WALE Needs New Victims

[fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush)]

Hi all,

Thought the list might be interested to know that I've received
no fewer than three e-mails in the last day or two from 
"non-radio" people...all saying they've been approached by
WALE down in Providence with the proposition, "We want you to
be a talk host on our station."

The deal Battaglia seems to be offering at the moment goes
like this:  Victim signs a 13-week contract, pays $4800 deposit
(not clear whether it's refundable or not, suspect "not"), 
and then splits the revenue from ad sales during their "talk
show" with the station.  Oh yes, the victim has to sell his/her
own ads, of course.

Ready for the kicker?  Battaglia's claiming an average of 
$2,000 *per hour* in ad sales!  I'm guessing that not even the
top-rated Providence stations come close to that figure outside
morning drive, never mind a 50-kw flashlight that can't be heard
north of Pawtucket or south of Warwick by day, or pretty much
anywhere at night.  (The "coverage maps" being distributed
to would-be victims a few years ago showed 990's coverage
as a broad arc that encircled Boston, Worcester, and eastern
Connecticut!)

It's guys like this that are giving our business a really bad
name.  Suppose after being burned by WALE, any victim would ever
listen to a radio sales pitch again, ever?  Me either...

- -s, who suspects the WDCZ-Rochester skywave has more nighttime listeners
in Rhode Island than WALE...

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