Charlie Tuna Leaves KRTH

From Charlie himself:

"In the wake of the continuing massive changes to small, medium market, and even major market stations around the country, we will be focusing on 24/7 formats for stations that have lost the content, top talent, music scheduling and customer service," said Tuna in a release. Tuna's exit comes on heels of recent announcement that Shotgun Tom Kelly would be vacatin his afternoon slot for a new 'Ambassador' post. In his new role, Shotgun will be showcased in on-air features, personal appearances, client partnerships, charitable events and special projects.[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR]
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]Tuna's background includes the iconic 93 KHJ. KROQ AM, KTNQ, KHTZ, KRLA, KODJ and numerous others. Interested stations or talent can contact Steve Wall at 206-661-5551.[/FONT]

This is not news,

This has been a year in the making, last fall 2014 KRTH let go longtime weekend jocks, then this past Summer Van Dyke was let go for voice-over work, and now of course the weekday line-up. With Shotgun and Kelly, and it sounds like voluntarily Charlie. Stations dont always terminate their whole airstaff, sometimes they make gradual changes, as the case with KRTH.
I wish them success on their new career path.i wish people would stop acting surprised by these actions. KRTH has taken, i saw the writing on the wall a year ago when the weekend jocks were let go.


Now the question is who will replace Kelly weeknights and Charlie mornings on weekends?

Well, whoever it was, in whichever thread it was, who suggested Tuna for Shotgun's vacated timeslot sure was wrong, huh.

Dang. I like Charlie and Christina. K-Earth really is cleaning house. Maybe they'll ask Gary Bryan and Jim Carson to each do 12-hour shows daily. :|

Ill expect the rest of the 60's they play on KRTH to vanish real soon, thats pretty much left of what changes they are making on the station, longtime DJ's gone check.

Voice over person gone. Check
Weekend DJ's gone check.

So whats left? 60's music they play, which is about 10 songs or less.

Not So Fast!

michael hagerty said:

From Charlie himself:

"In the wake of the continuing massive changes to small, medium market, and even major market stations around the country, we will be focusing on 24/7 formats for stations that have lost the content, top talent, music scheduling and customer service," said Tuna in a release. Tuna's exit comes on heels of recent announcement that Shotgun Tom Kelly would be vacatin his afternoon slot for a new 'Ambassador' post. In his new role, Shotgun will be showcased in on-air features, personal appearances, client partnerships, charitable events and special projects.[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR]
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]Tuna's background includes the iconic 93 KHJ. KROQ AM, KTNQ, KHTZ, KRLA, KODJ and numerous others. Interested stations or talent can contact Steve Wall at 206-661-5551.[/FONT]

Click to expand...

I'm not buying this one,either - at least from Charlie Tuna - it's the same thing that I said the other day when the Shotgun Tom announcement came down - there's more to it than just the announcement - and why didn't they at least give Kelley a chance to say goodbye? What was K-Earth's beef with her? and cmon now - ANYBODY with half a brain will also tell you that it is, as indicated by other commenters here, a money thing....

Sad end to a great radio era in LA....

34 James nailed it. This long range plan has been in the making for nearly 2 years now. It started when jhani left. Or as David so perfectly referred to it as "turning the ship slowly".*

These actions taken by KRTH this past week leave room for all sorts of interpretation and questions. Among them:

A - was the dismissal, firing or whatever terminology you chose in Charlie Christina and shotguns case a CBS directive or was this solely mr.ebbots call?

B - are we seeing the end of personality radio? Or was this simply a matter of dollars and cents? With the exception of morning drive, does it make sense to run jockless? Does this generation of radio listener even care about the jock or solely use the medium for the music?

C - as Tom leykis pointed out, is this merely coincidence to see Ross Brittan, Charlie tuna, shotgun Tom, Christina Kelly and don bleu all disappear off the airwaves suddenly and unexpectedly in the past month? At least Ross and shotgun were given the opportunity to do final shows. How does KRTH fail to extend the same courtesy to both Christina and Charlie?

What makes these moves even more unfathomable is that they come at a time when KRTHs ratings are at an all time high. I guess chris ebbot feels that this is all about him and the music is enough. We"ll see.

It's a sad day and statement to make about the medium that treats these folks as an expensive commodity rather *than the talented professionals they are. Theres your thank you!

krth101 said:

34 James nailed it. This long range plan has been in the making for nearly 2 years now. It started when jhani left. Or as David so perfectly referred to it as "turning the ship slowly".*

B - are we seeing the end of personality radio? Or was this simply a matter of dollars and cents? With the exception of morning drive, does it make sense to run jockless? Does this generation of radio listener even care about the jock or solely use the medium for the music?

It's a sad day and statement to make about the medium that treats these folks as an expensive commodity rather *than the talented professionals they are. Theres your thank you!

Click to expand...

For what it's worth, the Bay Area's Classic Hits station - "Big 103.7" (owned by iHeart) cashiered their only expensive live talent (Don Bleu) a couple of months ago. The other DJs on the station are all voice-tracked, and only one of those (Celeste Perry) has a local radio pedigree. All the others are unknown to Bay Area audiences, and probably do their shows from LA, Topeka, or somewhere else. It's a very dull station, though I guess if you're too lazy to build an MP3 playlist, it has its uses.

andreajesus said:

I'm not buying this one,either - at least from Charlie Tuna

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Tuna's an old friend ... we go back to his days at KHTZ in the late 1970s.

When he stepped down as the primary relief air personality at KRTH back in 2011 he told me it interfered with his syndication work (which he does from his home studio in Tarzana). His exact words were "there aren't enough hours in the day anymore."
I'm sure, as he has signed more stations since then, his workload has increased and he's probably needing weekends to recover from everything he does during the week.

CBS likely asked him, in the midst of the Shotgun reassignment and Christina's dismissal, if he wanted to stay on (even if they didn't want him to stay, his stature is such that they'd have to be polite that way) and he looked at the handwriting on the wall, balanced that against everything else he's doing, and gracefully exited.

Trust me. If Charlie said he left voluntarily, that's what happened. The man doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body.

krth101 said:

It's a sad day and statement to make about the medium that treats these folks as an expensive commodity rather *than the talented professionals they are. Theres your thank you!

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I think you're making an assumption here.

TheBigA's reply to krth101 (who obviously doesn't work there) caused me to step back and take a more detached look at what's going on there.

Pretending for a minute that I all I knew about KRTH was how it sounded under Jhani Kaye, how it sounded at earlier points in the station history, and the changes of the past couple of years, I'd have to say that they have evolved to a sound in which Shotgun Tom and Charlie Tuna are jarringly out of place ... almost anachronistic.

Some of you will call this next statement sacrilegious, until you think about it. If Donald Revert Steele were still with us, he would have been taken off the air now too.

In other words ... this isn't your father's K-Earth.

K.M. Richards said:

If Donald Revert Steele were still with us, he would have been taken off the air now too.

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Or perhaps left on his own accord. That's what I'm seeing around the country. Not just in LA, and not just at CBS Classic Hits stations.

A lot of boomer-era DJs are simply retiring. Why? Because they can. Because it's time. They want to enjoy their final years and not die behind the mic.

Why didn't the aforementioned Tom Leykis return to the airwaves after his non-compete was over? It wasn't for lack of offers. It was because he has all the money he needs, he gets all the attention he wants from his podcasts, and he doesn't have to answer to anyone but his fans. Lots of other people have made the same decision. Why would anyone want to sit behind a console 5 hours a day at age 65 doing the same job you did when you were in your 20s? Why? It's not as romantic as it sounds.

There will be many more similar announcements in the next year or so. Maybe Rush Limbaugh will call it quits. Or Howard Stern. Who knows? As I've said many times, the only folks who have a job for life are either priests or judges. So why not leave at a point when you're still on top? What's the down side?

Tuna's already proven himself. He passed the audition. He is well known for what he does, he has built a reputation, and he now owns all the tools to syndicate himself.

We should all be so lucky! Why are people calling this a "sad day?"

Didnt Kelly host "the Forum" the public affairs program for local events Sunday Mornings at 6 AM?

If so maybe have Shotgun take over the program, hes a good interviewer. Seeing how he is now an ambassador for KRTH, that would fit right in with what hes going to do.

From PM drive to Sunday morning at 6AM? You must be joking.

He's going to do sponsorship events. That means everything he does will make money. Sunday at 6AM doesn't fit that description.

The forum is taped Midweek BigA, and my understanding is from Shotgun on air today he said he will be doings Weekends, does that mean on-air i think so. He said hes not going anywhere. He got demoted remember?

I think he will do Tunas shift until he fully transitions to Ambassador. It makes sense cause that shift is open now.
This is speculation on my part but why would he says he will be on weekends?
Only to do live events? Like at remote locations?