• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WPRO is hurting , WHJJ is gaining

I hope Chatty will realize as I do WHJJ is dead.
They fired 4 people yesterday, cost cuts my rear. A friend of Charles says the whole format
will change Jan. Look for national shows ALL.
WPRO will be King of the Hill.
Please WPRO don't allow Buddy the Crook to stain your studios. Walter
 
I love ya Holland but consultants drive me crazy.

You say 'callers' are the show. You say Dave ran your playbook the best! You are happy when callers forget his name.

Yet you say stations will KILL to find the Next New Voice. Why not just find ANY voice and have a great consultant behind him/her?

Do the callers make the success of the REALLY big shows? Rush? Hannity? Savage?

I agree with most of what you say, only because stations do not HAVE original-style hosts with a lot of talent, especially in smaller markets. So, almost like the Patriots, a station needs a SYSTEM that works. But if you feel you are unique as 'talent', having a consultant can KILL your career. I've had some who tried to kill mine, but I didn't let them. I had a consultant in TV forbid me to use the word "interactive" in the title of my interactive newscast. He said it would never catch on. Now I watch Fox network do it.

Recently, as a new entry into the talk format, I was told by virtually every management type to be the 'Angry White Guy", to stir passion, to use rants, and anger to get callers riled up. Instead, I announced I wasn't going to BE that, and instead gave them GOOD RADIO. In eight months I have the highest morning talk numbers in this city's history as far as we know.

Quality still wins, and most listeners are tired of 'formats'. They want someone 'real'. Someone with some talent. Like radio was back when Holland was on-air in Providence.

Consultants (or bosses back then) ripped apart Salty didn't they? I always read stories about how he wasn't considered very good. Yet i still hear his voice in my head 30 years later, so he must have had something special.

What RI needs in my humble opinion is good talent. Not angry callers. I'm going on record as saying this will be the 'next big thing'. FUN talk radio. SOLID journalism. HUMOR not anger. Just watch.
 
I've been reading this board for a month or so, and didn't sign my name because I don't like having all these posts come up every time my name is 'googled' lol.

I worked at WPRO 'back in the day' with Salty and Larry and Bud and Chris Camp etc etc. Produced Steve Kass's show for a short while, otherwise i've been a radio and tv news anchor and manager for the past 27 years.

News Director at nine TV stations, enough to get me to dislike the TV news biz enough to go back to radio!

My name won't mean anything to most of you, but in fairness, I don't know who any of YOU guys are either! (except Holland)

I am in the process of trying to get my show on in Providence, so not sure how smart it is to sign this, but i will anyway.

Jim Parisi
 
Thank you Jim, I am a bit younger than you, but I know a person who says you're 'dam good'.
Thats cool.
Good luck here.
WPRO and Citadel is a good STABILE place to work.
Where ever you go, good luck!

Linda
 
Hi Jim Parisi,
A blast from the past!
What are you looking to do in Mass RI Market?
Walter
 
Walter C??? Not THE Walter? (cryan)

Here's the deal since you asked...I tried to get out of the business...ran an internet journalism site...and couldn't make any cash...so I gave in and did radio news in Tucson where my wife lives...and then when the Talk slot opened, I auditioned and got it...but I wouldn't do what the guys before me did (i.e. mimic all the typical talk folks on conservative stations)

My 4-hour morning talk show leads into Rush, Hannity, Savage, and Mark Levin. Yet I'm a moderate, I like to laugh, and I'm a typical wiseass RI-er. So I do exactly that, with a HEAVY load of interviews, both serious and fun. In eight months the show in through the roof, and the competitors are done. It proves what I already knew: what all of YOU did for years still works, when done well.

I have a heavy political news background, so my credibility is intact, but at this age I'd rather enjoy myself FIRST. The old adage that listeners gravitate toward what they see as a fun time.

I talk up rock and other records as bumper music, which I had to learn since I've never been a DJ...I do the DJ fun routines about Life, etc, but then do a ten minute interview with a national newsmaker to keep it honest.

Some of the interviews are at www.KNST.com...look for podcasts.

I want to do a show for Providence, from Tucson, because I think the city will like it. After that, I'd like to syndicate.

Thanks for the kindness

Jim
 
You're Welcome!
R.I. is a little crazy right now.
The Clear Channel situation and all.
Good Luck!
Walter
 
It's sad isn't it? Kills me to hear that not much of an effort seems to be made to improve product. ClearChannel's sale didn't include the top 100 markets, so I wonder why such a shake-up in Providence...

I've enjoyed hearing about the people who have passed through, like Big Ange. I used to work with King Arthur Knight..or KAK, does anyone know if he's still alive and well? I know my friend Jack Burns died, he was a GREAT guy. Some of you might know my brother Sam, he worked at Pro for years behind the scenes...directed/produced all those crazy spots for Cardi's Furniture and RI Lottery..he died at 47 years old a few years back.

I worked with Barry Parker, what a nice guy. He retired to Florida when he struck paydirt, literally, in his back yard!

I also worked in Boston with some great people at WMEX and their sister station FM who's call letters escape me at the moment.

Great stories!
 
NTV, Do you have a Web site, anything streaming?
Cheers,
Chatty
 
Hi Jim,

It sounds like you've hit paydirt with your morning show formula. I daresay it would be a refreshing change from all the in your face ranting that seems to dominate now. I'm a transplanted Coventry native now working in the Philly market. A morning show like yours would be a breath of fresh air down here. Philly has 2 news-talk AM's. One is WNTP 990, owned by Salem. Mostly all nationally syndie stuff: Bill Bennett mornings, then Laura Ingraham, Dennis Praeger, Hugh Hewitt, and Michael Savage. The other is the Big Talker, WPHT 1210, owned by CBS. They do have a local morning host, Michael
Smerconish, but he seems to be on an ego trip. Midday and afternoon it's national with Rush and Sean Hannity, evenings local hosts Suzanne LaFrankie and Dom Giordano.
Both stations could use a makeover LOL! I think if you were on WHJJ in Prov., you could turn things around for them and have them give WPRO a run for the money...

Dave Gardiner

WVCH 740/WNWR 1540

Philadelphia
 
Dave are you the guy who ran a TV newsroom in Providence about 10 years ago? Or am I drinking?

Thanks for the support either way!

jim
 
The latest is Hannity 3 to 6 starting Dec 11
Savage back to pro.
WHJJ is DEAD..
 
How to INSTANTLY change the game...

Given recent developments, company-wide within Clear Channel, "WHJJ is gaining" seems like a stretch lately. As the national bloodbath continues, www.RadioAndRecords.com has added a special page just to report Clear Channel firings.

But ANY Providence station...even WHJJ...would INSTANTLY vault to #1, for one book, by signing soon-available Buddy Cianci.

To sustain #1, there would have to be more-to-the-station than a single show. But out-of-the-box sampling WOULD make ANY station quickly, if temporarily, #1.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
Hello Holland!,
Thats why you get the big bucks. Yes, Buddy would be major asset.
The only draw greater maybe John Depetro.
You know I started this thread in early June, boy how things have changed.
WHJJ has done nothing after grabbing Savage. Now, from what I understand, HJJ is losing Savage
and will be airing Hannity live.
Holland I would love to hear your thoughts on what you would do with WHJJ and have you ever worked
with Jim Corwin?
My best to you,
Chatty :)
 
Moi???

As my boss at USA Today used to say, "I'll answer your last question first."
I did a project for Jim in the late 80s; and I've known him over 20 years.
RI small state story: When I programmed 93.3 ('82-84), Jim's wife was one of our DJs.

Certainly I consider Jim a friend.
Ditto for Barbara Haynes, who was part of Team 93.3 when we were @ 111 Dorrance Street.
And being a former Pro Personality is like being an ex-Red Sox player...ya still bleed team colors.

My point about Clear Channel wasn't an opinion, merely an observation.
Check out that page @ www.RadioAndRecords.com
It's a challenging time at EVERY station in that company now.
At WIOD/Miami (the Rush Limbaugh-type station there), they just fired the ENTIRE news department.
Don't blame the station manager. It's a blue Christmas for him/her too.

Even if it wasn't awkward for personal reasons, it would be professionally inappropriate to sketch-out "now-if-I-ran-the-place" bullet points in this context. Or anywhere, recreationally. As you pointed out (i.e., "the big bucks") this IS how-I-pay-my-bills.

My point up above was about Buddy, an INSTANT game-changer, WHEREVER he ends up.
And he WILL end up somewhere.

And when he does, the impact will be swift.
But will it sustain?
Only if the-station-around-him offers Buddy Buddies something else they'll listen to.

RE Johnny D: And, again, speaking about the person, rather than any-one-station: I share your instinct, as I have already offered, with appropriate disclaimer, in that thread about "Honest Opinions." He lit-up WHJJ.

The other day, someone I was talking to said "The best thing that could happen to BOTH Talk stations? A THIRD Talk station, raising the bar." Imagine?

Good afternoon from Block Island,
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
Hi Chatty!

I'm working on having the actual SHOW streamed, i.e. bits and 'clever observations' and all that. But if you just want to get an idea of the 'regular guy' interviews I do during the show, I'm putting some on www.JimParisi.com
and my station in Arizona has a podcast page:
http://www.knst.com/cc-common/podcast.html
and even a bit on myspace at www.myspace.com/tucsonsmorningshow

The interviews seem odd out of the context of the four-hour show sometimes, but at least you'll hear something!

Thanks

Jim





chattypattyri said:
NTV, Do you have a Web site, anything streaming?
Cheers,
Chatty
 
Hi Jim,
I wish I WAS that guy who ran the TV news operation. But, no; I'm not him. Just an engineer/DJ who's bounced around a lot of the Providence stations, and 3 in the Boston area as well. And picking up on what Holland said about a 3rd news-talker in Providence to raise the bar of the other 2...it's been tried twice. 990 was first to do it after adopting the WALE callsign. If you remember Steve White....he was, along with Geoff Charles and Rudy Cheeks, the core of what Francis Battaglia hoped would be the alternative to 630 and 920. At the time, the day signal was sttill good, but the then- 500 watts at night was the killer. The other thing that hurt was lack of a network affliation, and, for some time, AP wire service. I remember when the place was WEAN and I did overnights, I'd rewrite stories from the Providence Journal and Kent Counrty Times. No way something like that will get and hold an audience. 550 in Pawtucket also took a swing at it I remember Joe Fowlkes and Bruce Newberry as 2 of the hosts. That, too, crashed and burnt ,opening the way for Radio Disney to go there .

Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
 
NewTalkVoice said:
Dave are you the guy who ran a TV newsroom in Providence about 10 years ago? Or am I drinking?

Thanks for the support either way!

jim


Thanks for drinking. It always makes for more entertaining posts. lol
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom