WLOQ Axes Joe Francis

[Benjamin Franklin]

After being at WLOQ for almost 30 years...Joe Francis was let go today (Thursday). The overnights are now automated at WLOQ.

Joe was not given any warning about this going to happen. He was asked to come in today to learn voice tracking...but instead was let go

 

[kentraco]

Joe's a remarkable man and a consummate professional.

There was talk of automating the overnight shift fifteen years ago, so it's a fine testament to his talent that the station decided instead to keep it real all this time.

He hired me for that shift when he was PD, and I worked it for three-and-a-half years. He took it in 1986 and has done it ever since.

Thanks for the memories, Joe.

 

[P-R]

Joe is a great guy! Top drawer professional and one of the sharpest minds I have ever had the honor of working around. Strange, I was up very early Thursday morning and listen to Joe...not realizing it was his last shift. When I saw what had happened to him this morning...I sent him an email to see if he was ok. He quickly replied back that he is. He seems to want to keep in the business. I don't know if any Orlando PDs/GMs will read this...but, if you are looking for someone for News he is fantastic. I will pass his contact info to those who might have an opening...feel free to email me.

 

[FrankF]

Not that I listen to WLOQ, but what a shame. So now the only "Mom & Pop" FM station in Orlando has cheapened out with automated overnights, which leaves this question. What stations here are actually live and local at night? I believe the three CBS stations WOMX, WOCL & WJHM are.

 

[Radio-X]

Oh man...that blows! I listen to LOQ for third shifts at work often. IIRC, he did news at the top of the hour and did an amazing job at it!! It really sounded like a station from the past...when almost every station did news/weather at the top of the hour with real professional announcers.

Hope he gets back on his feet soon. It must be tough having 30+ years under your belt and getting nixed like that.

Radio-X

 

[DarrenWelles]

If memory serves me correctly...Joe was News Director at 540-A before being hired by Herb Gross in 1977 to be Operations Manager of WLOQ. Also...Joe was on TV in the 70s here in Orlando. I think OldGuy can give more details if he reads this and desires

Just before I posted this I checked the WLOQ website. I found they have failed to remove Joe from their site (and have some others listed I don't think are still there)

The other day, I spoke with a friend of mine that still works there...that person is petrified they will be next to get the axe

http://www.wloq.com/staff.asp

 

[kentraco]

Also...Joe was on TV in the 70s here in Orlando.

I believe he hosted the "Dialing For Dollars" movie on WFTV.

 

[Radio Pro]

So is the new PD making this (and probably further) change, or is the PD the
messenger brought in to make sweeping changes? Interesting. I personally don't know the gentleman, but 30 years at one station..he is surely going to be missed by the listeners. Best of luck to him.

 

[BIG APE]

Also...Joe was on TV in the 70s here in Orlando.

I believe he hosted the "Dialing For Dollars" movie on WFTV.

Ya Know, I had forgotten that..Yes indeed, he was..I was at WESH-TV 2 at the time!

 

[Jack Burton]

>>Hope he gets back on his feet soon. It must be tough having 30+ years under your belt and getting nixed like that.<<

Joe has been in the Orlando Market for over 30 years and been in Radio for at least 50 years. I know he was in Boston years ago. A long time ago when Dick Clark had a production company (United Stations) in Orlando he was going to syndicate Joe!

In my opinion it is sad WLOQ didn't fire Taylor and place Joe in the Mornings with Robyn. His warm sound, wit, and sharp mind along with her would have been an interesting upscale sound. Part of me wonders if Joe wasn't over the age of 60 if he would have been given that chance. I believe Don Kirby sued them years ago because of an issue about age. I know Joe was a good friend with the late Mr. Kirby...and perhaps what happened to Don years ago is floating around in his mind.

>>So is the new PD making this (and probably further) change, or is the PD the messenger brought in to make sweeping changes?<<

Hired gunslinger to implement long desired changes. My guess the next one to go will be Dolan (the night guy). Since WLOQ has shown they are not afraid to terminate someone over 60...they probably won't blink an eye at Dolan being over 50. The new PD has already shortened Dolan's shift by an hour each night with the airing of a syndicated show at 11. After his removal I think BM will be let go.

I noticed BM was on this last Saturday afternoon and voice-tracked. Outside of that voice tracked shift, they have removed Morgan's liners (they had been using him as the voice guy for imaging/liners) and now are relying on the Production Director Matt Fry and Robyn Austin along with a new jingle package in the automated periods. Matt is extremely good...but his voice is over used at the station already since he voices most of the spots and he does TV vo work. That saturation makes his voice not "unique" enough in my opinion to use for liners/sweepers and Top of the hour IDs like they are. Just shows operating as cheap as possible. Also...they need to work on the Voice Tracks coming out of songs...the music is drowning the VO audio. Looks like Dave Young needs to do a little more tweaking. BM's voice was being drowned out/lost on many elements. I also noticed BM must have been tired or has been subdued/castrated by the new Program Director...for he wasn't his usual "Sunny" self...he was dragging and sounded canned. It was interesting to hear Bob Kelly on Sunday afternoon...his shift seemed live-assist...if he was voice-tracked he pulled it off better than Morgan did...Kelly was smooth as was Mark Butler with Landscapes earlier in the day.

They removed their weekend call in contest (makes it easier to be automated) and Matt voiced a contest announcement (in style with the old weekend of winning call-in announcements) directing people to register to win at the Q website...sounded lame. Looks like there are other changes there as an opening for Promotions/Marketing manager was posted the day Joe was terminated.

http://tvandradiojobs.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.cgi?search_and_display_db_button=on&query=category&category=Radio

They also have an ad running at that same site for a saleperson and the ad states the following: "You’ll sell for one of the highest quality, independently-owned media companies in Central Florida in a fun, supportive environment, where you’re treated like family, not a number." Gee...I bet Joe feels like he was treated like family! THIRTY YEARS at that place and basically thrown under a bus! Poor guy is looking for anything now that the rug has been pulled out from under him. "Treated like family"...yeah...right. A place that has it's family members stabbing each other in the back...to the point, the owner Herb Gross was voted out of power by his very own family (wife and two sons)...oh yeah...fun and supportive environment.

 

[Radio-X]

Also...they need to work on the Voice Tracks coming out of songs...the music is drowning the VO audio.

That was a problem I had when I began VT'ing at my station. To their defense, you can't help it if you never VT'd before. We ran Scott Studios with live assist from 6a-6p then totally automated for the nights. When I VT'd afternoons & nights, we had to call our Scott Studios guy in AZ (Scott had basically stopped offering support for this 12 yr old dinosaur) and have him lead us through how to set that up so I wouldnt get drowned out in the music. It's complicated if you've never done it before.

They also have an ad running at that same site for a saleperson and the ad states the following: "You’ll sell for one of the highest quality, independently-owned media companies in Central Florida in a fun, supportive environment, where you’re treated like family, not a number." Gee...I bet Joe feels like he was treated like family! THIRTY YEARS at that place and basically thrown under a bus! Poor guy is looking for anything now that the rug has been pulled out from under him. "Treated like family"...yeah...right. A place that has it's family members stabbing each other in the back...to the point, the owner Herb Gross was voted out of power by his very own family (wife and two sons)...oh yeah...fun and supportive environment.

It's a real, real fine line when a family owns (or is involved in running) a business. It'll get built up very well because of the love and teamwork from the family...then, something will set one of them off and for that same reason the whole thing crashes.

Radio-X

 

[P-R]

Radio-X, you brought back old memories about dealing with the DSS system a long time ago...over ten years ago. I was working for a cluster that had Vault in one facility and when they bought two additional stations that had DSS and corporate didn't want to spend $$$ to make things unified way back then. I remember what it was like getting things to be smooth with the voice tracking. I was a geek even then...and had worked with so many automation systems before that (way back to the Sono-Mags and Harris 90s) that it wasn't that bad for me...but for the others who had never seen automation there was some lag time in getting things up to 100% and we must keep in mind WLOQ was still playing music off of CDs not that long ago and spots...well...they had an interesting way of playing them (LOL)...the Scott Studios system was welcomed considering how they used to play spots...although they briefly used a different digital system for spot playback before settling on Scotts. Dave Young mentioned in a previous post is a top flight tech...knows his digital stuff real well...kind of a Master Yoda. Knowing him, he probably has those above mentioned tech issues resolved

I had contact with Joe a few days ago. He seems okay for those who are interested. If you have his contact info...give him a holler...I know he would like that. He made mention to me that he "might" be back soon on-air part-time somewhere in Orlando. If that happens and he lets me know...I will post it here

 

[kentraco]

Who here would be interested in an informal get-together at some watering hole in Central Florida just to renew ties with Joe and give him a little moral support?

I haven't seen him in thirteen years.

 

[P-R]

Who here would be interested in an informal get-together at some watering hole in Central Florida just to renew ties with Joe and give him a little moral support?

I haven't seen him in thirteen years.

Count me in (feel free to email me).

I will contact Joe and see if he is interested and perhaps some of his other former colleagues.

 

[AnotherCat]

Didn't this new PD come from an SJ station in Arizona that was automated except in AM and PM drive?

 

[P-R]

Didn't this new PD come from an SJ station in Arizona that was automated except in AM and PM drive?

Paul Lavoie is the new PD. He was from New Mexico. The url to his website is after this post. AC you might be right about his former station being automated entirely except for the Drive times.

On the way home tonight I caught Brian Morgan on 'LOQ. It was the seven o'clock hour. If there were voice tracking problems before (as mentioned in a previous post) it was not apparent this evening. Brian sounded warm and fuzzy and there were no noticable audio level problems with VTs.

http://voice123.com/paullavoie

 

[Radio Pro]

Paul Lavoie was PD for Smooth Jazz in Albuquerque NM. More often than not, they were automated except for morning and PM. Then under Univision, the station lost out in a format and frequency shuffle. Paul was out of radio for about a year..until now.
I'm sure he has great skills in running automated radio..and wouldn't be surprised to see
only major shifts live. Time will tell.

 

[cklw800]

I've never understood the reasoning behind lying to an employee who is about to be fired. Especially a veteran like that. Being told to come in to learn voicetracking then fired instead. Man that hurts! I hope he bounces back on his feet. But if you're a station veteran you're an endagered species. Especially at a Smooth Jazz station. This format is in great trouble. Also see the post by Bill Harmonic on this board in the Smooth Jazz section. A most intelligent outlook on the format. No station outside the Top 10 markets can handle an expensive staff (or cheap one for that matter). Jones or BA is really the only way to go anymore. No local station can rebuild this format. It's pretty much done as a live and local format. Consider America to really have just two Smooth Jazz stations over-the air. Jones and BA. It's a NETWORK-only format with radio stations being the "carriers."

 

[P-R]

Who here would be interested in an informal get-together at some watering hole in Central Florida just to renew ties with Joe and give him a little moral support?

I haven't seen him in thirteen years.

I received word from Joe and he has no interest. To qoute him, "a little late for that kind of stuff."

With the passing of a week since his being let go, in my opinion the shock of it for him has turned to anger/bitterness...which is understandable.

 

[The Bottom-line]

It was an Overnight position!!!

He enjoyed a nice long ride on the gravy train. He should be happy it went as long as it did! As someone wrote above, the position was being talked about being automated 15 years ago!

There was talk of automating the overnight shift fifteen years ago, so it's a fine testament to his talent that the station decided instead to keep it real all this time.

Had nothing to do with him being professional...more to do with he was best buddy with the eccentric owner/founder who wouldn't bring in automation!

Keep in mind, he ended up where he did by his own choices...by his own actions and lack of actions. Remember this, Joe chose to step down as Operations Manger years ago on his own and he wanted to work Overnights! OVERNIGHTS! There is a reason you banish yourself to overnights...not for a long a spell as Joe did...you might for the short spell to take care of a family matter or other personal issues...but for years in overnights? The reason you banish yourself for years to that position at a music station is because you lost the drive/the spark and are LAZY....plus you like picking up a fat check for doing little. Overnights were a cakewalk for him. He didn't have to see staff or really answer to anyone. ALL PDs till now were afraid to do anything about him because of his strong friendship with the eccentric owner/founder. For all of those who whine that it isn't fair what happened to him...ask Joe these questions:

In the last five years, how many station events did you attend?
How many mandatory station meetings did you attend?
What production did you do?
Did you take the time and or effort to learn digital production/editing?
Besides pulling a 5.5 hour airshift...what else did you do or ever volunteer for?
Since the overnights were live...how many times did you work callers on-air? How prompt were you in answering the phone? Oh that's right...answering the phone was an interruption from more important things like reading books, newspapers and working on crossword puzzles.

In my opinion he thought he was invulnerable. This thinking came to him because he thought he was best friends with the founder of the place. He was probably right...until the day the founder was removed from power (sons and wife took over). The day this happened is when accountability came in to play.