Re: NorthEast Radio Watch / WHCN changes

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Regarding my critical praise of the Bob and Tom Show, Steve Ordinetz wrote:
>
>>Glad to see you're a fan.  I've never heard B&T, but I thought the
>>"honor" of worst syndicated morning show went to John-Boy & Billy.

        First, I appreciate a joke as much as anyone, but, of course, there
is no such program as one with the name the John-Boy and Billy Show.
Couldn't be <g>.

        As for Bob and Tom, the insulting crap the management of WHCN gave
the Hartford Courant for quotes when Picozzi and the Horn were fired
included a statement that the Bob and Tom program already was syndicated on
some double-digit number of stations, mostly in the Midwest. Maybe it was
10, maybe it was 20. After hearing the program, I always assumed that it
really was being carried only by captive stations of the group owner
(Capstar, I think, in this case?) where the group owner had done the same
thing as in Hartford -- save payroll by dumping the local hosts and shoving
Bob and Tom into the market.
        When Picozzi and the Horn were fired, I especially liked the part
where management said that market research had shown a change should be
made because the audience wanted an intelligent morning show like Bob and
Tom. In other words, NOT like Picozzi and the Horn -- who were, in reality,
pretty intelligent as morning FM rock shows go, not to mention extremely
entertaining. No outright disgusting crudity. They actually played some
music. Thery were funny. They did a fair amount of news in a fairly serious
way. They were famous for clever banter. They never met a liner card. In
other words, they never insulted their audience's intelligence, had a great
sense of what worked on the radio, and sounded good together. In short,
even Orwell would have raised an eyebrow at WHCN management calling Bob and
Tom the intelligent replacement for Picozzi and the Horn. Now, of course,
the station is quoted in the Courant as saying that market research shows
the audience wants more music in the morning. I wonder if this time they
did their market research in the Hartford market . . .

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