Loudell: Old Habits Die Hard

[650AM]

When Loudell went to WDEL, it was said by someone on this forum that Delmarva management was going to closely monitor him to be sure he didn't fall into his constant habit at 1450 of saying the call letters: "W-EYE-L-M." Well, its taken a several years, but he's doing it at 1150/101.7: "W-DEE-E-L!" It is not constant, but is noticeable and annoying... as is his long-time tendency of occasionally saying "Sat-Ah-day" instead of "Saturday." Sometimes he will even use the pronunciation differently in consecutive sentences! What goes on in people's minds??

 

[jeffryan]

Loudell is still an outstanding broadcaster. If it's true that Delmarva management is indeed "monitoring him" over pronunications they truly need better things to do with their time.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Loudell is an excellent broadcaster. I seriously doubt that Delmarva is monitoring their on air folks, since their star reporter Amy Cherry has a "nasally" sounding voice [excellent reporter with an irritating voice], and some of the younger reporters make many more pronunciation mistakes with their less than "radio voices" than Allan on his worse day would make.

Some have lamented that there isn't a minor league farm system for radio anymore. I disagree. WDEL certainly is part of a farm system, as they put together a top notch news/talk station, yet do give the younger inexperienced young turks a place to hopefully learn so they'll someday move on to bigger markets and possibly network radio someday. WILM used to be a good place for that [during the Hawkins years prior to CC taking over] as many former WILM folks moved on to major markets and network radio like CBS and CNN.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Well, there's an old saying about opinions that "everyone has one." But Loudell "outstanding" or "excellent?" Hardly. Notice that he is NOT one of those people who moved up to the major leagues, not even in achieving his boyhood dream of working in Chicago radio. He started in Memphis (now Market 51) and ended up in Wilmington (Market 79 but smaller for all practical purposes since a super majority of the population listens to Philly radio).

He is a terrible interviewer, seemingly uninterested in anything but his opinion, constantly interrupting his "guests" with staccato strings of "butbutbutbut." His convoluted questions, actually commentaries, don't invite comment from "guests" but merely agreement.

But he has a cult following of people saying how wonderful he is and apparently others have heard it enough they are willing to believe it - and repeat it. Especially if they don't ever listen to him. But lots of those people who don't listen seem to think it's "nice" that Wilmington still has local-live talk radio, no matter how bad it is.

Anybody notice that Delmarva has stopped buying the Nielsen "book" for WDEL (AM) and WSTW? Not a good sign.

 

[radiophiler]

It appears the omission of some Delmarva stations from ratings reports on radio-online and other websites may have been a Nielsen error. Tom Taylor reported as much one day last week in his daily enewsletter. If Delmarva wasn't subscribing, you would not be able to see the most recent ratings online as you can here via FMQB.com: http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=18147

Also in Tom Taylor's enewsletter: The GM of WDEL was quoted as saying ratings for the new WDEL AM-FM simulcast are up about 1.0 compared to the AM only ratings.

I haven't listened to Delaware N/T radio in some time, mainly because I moved from New Castle County to Montgomery County, so now I listen to KYW. Allan is a smart guy (I used to work with him). Can't say anything about his current WDEL programs. Just visited some friends in Pike Creek yesterday. With my past in radio, the subject came up, and the two professional adults (under age 55) in this family both listen to WDEL and specifically to Allan. He's a brand in Wilmington radio.