Tim Wenger New Audacy Buffalo SVP/Market President

[pjc1961]

Tim Wenger ascends to the position replacing the retiring Tim Holly.
Tim has been the Ops. Mgr. at WWKB, WGR + WBEN along with
being Brand Mgr. for WBEN and Audacy's News/Talk Format Captain.

Story + press release:

Tim Wenger Rises To Audacy Buffalo SVP/Market President

Audacy has announced the promotion of Tim Wenger to SVP/Market President. Wenger, who has been with the cluster since starting

radioinsight.com

 

[tbolt909]

Another guy who has never been outside of Buffalo.
This "Promotion" is like being named Captain of the Titanic after the ship has hit the Iceberg...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Another guy who has never been outside of Buffalo.
This "Promotion" is like being named Captain of the Titanic after the ship has hit the Iceberg...

At least he knows the market. That's more than you can say. He gets a few dollars more for a few years, padding his retirement. It's not like that cluster, or that company, is a big attraction to anybody from outside at this point.

 

[RadioGuy1864]

Those of you outside the market may not know that Susan Rose, WBEN morning co-anchor, is Tim's wife. Between the two of them, they are doing very well in a market the size of Buffalo. Congrats to Tim.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Those of you outside the market may not know that Susan Rose, WBEN morning co-anchor, is Tim's wife. Between the two of them, they are doing very well in a market the size of Buffalo. Congrats to Tim.

His new role will make contract negotiations interesting.

 

[fybush]

Tim knows the market a lot better than certain posters here, and he lives it and breathes it. Even the first anniversary of the Tops shooting rolled around a couple of months back, he and Susan were right there on Jefferson Avenue holding down the fort with live coverage, and I had the pleasure of talking with him a little bit after the ceremony about their coverage the day of.

Not many market managers out there who could say the same.

It may not be the easiest job right now, but it's hard to imagine anyone better suited to Audacy's needs there at the moment (whether or not you like the overall direction of WBEN, which is another story entirely.)

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Another guy who has never been outside of Buffalo.
This "Promotion" is like being named Captain of the Titanic after the ship has hit the Iceberg...

What is it with being "outside of Buffalo" that makes a substantial difference in the way a person manages or programs a radio station? A person can't be a good air personality, news person, sales rep or manager unless he or she has been "outside of Buffalo?" Utter nonsense! Good to see a person from the programming and news ranks get promoted.

BTW, 'bolt ... Wenger is the guy who now controls 107.7 ... maybe if you're nice.

Chortle.

 

[tbolt909]

At least he knows the market. That's more than you can say. He gets a few dollars more for a few years, padding his retirement. It's not like that cluster, or that company, is a big attraction to anybody from outside at this point.

Is he a "Sales Wizard"? It's pretty obvious that they didn't hire someone because they just sold one of their big stations. The revenue will get worse not better at this cluster. No need for a new hire.

Having experience in other markets is useful. It's good to have different perspectives. Maybe not in Buffalo where they seem to "Know all there is to know"...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Is he a "Sales Wizard"? It's pretty obvious that they didn't hire someone because they just sold one of their big stations. The revenue will get worse not better at this cluster. No need for a new hire.

Having experience in other markets is useful. It's good to have different perspectives. Maybe not in Buffalo where they seem to "Know all there is to know"...

Do you think that if they bring in "Blake" from Glengarry Glen Ross that revenue will improve? First of all, do you actually know what their sales numbers are, and how they compare either market-wide or company-wide? Of course you don't. Do you think that an Ops Manager doesn't have contact with the Sales department? Let me clue you in: An Operations Manager has a lot more on his plate than programming.

I'm pretty sure that corporate knows Wenger, and Wenger knows corporate. There are regional VPs that can "inspire" the sales department if they think they're underperforming. I'm sure that there's plenty of pressure on sales already coming from beyond the corner office in Buffalo, along with plenty of out of market perspective. Considering that the main money-makers at Entercom Buffalo are talk stations, somebody who knows something about that type of radio likely has more valuable input that an outsider with music station background, even if they would come to a market that was just gutted of its biggest FM signal.

 

[davideduardo]

At least he knows the market. That's more than you can say. He gets a few dollars more for a few years, padding his retirement. It's not like that cluster, or that company, is a big attraction to anybody from outside at this point.

This sounds like a holder position while the rest of the cluster is being divested.

 

[davideduardo]

Having experience in other markets is useful. It's good to have different perspectives. Maybe not in Buffalo where they seem to "Know all there is to know"...

But with the huge amount of knowledge that has been available to us in the last three decades or so due to the Internet, conventions and publications and the like, there are some people who are eminently successful who spent their entire careers at one station in one market.

I'll use Elmo Ellis of WSB as an example.

 

[Marchant26]

Longevity does not equal brilliance. He's had basically no competition on the talk side for over 20 years. I bet Susan gets a raise. Corporate puppet. Nothing to be proud of.

 

[tbolt909]

This sounds like a holder position while the rest of the cluster is being divested.

I think we agree. Corporate has dealt Wenger a losing hand. He gets a shiny new title for his resume, but that's about it. WBEN will shamble on a while longer, but the sale of STAR seriously mars the value of the cluster...

 

[Rusty Bridges]

I think we agree. Corporate has dealt Wenger a losing hand. He gets a shiny new title for his resume, but that's about it. WBEN will shamble on a while longer, but the sale of STAR seriously mars the value of the cluster...

The sale of Star was curious, no doubt, but there was a reason for the deal. It very likely aided Audacy making a few debt service payments. Concur that Wenger's promotion is a placeholder, but it's a promotion nonetheless, and he'll likely get a retention bonus (usually a fixed amount or a per cent of his annual salary) if and when Audacy closes on a sale of the entire cluster. As to WBEN shambling on, combined with WGR and Kiss, there's substantial cash flow. Sales reps and managers have to eat. Grits ain't groceries.

 

[tbolt909]

Longevity does not equal brilliance. He's had basically no competition on the talk side for over 20 years. I bet Susan gets a raise. Corporate puppet. Nothing to be proud of.

And he apparently has no experience outside of Buffalo. Someone who is running an alleged "News" station would benefit from being around seasoned professionals of different backgrounds. David mentioned the internet, but that's no substitute for real world experience. Living in different places helps one "see through a different lens".

WBEN stopped being a credible news source decades ago. Their local news may be adequate, but the majority of content is typical wing nut nonsense...

 

[Rusty Bridges]

And he apparently has no experience outside of Buffalo. Someone who is running an alleged "News" station would benefit from being around seasoned professionals of different backgrounds. David mentioned the internet, but that's no substitute for real world experience. Living in different places helps one "see through a different lens".

The business is chock full of talk programmers who've worked in different markets but still adhere to the same program dogma or formula. What works, works. Different markets require modifications, but for the most part it's variations on a similar theme, whether it's News-Talk, Sports, CHR, Country or Classic Rock. Programmers may "see through a different lens," but the vision is still the same: Do what works.

WBEN stopped being a credible news source decades ago. Their local news may be adequate, but the majority of content is typical wing nut nonsense...

The radio station isn't what it was ten years ago, most assuredly what is was 20 or 30 years ago. Nor is radio as a whole. I too loathe the wingnut nonsense and lies such as defending the January 6th coup attempt as "reasoned dialogue" or "tourists in the Capitol," but the fact remains that there's money to be made doing wingnut talk radio as well as podcasts, streaming and TV. The art form is aging, but as long as the billing holds, AM stations will do what makes money... despoiling democracy for the sake of profit.

Raging on a radio board won't get P1 listeners to turn off the radio station. They're committed to their silos, as are those who rely on NPR for news and discussion.

 

[Radio-Bored-Op]

I'm sort of in my world,
and All politics aside,
Congrats to Tim.
never met him,
don't know his philosophy
however, an advance in your career
should always be celebrated.

Cheers

 

[SirRoxalot]

And he apparently has no experience outside of Buffalo. Someone who is running an alleged "News" station would benefit from being around seasoned professionals of different backgrounds. David mentioned the internet, but that's no substitute for real world experience. Living in different places helps one "see through a different lens".

WBEN stopped being a credible news source decades ago. Their local news may be adequate, but the majority of content is typical wing nut nonsense...

He's been around seasoned professionals of different backgrounds from different markets for decades without having to move out of WNY. If you knew anything about the history of the station and the backgrounds of people he's worked with you might understand that. There are advantages to hiring someone who already knows the market and knows what's worked and hasn't worked here.

With all that said, Tim Wenger is likely the best choice from a short list of people who would be interested in the job. He's a much better choice than an outsider from a much smaller market, and that's likely who would be interested in what looks like a lame duck market for Audacy. Call it a reward for years of faithful service or call it a "caretaker position." Either way, it's likely the best option that Audacy had.

 

[spt87]

Congrats to Tim - he has worn many hats at WBEN over the years and then been in the larger cluster role for a long time. I recall him doing helicopter traffic reports before Bills games, reporter, anchor, maybe hosting a few talk shows as WBEN shifted to news/talk in the 1990's, etc. Personalities that are familiar help retain listeners and overall WBEN has done a good job keeping those people over the long haul which appears to have benefitted them. I'd say he played his cards well to build a career.

If he had traveled the country and was just hired there what else would he do - shift WBEN to a hard rock format? Bring back Shane on WGR (which would be a feat considering Shane passed on)? With that operation the "if its not broke don't fix it" philosophy is a good way to go and just slowly evolve it as needed. They did replace Rush with local programming which I think was a good move. Hopefully if the end goal is to sell the cluster, it ends up with a company under a reasonable debt load that can support it without cost cutting it to death.

 

[flybynight]

Longevity does not equal brilliance. He's had basically no competition on the talk side for over 20 years. I bet Susan gets a raise. Corporate puppet. Nothing to be proud of.

True dat. When WGR was doing talk, WBEN didn't do nearly as well---even lost in some dayparts.