Matt sure has some fans here, MYSELF INCLUDED, as you'll read about-a-page-back.
Not-to-talk-about-Matt-like-he's-not-in-the-room...but since you were nice enough to ask...here's the dish, a MUCH-misunderstood turn-of-events.
Matt's previous PD, David Bernstein, is a longtime pal of mine.
Several years ago, I congratulated David on FINDING young talent.
Face it, radio's farm team has gone-to-hell since the 1996 Telecom Act.
Consolidation, automation, and syndication have scared-away lots of folks Matt's age.
There are just fewer entry level jobs now.
Fast-forward to about-two-years-ago..
There I was, at the Minneapolis airport, connecting to-or-from I-forget-where, yet-another radio consulting road trip. When my phone rang. MY phone rang. I didn't dial-out.
David told me "Steve Kass is leaving. Any suggestions?"
The rest, as The Providence Journal reported, is history.
In addition to David-and-I going-back, I knew station manager Barbara Haynes.
She and I worked together at WSNE 82-84.
I recommended Dave Barber to WPRO...TWICE.
By the time WPRO hired him, they'd changed PDs.
And all-the-while, Matt kept-on-keeping-on.
Having been on-air as long as I was, I know how being an interim host as long as Matt was can be unsettling. But, to his credit, Matt (as consultants say) "made the show his very own."
Clearly, the-passion-of his-fans-who-post-here speaks volumes.
In some cases, "passion" is the polite word.
But, MY phone rang, that morning in The Twin Cities.
I didn't dial-out.
Honest.
Dave Barber and I had worked together at a station in Michigan which I consulted.
NOBODY I've ever coached runs my playbook better.
I have used the aircheck you will hear at
http://members.aol.com/cookeh/news.html as a coaching tool at lots of client stations (including one in NYNY week-before-last). And they always howl.
And they always note the caller who says "Hello Dave. It's Dave, right?"
And they always say "Hmmm!" when I point out WHY the caller asked, which you'll read at
http://members.aol.com/cookeh/news.html
WPRO was my third on-air job.
I moved 5 times for radio.
It's an occupational hazard.
A couple of those moves were because I didn't get the job I wanted at-the-station-I-was-at.
Including when I left WPRO, in 1980, after they passed me over for PD...twice.
"We need someone with more experience," they told me.
So I went somewhere else and got the experience.
Nobody could make that decision for me.
Supportive posts here suggest Matt could go to WHJJ.
I'll go ya one better...
I always wince when I hear the term, but it's handy, so I'll use it here:
I could hear Matt do what's been called "FM Talk."
A station that talks to people-younger-than-the-people-local-AMs-talk-to, y'know?
I don't know that there are any of those stations here.
But I know of stations elsewhere that would KILL to find The Next New Voice.
And -- having had to confront the decision to leave a station as special as WPRO will always be, to ANY of us who've worked there -- I wouldn't presume to recommend what Matt should do.
But I do concur with David Bernstein's ear, his vision.
And with what Dave Barber said on his first show, acknowledging Matt's extended interim stint:
"His future in this business is bright."
HC
