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Tri-Cities Blunders

P

Pratte4Life

One reason people might not be submitting anything is because I find East Tennesseeans aren't all that outspoken and would rather talk about what is right than what is wrong.

However, now that you have asked-

Individuals-

Bill Cramer hits the sauce- This guy may have been the all-time DJ of the Tri-Cities. "The Cramer Outrage" was legendary in his time. But he couldn't even get the overnight gig at WQUT, which he built, until he gave up the booze. And then he died young at 51.

WTFM DJ sells pot- I forget his name- I don't listen to WTFM- but is it so much to ask to keep your additional income LEGAL?

Art Countis runs for office- Isn't that the reason he went from WJCW to WPWT? Though part of the shame here goes to WJCW/Citadel. Countis is an old pro. Now WJCW often has newsreaders who honestly don't know the first thing about the stories they are reading- and it shows.

PROGRAMMING MOVES-

WQUT pussyfoots it's move to AOR- It used to be WQUT was THE station to listen to. They did sort of a "hard Top 40"- so I'm told- but to be honest with you it seemed that in the Late 80s when they ruled the market it just was the time of bands like Bon Jovi and Guns and Roses and not Chick Singers and hip-hop. I found WZXY or whatever the call letters were played more of these bands in their playlist.

Nonetheless- if they were to go AOR- THAT was the time to do it in the late 80s! It's the music that sold the station!

Unfortunately, they waited until grunge came about to make the switch. By that time WXBQ was able to take over and enjoy the ratings that WQUT once enjoyed.

WKPT Keeps "UNFORGETTABLE" format- Does ANYONE listen to this? They build their station around their sports broadcasts. Doesn't it make sense, therefore, for them to pick up FOX Sports or Sporting News Radio or try to take ESPN away from Citadel and ditch the Sinatra records?

WETB refuses to sell out to sports- How many gospel stations do we have in this market? 10,000 or so?

So a man named Bill Garrick, I believe, came to town with the idea of buying the station and turning it into all-sports. It would have provided a fresh spark to the market.

Unfortunately the news hit the papers and the WETB owner started to have second thoughts. I'm convinced a bunch of bible thumpers came to him and, in horror, screamed "YOU CAN'T SELL YOUR STATION AND HAVE THE LORD'S MESSAGE REPLACED WITH DEMON BALL!"

Garrick might not be the brightest bulb in the lot, but I am a sports fan and would have liked to have seen this switch to give Citadel some real competition.

Plus, it wouldn't have made the area look like a bunch of backwood hicks.
 
But the ALL-TIME Blunder was

Here are a few others, this time ranked-

1. ETSU-Buc Network lets Scott Robertson go as color man for Chuck Jones in 2002.

I'm convinced that ETSU had a five-year plan to drop football and this was part of it.

Robertson is a professional. However, I'm told he was a bit too hard-hitting for ETSU's tastes.

Now, that in itself speaks how bush league the Buc Network must have been at the time. But then, with I believe the help of an assistant coach on the football team from Seymour, Robertson was let go for Jones, who was the play-by-play man at Seymour.

Chip Kessler- the PBP man- was never even consulted about the move. He then left before the season in a dispute over his compensation for hosting the radio coaches shows.

Jones now was No. 1.

When I had listened to him at Seymour he was unprofessional. At ETSU he was UNLISTENABLE- beginning literally every sentence he spoke with the prefix- "Football Fans."

I'm talking of HUNDREDS of times during a game reciting the term "FOOTBALL FANS."

Not only that, but you replaced the informative Robertson and ultimately Kessler with a homer. And not just any homer but the sort of homer that made Harry Caray look like Howard Cosell.

Give you an example. The first game Jones called was a 34-0 loss to N.C. State. ETSU completed two passes in the entire game.

So how does Jones conclude his broadcast-

"Football fans, I think this ETSU team showed the Wolfpack something today!"

Like what? That they were a miserable program about to go out of business and the only saving grace of the play of the team was it at least surpassed that of the radio announcer?

Jones was replaced after the season and Jay Santos immediately took over as ETSU's main announcer- the position he has today.

The last note of this is that the cowardly powers that be never even told Jones he would be replaced. Reports have Jones calling up Santos after the basketball season asking him if he'd be back.
 
>
> WTFM DJ sells pot- I forget his name- I don't listen to
> WTFM- but is it so much to ask to keep your additional
> income LEGAL?

Wasn't that Dave Carter? I recall his face plastered all over the TV...
 
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