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.
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
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point, Mike. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThis 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.