People might be wondering, why are you so obsessed with 105.3 The Fan? I'm obsessed with sports radio and I'm also very interested in the business. I love when the curtain is pulled back and we can see what is really going on. Richie Whitt in his 3rd post definitely did that. This was focused around his dealings behind the scene with his unruly partner.
First of all my overall opinion of the post is very positive. It was of course well written and very compelling. Wow was is! Richie in this post talks about how hard he lobbied to basically get Greggo fired and save his job on the Fan. He was a company man, he loved CBS and loved the Fan. After more and more run ins, he called on Program Director Bruce Gilber to move Greggo out. Sipping on Modelos together in Mexico they had an agreement that Greggo was done and they would move Fisher in the spot (I'll get to Fish later). Well the problem was that Gilbert had taken the money from Clear Channel and said, sorry Richie, Greggo is your problem.
Richie Whitt then moves on to the execs to try and get Greggo fired. He was of course told to have no worries that they would take care of Greggo. Well we can all see how that went. Some would feel bad for Whitt and say, he would still have a job if it wasn't for Greggo. The problem is that Richie was the son of a bitch who got Greggo the job! He knew Greggo was wheels off. He knew from writing the first Hard Lie that Greggo when impaired would lie. Greggo is a compulsive liar, especially when he is on drugs. Whitt is not completely innocent. He talks all about his hard work he put in the show and I have no doubt about that, but he jumped on the ship with a drunk captain. Whitt also doesn't realize that maybe his show wasn't that popular. Yes he had fans, of course he did. But ratings is what matters to those guys and as soon as those guys see nothing improving or getting worse, it's over. Whitt wants to blame this entirely on Greggo and he takes some of the it but he shouldn't take it all. Like I said, he is a great writer but he was not a exceptional talk show host (In my opinion but also the opinion of many).
Whitt wasn't particularly very entertaining or advanced in his sports opinions. Yeah I guess he had a big sports brain but bringing an original thought wasn't there. He was Dallas Cowboys homer and he talks in a previous blog that Greggo had drilled Garrett in an interview and they had apparently gotten in trouble. Who cares?? Greggo is old school and was around when the Ticket had the Cowboys and they never kissed the Cowboy's ass. It's a partnership but its not an avenue to tell the Cowboys how good of a job they are doing. Again that is just my opinion. What I'm trying to get at is, maybe Richie wasn't that good and they believed they could do better. And they didn't believe "Rich & Fish" would be a significant upgrade. So blame Greggo if you want but I would never listen to 5 hours of that.
One part on there I wanted to bring up was an event that both Richie and Greggo brought up in their respective post. It was when new PD Gavin Spittle called out Greggo on his segment about list and basically making their show more "sports friendly". Even Richie knew that was stupid. It's the equivalent to radio stations wanting to play more music instead of talk. If you have a sports station, TALK SPORTS!! That just doesn't work in this area, sports stations haven't been able to compete when they do that. You have to know this area. People in the DFW area like sports talk, personal stories, off sports topics and local new stories ( so many more topics out there but those are some of the big ones that make The Ticket popular). Richie Whitt should of had a problem with that as well and I'm sure the show took a hit from that directional move. Which is strange because Ben & Skin who hold RaGE's current spot have many off topics on their show.
Another observation was that Richie put an email of some show prep between the two and it involved Greggo wanting to do a more entertaining show (which they were told to stay on sports). Richie response was to just be good soldiers and not get fired. Well they were good soldiers and they still got shit canned so what was right thing to do? I would have to side on Greggo on this argument. If you are gonna get fired, eff it, do it your way. Don't get fired because your shows ratings suck doing a show you don't wanna do. I think Richie was a fool for that. I think the moral of this story is, Richie and Greggo were such a bad match up. Greggo was old school and he never followed the rules. Richie was a company guy who's only goal was to save his own ass. Again, Richie chose this path and he had to deal with it.
I heard briefly The Fan's morning show response to Richie's blog, RJ and Shan were both pretty receptive but nothing real shocking. Troy Hughes (I guess he is the newly third man/yuk monkey) have an interesting criticism for the blog. He thought the personal text, emails and Direct Messages were wrong. I myself probably wouldn't do it because in some of those messages, he makes other people look bad. I also kind of wonder how Corby Davidson feels about his DMs being put in this blog. Richie is the guy who has to live with doing that. I don't think it was wrong but I do believe it makes you look like a dick.
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| Last show for Richie and Greggo |
I'm interested in what will come next with this crazy saga, but I'll be reading. Richie might be reminding everyone that he is still great writer. Intentional or unintentional, he might confirming how much of an asshole he really is. I don't think this post put him in the greatest of light. I'm not sure what I would of done but I know I also wouldn't of started a show with The Hammer.
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