I'm not the sharpest tool at the end of the day. I spend 8 hours looking at minute details of auditing software in languages I can't read (literally - Hungarian is unlike any other European language out there) so by the end of the day I'm ready to just slide into my car and cruise home listening to the radio - no real thought required.
Half the fun of this is I like the radio announcer who's on from 2 - 6 while I'm driving home. He's got an intelligent show and has been actively working to raise the I.Q. of the listener base by a few points. There's always something going on and while I don't much care for Harley motorcycles myself, I can't help but admire the devotion he has to his ride. He's involved in the community and actively working at shining the light on the little known events that could really use people's support.
But I didn't hear him this week. No big deal - it's summer. People take vacation. But I happened across a job posting for a radio announcer in the drive home shift for this station on Monday. I was concerned, but I knew they were test driving other announcers to co-host with him so I checked their website to make sure he was still there. No mention of this guy. I dug a little deeper and found out that the station cut him loose last Friday.
Now, apart from the poor business decision I see in "letting someone go" (what a terrible euphemism for getting fired) on a Friday, I thought he was the most engaging, entertaining and thought provoking announcer this station had. He was working at expanding the topics beyond bacon, beer, boobs and bikes.
I'm absolutely gutted by this "restructuring" decision that has been made. It's balled up my routine.
But more importantly, I'll miss you Kornicky. Good luck.
Many share your pain.
ReplyDeleteMissed you on 88.5, we'll miss you on the bear. Let us know where you land.
Dude I miss Kornicky too man, I have wrote to the bear and asked them wtf, He didnt deserve to be canned, he and travis are the only reason why I listen to the bear and kornicky was the only reason why i listened to 88.5, it sucks ass...
ReplyDeleteI emailed a similar letter to the bear and here is the response
ReplyDeleteHey Terry,
I totally understand where you’re coming from...you feel like you’ve been betrayed but that is not our intention. Radio is extremely competitive in Ottawa and we’re in a big rock battle with Chez and Live. Changes happen to position us to go to war. Not sure if you noticed but we changed our big voice guy to make the station sound more rock edge along with a better rock music mix and locally focused BEAR. The changes in personalities are usually driven by ratings performance it can also be driven by other things that I cannot discuss openly. Needless to say changes are not made by the seat of our pants...It’s strategy and it’s always to improve the listener experience.
I hope this helps. If not my numbers are below.
Sincerely,
JD
Not sure how The Bear thinks rock radio is competitive in Ottawa. Live 88.5 plays mostly alternative music and Chez plays classic rock! The Bear would not have to compete with these stations if it stopped playing Alternative and Classic Rock. If The Bear played newer rock and was less repetitive they'd have no competition at all! I've talked with Astral and The Bear's Brand Director, they have no clue what the fans want and they don't care. The Bear has no strategy, just a formula that they follow and won't change unless people start voicing their opinions. Brand Director's e-mail is jdesrosiers@astral.com
ReplyDelete