Posted on 04/03/2009 6:25:47 PM PDT by Perdogg
Beginning Monday morning, the Grandy and Andy Morning Show will expand to 5 hours! The Grandy and Andy magic starts at 5am and won’t stop until 10am (or slightly earlier if Fred starts to choke on his daily ration of mixed nuts.)
Between 5 and 9am, it’s all of the great stuff you’re accustomed to: 20 minutes of news and views commercial free at the top of every hour, opinion and analysis, lots o’ laughs, plus traffic and weather first on the 5’s. At 9am, Fred, Andy and Bryan tackle the big story of the day with plenty of your phone calls, an occasional guest and some great surprises.
Also beginning Monday, we’re pleased to welcome Joe Scarborough to 630 WMAL. The nationally syndicated Joe Scarborough Show will air between 10am-12noon. Joe is a former U.S. Congressman and current host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Mika Brzezinski, who serves as co-host on Scarborough’s morning television show, fills the same role on radio. The Joe Scarborough Show will offer thought-provoking commentary on the day’s leading issues and will feature many of the same A-list guests his television audience has come to expect.
Sadly, The Chris Plante Show has been cancelled. I will miss Chris (and I’d guess that I’m not alone.) He is passionate, smart, crafty, funny and unpredictable. I loved listening to Chris on the air and looked forward to our daily off-air strategy meetings (when Chris did the “cable” version of his show) – if you know what I mean. Mark my words, Chris and his extraordinarily talented producer Geoff Holtzman will re-surface soon, I’m sure.
I’m excited that Joe and Mika will join our line-up. I’m thrilled that Grandy and Andy will keep us in stitches for 5 hours a day, but I will miss my friends Chris and Geoff.
SCARBOROUGH IS A HAS BEEN. LOST HIS FIRE AND SOUNDS LIKE A WHIPPED PUPPY. Brezinsk- just the name makes me sick.
What is going on with WMAL? We lost Austin Hill and now Chris Plante, and before that, Chris Core.
How do I say - you’ve now lost another listener?
I'm not sure--know he's had a series of heart attacks and I don't know what-all else. Do know he looks awful. He's been taking Fridays off.
SCARBOROUGH IS A HAS BEEN. LOST HIS FIRE AND SOUNDS LIKE A WHIPPED PUPPY. Brezinsk- just the name makes me sick.
What is going on with WMAL? We lost Austin Hill and now Chris Plante, and before that, Chris Core.
How do I say - you’ve now lost another listener?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
My email to WMAL with response following:
To: Paul Duckworth
Subject: Chris Plante replacements big big mistake
I have been listening to WMAL since 1960, 49 pleasant long years of radio. You have obviously decided to make WMAL more balanced to the center left with this decision. At this time of political turmoil and the need for more thoughtful and intelligent debate initiated from someone as gifted as Chris, you are making an enormous mistake by replacing Chris Plante with Joe Scarborough and Mika, two darlings which the mainstream media counts as being in their corner. While I like Grandy and Andy, 5 hours is too much. You will see the error of your ways in time.
WMAL response:
Thanks for your email. I, too, am truly saddened to see Chris go. He’s a great broadcaster and friend. As you may know, The Joe Scarborough Show is owned and distributed by Citadel Media/Broadcasting - the company that owns WMAL. This move was part of the company’s strategy to get their programming on their stations - something that’s not uncommon in the industry. Translation: it was not a local decision.
Thanks again for your feedback.
Best regards,
Paul Duckworth
Operations Director
630 WMAL
What happened to Chris Core? I moved from DC in ‘03 and didn’t know he was gone. He was too middle of the road for my tastes, but he had his moments.
I used to really like the Tim Brandt and Andy Parks morning show — was listening to it when the planes hit the towers on 9/11. Then they added that SOB Bill Press and ruined it.
They also used to have some horrible English liberal woman on after Chris Core that I loathed — I called her the Britch. Ugghh...
Chris Core was moved from afternoon to mornings and then he was let go.
Core was, and is, a sweet man. Middle-of-the-road, as you say, but that was an excuse for the conservatives to get on the phone, frothing, and have at it with the crazy liberals.
I used to really like the Tim Brandt and Andy Parks morning show — was listening to it when the planes hit the towers on 9/11. Then they added that SOB Bill Press and ruined it.
As I understand it Tim Brandt had other offers and got greedy. I don't recall whether he resigned or got fired. Agree that Bill Press was a disaster. What a whiner. He was talking to Chris Plante a few months ago over this Fairness Doctrine deal and as usual he sounded like he was about to burst into tears. God I hate weak emotional girlish men like that. How can anyone respect them?
Get Mark Levin’s free podcast at his website. You get all three hours minus the commercials—totaling only an hour and fifty minutes.
I truly feel that this is strictly financially driven. I've been told it is cheaper to have a syndicated program than local talk. But, notice now there is but 1 local talk show on WMAL, and the drive-time format actually allows for barely brief sound-outs. I like Grandy & Andy, but not 5 hours worth....and how long can they keep up that on-air work load? I likely will be completely switching to a different station and what a business opportunity for a station to fill the local talk void now created by Citadel.
Chris Core works for WTOP now but he doesn’t have a radio show. In fact, all he gets to do is a paltry 1-minute commentary.
However, he does get to host some weekend local issues TV show for I guess whatever local TV station WTOP owns.
He has moved even a little bit more to the center as its probably truly more honest about him, but he still maintains some conservative elements.
I love Chris and am sorry WMAL made this decision. I worried about him when they moved him to morning. I like Curtis personally though I think his program is too NYC for me. I’d like for them to move Chris back to evenings. Right now, it’s Tammy Bruce and she rocks!
HM,
Do you remember how we WORRIED SICK about Plante moving to the morning slot? I said a year ago “You’ll all see — this will be ‘The End’ for Chris Plante in the future”.
And voila — he’s gone, along with Geoff, who was such an ambitious and sweet producer.
Placing Plante in the mornings was the beginning of the end.
Must be about advertising dollars. His style may have driven away business.
He could get away with “his style” in the evening slot — but not in the morning slot. He became more demoure & sophisticated in the a.m., which was a total contrast of whom he is.
i don’t get where you people are coming from
Chris didn’t have ratings for ad revenue? That could be a possibility considering he was never in Talkers Top 100 but he did have a lot of callers from outside the local area, since he had grown in popularity by being Mark Levin’s sub for a short while. Most likely, he was cut because Citadel is really cash-strapped and since they already have the license to Joe and Mika likely scrapped him to cut costs of paying a local host and his staff while still keeping only one local host — Grandy and Andy.
Second of all — his morning demure was completely different than at night? Sure there was a difference but his personality was still clearly there in the morning.
I beg to differ. I listened to Chris in the evenings from July 2006 to Feb. 2008, and then when he took over Core’s morning slot. The difference in style, analysis and what he “could get away with” was clearly there. At one point in Aug./Sept. ‘08, I stopped listening altogether because he was focusing too much time & energy on one topic (Wall Street/Economy), instaed of the upcoming Presidential Election, Radical Islam, the War on Terror, Illegal Immigration, etc. I think that in the last few months, his “evening personality” was slowing creeping up in the mornings. The morning listening audience too was way different that the evening one.
I continued listening to him until the end, and there’s no better talk show host... he was clearly born to do radio...
Now can Chris go to work for MSNBC to provide them with balance?
I just found out the news this morning. What a wake up call. It would have been more approprite to debut Joe and “I’m only hired for TV because of my sweater puppies, so I’m dull on the radio” Mika on April Fool’s Day. My options from 10-12 are somewhat limited since I cannot stream at work. Time to fire up the iPod until Rush.
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