Audience flow is a real dynamic. The midday show, and F&M, absolutely benefit from T&R starting the day with such a huge audience share. T&R leaving wouldn't necessarily crater F&M -- although I imagine it would absolutely hurt Zo & Beedle -- but their ratings would slip to some degree.
I'm certain they've done that kind of analysis. It's why funds buy newspapers, gut them, and squeeze out every last dime. It's all about the margin.
This is the entire point, look at this roster of crap: https://bbgi.com/brands/
According to this, they signed a deal in 2013. Then a new one (before the old one was up) in 2018. So, maybe every 5 years...but I have no idea.
Looks like they own 5 other sports talk stations, a couple in big markets (Philly, Detroit). I doubt any of those have ratings remotely close to 98.5 though. And as Rich noted this morning, 98.5 had the 5th-most ad sales revenue in the country this past year, which is remarkable given the market size. Of course, ranking 5th gets you $33 million, which is a paltry sum in a media biz where major corporations are raking in billions upon billions in video subscriptions and ad sales. Beasley ain't one of those corporations.
That's my read. They will have Lockhart research "monetizing streaming radio" his first day back (since they are paying him!)
Sounds like Rich and Nick have taken on the workload. Rich said he was in at 3am today so he could write and cut the 8am "What Happened Last Night?" segment.
Fred "quiet quitting" is about all that shit company deserves. Not only for the layoffs, but they also jerked him around with his sick leave for rehab IIRC. They don't owe Beasley a fraction of what they put into the show.
I don’t think he’s around anyone that fired him. Sounds like a far away conference room to me…but I would hold it against them possibly to my detriment.
Agreed that Beasley is shit and nobody should be bending over backwards for them. But they literally woke up Joe Murray to Zoom in (or whatever) because Fred gave up. When Rich started sounding like the cryptkeeper (or John Henry) it might have been nice to have his partner there. But again - I think they have their relationship pretty well defined. And I also agree that circumstances are conspiring against the stability of the show right now.
I'd be pretty BS too, but I think it's smart tying himself to Rich. If they do jump on something new, Rich would clearly want Mike to join the next effort.
Agreed. It sounds like Lockhart essentially now works for Rich. Rich has mentioned "all the paperwork" he has had to sign in the past few days. I'm wondering if that means Lockhart is not on the Beasley books anymore, but is functioning as a contractor that Rich "hired" and support his salary/benefits. I'm wayyy outside my expertise, but I have to think that Beasley can't be formally paying Lockhart's compensation if they're looking to realize the cost savings that comes from his being laid off.
I keep thinking that Fred is really fortunate to have Rich as his friend and partner. There can't be too many other guys in the radio biz who'd be as generous and patient with Fred as Rich has been. Obviously there's a benefit to Rich since Fred is immensely talented. But not every co-host would see it that way after a while.
It kinda feels like T&R on BCN afternoons circa ‘08 when they were really close to getting canned (because of management cost cutting). I think they were weeks or even days away at one point. Of course they didn’t and THS happened pretty soon after. Can’t believe I’ve been listening to them long enough to remember how their move from rock/shock to sports was considered a bizarre last-ditch experiment.
Did it happen that way? I remember after the announcement of the sports hub happening, they said they were in the know for something like almost a year because they were going to be the flagship morning show. I may be misremembering that though. I do remember once the announcement happened, they completely stopped playing music for a couple months and although I LOVED it because it was more content - they had to fill so much more time and were talking about how much harder it was.
Admittedly it's a bit fuzzy now, so your sequence might be more accurate. I do remember a point in time, right around when the future of BCN was up in the air, where they were strongly implying they were close to getting the knife before it was announced that they were slotted for 98.5. Maybe that was already something they had in their back pocket by then.
WBCN itself was getting the knife. The station was no more, but T&R were relocated to the new all-sports entity.
This isn't accurate. BCN got the rights to the Pats in 1995, nobody was talking about them going to an 'all-sports talk format' back then. They were in a massive war with AAF, which they were winning for a few years.
One of Fred’s tall tales. He was working at a driving range and someone hit the ball scooper cart thing he was driving, the latest rendition included him punching the guy before he quit.
But it's also not quite inaccurate. It certainly wasn't 1995, but for years before they actually flipped to 98.5 there were whispers about going to an all sports format since they were already in on the Pats.
