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Tom Bigby Retiring

B

BRUSSTAR

Amidst all of the recent discussion here about politics, immigration, racism, and several stations in markets other than Philadelphia, I thought I would bring this up:

Tom Bigby is retiring from CBS Radio. Word is he'll stay on as a consultant to the company.

Bigby has, most recently been serving as ops manager of WYSP.
 
I'm assuming this is the same guy who was Program Director at WIP...and wouldn't allow callers to discuss horse racing, golf, Nascar, and other sports on the station's talk shows. I assume this is the same guy who ordered show hosts to hang up on callers when they discussed topics he didn't like...or didn't want on the station.
 
At least he allows callers to talk about basketball and hockey during baseball spring training - unlike his counterpart at KYW. What is it about suits at CBS anyway? Once upon a time they had only one radio station in town to worry about, WCAU. They screwed that up, too.
 
Shawn O'Domski said:
I'm assuming this is the same guy who was Program Director at WIP...and wouldn't allow callers to discuss horse racing, golf, Nascar, and other sports on the station's talk shows. I assume this is the same guy who ordered show hosts to hang up on callers when they discussed topics he didn't like...or didn't want on the station.
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And by doing things his way, he turned WIP into one of the highest billing stations in town. He was pure hell to work for, but what he did works. He had his finger on the pulse of this city's sports fan like no one ever has, and he made WIP what it is today.
 
Complaining that WIP wouldn't allow callers to discuss golf, horse racing, and auto racing reminds me of the folks who continue to whine about music stations "playing it too safe" with their limited record library.

Opening things up, be they records or topics, has been usually proven to turn away listeners who punch up a station expecting something in particular.

Personally I can't stand it. I don't listen. I'm typing this listening to some kind of African tribal music from the VOA and surprisingly am enjoying it more than anything coming out of Roxborough right now-- but I'm not for a moment suggesting a Philly FM run tribal music. That would be like having a major-market sports station in Philadelphia talking about horse racing or NASCAR. As I've said many times before within other topics, NASCAR is a lot more popular here than many would like to think. But as far as being worthy of discussion on a WIP in Philadelphia, I'm afraid the sport still has a long way to go. The day will probably come, and that's fine with me. But we're just not there yet.

I've never worked for Tom Bigby. Some say had I, my opinions on the man may be different. But there's no arguing the tremendous success WIP (and to a lesser extent WPHT) had under his programming stewardship.
 
George Brusstar said:
I'm typing this listening to some kind of African tribal music from the VOA and surprisingly am enjoying it more than anything coming out of Roxborough right now-- but I'm not for a moment suggesting a Philly FM run tribal music.
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African Tribal Music might be better than the VOA News when you guys need a pit stop during Radio Racket. ::)

Nah, on second thought, it would just get someone complaining here about Black music on the Internet.
 
I'm not complaining about anything. I was simply making a statement. I don't give a rat's ass how Bigby ran the place...and I really don't care how he operates now. Just because I say something doesn't mean I'm complaining.

Bigby seems to have been a success at WIP. Good for him, good for the station, and good for the company as a whole. I'm happy for them. I also hear working for him was like working for The Devil, but I guess there was a method to his madness.
 
Tom Bigby is the GODFATHER of sports radio. He did it forst and he did it right, every other successful sports station was modeled after WIP.
 
Good riddance!

HowardEskinsucks said:
Tom Bigby is the GODFATHER of sports radio. He did it forst and he did it right, every other successful sports station was modeled after WIP.
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That's like saying Bob Pittman was "the founder of MTV" -- a flat-out LIE.

WFAN in New York began its all-sports format on July 1, 1987. WIP didn't go all-sports until that fall.

Tom Bigby hates the Phillies and their management. When he was in charge of AM 1210 he screwed the Phillies to the point where they went to WPEN-950 for 3 years. You never saw WFAN doing that to the Mets, Knicks, Rangers, Giants or Jets.
 
Chucky, obviously I'm not speaking for "HowardEskinSucks" but my take on his comments is Bigby was the first to do sports THAT WAY (so called "guy talk") so successfully.

One could argue WFAN is only able to make the "America's First 24-hour sports station" claim thanks to the station's short time at 1050 AM... SportsRadio 66, as far as I know, still has never had a sports morning drive show... (Kind of an important daypart to deviate terribly from format, no?)

Tom Bigby hates the Phillies and their management. When he was in charge of AM 1210 he screwed the Phillies to the point where they went to WPEN-950 for 3 years.
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Care to validate those claims? It's my understanding Bigby doesn't really care for sports altogether. How did Bigby "screw the Phillies" while running 1210? You really think that's why the team was on WPEN for three seasons?
 
MLB teams have a pregame and postgame show, at least 15 minutes, usually 30 minutes. Tom Bigby didn't want to disrupt the right-wing screamers on AM 1210, so he cut the Phillies' pregame to 5 minutes. Never mind that the Phils have always produced their radio broadcasts and purchased the airtime. Never mind that the Phils had been on AM 1210 for 20 straight years and were a constant to AM 1210 even with all the format changes there in the 90's.

Bigby thought that promoting a right-wing P.O.V. was more important than bringing in much-needed revenue to the radio station. That's why the Phils moved to WPEN-950 for the 2002 season. The Phils returned to AM 1210 in 2005 because Bigby was no longer directly involved with that station.

Coincidentally, the Yankees moved their radio flagship from 77 WABC to WCBS-880 in 2002 for much the same reason. Rush Limbaugh complained about being pre-empted for weekday Yankee games.
 
chuckydoll said:
MLB teams have a pregame and postgame show, at least 15 minutes, usually 30 minutes. Tom Bigby didn't want to disrupt the right-wing screamers on AM 1210, so he cut the Phillies' pregame to 5 minutes. Never mind that the Phils have always produced their radio broadcasts and purchased the airtime. Never mind that the Phils had been on AM 1210 for 20 straight years and were a constant to AM 1210 even with all the format changes there in the 90's.

Bigby thought that promoting a right-wing P.O.V. was more important than bringing in much-needed revenue to the radio station. That's why the Phils moved to WPEN-950 for the 2002 season. The Phils returned to AM 1210 in 2005 because Bigby was no longer directly involved with that station.

Coincidentally, the Yankees moved their radio flagship from 77 WABC to WCBS-880 in 2002 for much the same reason. Rush Limbaugh complained about being pre-empted for weekday Yankee games.
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You assume it was Bigby's politics which motivated him, rather than - say - money. How do you know that? Or is your political POV showing?

It could be Rush is more of a draw than a daytime ballgame, and generates more revenue. Stations pay to carry Rush and if the show is pre-empted for any reason, they have to make up the syndication spots (which is a major pain). However, since there are not that many weekday daygames, stations could arrange to pass them off to another station.

When the Staten Island ferry crashed into the dock three years ago, Newsradio88 was in a Yankee game and could not/did not break in (injuries, fatalities and a major disruption to the PM commute). This story got national coverage, which the CBS Radio Network got from WCBS-TV (CBS2). Now, co-owned rival 1010 WINS promotes itself as "New York's only ALL news station." Despite the total compatability of MLB's rigid requirements with an all news format, CBS also has baseball on their LA all news station (the good news is they've got the only decent play by play announcer left in broadcasting).
 
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