Catholic Radio Network hits the rocks

[Richard Chonak <rac@gabriel.cambridge.ma.us>]

Ray Flynn's out of work again, as far as radio goes.

Apparently the folks running 'Catholic Radio Network' have decided to
stop wasting money and have drastically cut back their operation,
including Ray's call-in show, using programs from EWTN's radio service
to fill most of their schedule.

I'm kind of surprised that generally savvy people like pizza king Tom
Monaghan and publisher Fr. Joseph Fessio were involved in CRN in the
first place, as CRN's unexciting all-talk format looked like a loser
from the start, without great personalities or big attractions.  When
your biggest names are boring ex-pols (that is redundant, I know) like
Dan Lungren and Raybo -- well, "the end is near".   The programmers must
not have known that _entertainment_ is a big part of talk radio.

When we read here on b-r-i about CRN's Boston debacle, in which they
lost a hefty deposit by failing to purchase WROL, it was obvious that
the people with the purse strings would be livid.  So now heads have
rolled, and the founders are trying to save what's left.