Handicapping The WOWO Afternoon Auditions

It's almost over. Thankfully.

For the past few weeks listeners and the remaining "post Henson meltdown" advertisers have gotten to sample the talents of three men who seek to fill the dearly departed Pat Miller's shoes at WOWO 1190 (and now on 92.3 FM). Say what you want to about Mr. Miller, but he delivered a loyal audience, loyal advertisers, and program that you could listen to while you drove the kids to Little League practice. But radio carpetbaggers from out of town thought they knew better.

Now, Zach Bonahoom, Matt Kelty and Gary Snyder can do nothing but sit back and wait.

The wheels turn slowly out there at 2915 Maples Road.  As you read this, the management of WOWO 1190 (and now on 92.3 FM) are comparing notes, running reports, creating Excel spreadsheets and Access databases to tabulate, formulate and eventually decide who will fill the coveted air chair from 3 until 6 each afternoon at the once-great WOWO. Or, in typical FedMed style, they'll pull out the dart board and take a stab at it. What is known, for sure, is that you can bet they tell the home office Mishawaka that they used the former, not latter process to make their choice.

While no one has asked, the Maven would like to offer some guidance for those poor souls tasked with filling this Fort Wayne Radio void.

The be fair, any good talk show host should be judged by the same yardstick. Having hired and fired a few talk show "hosts" in my time, the Maven offers these categories:

1. Personality - does the host have one?
2. Preparation - does the host sound like they are prepared?
3. Believability - does the host sound believable or are they "just making stuff up"?
4. Audience Engagement - does the host actively involve the audience, as opposed to talking at them or ignoring them?
5. Execution - is their "dead air"? Does the host hit "breaks" at the right time and keep the show on time?
6. Interviewing skills - does the host actively interview guests with thoughtful questions? Does the most ask the guest to illustrate or defend a controversial point?
7. Sustainable Content - can this host produce engaging content week after week?

How did they do? While no one embarrassed themselves, it's clear that the choice should be a fairly easy one. But, then, again, remember who we're dealing with here.

Zach Bonahoom was a breath of fresh air. His energy was good, he sounded happy to be on the radio. High marks for personality and preparation. Zach engaged his audience and seemed believable in his presentation. I did not hear dead air, the breaks seemed to run on time and the news (ick) was on time. Zach did ok with his interviews, and like the other hosts, this is always a place for improvement. The few missteps were minimized by Zach's positive energy and presentation. As for sustainability, Zach was smart to balance guests with callers to give listeners variety and a chance to interact with guests. For never hosting a radio talk show, Zach Bonahoom did very well.

The second contender was former Mayoral candidate and grand jury star Matt Kelty. Matt seemed to also have good energy in his delivery, but, at times, seemed a little tentative with his presentation. To be fair, Mr. Kelty would probably have been alittle more at ease presenting architectural models to an audience of school board members, but did present in a conversational manner. Mr. Kelty did confuse most of his audience with by branding his program "High Energy Radio" (a service marked slogan owned by a large radio chain). The next day the name had morphed into "High Energy State" with an incomprehensible slogan about uploading, downloading, sideloading, etc. Matt sounded prepared when he interviewed his guests, but had the nagging issue of interrupting them as well as finishing their sentences for them. That's a rookie mistake that any good program director could help fix. Matt had a couple of dead air episodes, but it's not clear they were his fault or if the blame could be laid at the computerized audio system WOWO uses. That's the one that plays 4 audio sources on the air at the same time, usually on weekends when no one is within 20 miles of the place. Another lingering question is the sustainability of Mr. Kelty in this position. While he did have knowledgeable guests, they all seemed to be of the same, general tone and topic which the audience might not see as interesting and engaging. The Maven recommends that Mr. Kelty keep his day job.

Last on the list is the current 9pm-12midnight WOWO talk show host and political chameleon Gary Snyder who also holds down a full time afternoon job at a small AM radio station in Marion, Indiana. Mr. Snyder previously hosted a time-brokered talk show on WGL 1250 on Saturday mornings. Time-brokered means that the host basically "rents" the air time from the station, often reselling the commercials within the show to advertisers and pocketing the proceeds. The free market at work! Hearing Mr. Snyder on the WOWO facilities was a definite improvement over the prehistoric studio audio from WGL Gary's style has always been a cross between speaking and hollering with a nice Hoosier twang thrown in for good measure. Gary always sounds prepared as evidenced by his meticulous work of lining up politically connected guests, many with national reputations. It's a shame, thought, that Gary does not "interview" his guests, he merely turns the station over to them to espouse their platform, hawk their book, or just ramble. Mr. Snyder also failed to question them on their points, and never once, would allow callers the opportunity to ask questions of his guests. After the guests would depart, Gary would talk with callers about the interview, and did little to engage the callers, sometimes finding himself with nothing to say but to thank the caller for their call. The Maven respects Mr. Snyder for holding down two jobs, especially in this economy.  

My money is on Zach Bonahoom. He's politically connected, has access to timely, local guests, savvy enough to interview them without annoying them, and his interaction with callers was genuine and believable. And, Zach offers a younger voice and perspective that WOWO continues to say they want as they attempt to make talk radio relevant and expand and grow a younger audience to replace their older and less appreciated/desirable older listeners.