[BC] Programmers who understand the audience

[Mike McCarthy]

WLS tried the same thing until a very hot tempered Italian DJ went into an 
exec's office and stuck a knife into his desk telling the exec that there 
will be no more added minutes of commercials while he was on the air.  It 
was killing his show.  He was fired and the station tail spun not long 
thereafter for a few years.  Meanwhile, he went to WCFL and their ratings 
went through the roof.

It takes a combination of talent (presentation) and vision (format) to make 
a successful station.  Missing either will result in something less....

MM

At 03:56 PM 10/22/2007 -0400, Robert Meuser wrote
>Visionary or not, WABC could bill over 60 mil in 60s dollars. Today the 
>top stations do 40 to 50 in 21st century dollars.
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>Rich Wood wrote:
>>------ At 11:49 AM 10/22/2007, Barry Mishkind wrote: -------
>>
>>>OK ... maybe he is gone long enough that some of you will share the real 
>>>story.
>>>Was Rick Sklar a visionary, or someone who was just there at the right 
>>>time and place?
>>>I only met him once, and he seemed like a decent fellow. But I never 
>>>worked with him.
>>>
>>>And, what about the folks, like Stortz, who invented Top 40?
>>
>>I knew him and saw much of his behind the scenes work. I don't know that 
>>visionary is the word. He had a special sense of what the market wanted. 
>>He did trip over Disco on WABC. Otherwise everything else seemed to work 
>>very well. He's one of many very creative people in radio at the time. 
>>I'm sure many of us could come up with a list of people who had very 
>>significant impacts on making radio what it used to be. I don't think 
>>there's a bean counter or Wall Street drone on any of those lists.
>>The difference is that early pioneers put everything they had into radio. 
>>Today it's a race to see how much you can suck out of it.
>>Rich