Re: WOR stops Rambling with Gambling

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

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
>
>I'll bet there's more to this story than has yet come to
>light. A Buckley station killing a show that has
>increased its billings 40% year over year in a quest for
>younger demos--well, it just doesn't sound like Buckley.
>I bet John R got a better offer. The fact that WOR
>apparently hasn't yet firmed up its plans gives credence
>to that speculation. Maybe they've lined up someone who
>is currently employed to start Jan 1. If so, they might
>not be able to identify the person.
<snip>

        We shall see. But it would appear from what I've seen and heard so
far that WOR did let him go, more-or-less plain and simple. He said so, and
they said so with less than the usual amount of management hemming and
hawing, IMO. He gets my award for you-can't-fire-me-I-quit, though. I think
WOR got caught on that, when, apparently, he basically decided over the
weekend to make today his last show and just walked. I wonder if he told
them before he went on the air and started doing it.

        You would think they would have had someone lined up before they
told him last week that he was through in December. As you say, maybe they
just can't announce it yet. Or maybe they just need to regroup over the
next few days to make the announcement because they weren't ready to do
that. Also, as a PR person, I think I would have counseled not to announce
it today. Wait until the smoke clears, maybe a couple weeks.

        I always like it when the suits get carried away with
hallucinations of their own importance. Do you think it occurred to them
that Mr. Gambling might not keep showing up to pick the cotton until they
changed the locks?

        I heard Bob Grant around 4 p.m. give a monologue which was a long
way of saying he would not put on calls complaining about what he called
the Gambling "dismissal." He said the station was getting many such calls
and he understood the listeners' frustration (I think he used that word).
He said that when "that other radio station" let him go several years ago,
that station (WABC) put a vast number of calls on the air criticizing the
station. He didn't like it then and didn't want it now about someone else.

        He said how much respect he has for Gambling, etc., but that, as
Gambling said this morning, things change. He said the world didn't end
when "that other radio station" let Grant go, and it isn't ending now. He
also inferred that he didn't have an overwhelming amount of sympathy for
the listeners' calling with virulent criticism of WOR, as he (Grant) and
others on the staff have a great deal of respect for what is great radio
station, or words to that effect.

        On the WOR news there was a short item about Gambling saying
goodbye to his audience and that the station did not renew his contract in
order to advance "certain business goals." WINS had a reporter do a piece
from City Hall with a bunch of sound bites of politicians saying it's
horrible. Guiliani was quoted as saying he has been listening to a Gambling
since before he was born (good line) and he's sorry to hear about it. I
think the mayor was on the show last Friday. I have not heard WCBS do
anything on it yet, but that may be just me. I missed the early TV news but
I'm planning to see what's on at 10 and 11.