Herald: Entercom Cuts Hit Boston

As Entercom’s share price sinks below two dollars a share, layoffs hit the company hard today, with deep cuts coming across the country.

Here at home, the Herald’s Jessica Heslam reports that 10 were let go in Boston, including “Reese Hopkins” of WRKO, The Felon’s producers and even a sales manager:

The ax came down hard today at Entercom-owned radio stations in Boston and the casualties include WRKO host Reese Hopkins – who was whacked after his mid-morning show.

About 10 employees at Entercom’s Boston stations have been canned so far as the company’s stock tumbled to under $2 for the first time ever during trading today.

Two producers of Tom Finneran’s morning-drive show were also ousted, including Rich Teter, and Andrew Strecker, according to sources. The head of promotions at WRKO-AM (680), Laura Rieder, and the head of national sales, Donald St. Sauveur, were also let go. A producer for the “Hillman Morning Show” with Greg Hill on WAAF [website]-FM (97.7 and 107.3) was also canned.

But if they can’t afford these people, then how can they continue to pay Finneran a high salary for subpar performance? How many programming managers will really be needed to oversee a shrinking on-air staff?

Judging by the rapidly-collapsing stock price, Entercom (NYSE:ETM) may have much less of a future than anyone could have imagined just a few months ago.

Between the credit crunch, loss of traditional advertisers such as car dealerships, still-bloated managerial costs and heavy debt levels, it’s a wonder how any radio company is able to survive this crisis.

At Entercom, however, these moves could prove much too little, way too late if the hidden financial picture looks as bad as one might suspect.

Tom Finneran and Willie Brown

A huge problem with Boston’s media environment is that it is notoriously insular and provincial, to the point where not having worked in other parts of the country is actually a bragging point.

As exposure to different markets can earn one a great deal of industry respect, Boston’s insider media sentiment is the opposite of what reporters, hosts and TV anchors will encounter elsewhere.

As a result, what you don’t see in coverage of the Finneran hiring is a good perspective on just how many times other stations have tried and failed at this very strategy in the past.

A fantastic comparison can be made between Finneran and Willie Brown, the former California State Assembly speaker who ruled the Golden State with an iron fist for at least as long as Tommy Taxes ran Beacon Hill.

Brown’s immense power scared many Californians to death, to the point where some of his legislative supporters were removed in recall elections. Later, he became mayor of San Francisco, taking his flamboyant style and engaging personality to the Northern California city.

A far more interesting character than Finneran could ever hope to be, Brown moved into a high-profile morning drive position on San Francisco’s KQKE The Quake after leaving his mayoral post.

Teamed with comedian Will Durst, Brown’s morning drive show was a spectacular failure, despite his clear compatibility with the station’s liberal audience. It didn’t last a year.

Given that Kahn previously worked in San Francisco, she has even less of an excuse for not understanding this key point.

Finneran, on the other hand, is a square peg in a round hole at WRKO and will encounter an entirely hostile audience, if anybody actually sticks around long enough for his February debut.

Had WRKO’s current management team had the experience necessary to program a major talk radio station, this point would have been obvious. Instead, left to these amateurs, mistakes that others made long ago in other markets are now being repeated here.

Unnecessary Meanness

Though radio is by no means a “nice” business, there’s nothing typical about the way WRKO’s managers have handled their recent affairs.

What normally would be done with great discretion has instead been mishandled and carried out in public view. Has Entercom’s corporate HR department lost influence with WRKO’s management?

Examples:

- Scott Allen Miller has all but been fired in the newspapers, forced to suffer each day through Julie’s latest indiscreet tip-offs to the press (and her competition as well) about her station’s programming plans.

- After trying very hard to cater to Kahn’s whims, host Todd Feinburg essentially has been told he’s only taking the 9-noon slot until someone better comes along, also relayed via the press for maximum public humiliation.

- Topping it off, WRKO’s all-day negotiations with Finneran were held in full view of the station’s staff yesterday, taking staff morale to a fresh low, if that could have previously seemed possible.

Through her actions, Kahn has made it clear she’s been given the power by Entercom and CEO David Field to behave as she wishes, without fear of consequences. But it’s meanness for its own sake, with no business purpose and bound to catch up with her soon enough.

In fact, she tipped off the competition so many times as to her plans that one station juggled its lineup ahead of her moves. It’s like giving your playbook to the opposing team.

Another key here is that Kahn seems to be enjoying the Boston media spotlight a bit too much, one big reason why the Finneran deal remained on track until the end.

Even if Entercom does finally rid itself of Kahn, however, it will now be stuck with Finneran and his contract.

Finneran Still Negotiating

It’s a testament to the sheer level of misery present at Entercom Boston that employees are coming out of the woodwork to give us confidential tips. Anybody still in the building is clearly looking to get away from Julie’s Reign of Evil as soon as possible.

And one that we can report tonight is that Finneran spent a good portion of the day negotiating with WRKO’s station management in a long, closed-door session. Is the deal really done?

And what is taking so long? Is Finneran really in a position to push for even more money? If not for WRKO, he’d be unable to secure the night shift at his nearest Store24 or Stop & Shop.

That’s why many who have contacted us feel there’s something fishy going on regarding Finneran’s deal. Why is a inexperienced felon worth big money? If they offered him $10 an hour, would that be too high?

UPDATE: am hearing at least one TV station is reporting Finneran’s been hired. At this point, it’s anticlimatic.

Welcome To SaveWRKO.com

For over 25 years, Boston’s WRKO has been a national news-talk trendsetter, providing for New England a rare dissenting voice against Boston’s entrenched media and political establishment.

From the legendary voice of the late Jerry Williams, to Howie Carr and others heard today, it continues to provide a rare check on the excesses of Beacon Hill’s powerful elite.

In turn, WRKO’s fiercely loyal listeners have rewarded the station with consistently high ratings and substantial revenues.

And now, with Massachusetts facing single-party rule and few opportunities for speaking out against the tax-and-spend agendas of Governor Deval Patrick and his legislative partisans, WRKO is needed now more than ever before.

Without any apparent business-related reason, however, WRKO as we know it is now facing sudden extinction. In recent months, we’ve seen multi-sided debates between callers and hosts disappear, while fluffy, non-controversial programming takes its place.

We’ve seen WRKO’s entire newsroom shown the door, including award-winning anchors and reporters, for reasons that still remain baffling.

And we’ve also noticed an obvious clampdown on conservative opinions, in addition to an apparent edict against criticism of Governor Patrick outside of Carr’s program.

In its place, there are news reports that the ultimate Beacon Hill Democrat Party insider, convicted felon Tom Finneran, will soon be handed the all-important morning drive slot, despite his incompatibility with the station’s audience and lack of full-time talk radio experience.

Next, we wonder how long it will take before industry leaders Rush Limbaugh and Howie Carr are also removed from the station’s lineup.

Beyond that, WRKO is for the first time ever run by local managers without any experience programming talk radio. With their flawed decision-making, that lack of format expertise shows. In addition, it appears that one local executive is attempting to impose her own tastes on an unwilling audience.

While we understand that airing Red Sox games will likely boost evening ratings, there is simply no justification for throwing away the rest of the station’s schedule, especially when there’s no evidence that planned changes could improve the station’s ratings and revenue.

Watching the wholly unnecessary implosion of a great heritage talk radio station is sad, but hopefully preventable. Now, WRKO’s many listeners must make their voices heard, before it is too late.

Sleazy Talk Deal Means Felon Avoids Punishment

Despite the new felony conviction of a sleazy, unpopular former Democrat Party legislator, a key WRKO / Boston manager continues to dig in her heels on a dubious programming move, seemingly without regard for the damage it will do to the station.

Meanwhile, disgust over former Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran’s felony conviction yesterday continued to generate anger today, particularly over the light “punishment” received for his guilty plea on perjury charges.

Here’s a newspaper editorial (and another here) that sums up the situation perfectly:

Somewhere in the definition of arrogance lies a propensity for saying things even the speaker knows aren’t true, a tendency to intentionally overreach, even when it’s not necessary, to remind everyone else that you can get away with anything.

That may be the best explanation for why Tom Finneran lied on the witness stand in a civil suit challenging a legislative redistricting passed by the House in 2001. Even in a town that has produced such paragons of arrogance as Billy Bulger and John Silber, Finneran’s arrogance can be breathtaking.

Everyone knew Finneran’s fingerprints were all over the redistricting map; that’s how the redistricting process works. But, when called to testify about the action, he said he had no role whatsoever in designing the map in question.

That part of Finneran’s testimony was so unbelievable that the judge questioned it in a footnote in the opinion ruling the new districts violated the civil rights of minority voters in some Boston neighborhoods. That footnote inspired an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office and an indictment of the then-house speaker for perjury. The case was closed yesterday, with Finneran pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

If not for WRKO’s interest, however, Finneran really would take a hit, as he is losing his pension, right to vote, carry a weapon or run for office. In addition, his plum job overseeing the state’s biotech council is now said to be on shaky ground.

As a result, it’s really WRKO’s Julie Kahn who is determined to ensure that Finneran escape punishment, as she’s standing at the ready with a pot of gold to reward a notorious Beacon Hill crony.

This is despite Finneran’s lack of talk radio experience, in fact, he’s yet to do a single show on the increasingly- troubled station. Nobody knows if Finneran could last a month without realizing just how difficult it is to host a daily drivetime talk show, much less be entertaining or compelling. Most former politicians fail in talk radio for this very reason.

As an insider with many fellow crooks to protect on Beacon Hill, Finneran is the opposite of what one would consider a potentially successful host to be. Instead of taking on corruption, he’ll be there to defend it, as a convicted felon himself.

For an example of what does work, look to WRKO’s Howie Carr, (seen in this photo) who has spent decades skewering the very people Finneran protects, with the ratings to back up his rhetoric. He spent most of yesterday’s show lambasting Finneran, with callers in full support of Carr’s position.

That’s why this deal, which would pay Finneran many times more than even experienced hosts could ever expect to make, appears dirty more than anything else. At the salary level on the table now, even the best potential ratings and revenue could never hope to make up for his high cost. Finneran may very well end up making more than Carr, which smacks of shady dealing in itself.

In addition, in a concession to his clear lack of attributes for hosting a daily morning drive show in a large market, Finneran will likely be paired with a co- host. That brings the overall cost into the stratosphere, up to Air America levels.

Beyond the sleazy Finneran deal, Kahn has been busy rearranging WRKO’s schedule to fit her own liberal political beliefs, rather than maintaining the conservative programming that has served the station very well for years. That’s despite the utter failure of libtalk in the Boston market.

One WRKO host even switched his previous on- air opposition to moonbat Governor Deval Patrick to a supportive stance, which probably saved his job, at least for the short run. However, the moment his views conflict with Kahn’s, even by accident, expect him to go as well.

Clearly, at no point is there any consideration of what would build an audience or an advertising base, it’s simply one of the nation’s worst radio managers forcing her own will upon a listenership that is already scrambling for alternatives.

Due to her clear lack of programming expertise, Kahn has yet to learn what will be a painful future lesson: you can’t force an audience to listen to what are your own personal tastes.

Julie, if you have any questions about this, simply contact the many former Air America executives who are now busy clogging unemployment lines in New York City.

UPDATE: Boston Globe now reports Finneran will likely lose the biotech position:

Thomas M. Finneran, the former speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who pleaded guilty yesterday to obstruction of justice, will likely lose his $416,000 a year job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council after its board of directors meets Monday to decide his future, according to a person familiar with the board’s discussions.

Finneran is hoping to keep his post as the state’s top biotechnology lobbyist despite pleading guilty to a felony, said another source who is close to him. Allies and legislators have been calling board members to express their support for Finneran.

But the guilty plea makes Finneran too much of a liability to keep as spokesman for an industry dealing with important regulatory and public-relations issues, said the source familiar with the board’s discussions. The 20-member panel, which includes executives from biotechnology and drug companies with offices in Massachusetts, is ultimately expected to ask Finneran to resign.

Finneran is in discussions with the radio station WRKO to host a talk show, a job he was hoping to take while keeping his biotech post, said a person close to the former speaker.

AMAZING: Finneran hopes to “phone in” the radio job while keeping the biotech position! Apparently he has no concept of prep time or what it might take to pull off an entertaining daily show. This is already shaping up to be a major disaster.

Con Job: Crooked Politician May Be Dumped On Talk Radio

Let’s get this straight: a tired, sleazy former Massachusetts Democrat legislative leader with a notorious “insider” reputation who just pled guilty to federal perjury charges (today!) is now ready to be forced upon an unwilling conservative talk radio audience. What gives?

That’s the sad outcome likely awaiting fans of Boston’s WRKO- AM, some of whom have been holding out hope that the station’s recent self- destructive kick could somehow be stopped before it is too late.

If former House of Representatives Speaker Tom Finneran is in fact hired to take over morning drive at the station, despite having no experience holding down a daily talk show, expect WRKO’s remaining listeners to take a hike. (See important disclosure note in the comments section)

How is talk radio compatible with a career hack who has spent his life protecting and promoting the very cronies the station has successfully taken on for decades? It’s like oil and water.

If WRKO’s interest in him seems bizarre, join the club. Beyond one stubborn manager’s insistence that the inexperienced and unproven former politician take a key morning drive slot, there is virtually no public call, much less a potential audience, for a Tom Finneran talk show.

Making the situation even more hard to comprehend is the fact that Finneran reportedly wants a substantial pay package, one which would likely top the $540,000 he currently receives as head of the Bay State’s Biotechnology Council.

That is at least five times what the current morning drive host, Scott Allen Miller, is thought to make and not even in the ballpark of rational industry norms for such a position.

How is an unproven non- talker in a position to ask for this kind of money? Beyond Air America, who would be crazy enough to give it to him?

Meanwhile, the biotech council is currently weighing whether to even keep Finneran in their employ, but a new Boston Globe story indicates that he may very well hang on after all.

The very public negotiations have been a source of embarrassment for WRKO, a once- proud megatalker that has been torn to shreds in the past several months by Julie Kahn, a station executive who lacks any real talk radio programming experience whatsoever.

But the weirder Kahn’s moves appear, the more she seems to dig in her heels, despite her lack of expertise. It’s a triumph of ego over ability.

In fact, WRKO’s rapid implosion has been so unusual and shocking to watch that it will be the subject of an upcoming Radio Equalizer follow- up report. While the station’s mess has been the talk of the industry for several months, the station’s parent company has yet to intervene. But that could change at any time.

In the meantime, when will radio managers learn they simply can’t force bad programming down the throats of their soon- to- be- former listeners? When they are finally forced into the unemployment lines?

Above all, simply because they have nowhere else to go, why should sleazy criminals from the world of politics be dumped onto the talk radio business? What have we done to deserve this destructive force?

UPDATE: Stubborn as a mule, Kahn still continues to press for Finneran, despite his lack of experience or known abilities in this arena. More on the plea deal here.

UPDATE: Finneran is now officially a convicted felon and there are conflicting newspaper reports on the fate of his biotech job:

Disgraced former House Speaker Tom Finneran pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice today avoiding jail but thrusting his job, pension and future career as an attorney all into jeopardy.

Finneran admitted his guilt – and apologized for it today – in federal court. The guilty plea means:

- He must serve 10 months of unsupervised probation.

- He loses his right to vote and carry a gun.

- He agreed to not run for political office for five years.

- He must pay a $25,000 fine, which his lawyer said he would pay today.

The deal will also require a referral to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, which will disbar him, or at least suspend the longtime lawyer’s right to practice law, a source close to Finneran said.

The felony conviction also means Finneran will lose his $2,575-a-month state pension, which he earned through 26 years of public service. Under state law, a government employee’s pension can be cut off if he is convicted of a felony connected to his job. Finneran’s admission of guilt stems from misleading testimony he gave in a civil trial over the drawing up of legislative districts in 2001 while he was House speaker.

His $500,000-a-year lobbying job with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council also appears in jeopardy. MBC officials declined comment last night, but sources said the board was caught by surprise and is not pleased with the outcome of the case. Finneran had long maintained his innocence and vowed to fight the charges when he stepped down as House speaker and took the MBC president’s job in 2004.

Finneran, who is expected to land a plum talk-show host gig, could continue lobbying since there are no state laws barring convicted felons from being registered lobbyists, officials said.

Finneran, holding back tears, told the federal judge today he is sorry for what he did.

‚ÄúI embarrassed myself. I shamed myself. I apologize to you … I apologize to my constituents and I apologize to the people of Massachusetts,‚Äù he said.

Boston Globe says the biotech council will wait until at least Monday to decide whether to fire him.

Meanwhile, WRKO’s Howie Carr and his callers are busy blasting Finneran on the air during Friday’s show.