Rodney Ho reported in his blog that Star 94 let go a number of people, including longtime morning news anchor Rob Stadler, nighttime personality Donny Michaels and promotions man Mike Moshure.
GM Mike Fowler was quoted as saying, "We don’t need news on a Hot AC, which we saw in our research before takeover. The listeners come here for the music.”
Well, if Entercom spent even a dollar on that research, they wasted their money. That research has been around for years, and everyone in radio knows that.
I'm not quite buying Mr. Fowler's stated reason. We're talking about news on a morning show, which many Hot AC and even CHR stations have. Based on his line of thinking, that "the listeners come here for the music," why does he have a morning show? Why not just play music?
I do realize that Star could hire a good-sounding news person for much less than Rob was making. I feel that Rob is one of the best and added something to the morning show. He can certainly find another job, but getting a radio job in Atlanta will be very difficult.
It's obvious not needing a news anchor was not the reason for the cutback. That's evident by the dismissal of Donny Michaels and Mike Moshure. This was about finding money.
What I am not understanding is this: What is the reason Entercom didn't make the cuts when they took over a month ago? I'm sure they were well familiar with the financials. Since then, new PD Tony Lorino has been building the station formatically and musically. If Entercom had done this at the start, they would have reached their low point and moved forward from that. Any morale issues would have happened then, and things could only have gotten better. With Lorino's changes making Star sound like it was on an upswing, the station has now taken a step backwards. The timing of this just seems really curious.
I will say that listening to Star over the past few weeks revealed that Lorino has creativity and good psychological instincts regarding listeners.
GM Mike Fowler was quoted as saying, "We don’t need news on a Hot AC, which we saw in our research before takeover. The listeners come here for the music.”
Well, if Entercom spent even a dollar on that research, they wasted their money. That research has been around for years, and everyone in radio knows that.
I'm not quite buying Mr. Fowler's stated reason. We're talking about news on a morning show, which many Hot AC and even CHR stations have. Based on his line of thinking, that "the listeners come here for the music," why does he have a morning show? Why not just play music?
I do realize that Star could hire a good-sounding news person for much less than Rob was making. I feel that Rob is one of the best and added something to the morning show. He can certainly find another job, but getting a radio job in Atlanta will be very difficult.
It's obvious not needing a news anchor was not the reason for the cutback. That's evident by the dismissal of Donny Michaels and Mike Moshure. This was about finding money.
What I am not understanding is this: What is the reason Entercom didn't make the cuts when they took over a month ago? I'm sure they were well familiar with the financials. Since then, new PD Tony Lorino has been building the station formatically and musically. If Entercom had done this at the start, they would have reached their low point and moved forward from that. Any morale issues would have happened then, and things could only have gotten better. With Lorino's changes making Star sound like it was on an upswing, the station has now taken a step backwards. The timing of this just seems really curious.
I will say that listening to Star over the past few weeks revealed that Lorino has creativity and good psychological instincts regarding listeners.