Blue Mass Group

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WRKO Fires Entire News Staff

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Did anyone see this one sentence buried in the last paragraph of the column on the Globe’s Living Section on Saturday:

WRKO-AM (680) eliminated its entire news staff on Thursday. The cuts affect news director Rod Fritz; news anchor and reporter Paul Tuthill; and news anchors Listo Fisher, Mary Blake, Marga Bessette, Sharon Smith, and part-timer Deb Daigle…

Gee, there was once a time when a major radio station would eliminate it’s news department and it would be news.  Are we all so callous to corporate cost cutting moves that it barely gets a notice? 

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  2. Did a good job of kicking it around.  It seems that RKO has decided it can’t be WBZ, and will revert to an all-talk format.  They propbably had to fire everybody to afford Finneran!

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    Dan Kennedy in particular didn’t like it, and it led to a good discussion of generic ‘national’ news at the top of the hour like you hear on every crummy oldies station.

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    Don’t know where this will end, but it makes me happier there are blogs every day!

    • The increasing commercialization of news, begun at the Big Three networks, has begun to trickle down.  What depresses me about this is the tendency to seek out ONLY harmonious viewpoints (no offense, but ESPECIALLY amoung younger people) that hold ‘ideals’ and ‘values’ similar to yours.  You can never learn a damn thing from a mirror.

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      BTW – Pablo – in your opinion, what is the reason for the commercial failure of liberal radio?  Air America has pretty much tanked, NPR depends on public subsidy – it isn’t LOGICAL to me, as half the country voted for John Kerry.  I don’t buy the Evil Sponsor argument, not with millionaires like Soros, or even millionaires like Gabrieli and Patrick, around.

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      Why does reactionary radio get Arbitron ratings while liberal fails?

      • Petrof, Petrof, Petrof,

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        Again with the need for clarification? 

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        First of all, kudos to you for fundraising with PBS.  Yes, Boston is one of the most prolific of PBS producers, but that ain’t saying much.  PBS is absolutely pathetic about producing.  They are much better at building bureaucracy and ever larger fundraising mechanisms and using the money to buy BBC programming.  The idea of producing low-cost local TV escaped them long before there was Public Access. 

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        As for AirAmerica, it is not tanking for ratings, it is tanking for sponsors.  Despite growth every year, and steady climbs in ratings in nearly every market they go into, they can’t get good solid sponsors.  Gosh, imagine programming that is critical of corporate run America and mainstream media having trouble getting advertising. 

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        Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

        • Where is Trader Joe’s?  Starbucks?  Soros, Gabs and Patrick I mentioned.

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          The fact that they can’t find sponsorship HERE in Boston DOES boggle the mind.  Where else could a sponsor be proud to be afilliated with Al Franken and Randi Rhodes is NOT here?

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          Corporations aren’t red or blue – they’re green.  But the Arbitron rating suck for liberal radio. Howcum?  As I said, this is a 49-49 electorate.  So – why the hesitancy for the top corps. on something like BuyBlue to sponsor liberal talk radio?

        • ah corporate america. none of us would have what we have today without it.  Let me start with your internet connection.  HEAVENS!

      • I’m too busy listening to Imus and Jay Severin.  Severin has been a trip.  First, he plays a long cut from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) about Iraq.  I’m sitting there, nodding my head, agreeing with everything Levin said.  Then Severin comes on and agrees with Levin.  Yesterday, Severin was going on a rant about Rep. Charlie Rangel’s advocacy for a draft – ranting because he now agrees with Rangel.

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        I do listen to Air America at times, but it is blatantly unlistenable.  Too many commercial slots, not enough content.  Kind of a strange problem for a bankrupt operation.  I could do a better radio show, except that I have a face for radio and a voice for print.

        • and you’re right-those commercials are WICKED annoying. But they pay the bills unfortunately. When AA was first launched, the network did so little advertizing that many of my liberal friends did not know they existed. ClearChannel operates many of the stations that carry AA, and they are often low-wattage stations to boot.

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          The only liberal talkers on AA that I enjoy are Rachel Maddow, Sam Seder, and to a certain extent Randi Rhodes, though I think she can be too dismissive of callers. I like to listen to local guy Jeff Santos on the weekends also.

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