[IRCA] Live and Local takes a hit in Tampa tnx to CC

["Bob Foxworth" <rfoxwor1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An interesting and troubling development in Tampa radio
tonight, as Mark Beiro, who has hosted part-time on
WFLA 970 for over a dozen years, teased an "important
announcement" to be made by him at 9 tonight.

The announcement was not hard to pre-guess. As I
suspected, Mark announced his "retirement" from his
three-hour Sunday evening show, one of the very few
liberal voices (Lionel, Saturdays, another) on FLA. The
"choice" of retirement was "offered" to him over lunch
on Tuesday, and came via Gabe Hobbs, a high
ranking local exec in the CC managerial lineup.

Beiro, always the gentleman, simply said that Hobbs
merely had to leave him a voicemail, and that doing
lunch was a decent touch. The three words in quotes
above are my editorial license, BTW.

Beiro, incidentally, suffers from diabetic blindness
and his future employment options are subject to
speculation, as his vision is somewhat degraded.

The bottom line, briefly is that the edict came from
San Antonio, and is part of a "zero budget" initiative
now forming throughout the CC organization. This
means that, unlike shows such as Cigar Dave (on
Saturday daytime) which bring in revenue, this kind
of show does not pay its way. It will probably be
replaced with another repeat of Hannity or Limbaugh,
which apparently create zero additional expense,
compared to paying a local air talent. And they DID
have a number of ads on Beiro's time slot. None
of those stupid HD promos are heard any more.

This is unfortunate as such syndie shows add nil to
local content. Beiro, being live and local, always
had local content, but this is not important to the
CC org, unless it can find a way to yield profit,
always a very tall order on Sunday evenings.

Beiro took calls during the last half hour, and I
called in (this is while the Pats-Colts thriller
was playing out the 3rd and 4th quarter). The
switchboard was jammed.

I finally got a free line about 9.52 and got on at
about 9:57. I made the point that I believed
we "need more local content, the way that 1040
is doing", and I also said it was happening while
CC was "spending millions to implement the
failed technology that is HD radio on AM".

I have little doubt that Mr. Hobbs was listening.
It is to Beiro's credit that he was allowed to do his
last show after being cut.  Maybe at the staff
meeting tomorrow, when they plan whether to
give us the 2nd repeat of Limbaugh or the next
repeat of Hannity, someone will mention that
"a listener mentioned HD on Beiro. What's that?"

Live and Local. What a concept.

It even works when the HD signal is turned off !!

- Bob                         sent 2258 est



_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx