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The Return of Brother Wease to Rochester Radio

Anyone know what, if any, non-competes he agreed to with CBS in his expired contract, and whether they have any force now that the Eye is out of the Rochester picture and said contract is up? That'll tell you how soon the new Wease Morning Circus will debut on Fox 95.1. It'll also be interesting to see if he wants to pull more of his old CMF crew over to join him (if he can, that may force CMF to rebuild its morning show a second time in a matter of a few months, giving him even more of a competitive edge)...if he's looking to recruit sidekicks elsewhere, that probably tells us Entercom tied up his old crew contractually for that new morning show. It'll also be interesting to see who might be brought in to staff other dayparts. Wouldn't surprise me to see Pete Kennedy, Dino and Marc Cronin, among others, show up there before long.

It's no accident that this comes just as the sale of Clear Channel is about to clear its final contractual hurdle and all the regulatory issues are out of the way. It's also clear that the new CC is digging in here in the Rochester market and planning to make a real fight of it...and more evidence that the CC corporate hiring freeze is every bit as flexible and easily melted as such freezes usually are.

You also had to know when Wease was spotted in the halls at 207 Midtown, he was going to an FM in the cluster rather than WHAM...if for no other reason that his outspokenly progressive views would have sent WHAM's aging ultraconservative core listenership into cardiac arrest. ;-)
 
When Entercom bought WCMF all the station's contractual commitments were doubtless transferred, along with intellectual property and all other assets. So just because CBS has exited the market, that doesn't mean a Wease noncompete would simply vanish. Thd CBS-Wease deal would inure to the benefit of Entercom. They paid for the Wease contract as an asset.

There is a public-policy argument that makes courts generally view noncompete deals closely: judges are loath to restrain somebody from earning a lawful living. If the noncompete is challenged, the court will look at the clear language of the agreement and weigh whether Entercom could reasonably assert whether Wease's appearance on a competitor would injure the company financially, versus permitting Wease to work productively. That's why noncompetes must be restricted in scope, time and geography.

I view this as a potential litigation issue with a huge PR component for Clear Channel.
 
Well, I can tell you now I'll still be spending my morning listening to Beth and Chet and/or Morning Edition. As someone who frequently listens both WCMF and The Fox for music, I have never warmed up to Wease. He can be funny sometimes, I'll give him that. I'll also give him the fact that he can be controversial...if you're over the age of ninety-five. I guess I don't understand the cult of personality surrounding him.
 
Believe whatever Savage says. For those who don't know, he is an expert in radio law.

Meanwhile, I listen to the Fox in the morning for music. Guess I'll have to stomach Legends or Fickle. Legends has a bad morning show, but they play more music than most. Fickle's morning show ... well, Ace & Marty do Tony & Dee better than Tony & Dee, and the music isn't too bad. It's not classic rock, but they're better than listening to morning talk shows on music stations. As for Wease, I wish I was what he thinks he is. I never warmed up to him as an air personality either, and judging from the remarks on the D&C's website, I'm not alone.
 
Sales Wease(l)

So, Wease gets a chance to take on 'CMF and Entercom with the backing of Clear Channel. Let's hear about the contract. Is he getting his $500K/year? More importantly, does he get a window?
 
Re: Sales Wease(l)

SirRoxalot said:
More importantly, does he get a window?
Click to expand...

I think the question might be, does he get a building? Isn't part of the plan to tear down Midtown Plaza include the current studios occupied by Clear Channel? If so its a shame that CC didn't take the opportunity a few years ago and move its operations out to Greece.

However we have plenty of office space for rent in Webster if Clear Channel wants to move out here where "Life is worth living."
 
Thanks, Pete, for anointing me an "expert" but I'm not. Just a good ol' boy who knows contracts AND how to bulk carts and slipcue a 45. (And Cool Edit too, wiseguys.)

One thing I'm confident in stating publicly: Wease is NOT getting anything like $500K. This is an ego-driven face-saving move on his part, and a publicity treasure trove for CCU. If we're playing a game of Hi-Lo here, I would peg his compensation at more like $100K with some kind of a override based on his sales efforts. Sorry, but it's hard to see Wease heading out on the snowy streets to arm-wrestle with car dealers at this point in his career. And CCU would not be a likely candidate, in my view, to bust out big bucks given their corporate-wide order to freeze hiring and not fill vacant positions. The company is trying to reduce ongoing fixed costs.
 
Roxalot, I do think you should owe me dinner, even though there was never a formal bet. It did go down exactly as I predicted.

What the heck, I'll even buy.

Wonder what his former cohosts think?
Click to expand...

This is an area I don't support Wease on, but I do understand him. He has been through many cohosts, and likes to "reboot". Let's face it, they all owe their shot to him. BJ Shea has a hugely successful show in Seattle thanks to Wease.

It's about Revenue, as it has been all along. At Entercom, it appears that it was about someone's ego, and if he can't make his numbers, he'll be selling cars soon.
 
Wease 2.0

JG, IF Wease is making a base above $250K, I'll buy. I'm guessing that he's more in the the $200K range, + sales incentives, with a 5-year contract. The length of the contract was probably the biggest sticking point with Entercom.

Wease may find that creating that magic chemistry is a lot harder than he thinks. The good news is that a little time on the beach may have rejuvenated him. We'll see how long that adrenaline rush lasts. I've heard that he's volatile enough to get pretty ugly if things get off to a rocky start.

One more little sidebar... I'm sure that the Entercom lawyers are watching the WHAM-TV outtakes carefully. Some of Wease's comments might indicate tampering. At the very least, he offers some comments that might support an Entercom case against reducing the term of his non-compete.

PS - JG, you wouldn't by any chance have any "inside knowledge" of Wease's discussion with Clear Channel, would you?
 
Wease may find that creating that magic chemistry is a lot harder than he thinks.
Click to expand...

We agree on this. Yet Wease has had multiple show cast members, many changes over the years. We'll see. As to his stability, I hear ya. On the other hand, he may be a little bit crazy like a fox. He's a survivor. There is always drama, and it is always entertaining. I said it before... people thought because of his on air stories that he was destitute and desperate and would be forced to cave in. Ooops.

As Radio faces strong challenges beyond anything we've seen, at an accellerating rate, franchise players like Wease are a must have in every market. It doesn't matter what the rest of us think, or whether there is a "hiring freeze". Rover is the other example of this. I am not a fan of his and wouldn't give him a single quarter hour of TSL in Rochester, but I "get it", at least for Cleveland.

I didn't go out on a limb with any specific prediction. Nor did I know the outcome ahead of the 3pm press conference, I swear. I was blown away. That said, I have to admit I was sure I would be proven wrong several times...

Numbers? So much on these boards is unreliable, I don't want to contribute to that.

What's your favorite restaurant?
 
Congrats to Wease. There's no way that this guy could get a lucrative contract with any other outfit than CC's 95.1 in Rochester. He's taking the cut and selling himself.

Soon you'll hear all sorts of pitches like "Yo it's Wease here to tell you about how you can diss that APR and get into a fixed now that the rates are low, low, low". He'll be driving, and pitching, a new Lexus or Audi pretty soon. Wease is now a whore for the San Antonio cabal. And not only will he never be able to take a serious and calculated "liberal" stand on the radio, he'll have to pitch something while under contract for a right-wing outfit out of Texas that will sell his ass to the next buyer.
 
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

It's easy to be a liberal when you're knocking down $400K+ per year. He may get a little more conservative if money gets a little tighter. Wease will be trading his a$$ off if CC lets him. He'll probably be working bar bets on Lonsberry for lunch money.

Maybe the new show should be "Radio Nothing-Is-Free Wease".

PS - San Marco. Excellent and interesting food.
 
S'cuze me, but this is different from the old Wease how???!!!

Hmm.. "Radiatorre Luciana". I'm in.
 
"And not only will he never be able to take a serious and calculated "liberal" stand on the radio, he'll have to pitch something while under contract for a right-wing outfit out of Texas that will sell his ass to the next buyer. "

Not so fast.

The Mays family, which made no secret about its use of its stations to sell the agenda of its friends the Bush family, is selling out Clear Channel to a group of NYC-based financial mavens. The new buyers apparently couldn't care less about pushing a political agenda, but want to make $$$ by making their local markets happy and presumably by giving audiences what they expect. The sale of the company and its stations has passed all the regulatory hurdles and the deal's about to close. San Antonio's already removing its hand from the steering wheel. So no one's going to tell Wease not to be himself. His liberalism is genuine and no one will try to take it away from him, since it's served him well for about 25 years and helped him build his audience.

I don't know if the sale of Clear Channel will mean an immediate sea change in the culture at all the Clear Channel stations. But it does mean that in all likelihood, there will no longer be any attempt by corporate HQ, which will be answering to ultimate bosses in New York City instead of Texas, to convey a uniform company-wide political agenda. Over time, the individual stations and markets will be allowed to become a lot more differentiated--kind of like the way the CBS and ABC/Citadel groups operate, with each cluster taking on the coloration of whatever local management in that market thinks will sell.
 
Let me offer a perhaps uninformed comment and question here.

Channel 13 led with this story at six the day of the announcement. (The time in the bottom right hand corner was 5:59 on the clip that played on their website.)

My first thought was, "nice self-promotion and let's not bother to disclaim the cross-ownership..."

But my second thought was, "Well, maybe this really was the top story of the day."

What do you think? Those of you that watched other channels that day, where (if anywhere) was the story placed?

Meanwhile... Bob, I certainly hope you are correct in your assessment of the dial moving to more local preferences. I'm afraid that if I put my Ruthless MBA hat on, I would add "it's all gotta be done with an incremental budget of zero." Or less-- the Boys from NYC will want a proper return on their investment. I think, and hope, local radio can be up to the challenge.
 
I like Bob's optimism. I think he is right, that the best local talent will become more important, but I also think that syndication will also explode further.

The extremes at both ends. Everyone in the middle will be F$%@#ed, voice tracked, automated, and programmed nationally. The beancounters will insist on it, that's where they will get that "incremental budget of zero".

There's no going back to the way things were before, if you know where we are headed. I would put in a plug for Jerry's column, INSIDE MUSIC MEDIA here:

http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/free-is-new-cash-flow.html

Just discovered him recently, says a lot of what I've been waiting to hear for years.
 
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