Wednesday, August 29, 2012

WOWO/FedMed's Big Hatchet Job


The unceremonious dumping of Gregg Henson and his assistant, Brian whats-his-name, was not unexpected. FedMed needed someone to blame for killing what little credibility the iconic WOWO once had. At this point, the Maven was sure the bleeding would stop and attention would be turned to WOWO's turd of a newsroom with all it's warts and foibles. A quick fix there would begin to repair the damage to both audience and advertisers. The announcement of Mr. Zimmerman taking the programming reins was also welcomed by current and former FedMed staffers. The road to recovery was clear.

Not so fast. On Monday, according to a reputable local blogger, social media, media reports and our own insider(s) on Maples Road, 12 Federated Media employees were escorted off the property with only what they could carry in a cardboard box. Among the casualties were Chief Operating Officer Mark DePrez, highly regarded WMEE mid day talent Zack Skyler and Production Wizard Steve Brelsford. Other casualties included DePrez's wife who reportedly held some sort of sales position, assorted other sales people and some part timers. A News~Sentinel story reports that WOWO/FedMed has no plans to fill the vacant positions.

What does all this mean? Are some of these dismissals the direct result of the hiring and firing of Gregg Henson? Probably not. Are some of these firings the result to poor hiring decisions and the resulting fall out? Maybe. The Maven believes that the folks in Elkhart who call the shots are tired of losing money running radio stations that, according to many industry analysts, no one will be listening to in 20 years. This may be Federated Media/Pathfinder Communicaitons/Fallen Timbers/Talking Stick, etc's one and only chance to preserve some of Grandpa Jack Dille's fortune for the current generation to spend foolishly. What we're seeing may be a purging of "excess" costs (generated by those 12 poor souls tossed over the side), and a further pruning of expenses in an effort to make the financials look even more attractive to a large radio ownership group(s).

While many people in Fort Wayne like to bitch and moan about the present state of local radio, just wait until the likes of WOWO, K105, the Bear and others are swallowed up by a large corporate operator who will pipe in programming from a far away central location with advertising sales handled via a call center backed up by a corporate website. That's how it works these days, and one has to assume, local radio's days are numbered in Fort Wayne. It's just a matter of time.  

2 comments:

  1. its a shame that Emmis and maybe Midwest down in terre haute doesnt just try to gobble up as much of Indiana as possible to keep CC/Cumulus and other corp giants from coming in and getting any of the other small local owners left

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  2. That's a great point, Mike. Thanks for your comment.
    This group expanded and built like many did prior to and in anticipation of larger groups buying them out. Somewhere along the line FedMed veered away from that plan and turned down numerous offers for the group. Maybe they thought the prices would go higher, but did not count on the current economic and political climate to cause the values of their properties to drop. Now, it would seem, they might be positioning themselves for a buyout when the economic, regulatory and political winds change after November.

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