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mmrf
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 02:14 pm |
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By Janese Heavin
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Advertisement
It is uncertain whether KFRU can still be known as the “station Columbia depends on,” at least for local news.
Cumulus Radio, which owns the station, yesterday fired its only two news reporters, Matt LaCasse and Scott Smith, sources told the Tribune, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Meteorologist Katie Crandall also was let go, they said.
Reached by phone, LaCasse confirmed that Station Manager John Walker fired him yesterday morning.
“He said it wasn’t based on performance, that he had to do it because of tough times based on the economy,” LaCasse said. “It’s disappointing; there’s no lying about that. At the same time, I choose to look at it as an opportunity, and hopefully something will come up.”
Smith and Crandall could not be reached for comment. Walker did not reply to a Tribune phone message, and a receptionist at Cumulus Radio in Columbia hung up after saying Walker would not be available until next week.
LaCasse declined to talk about other layoffs, but he did confirm that the station no longer has local news reporters.
“I love KFRU, and I’m not sure Cumulus understands what they’re doing by letting the entire newsroom go,” LaCasse said. “That said, I understand it’s their business, and they need to do what they need to do.”
Former News Director Dan Claxton, who was fired in October, also fears the recent layoffs mean the end of a radio station Columbia once relied on.
“Effectively, what they’re doing is just destroying KFRU,” Claxton said. “What they’re saying is, ‘KFRU doesn’t care about the community. We don’t make enough profit and for us. The bottom line is the greenback. That’s all we care about.’ ... This has nothing to do with me, I’m going to be fine. What I’m concerned about is this wonderful institution called KFRU that is essentially no more.”
It appears that morning radio hosts Simon Rose and Renee Hulshof escaped the staffing cuts: The station’s Web site yesterday afternoon continued to promote their “Morning Meeting” program. Hulshof joined the show last month after Walker’s controversial decision in October to fire longtime co-host Fred Parry.
So what will KFRU do now to provide listeners with local news?
“They won’t have any,” Claxton said. “Either that, or they’ll just read it out of the Tribune.”
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/feb/07/radio-station-again-trims-its-news-staff/
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 02:33 pm |
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Sad to watch a venerable institution in this town go down the drain...
What I want to know is how much profit Cumulus corporate is actually sucking out of this market to pad their corporate salaries. There is no way the cluster isn't making money - just probably not enough for the greedy folks in Atlanta.
No mention of morning newsman David Gaines whom I assume is still with the station...but he drives up from JC every morning.
Last edited on Sat Feb 7th, 2009 03:03 pm by gomizzoutigers
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Kent Clark
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 03:47 pm |
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I'm not sure what's happened with David Gaines either as I don't listen to KFRU very often. There were apparently other cuts within the cluster, too, yesterday. Q-106.1 midday host Roxie is off the website. It looks like BXR's website is missing a person, too, but I couldn't tell you who.
Also, in the Jeffro, KLIK morning man Jay Kersting was let go. According to the website, KLIK has no local programming Monday thru Friday as Kersting is being replaced by syndicated Michael Smerconish. Dennis Miller is on where Partyline used to be, but Partyline host Rick Sinclair still shows as mornings on Jeff 104.1.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 04:19 pm |
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What a sad state of affairs for two venerable local signals.
I don't listen enough to Zimmer's stations to know what their newsroom consists of, but if at least the venerable Shelley Tucker is still there, that's one more person than KFRU has in Columbia.
KWWR-Mexico always has always had good news coverage of Columbia, sometimes even beating out KFRU on overnight police news.
At least those of you in Jeff have Warren Kretch and John Marsch to listen to. I hope David Lile didn't get axed...I will see him in a couple of hours and almost dread even asking...
Update: Jay Kersting's blog at http://www.jaykersting.com/blog/
Last edited on Sat Feb 7th, 2009 04:36 pm by gomizzoutigers
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 04:30 pm |
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mmrf wrote: “They won’t have any,” Claxton said. “Either that, or they’ll just read it out of the Tribune.”
Maybe...maybe not.
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/02/06/columbia-daily-tribune-cuts-back/
It does say only one cut in editorial.
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bcoz
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 10:37 pm |
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I posted the following on my Facebook status yesterday:
"Rest in peace KFRU News (1925-2009)."
I think that's appropriate.
As someone who worked there, gave a lot to that station and loved what it stood for, I can only say that I'm in mourning. I'm of course concerned for my friends who were let go yesterday and recently....and they know that...but they'll survive and move on. What concerns me more is what appears to be the death of a Columbia and a radio institution.... It took almost five years for the Dickey boys to completely run things into the ground. In a way, I'm surprised it took that long.
bcoz
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mmrf
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 10:48 pm |
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This is on the KLIK website. Had to chuckle, since they have NO local weekday programming now.
Be A Caller One of the best aspects of local talk radio is being able to make your voice heard on real issues facing our community. Become a caller on Morning News or Partyline by calling 573.632.1240 or 866.632.1240 during show hours. Your voice counts!
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 11:38 pm |
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All of the PT board ops had their hours cut back AND dropped to minimum wage. Also, heard that a long-time production person was also let go.
Already heard that former group owner Al Germond is pretty riled up about this latest turn of events. Be listening to the Sunday Morning Roundtable at 8 tomorrow morning - I bet it will be interesting.
Last edited on Sat Feb 7th, 2009 11:52 pm by gomizzoutigers
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XGM
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Posted: Sat Feb 7th, 2009 11:41 pm |
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| Way back when I grew up in Columbia in the 40s & 50s, KFRU was THE station for local news. It was owned by Mahlon Aldridge, who was the longtime play by play man for the Mizzou Tigers. Ffor many years it was the ONLY radio station in Columbia. KBIA (now KTGR) went on the air 1/1/55. I started my 50 yr plus career at 1580 on Feb 1, 1955. Sorry to hear of the removal of local news folks...that's what really makes local radio today. Any fool can be a "jukebox" and play 20 in a row and try to compete with Sirius & XM. They can't do local news. Too bad corperate radio can't get that in their heads.
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gomizzoutigers
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 12:06 am |
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I could imagine that at some times Premier Marketing wasn't the best employer to work for. But, they had owners that lived, breathed, and worked in the stations. John Ott was seen around in the community. Al Germond was...well, Al. cumugeon, but I watched him develop KARO into a market leader, and allowed him to develop the Columbia station cluster and purchase KFRU out of the graveyard the previous ownership (Bill Weaver, et al) had run it into.
Oh, to have local ownership back. I often wonder if they cashed out their Cumulus stock before it hit the skids.
Last edited on Sun Feb 8th, 2009 12:08 am by gomizzoutigers
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Ace
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 12:56 pm |
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What really gets me is that the mid-mo cluster had been one of the most profitable in all of Cloudland until this most recent bloodbath. Now, the boys in Atlanta have succeeded in bringing it down to the same level of mind-numbing mediocrity that has laid waste to the countless other markets they over-financed their grubby little hands on.
One newsman between KFRU and KLIK. Zero local programming on KLIK. Zero evening jocks on all eight stations. WX by noaa.com. I can't wait to see what they do for severe weather coverage in the spring - they will have to drag David Lile out of bed and prop him up behind the mic, if they even bother at all.
When I started at KFRU almost five years ago now, it was a great place to work, a great career opportunity. Now it is cruel ghost of its former self, an empty shell that represents an embarrasment to its community. They are going un-manned on all eight stations now unless there is a game to run. Expect dead air for literally hours at a time now, starting on Monday.
Out.
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Kent Clark
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 04:00 pm |
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To gomizzoutigers, I have to defend Premier. Until the decision was made to sell, Premier was a good company. No, it wasn't perfect, and it did make mistakes. Yes, it was tight-fisted and a very lean operation, but it was a company that tried to be fair. It was also an overall success, though it had the occasional venture that didn't work out. The company was bashed like crazy on the messageboards, but the bashing usually came from Zimmer, bitter ex-employees (95% of whom were fired for good reason), or people associated with a former owner in the market.
I can't really fault Al, Dave and John for selling the cluster. If you handed me $40 million for a small market cluster, I'd take the money, hand you the keys and be on a plane to Tahiti before sundown! I think most people would do the same thing. They sold when the market was at its peak, and that was a good business decision. I, too, hope they unloaded most of that Cumulus stock when it was high.
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TheColonel
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 07:34 pm |
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| I too am concerning about the KFRU KLIK situation and the demise of localism on their operations. I never worked for either station, but was a market competitor when working at WOS in Jeff City. Local news and community services are the backbone of these local operations. I just hope I don't have to read about such cutbacks at my old stomping grounds at KWOS.
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bcoz
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 09:55 pm |
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Just to put things into perspective… I started at KFRU in August of 2000 (My first day was the day after a massive lightening strike. Al and David were broadcasting from the transmitter that morning). Here is a list of fulltime staff at both KFRU and KLIK as best as I can recollect. Sorry if I missed anybody. My memory ain’t as good as it used to be.
KFRU-
Sean Kelley – Program Director
Matt Boltz – Executive Producer
George Young – Producer
Larry Johnson – Overnight board operator
David Lile – Mornings
Simon Rose – Middays
Jordan Yount – News Director
Scott Baker – News/Middays
Paul Hannigan – News
R.J. McAllister – News
Paul Lewandowski – News
John Shea – Sports
Mike Kelly – Sports (Mike obviously wasn’t fulltime with PMG, but I include him anyway)
KLIK-
Chris Krok – Program Director/Afternoons
Warren Krech – Mornings
Brian Hauswirth – News Director/Middays
Jeff Haldiman – News
Jessica Finn – News
That’s a fulltime staff of 18 between the two stations. That doesn’t even come close to counting the part time staff of hosts, board ops, news, sports and others. Now, if I’m counting correctly, the stations have a combined fulltime staff of four.
Some other notes from that time….
KFRU had live full newscasts weekdays at 6:05, 6:30, 7:05, 7:30, 8:05, 12:00 and the 5 O’Clock News Hour (which contained four individual newscasts at 5:00, 5:15, 5:30 and 5:45). We also had one minute headline updates at :05 past every hour from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. Saturday live full newscasts were at 6:05, 6:30, 7:05, 7:30, 8:05 and 9:05. One minute headline updates continued until 5 p.m. Sunday live full newscasts were at 7:05, 7:30, 8:05 and 9:05 with headline updates continuing until 11 a.m.
Was it always a picnic working there? No! But no place is a picnic!
Al, Dave and John had to live in that community. They wanted their radio stations (in particular KFRU) to be respected and valued parts of the community. That drove them to spend a lot of money on staff, promotions and quality programming. But, in return they got highly rated radio stations that billed well.
We did everything big and everything well. The coverage of Governor Carnahan’s death and funeral was one of the biggest, most exciting (if I can use that word in this case) and most comprehensive broadcasts I’ve ever taken part in. Same thing with election coverage… Mizzou sports coverage (local pre-game coverage for both football and basketball)… High school sports coverage… And severe weather coverage…. Wow! To look back at it now really leaves me in awe of what a special place I was a part of.
The other nice thing about working there? I met some of my best friends there! People that I still keep in touch with despite they fact that I, along with others, no longer live in Columbia.
I’ve been listening to some of my old KFRU casts over the past few days. Looking at some of those AP awards that I received as part of the station’s staff (They haven’t had AP for at least two years now). Its brining back a lot of memories…but it also makes me want to cry. I’ll always love that radio station. It is such a shame to see it run into the ground by a bunch of people who, on their own website, can’t even get the call letters right.
Oh, and Ace! I’ve been seeing you on television a lot recently thanks to ESPN Full Court! Hope you enjoy that gig! It’s one that I really, really wanted a while back 
bcoz
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Ace
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Posted: Sun Feb 8th, 2009 10:56 pm |
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^Ah, I've been found out!
Its a lot of fun, and thank goodness I have it, now.
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