• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

NorthEast Radio Watch 4/12/2021: 97Rock Cleans House

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
April 12, 2021
in Free Content, Northeast Radio Watch
3

In this week’s issue… 97Rock axes morning show – 20 years on, a return to normalcy in NYC – Remembering WINS’ Smith, WMTR’s Mitchell, WRGB’s Tetrault – Sale in Maine

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*A few short weeks ago, the Cumulus cluster in Buffalo seemed to be in solid shape: its three big FMs each staked out fairly dominant spots along the format spectrum, with classic hits on WHTT (104.1), classic rock on WGRF (96.9) and newer rock on WEDG (103.3), plus a new classic hip-hop offering on an AM/translator combo, WBBF (1120/98.9) and a CBS Sports Radio clearance on a second-tier AM, WHLD (1270).

Then, of course, came the racism-tinged morning show conversation March 24 that drew unwanted attention from advertisers and led to the immediate termination of “97 Rock” morning show veteran Rob Lederman and the suspension of his morning colleagues, Rich “Bull” Gaenzler and Chris Klein.

You’ve read – and we’ve written – enough of these stories over the years to know how they usually go: a few weeks go by, the rest of the show apologizes, advertisers come back and the show goes on. But not this time: on Wednesday, Cumulus announced that “upon further consideration following the racist incident that occurred on The Morning Bull Show, we decided to terminate the whole morning show in addition to the Program Director.”

That would be John Hager, a Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee whose 97 Rock tenure began back in 1983; he’d been programming the station since 1988, when it flipped back to the rock format after a few misguided years as an AC format.

His involuntary exit, along with the ouster of Gaenzler and Klein after each had spent nearly a quarter-century with the cluster, raises lots of questions that, as yet, have few answers: to what extent did Cumulus determine that the offending segment comparing celebrity skin tones to shades of toast had been pre-planned, and why didn’t saner heads prevail in pulling it before it hit the air? In the wake of budget and job cuts elsewhere in the company, was the incident an opportunity for Cumulus to get some unexpected cost savings in Buffalo?

And, of course, what now for the venerable 97 Rock? No new PD or morning show has been named yet, and there don’t appear to be that many voices left on the station now, though it’s hard to tell since the website has been scrubbed of staff bios. We know that other air talents on WGRF were working double duty – afternoon jock Carl Russo is also a station engineer, while middayer DJ Jickster also runs promotions.

33 years after the 97 Rock format was resurrected, could more changes be ahead; for instance, a move of the other big personality morning show, WEDG’s Shredd and Ragan, down the dial from the Edge to 97 Rock? And what of the ousted talent – in an era of corporate caution over controversial personalities and a reluctance to spend on big salaries, is there anywhere else in town that would take a risk on Gaenzler and Klein to get attention? (The most obvious spot, Townsquare’s relatively new rock format on WBUF, is a non-starter; the company is heavily committed to the syndicated “Free Beer and Hot Wings” show it runs there, and there’s nothing that fits their format at Audacy, the other big cluster in town.)

SPRING IS HERE…

And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!

If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!

This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.

And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future. 

Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).

We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.

The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?) 

Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too! 

 

Log In

Join Now | Lost Password?

Share this:

  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
Tags: 83 Leo Birmingham PkwyAudacy BostonBob PorterCharlie KirkChris KleinCJAICKLKDan BahlErnie TetraultJeff BartlettPaul SmithRich GaenzlerRush LimbaughSaul StockmanWABCWBGOWCTBWFMXWGRFWHCUWIBGWINSWMTT-FMWMURWPAT-FMWRGBWSKWWTMMWWAC
Previous Post

Site of the Week 4/9/2021: WAYO-LP, Rochester NY

Next Post

Site of the Week 4/16/2021: WAPS (“The Summit”), Akron

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 5/19/2025: WRGB’s Bishop Retires
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 5/19/2025: WRGB’s Bishop Retires

In this week’s issue… WRGB's Bishop to retire - CT "tower" coming down - Remembering Robin Marshall

by Scott Fybush
May 19, 2025
Top of the Tower Podcast #062: Keeping Students in Broadcasting
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #062: Keeping Students in Broadcasting

In this week's episode - It was a longer hiatus than we intended, but Top of the Tower is back with a new spring season of conversations with some of the most interesting people in radio. This week, we continue bringing...

by Scott Fybush
May 14, 2025
NERW 12/15/2014: CRTC Drains Niagara Simulcast
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 5/12/2025: New Owners For Two AMs

In this week’s issue… Catsimatidis, Shula add signals - Radiodays rocks Toronto - Ex-Bell, Evanov stations rebrand By SCOTT FYBUSH Jump to: ME - NH - VT - MA - RI - CT - NY - NJ - PA -...

by Scott Fybush
May 13, 2025
Top of the Tower Podcast #061: Rob Bertrand at NAB/PREC 2025
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #061: Rob Bertrand at NAB/PREC 2025

Top of the Tower talks with Inrush Broadcast's Rob Bertrand about the future of broadcast engineering as a service

by Scott Fybush
May 6, 2025
Next Post
The Summit's new home

Site of the Week 4/16/2021: WAPS ("The Summit"), Akron

Please login to join discussion

Log In

Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.