALKING ABOUT RACE OR RELIGEON. PRETTY THIN STUFF. HOW LONG DOES WBT THINK ITS AUDIENCE WILL STICK AROUND FOR THAT?
Vince Coakley always appeared to be such a mellow, nice guy type on TV. (My wife used to refer to him as a loveable teddy bear). I have not heard him much, but I tend to agree with you. He's a little too laid back to generate much excitement or listener interest. Name recognition, sure! Tough for him to change stripes and turn into the typical boisterous, loudmouth, attention-getting talk host like so many that populate talk radio stations across the land these days.
I still think that Pete Kaliner would have been a far better choice. Just my opinion, but I think Carl East has got to be on thin ice.
Ratings appear to be on a downward trend and billings might be off, (Not Carl's fault directly, but I'm hearing commercials usually played on the late night/overnight show in AM drive recently which suggests open inventory in the key AM Drive daypart. In fairness, I remember hearing that they lost one of their longtime sales guys not long ago).
All of this with a morning show that is so formatted, regimented and devoid of "personality" that it could be "mailed in" and the signs are not good!
Let's face it! They've been on a roll for years. Things were still OK when Rick Jackson and Bill White were still there, but when ratings and revenues go down, everything changes.
With major groups and others moving AM News programming to the FM band, might we see some format shuffling with WBT-FM and The Link?
So many questions...
