WKAB, Classic Hits 103.5

[dmer]

I'm dissappointed with WKAB lately. Their playlist has been vastly improved, but not much else has happened to this station in months. I get the feeling Scott McAndrews is gone because I don't even hear his voice on commercials anymore. And when the new owners first took over, they seem to have wanted Mike Naydock to come back at some point, but he is now at WAZL again. Not to mention Sherry O'Brien. Is this station going jockless now? I hear the owner doing promos now and again but that is it. They took a station that covered the local area (Hazleton, Berwick and Bloomsburg) extremely well and now I rarely see them in Hazleton or even hear about events in Hazleton. I get the impression they are going to be a Bloomsburg station primarily now. I loved listening to 103.5 in the car and I miss the local element and the old dj's.

On an aside, I have not heard their call letters in weeks. I was wondering if they are changing them. WKAB is well known but I know a lot of times new owners like to change them.

 

[MACK184]

They are ALL gone. Mike Naydock, Tony Pacelli & Bob Sacco are over at WAZL. Scott is on the beach looking for a new gig. WKAB is now nothing but "Radio in a box". Funny thing was, the new owner not only got rid of all the jocks, but all the sales people too!

 

[yonkstur]

New owners must attend a required course called "Stupid Radio Tricks" or "How To Kill A Really Good Radio Station In the Shortest Time Possible". I bet there's a school somewhere!
Yonkstur

 

[Inventor989]

Point: the only persons the new owner let go initially at WKAB was Tony Pacelli (budget didn't allow for a PD, especially when the owner is a well-known programmer), Bob Sacco (face it, even Bob got it about the fact that his show did not fit on a classic hits/classic rock station), and L.A. Terrell (sic?...had L.A. been willing to at least play an occasional hit inbetween all of that unknown music, he probably could have stayed, too). Everyone else quit within the first couple of days, because of the bad vibe that came from the previous management. Naydock could have stayed if he wanted to, Sherry too...and all of those salespeople didn't have to walk out, either.

WKAB was a poorly run organization that was losing money hand over fist. The building was a dump, the files were in disarray, they did deals that were complicated, convoluted and gave away the station (3 dollar spots aren't going to keep you afloat). The equipment condition was awful. Reilly had to immediately convert to a new Scott System because the old one had been filled with audio locally recorded through a board that was full of distortion. Half of the music on the station sounded like it was coming out of a blown speaker.

Scott McAndrew was kept on for about a month. He was let go after being quoted in a very uncomplimentary article written in the Bloom newspaper (who loves to do damage to its only advertising competitor whenever possible, as newspapers are wont to do).

Joe Reilly, with no help from anyone, has done an incredible job bringing back WCNR nee WHLM back from the dead. He will fix 103.5 too, I'm sure. Seeing as he's having to do it with no help from WKAB's former employees, I'd give him a little time, folks. Your comments are grossly unfair.

 

[masterg]

Hasn't Joe "Bobby Hatfield" Reilly had the place for over three years now? Do I have that wrong?

 

[Inventor989]

Reilly bought the "assets" of WCNR 930 in 2001, picked up the WHLM call sign and signed it back on in November of that year. Press-Enterprise owned the station before that, signed it off because they couldn't make a go of it. They wouldn't sell Reilly the tower site, so he made a deal with the university to put his tower on their land. For a few months, it was transmitting from a longwire strung on the steam stack of the greenhouse on Route 11 north of town.

His company took over WKAB in late March of this year.

 

[MACK184]

Point: the only persons the new owner let go initially at WKAB was Tony Pacelli (budget didn't allow for a PD, especially when the owner is a well-known programmer), Bob Sacco (face it, even Bob got it about the fact that his show did not fit on a classic hits/classic rock station), and L.A. Terrell (sic?...had L.A. been willing to at least play an occasional hit inbetween all of that unknown music, he probably could have stayed, too). Everyone else quit within the first couple of days, because of the bad vibe that came from the previous management. Naydock could have stayed if he wanted to, Sherry too...and all of those salespeople didn't have to walk out, either.

WKAB was a poorly run organization that was losing money hand over fist. The building was a dump, the files were in disarray, they did deals that were complicated, convoluted and gave away the station (3 dollar spots aren't going to keep you afloat). The equipment condition was awful. Reilly had to immediately convert to a new Scott System because the old one had been filled with audio locally recorded through a board that was full of distortion. Half of the music on the station sounded like it was coming out of a blown speaker.

Scott McAndrew was kept on for about a month. He was let go after being quoted in a very uncomplimentary article written in the Bloom newspaper (who loves to do damage to its only advertising competitor whenever possible, as newspapers are wont to do).

Joe Reilly, with no help from anyone, has done an incredible job bringing back WCNR nee WHLM back from the dead. He will fix 103.5 too, I'm sure. Seeing as he's having to do it with no help from WKAB's former employees, I'd give him a little time, folks. Your comments are grossly unfair.

Thank-you for you totally unbiased opinion, Mr. Reilly

 

[masterg]

Uhhh, I take it Bobby Hatfield is not widely loved. I have a great Reilly story, maybe some one of these days I'll toss it out here...

 

[Inventor989]

Study hard and you'll figure out that I ain't Hatfield.

 

[dmer]

When Reilly first took over the station, I read in the Standard Speaker about Pacelli being let go since he was the former PD and Reilly was taking over those duties. I read that Naydock was laid off but it was hoped he would come back at some point (although that seemed doubtful at the time). Reilly hoped in the article to have Cellarful of Noise return (I doubt WAZL will let Naydock do it again since he already left WAZL for WKAB and went back again). I never heard what happened to Sherrie O'Brien and until the prior post was unaware of what happened to Scott McAndrews. Sacco's program is on WAZL now, which is more consistent with their programming and it seemed Reilly wanted Tarone's show to possibly return (maybe he had a change of heart or maybe Tarone balked at driving to Bloomsburg to do his show--he always did his show live).

I think people realize that there would be a rebuilding of the station and that the old equipment was in disarray. I think what people have such a problem with is that WKAB was truly a local station with locally respected talent. Now that is all gone. Whether that was Reilly's fault or not, I don't know. But part of what made WKAB a respected local station is gone now and I don't know if he can bet back the local respect. I just found it odd that they were unable to keep a single dj on board--they are all gone.

I do like the expansion of their playlist. They have been digging deeper and they even have an album hour at night. New ownership boasted of a playlist of 3000? However this seems exaggerated a bit.

 

[MACK184]

Point: the only persons the new owner let go initially at WKAB was Tony Pacelli (budget didn't allow for a PD, especially when the owner is a well-known programmer), Bob Sacco (face it, even Bob got it about the fact that his show did not fit on a classic hits/classic rock station), and L.A. Terrell (sic?...had L.A. been willing to at least play an occasional hit inbetween all of that unknown music, he probably could have stayed, too). Everyone else quit within the first couple of days, because of the bad vibe that came from the previous management. Naydock could have stayed if he wanted to, Sherry too...and all of those salespeople didn't have to walk out, either.

WKAB was a poorly run organization that was losing money hand over fist. The building was a dump, the files were in disarray, they did deals that were complicated, convoluted and gave away the station (3 dollar spots aren't going to keep you afloat). The equipment condition was awful. Reilly had to immediately convert to a new Scott System because the old one had been filled with audio locally recorded through a board that was full of distortion. Half of the music on the station sounded like it was coming out of a blown speaker.

Scott McAndrew was kept on for about a month. He was let go after being quoted in a very uncomplimentary article written in the Bloom newspaper (who loves to do damage to its only advertising competitor whenever possible, as newspapers are wont to do).

Joe Reilly, with no help from anyone, has done an incredible job bringing back WCNR nee WHLM back from the dead. He will fix 103.5 too, I'm sure. Seeing as he's having to do it with no help from WKAB's former employees, I'd give him a little time, folks. Your comments are grossly unfair.

You're a fine spin doctor whoever you may be. The people who you claim "walked out" didn't. They were canned. Those who qualify are collecting unemployment. You cannot collect unemployment if you take a walk. Joe Reilly with no help from anyone has taken a station that was for the most part a "live & local" and disassembled it. Your comments remind me of the days when Lloyd Roach and his sock puppets would come on this board to hype whatever Route 81 was doing and how great it was. The people are gone because there was no room left in the buiding for them and Reilly's gigantic ego. In fact what WKAB has inherited is another version of Kevin Fennessey who just happens to have a few more bucks in his wallet and a slightly better tailor.

 

[Inventor989]

Sorry, Mack. I was there. Naydock walked, so did all but one sales person. Sherrie walked too. Didn't want to commute to Bloom. If they are collecting unemployment, it is because Joe agreed to it! The negative attitude of the sales department was cancer. I wouldn't have kept any of them were it me running that outfit. Joe tried to work with them, and so did his sales manager. All they got was impossibly negative reactions about EVERYTHING. I've known Reilly for over 25 years. He's a lot of things...abrasive, yeah sometimes...I've been known to have a few shouting matches with him over the years...but you could learn a lot from a guy like him. If you're judging him by his on-air act, you don't get him at all. As for WKAB, I got to listen to a lot of it over the past few months, and, I gotta tell ya, outside of Mike, who is an excellent jock, and Sherrie, who had a lot of potential if anyone would have taught her, there wasn't a lot worth listening to. Sacco was good but, by his own admission, was not a fit. None of the rest wanted to do what Hatfield wanted to do, period. So they walked.

If your buds from the old regime say they were fired, they are the ones lying to you.

 

[radioboss]

Joe (Bobby Hatfield) Reilly is probably one of the best local operators around.

I have known Joe for a number of years, and has taken a station that wasn't making any money and put on heritage calls and rebuilt 930 AM into a excellent station.

There is a plan in place (in his head) of what he wants to do with 103.5FM. It may not happen overnight; but, whether it's WHLM - FM or whatever. Joe will make it successful too.

I wish that everyone that worked at the former WKAB in Berwick could have stayed on; but, from my inside knowledge... everybody walked on their own admission. In fact, some of those same people inquired about working at other stations in the immediate area (market).

So, don't blame Joe for sore losers or people that have a negative attitude about losing their comfort zone. Thank the former owner for selling when he did. He created the mess by getting greedy. Mind you, only $1.1 million. Would I have sold, probably.

If I had the opportunity to work for Joe, I would in a heartbeat. Just because I probably would learn a thing or two from him.

 

[MACK184]

Joe (Bobby Hatfield) Reilly is probably one of the best local operators around.

I have known Joe for a number of years, and has taken a station that wasn't making any money and put on heritage calls and rebuilt 930 AM into a excellent station.

There is a plan in place (in his head) of what he wants to do with 103.5FM. It may not happen overnight; but, whether it's WHLM - FM or whatever. Joe will make it successful too.

I wish that everyone that worked at the former WKAB in Berwick could have stayed on; but, from my inside knowledge... everybody walked on their own admission. In fact, some of those same people inquired about working at other stations in the immediate area (market).

So, don't blame Joe for sore losers or people that have a negative attitude about losing their comfort zone. Thank the former owner for selling when he did. He created the mess by getting greedy. Mind you, only $1.1 million. Would I have sold, probably.

If I had the opportunity to work for Joe, I would in a heartbeat. Just because I probably would learn a thing or two from him.

Reilly's sock puppets are everywhere!!

 

[Inventor989]

And Banko's arent?

 

[MACK184]

And Banko's arent?

They might be. But I have no love for Banko either. She was only Bob's sock puppet. Actually if you combined Reilly & Banko together you could have the worst of both worlds.

 

[Inventor989]

So then, Mack, who would you nominate as a good broadcaster? Just to get some bearing on your values, you understand.

I've had dealings with Reilly since 1980, as a potential employee, then as an employer, then as a friend and collaborator. I think he knows his stuff, and I think your judgment of him comes from ignorance of who the guy really is.

 

[MACK184]

So then, Mack, who would you nominate as a good broadcaster? Just to get some bearing on your values, you understand.

I've had dealings with Reilly since 1980, as a potential employee, then as an employer, then as a friend and collaborator. I think he knows his stuff, and I think your judgment of him comes from ignorance of who the guy really is.

Around here?? You've GOT to be kidding!!

 

[MACK184]

So then, Mack, who would you nominate as a good broadcaster? Just to get some bearing on your values, you understand.

I've had dealings with Reilly since 1980, as a potential employee, then as an employer, then as a friend and collaborator. I think he knows his stuff, and I think your judgment of him comes from ignorance of who the guy really is.

Around here?? You've GOT to be kidding!!

Actually, I take that back...Ben Smith in Tunkhannock runs a decent operation and he's a decent guy. Does local programming and sounds good.

 

[radioboss]

Here are some people that I would say are good operators:

1) Joe Reilly WHLM-Bloomsburg/Berwick
2) Ben Smith & Kevin Fitzgerald WCOZ/WEMR-Laporte/Tunkhannock
3) John Hogg WJSA-Jersey Shore/Williamsport
4) John Lipez WBPZ/WSNU-Lock Haven
5) Karyn Stratton WQBR-Avis/Williamsport
6) John Yingling & Don Steese WMLP/WVLY-Milton/Lewisburg (they recently sold to Sunbury)
7) Jolly Joe WQLV-Millersburg/Harrisburg (recently sold to another local operator)

I am sure that there is many more out there worthy of mention. But, these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.