Posted on 04/16/2010 11:39:54 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Conservative talk radio host Howie Carr of WRKO 680 AM has been suspended for a week, effective Friday, for publicly and repeatedly using his program to bad-mouth the station, a company executive said.
Julie Kahn, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Boston, which owns the station, said Carrs behavior toward his employer has become increasingly caustic and intolerable.
His behavior and his anger at the company is unacceptable because he denigrates the company, the medium, the station, the signal, and hes a highly, highly, highly paid employee, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Oh boy...
“Oh boy...”
Hahahaha...Howie...he’ll get another gig somewhere...he probably saw one of the execs walk in with a sweater around his neck and wearing green pants and snapped.
Howie went on strike a few years ago, lasted 3 months...wants to move to the FM talk station but WRKO won’t let him out of his contract
“Howie went on strike a few years ago, lasted 3 months...wants to move to the FM talk station but WRKO wont let him out of his contract”
Live Shot will have something to say about this...count on it....
Howie's been talking about "Zombie Radio" (the station's been cutting costs, cutting staff) and is always badmouthing "Felon Finneran" (the morning guy).
He's praying they fire him, because WTKK wants to hire him as moirning man.
Yeah just heard about it...he was saying he’d be off next week on vacation in Fla. etc...
the funny thing is Entercom took him back and seemed to grin and bear his criticism of them, etc., as long as he got good ratings. Maybe they are trying to save money now? Set him free then!
Howie Carr list ping. Yikes!
Not sure who’s filling in for Howie (he did hint at Col Hunt for a couple days, maybe Avi too?) but here are alternatives:
Jay Severin/Michele McPhee 96.9 Boston Talks
Sean Hannity 1200 Rush Radio
BY BRIAN MALONEY
SAVE WRKO
WRKO Yanks Carr Off The Air
by Brian Maloney, April 16th, 2010 at 10:58pm
With their station near death, WRKO managers have decided to pin the blame on Howie Carr, absolutely the only thing keeping whats left of 680 AM afloat (other than perhaps Michael Savage, speaking from a ratings perspective).
Theyve apparently decided to yank him from the airwaves for a week, simply because thin-skinned, bitter, failed executives hope to shift blame away from their collapsing operation. From The Globies late this evening:
Conservative talk radio host Howie Carr of WRKO 680 AM has been suspended for a week, effective Friday, for publicly and repeatedly using his program to bad-mouth the station, a company executive said.
Julie Kahn, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Boston, which owns the station, said Carrs behavior toward his employer has become increasingly caustic and intolerable.
His behavior and his anger at the company is unacceptable because he denigrates the company, the medium, the station, the signal, and hes a highly, highly, highly paid employee, she said.
She declined to comment publicly on the exact trigger for the suspension, or its terms.
But a source with knowledge of the situation said the contretemps with Carr, which dates back to a bitter contract dispute in 2007, has escalated markedly in recent weeks and included verbal attacks on station managers.
Attacks on station managers? SO WHAT! What about ratings and revenue?
Or the other affiliates that carry Howies show throughout New England?
This is beyond pathetic, first, from the standpoint that The Empress, Coffee Boy and other corporate suits could still have their jobs after destroying Entercoms (NYSE:ETM) Boston cluster, but also to think that the one person they choose to punish is their remaining lifeline to solvency.
Howie needs to find a new home and fast. WRKO is finished.
For their part, WXTK-FM, WGAN and the other Howie affiliates had better start thinking about a Plan B, another show to fill the slot, as I dont believe Carrs will be airing there much longer.
Note: Brian says maybe Howie’s affiliates would turn to something else but Howie could well be stuck at RKO till late 2012 by contract
AGAIN????
Denigrates the signal? Sure, because the signal sucks! At least after dark. This is why WCRN in Worc. has him... when it gets dark before 6 pm he has to tell people to tune to AM 830 because RKO’s signal fades (by FCC regulations, the station must push its signal north and south after dark to avoid interference)
Basically switching from a non-directional (circular) antenna pattern to a bi-directional (figure-eight) antenna pattern.
WRKO aims its signal from north northwest south southeast so as to protect KNBR 680 in San Francisco (which can be heard at night here in Montana) and WPTF 680 in Raleigh, NC, so it's very strong in NH and on the Cape. Strongest signal is toward the Cape and out toward the ocean.
Yes and I think stations in Toronto, Balt., and Binghamton have to be protected too. I was in VT last yr and was having trouble picking up WVMT Burlington (I was in Rutland and it was nr sunset). WCRN was OK; as for WRKO, it kept fading in and out and mostly I was getting Hannity...that was from Baltimore (99.7 from NH came in sometimes)
Aside from WBZ (1030), all of the Boston AM facilities are signal challenged in the western part of the market. 50,000 watt WEEI (850) also suffers when the night directional pattern kicks in since it protects co-channel KOA in Denver.
On the other hand, WBZ's directional pattern is very favorable with the signal directed over land, day and night, and very little of its 50 kilowatts serving the fish.
You both are evidently quite astute concerning radio. So you may already be familiar with ``Radio Info'', a website showing both the AM and FM facilities.
Just for the record (and others may find this of interest since there a lot of technical types on FR), here's the Boston market. Click on the yellow 'i' image to the left of the calls which opens a page where the day and night coverage areas can be examined. The maps are rather optimistic in terms of actual signal penetration.
The intersting thing about 850 KOA in Denver is that it reaches 4 Canadian provinces, 35 states in the US and most of Mexico north of Mexico City, but it cannot be heard in the Seattle market since an all sports station in Tacoma is on 850 kHz. Hardcore AM DX'ers have heard KOA Denver in countries such as Sweden and Australia.
oops
They probably have to drop their output power too. There are a few stations, used to be called “clear channels”, that pretty much stay the same 24/7...they pretty much have the only station (at least in the US) at that particular frequency. WSB Atlanta, WLS Chicago, the one in N.O. and others, you can hear them almost from anywhere in the US at night if conditions are right.
I was stationed on an island in the Azores off the coast of Portugal in the early 70s. We regularly listened to WLS in Chicago every night/very early morning.
bttt
A replacement for the week has not yet been announced.
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