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1077 The Eagle WSFR

There are a few people (not those who would know, for what its worth) who think this is a big publicity stunt... I don't know if I believe that or not, but it does seem that they are saying an awful lot about why he was suspended/fired, typically they'd just say that the person was suspended and not exactly reveal the reasons (unless it was something that they already know). To say "we suspended this person because ______" is just a bad HR practice that could bring lots of liabilities for defamation if the public doesn't actually know or care about the reason (consider, for example, when John Ziegler was fired from WHAS... we all knew why, and they gave a pretty solid reason that we already knew). Booking Night Ranger without approval is something that wouldn't outrage the public (And in fact, why would it even be necessary to explicitly name who it was that he booked? That seems a little over the top.), and increasing prize money wouldn't either. And let's face it, Summit loves publicity stunts.

That being said, I'm not jumping to any conclusions one way or the other. It may very well have been a legitimate thing, but I've got to admit, so much of what happened and how it happened seems a little too much like one of those soap operas they tell before a WWE match.
 
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And also if it is legit, I'd suggest iHeart or Alpha jump on trying to get Carter Mann into their fold locally. He has garnered quite a decent fan base around here that is sort of unusual for somebody who was unknown before he came into town, and unlike most of the other "big names" around here, he is very far from retirement. Think about it: anybody else who is "known" on radio around here has either been around for 20 years or more, or got their start in connection with somebody who has been around forever. I don't think anybody has created a local fan base in the "organic" way that Carter Mann has in decades around here.

You know, iHeart could really put together a really strong true classic hits station (not classic rock like 107.7 is...) on 100.5 with him, Vicki, and other recent/soon-to-be out of work local talents. They wouldn't, because they'd demand that 90% of the lineup be Premium Choice or whatever it is called these days, but they COULD.
 
sdskees said:
And also if it is legit, I'd suggest iHeart or Alpha jump on trying to get Carter Mann into their fold locally. He has garnered quite a decent fan base around here that is sort of unusual for somebody who was unknown before he came into town, and unlike most of the other "big names" around here, he is very far from retirement. Think about it: anybody else who is "known" on radio around here has either been around for 20 years or more, or got their start in connection with somebody who has been around forever. I don't think anybody has created a local fan base in the "organic" way that Carter Mann has in decades around here.

You know, iHeart could really put together a really strong true classic hits station (not classic rock like 107.7 is...) on 100.5 with him, Vicki, and other recent/soon-to-be out of work local talents. They wouldn't, because they'd demand that 90% of the lineup be Premium Choice or whatever it is called these days, but they COULD.
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Great points. Plus, Terry Meiners said at the end of his show today that iHeart has many other changes in the works in the Louisville market. He also said Lach will be his fill in host. Also, Matt Jones hinted at programming an all UK station on his show this morning.
 
We did a stunt like that on the Fox back in the 90's. Maybe a couple of times. Once with Buck Naked and once with Future Bob, I think. We even had protesters out in front of our building on 4th street. The Buck Naked one backfired on us, because while he was gone on vacation, he accepted another job offer and was gone a week after he came back from his "suspension."
 
The more I think about this, the more I'm thinking "publicity stunt." The fact that it all went down on-air almost screams that. Would there be any need to fire somebody "on-air" over something like this? This is the sort of thing that you wait until after the show is over to do, you don't make a big confrontation on-air. I didn't hear actually hear it on air, so I don't know exactly how it went down... but if he really was fired over something ridiculous this while on the air, that would actually do a lot of damage to 107.7 and Summit in general.

By the way, that whole Night Ranger thing? The other on-air hosts were promoting it last week and 1077 even promoted it on their Facebook page last week. I highly doubt somebody just woke up this morning and said "wait a minute, we need to fire somebody for this." If they thought they were going to take any sort of action, they would have not even let him go on the air this morning at all, instead of giving an on-air firing/suspension that would be stellar evidence in any sort of defamation lawsuit. (But I have to admit, I knew NOTHING about Night Ranger in Louisville until today, I only found out about other hosts promoting it today... so if it is a publicity stunt, it worked, I know Night Ranger is coming to Louisville.)

Plus they aren't in any hurry to remove anything related to him on their website...
 
While I think this whole thing is a publicity stunt, Mann is coming across as petty on his FB page. Insulting Future Bob and Troy, two people both more talented them him, isn't helping his cause. It may all be part of his act, I don't know, but I like him less now then before.
 
I've noticed he is responding to a lot of comments on his Facebook page, but one thing he is completely ignoring (as far as I can tell) is the occasional "this is all a prank" comments. You'd think he would chime in and say "no, it isn't, I really am suspended."

Also, I'm intrigued that they gave the station phone number line for people to give their thoughts on the whole situation. Why would ANY station care about that? I've got a feeling that if you call that number, your voice will be the angry listener in the commercial demanding that he come back when they start running promos about his return.

It seems that the station is also retweeting some of the "hate" Tweets that they're getting on Twitter... after seeing this, I'm about 100% in the "it's all a publicity stunt" campaign.
 
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I think it's all a prank.Just like a while back when 103.9 was doing "Garth FM" and they said that Garth's management threatened legal action if they didn't stop using his name. Right...:)
 
One other thing to consider: this could be one of those things designed to ease them into some sort of lineup changes. I doubt they would do anything significantly different because what WSFR has going on right now seems to work, but maybe Carter Mann wants to do afternoons, and a "condition of his return" could be that he loses his morning show (but returns to afternoons). This gets a whole lot more attention than saying "we're moving Carter Mann to the afternoon."

Even a slight rebrand or format tweak seems possible (not an all out format change though). Maybe they'll change their format to classic rock and move back to being more overtly head to head with QMF... as if they aren't already anyway. After all, it is interesting this happens right after WAKY is starting to make big moves into Louisville to ensure that their signal can be heard in virtually the entire market and fringe areas. Both stations are classic hits, but they're very very different in what they consider classic hits. WSFR may want to be something slightly different now. I just feel that WSFR has something up their sleeve, but it is darn near impossible to see exactly what it is beyond what seems to be very clearly a publicity stunt at this point.
 
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If something is going to happen it will probably take place this weekend. Here's my predictions:
107.7 rebrands to classic rock, 100.5 returns to Louie 100.5, and 1080 flips to all sports as BBN 1080, I'd be happy to see any of these 3 changes.
 
Kyle1016 said:
If something is going to happen it will probably take place this weekend. Here's my predictions:
107.7 rebrands to classic rock, 100.5 returns to Louie 100.5, and 1080 flips to all sports as BBN 1080, I'd be happy to see any of these 3 changes.
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One change we know of for sure is that on Saturday WNDA 1570 and WLRS 1600 are changing to "La Poderosa" which used to be on 620 AM.
 
Kyle1016 said:
If something is going to happen it will probably take place this weekend. Here's my predictions:
107.7 rebrands to classic rock, 100.5 returns to Louie 100.5, and 1080 flips to all sports as BBN 1080, I'd be happy to see any of these 3 changes.
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I'm not sure that any of those will happen, although 107.7 is the one raising some legitimate suspicions with me (no way would they actually change anything there significantly though, maybe just admit that they're a classic rock station and a new name or something). Ironically, I'd say that the 100.5 returning to Louie (or changing to anything) is the least likely. They're going to beat Katy Perry's "dark horse" to death before they give up on that total failure.

The thing about this whole Jack FM/variety hits/adult hits/etc. format is that it is something that people thought was just a fad, but in the markets that held onto it and weren't finicky about flipping to the latest fad, it still seems working very well a decade later, in some places much better than when it was first introduced. It has even become a top station in the PPM markets (it is #2 in Nashville for example), and seems to get very respectable ratings in the markets around the size of Louisville. I think 100.5 would be in a much better place today had they held on to Louie.
 
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