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DJ departures draw questions By Jennifer Barrs The game is obviously afoot. Or maybe not so obviously.
Clear Channel property WFLA, 970 AM - a station whose talking heads have remained relatively cool while hotter heads around them roll - is suddenly in a state of upheaval. By now, you probably know that morning man Mark Larsen is leaving at the end of December. The dogged, brash talk show host, who has been at the station for more than a decade, says he's leaving to pursue other business interests and management had nothing to do with it.
But the leave-taking by Bob Lassiter seems a little strange. His last day on the air was Dec. 1, although his contract with WFLA runs through the end of the month. Or so says the fax we received from the station late last week.
Calls to station management weren't returned in time for the Friday Extra deadline. However, the fax quotes operations manager Sue Treccase saying, ``Lassiter was instrumental in putting 970 WFLA on the map in the late 1980s. But at this juncture we're moving the station in a different direction.''
That ``different direction'' comment usually means one of two things in the language of radio hirings and firings. Either Lassiter's ratings were bad or the station had planned to replace him for a while - and just didn't tell him. He allegedly spent much of his last on-air shift berating management for not being straight with him.
Now there's a surprise.
Anyway, what is going on at WFLA? After so many years as the area's premier talk radio outlet, a format change doesn't seem likely. Nor does the other most popular rumor in Tampa Bay - that shock jock Howard Stern could end up on 970. Stern is syndicated by CBS, remember, and with several CBS-owned stations in Tampa, it would seem more plausible that he would be picked up by one of those properties.
And that's not the only breeze shaking the Clear Channel tree. All programming on WDAE, 1250 AM, will move to 620 AM in January. That frequency, with its significantly stronger signal, now airs Bay News 9 and is owned by Concord Media Group. With FCC approval, Clear Channel will buy the 620 AM frequency from Concord and also retain ownership of the 1250 AM frequency. That's so radio station WHNZ, 570 AM - also owned by Clear Channel - can move its programming (infomercials and all) to 1250 AM.
From inside the fishbowl: Don't know about you, but we're getting pretty fed up with all these changes. It's no wonder the mail continues to pour in about the state of Tampa Bay radio. And that includes these comments from Eric Brown, who is doing the all-night shift at WDJR in Dothan, Ala. He's worked behind the scenes for years, including stints at WQYK, 99.5 FM.
``Your recent article on the state of Tampa Bay radio was provocative. I noticed, though, that you didn't quote anyone in the business who might have shared your opinions. I have met several people who are dissatisfied with the current state of radio, mainly because with so many large corporations running so many stations, those of us doing the grunt work in our bunny slippers and sweat pants are often overlooked by corporate heads who only see the big picture.
``To really touch people, to make them hear the voice inside their head when they hear you on the air, well, that takes a lot of resources and support from both above and below you in the corporate hierarchy. Good DJs and program directors learn to work within the framework and still be unique.
``I grew up loving Tampa Bay radio and the people who made it - and make it - great. Good radio always transcends the corporate culture of the people who cut the checks, and looking at mine, I know I'm not in this for the money.''
Crazed by call letters: Howard Raymond wrote us wondering why Bay area radio stations seem compelled to repeat their call letters and frequencies so often. Well, it's not because they have to. The FCC rule only requires station identification once an hour, preferably at the top of the hour.
Actually, Raymond probably answered his own question when he queried: ``Is the current public attention span so short or the products of the stations so similar that reminders every five minutes are now necessary ... even if the reminders insult my intelligence?''