A
AllForADeuce
Guest
I am a non-radio employee that is into terrestrial radio and enjoy peering into some inside information as well as station news otherwise not covered by local newspapers, so I apologize to all the radio employees/insiders that know this info already...
That aside, I heard about the tsumani Hot97 incident through listening to Opie & Anthony on my XM radio. They were interested since their names were dragged into it since former Hot97 producer Rick Delgado worked for O&A during the Sex for Sam tirade. They followed the story talking how all the wrong people were getting thrown under the bus. Todd aired his side as well as cleared some misconceptions O&A had about the incident.
According to Todd (and I am quoting as well as I can):
Todd was hired to be the antagonist, edgy, hated and push the envelope. Delgado was hired because he performed over the top. All stations have a Program dir., Music dir and GM that knows what goes on inside the station. The GM told Todd that Rick was hired for his over-the-top attitude and as long as he didn't break any FCC rules, it was all good..that no one was getting fired for the song. Todd said that management told him that the Michael Jackson trial will start soon and superceed this in the press, it will blow over. What they didn't expect was all the Asian groups. They lost upwards of 4 million dollars in advertising revenue and that is when Todd saw the end and the corporate wagons circled around.
The media focused on his comment about shooting Asians. Todd said they failed to metion that his "shooting ________ (insert race here)" comments were a tag line he used CONSTANTLY on the show. It was a tag line he came up with to play with the on-air perception that the crew all didn't get along. A "gag quote" as he put it. He talked about how with his race and size, he gets racism imposed on him all the time. He admits that he oblivious to racism against others because he focused on the racism he goes through personally.
As he put it, he made 100K a year, but they were still forced to push for numbers. ONE spot typically sold for 100K but number get that advert revenue size. So when the millions of revenue being lost by the station was put up against his salary, it was no contest. they were being bombarded by several organizations and management changed thier tune...they were caught with their pants down.
On station personalities, he was fired becasue he was labelled responsible, yet people just as responsible as him still work for the station. (i.e. the MD has his own shift). Regarding Miss Jones, she was not on the song because she was finishing maternity leave at the time the song was recorded. Todd said Miss Jones questioned the song asking "should we paly this", but Delgado said it was approved by upper management. Jones said if it approved, then she'll go with it. He said that Miss Jones apology came across odd because she felt like she was also apologizing for Miss Info. Regarding Miss Info, Todd claims that they were building a "firing portfolio" against Miss Info and that Miss Info was going to be let go in "a week". Todd said Miss Info had issues with Miss Jones and it was known by management. Miss Info was on the firing block and was always saying things behind the scene. Miss Ibfo knew of her demise and played "the race card" and played it well.
After the song aired, the GM told him that the song was sick, but that is what they needed to move the needle, empassion people and gain listeners. That is when Todd questioned about Delgado and was told as long as FCC rules were not broken, it was ok. Todd said that the PD came in and gave them the thumbs up after the airing. Todd offered to apologize and resign his post because he didn't want to screw the things up he had going on outside the station, but upper management wanted to shift responsibility to people who acted in part and protect their own jobs. The other people on the song were little guys in the game and that when your boss tells you to play ok'd material, you play it no questions asked.
In the aftermath, Todd has the same lawyer as Miss Info and was told the lawyer cleared 70K on her lawsuit. So Todd estimates that at a 10% fee, Miss Info received upwards of 750K and still has her weekend shift. Todd commented that she "played the race card and played it well". Meanwhile, Todd has suffered a lot of work loss, especially in voiceover work. On top of that, hiphopmusic.com (which Todd credits with bringing Entercom down to its knees) put his personal information on the website (name, home address, etc.). Jim Norton said he saw Todd recently and he was still on stage apologizing.
O&A threw in that during the Sex for Sam bit, that it had FULL approval by management. Not only was it approved, but they had sponsorship through Sam Adams Brewery. They had a meeting with mel karmazin (sp.) and was told that as DJs they were to push the envelope as hard as they could and never to worry about backlash because there was a system in place to protect the staff in case of fallout.
What they should have said was to protect management in case of fall out.
I don't perceive that I am the only avid radio listener who is a purveyor of this site. Just figured it would be a nice little tid bit to us who are out there that stations try to play the theater of mind games on. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by AllForADeuce on 07/14/05 08:14 PM.</FONT></P>
That aside, I heard about the tsumani Hot97 incident through listening to Opie & Anthony on my XM radio. They were interested since their names were dragged into it since former Hot97 producer Rick Delgado worked for O&A during the Sex for Sam tirade. They followed the story talking how all the wrong people were getting thrown under the bus. Todd aired his side as well as cleared some misconceptions O&A had about the incident.
According to Todd (and I am quoting as well as I can):
Todd was hired to be the antagonist, edgy, hated and push the envelope. Delgado was hired because he performed over the top. All stations have a Program dir., Music dir and GM that knows what goes on inside the station. The GM told Todd that Rick was hired for his over-the-top attitude and as long as he didn't break any FCC rules, it was all good..that no one was getting fired for the song. Todd said that management told him that the Michael Jackson trial will start soon and superceed this in the press, it will blow over. What they didn't expect was all the Asian groups. They lost upwards of 4 million dollars in advertising revenue and that is when Todd saw the end and the corporate wagons circled around.
The media focused on his comment about shooting Asians. Todd said they failed to metion that his "shooting ________ (insert race here)" comments were a tag line he used CONSTANTLY on the show. It was a tag line he came up with to play with the on-air perception that the crew all didn't get along. A "gag quote" as he put it. He talked about how with his race and size, he gets racism imposed on him all the time. He admits that he oblivious to racism against others because he focused on the racism he goes through personally.
As he put it, he made 100K a year, but they were still forced to push for numbers. ONE spot typically sold for 100K but number get that advert revenue size. So when the millions of revenue being lost by the station was put up against his salary, it was no contest. they were being bombarded by several organizations and management changed thier tune...they were caught with their pants down.
On station personalities, he was fired becasue he was labelled responsible, yet people just as responsible as him still work for the station. (i.e. the MD has his own shift). Regarding Miss Jones, she was not on the song because she was finishing maternity leave at the time the song was recorded. Todd said Miss Jones questioned the song asking "should we paly this", but Delgado said it was approved by upper management. Jones said if it approved, then she'll go with it. He said that Miss Jones apology came across odd because she felt like she was also apologizing for Miss Info. Regarding Miss Info, Todd claims that they were building a "firing portfolio" against Miss Info and that Miss Info was going to be let go in "a week". Todd said Miss Info had issues with Miss Jones and it was known by management. Miss Info was on the firing block and was always saying things behind the scene. Miss Ibfo knew of her demise and played "the race card" and played it well.
After the song aired, the GM told him that the song was sick, but that is what they needed to move the needle, empassion people and gain listeners. That is when Todd questioned about Delgado and was told as long as FCC rules were not broken, it was ok. Todd said that the PD came in and gave them the thumbs up after the airing. Todd offered to apologize and resign his post because he didn't want to screw the things up he had going on outside the station, but upper management wanted to shift responsibility to people who acted in part and protect their own jobs. The other people on the song were little guys in the game and that when your boss tells you to play ok'd material, you play it no questions asked.
In the aftermath, Todd has the same lawyer as Miss Info and was told the lawyer cleared 70K on her lawsuit. So Todd estimates that at a 10% fee, Miss Info received upwards of 750K and still has her weekend shift. Todd commented that she "played the race card and played it well". Meanwhile, Todd has suffered a lot of work loss, especially in voiceover work. On top of that, hiphopmusic.com (which Todd credits with bringing Entercom down to its knees) put his personal information on the website (name, home address, etc.). Jim Norton said he saw Todd recently and he was still on stage apologizing.
O&A threw in that during the Sex for Sam bit, that it had FULL approval by management. Not only was it approved, but they had sponsorship through Sam Adams Brewery. They had a meeting with mel karmazin (sp.) and was told that as DJs they were to push the envelope as hard as they could and never to worry about backlash because there was a system in place to protect the staff in case of fallout.
What they should have said was to protect management in case of fall out.
I don't perceive that I am the only avid radio listener who is a purveyor of this site. Just figured it would be a nice little tid bit to us who are out there that stations try to play the theater of mind games on. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by AllForADeuce on 07/14/05 08:14 PM.</FONT></P>