• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Major cuts at Saga Columbus

Nathan Obral

Nathan Obral

Lance has the details. All the Saga stations outside of WLVQ lost their respective morning shows over this past month; news director Clark Donley is also out.

radioinsight.com

Saga Makes Significant On-Air Cuts In Columbus - RadioInsight

Saga Communications is making talent changes across its Columbus OH cluster. Dino Tripodis and Stacy McKay have departed mornings at AC “Sunny 95” 94.7 WSNY. Both were on their second stints at the station. Tripodis originally hosted mornings at WSNY from 1994 to 2018 and then returned in July...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
Not surprised. Sunny has been in the pits for a long time. I think they initially blamed it on morning host Bobby Mitchell, but his departure didn’t shore up things. Gutting Clark was a surprise.
 
Honestly not shocked but "Columbus Radio Group" was a gem at still being a locally focused radio station cluster with generally local talent.

WSNY and WVMX appear to be running jock-less in the mornings (at least i did not hear any talent on my 20 min drive to work this morning). Did not even hear traffic reports on WVMX and they used to air it often when Andre was on.

Dino and Stacy did a lot for Columbus and were involved in many charitable functions. (and despite their two different runs had been a long-time staple on Sunny since the 90's with a few years in between they were not together). Andre was the 'face' of Mix 107.9 and led their promotional efforts (events the station put on around town). Miss Lisa from Rewind had many hats at CRG including filling in on Sunny and Mix often and has been in Columbus since the 90's.

Columbus is quickly losing its "legacy long-term talent" - outside of Dave and Jimmy and Chris Davis on WNCI we don't have folks who have been around the market for many years left.

The real question is with 3 stations now without a morning show (Rewind, Mix and Sunny) will SAGA (Columbus Radio Group) make format changes or just launch some form of morning shows?

Gutting Clark is also not a surprise - Very rare today for a cluster without a news talk format to have a 'News Director'. Most music formatted stations don't even run news headlines during drive time anymore. WNCI barely does 'news' in the mornings and it's just a few headlines read by one of the morning shows 'co-hosts"
 
One thing to add about the Sunny changes. I was reading a lot of the comments on the local news stations social media posts about the changes and one theme common was "we tuned in for Dino and Stacy and not the music as we can get that in many places" Clearly it shows that one thing that has been a standout for radio over the years (and still true today) is personalities. (And without that many folks are going to just go elsewhere).
 
Back
Top Bottom