SteveJRogersJR
12-18-2002, 08:30 AM
Writing the last post I did got me in a ranting mood so I'm "gonna shoot" all over the mess that is Extreme Talk 102.7, Talk That Many Have Ignored:
-Mismanaged from day one. Some days I wonder if Infinity designed the experiment to fail considering the lack of insight they put into the station. Granted the various PDs and GMs over the years didn't help matters but still. No thought was put into it, just ride O&A and see how far they could get away with that. The biggest indictment of that philosophy was R&F's first show after the cancellation. No one spoke to them, they didn't know exactly how to proceed or even if they should go to work the next day (and I'm sure they're still not convinced that they'll be back in NY on 1/6/03)
-No promotion, no credibility. How long was this just "The Opie And Anthony Station" and its STILL The O&A station. How many people know Ron and Fez exists? How many people actually LISTEN to Tom Lykis or know he's back in NY? Can someone tell me why WNEW has the worst promo staff right now in radio? And it got worse when they lost just about everyone to KRock.
-Howard Factor
Heres a question. Why? Why didn't they just do an end around and instead of giving up mornings just do something DIFFRENT! Target a diffrenet demo in the morning if Stern's ego won't let them move O&A or a like program in the morning. Lionel would have been a perfect pickup in the Fall of 2001 after the end of WEVD (yeah I know he runs live at night but he did a morning show on WABC and could have worked on WNEW) Hell ANYONE would have been better than the motley crew that they have had in the mornings. Which leads to a whole rant on the sports guys and extreme sports:
They should have ended the sports guys and SIGNED The Jim Rome show. The whole "Sports Guys" concept was very flawed, 99% of the time they talked about anything BUT sports and quite frankly if the name of the show was "SPORTS" than it should have been about SPORTS and there are ways to have a "O&A" style sports show (see Sid and Jody, Ferrall On The Bench, or Jim Rome, hell early Chris Russo shows could be considered "extreme" ) Also they put their eggs in a very shaky basket once they brought Scott Ferrall on board. Yeah I know he was fired by association, but he is a time bomb who burned many bridges in his broadcast career, plus do you REALLY want a guy who sounds like he wants nothing to do with being on the air ON THE AIR? The guy never seemed to have any fun on the air.
What they should have done was to have goten Jim Rome for the 12-2 shift. That way it eliminated cross-overs from M&MD and given the station a little more credibility than the revolving door of "The Sports Guys" (and Neer and Allen do not do that BTW THAT was a huge mistake IMHO as they are a complete clash with the rest of the format) Also how great would it have been if Infinity had ANY balls and put either baseball team on WNEW? The NEW home of the NEW York (either Yanks or Mets) is 'NEW 102.7 or if the FAN moved either Knicks or Rangers to FM full-time. Nothing adds to a station's cred than putting an area's sports franchise on its air on a regular basis. (see WFAN and the Mets and Talk Radio 77 and the Yankees)
-Political Talk
When WEVD went bye-bye the FIRST thing WNEW should have done was HIRE MR. ALAN COLMES. Again, he would give some credibility that the station was going to be around for the long haul and wasn't just "The O&A station" and that would have added to the old "Talk You Can't Ignore" slogan because Alan (along with O&A, R&F, ect) would have been the perfect anitode for those tired of the same old right-wing conservative talk you get on ABC and WOR. And he would have fit the format perfectly. Same goes for another person they should have gotten Lynn Samules once WABC sacked her and she got gobbled up by WLIE (or whatever its called) She's has a big following in NY and would have given instant credibilty and boosted the ratings.
Basically the point is they DIDN'T TRY. They just rode O&A's coat tails and even that boat w
-Mismanaged from day one. Some days I wonder if Infinity designed the experiment to fail considering the lack of insight they put into the station. Granted the various PDs and GMs over the years didn't help matters but still. No thought was put into it, just ride O&A and see how far they could get away with that. The biggest indictment of that philosophy was R&F's first show after the cancellation. No one spoke to them, they didn't know exactly how to proceed or even if they should go to work the next day (and I'm sure they're still not convinced that they'll be back in NY on 1/6/03)
-No promotion, no credibility. How long was this just "The Opie And Anthony Station" and its STILL The O&A station. How many people know Ron and Fez exists? How many people actually LISTEN to Tom Lykis or know he's back in NY? Can someone tell me why WNEW has the worst promo staff right now in radio? And it got worse when they lost just about everyone to KRock.
-Howard Factor
Heres a question. Why? Why didn't they just do an end around and instead of giving up mornings just do something DIFFRENT! Target a diffrenet demo in the morning if Stern's ego won't let them move O&A or a like program in the morning. Lionel would have been a perfect pickup in the Fall of 2001 after the end of WEVD (yeah I know he runs live at night but he did a morning show on WABC and could have worked on WNEW) Hell ANYONE would have been better than the motley crew that they have had in the mornings. Which leads to a whole rant on the sports guys and extreme sports:
They should have ended the sports guys and SIGNED The Jim Rome show. The whole "Sports Guys" concept was very flawed, 99% of the time they talked about anything BUT sports and quite frankly if the name of the show was "SPORTS" than it should have been about SPORTS and there are ways to have a "O&A" style sports show (see Sid and Jody, Ferrall On The Bench, or Jim Rome, hell early Chris Russo shows could be considered "extreme" ) Also they put their eggs in a very shaky basket once they brought Scott Ferrall on board. Yeah I know he was fired by association, but he is a time bomb who burned many bridges in his broadcast career, plus do you REALLY want a guy who sounds like he wants nothing to do with being on the air ON THE AIR? The guy never seemed to have any fun on the air.
What they should have done was to have goten Jim Rome for the 12-2 shift. That way it eliminated cross-overs from M&MD and given the station a little more credibility than the revolving door of "The Sports Guys" (and Neer and Allen do not do that BTW THAT was a huge mistake IMHO as they are a complete clash with the rest of the format) Also how great would it have been if Infinity had ANY balls and put either baseball team on WNEW? The NEW home of the NEW York (either Yanks or Mets) is 'NEW 102.7 or if the FAN moved either Knicks or Rangers to FM full-time. Nothing adds to a station's cred than putting an area's sports franchise on its air on a regular basis. (see WFAN and the Mets and Talk Radio 77 and the Yankees)
-Political Talk
When WEVD went bye-bye the FIRST thing WNEW should have done was HIRE MR. ALAN COLMES. Again, he would give some credibility that the station was going to be around for the long haul and wasn't just "The O&A station" and that would have added to the old "Talk You Can't Ignore" slogan because Alan (along with O&A, R&F, ect) would have been the perfect anitode for those tired of the same old right-wing conservative talk you get on ABC and WOR. And he would have fit the format perfectly. Same goes for another person they should have gotten Lynn Samules once WABC sacked her and she got gobbled up by WLIE (or whatever its called) She's has a big following in NY and would have given instant credibilty and boosted the ratings.
Basically the point is they DIDN'T TRY. They just rode O&A's coat tails and even that boat w