The Radio Business is Cruel

Think the car companies are the only ones laying people off in cities like Detroit? Try again. At Detroit's top all-sports radio station, WDFN AM 1130, Clear Channel top men fired its morning show, its morning show update anchor, its promotions director and heck, they even broomed out the longtime office manager. Interesting Piece we came across in the Detroit News as Joanne Gerstner points out. Evidently these guys had no clue this was coming and even anchor Matt Shepard was fired in the middle of his air shift, leaving the rest of the station scrambling for days and now weeks.

Hey, it is a sign of the times and while the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan are being run by a couple of total clowns, Mayor Kwame Killpatrick and Governor Jennifer Granholm, it still doesn't mean that companies can broom out good people and then be cruel to them. They won't let morning guys Jamie Samuelson and Greg Brady (yes, that's his real name) do a once a week, two hour Lions show on MyFoxDetroit.com. Why? What is that? The guys get good ratings, walk out with their heads held high, sit and wait for a phone call hoping they will be asked back at a lesser salary and then they get crapped on like this?

I would understand if any of the three openly criticized the company or threw a hissy fit in the building as they are cleaning out their stuff, but from the tone of the article, this did not take place. They just want to stay on the air, keep their names out there and stay fresh. Now WDFN has moved its midday update anchor and reporter to the morning show for the time being and he also still has to perform his old duties as if Jamie and Brady were still there. This is a multi BILLION dollar company? Sounds like budget cuts and a guy in corporate who just took out a red pen and crossed names off a list. Cruel business and I thought all of these people in radio took classes in communication. Maybe not.

I feel sorry for these three who are probably talented guys and team players. They have been completely shit on for the sake of saving some money. As Samuelson put it in the article, the declining Detroit economy has to shoulder some of the blame: "This had nothing to do with our performance, we know that -- it's all about the state of the economy here in Metro Detroit and Michigan," Samuelson said. "The day we lost our jobs, Chrysler announced they were laying off 12,000. So we're far from alone.

Speaking of radio, anyone who doesn't have Sirius Radio needs their head examined. Do you realize you are missing ground-breaking radio done by the greatest voice in radio history, Howard Stern?