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Q101 Veep: “Mancow Has Left The Building”
Following yesterday's surprising and sudden departure of Mancow from mornings at Q101 Chicago, station VP/GM Marv Nyren took time to give Radio Ink an exclusive interview. About Mancow, we asked...
RI: “Was he pushed or did he jump?”
MN: “We told him today was his last day. This is a change that we've been working on in preparation for the possibility we weren't going to be able to come to terms with him and if we were able to develop a new show that we thought would be more in tune with the rest of the radio station, we'd go ahead and make a change, so really it's kind of those two reasons. So we ended his employment as of today. We'll run the Best of Mancow Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But the Mancow has left the building.”
RI: “What we got from Mancow’s camp made it sound like he was the guy looking for a new flagship.”
MN: “Well, that's because I had a conversation with him about a month ago before I went on vacation and I gave him an update that we were kind of struggling with negotiations, trying to come up with a new deal, that there was a real possibility that we were not going to be able to move forward with a new contract. And because he's got syndicated stations around the country he was trying to be prepared in case that happened.”
RI: “How does he do his show now on the rest of the stations, or is that not your business?”
MN: “Not my business! Well, here's what I'm doing. I'm going to offer Mark Masters at (syndicator) TRN (the opportunity to) run the Best of Mancow out of one my side studios for a week or two or three for his affiliates so as not to cause them any harm.“
***(Editor's Note: TRN announced yesterday that the syndicated Mancow show will continue uninterrupted with or without Q101.)
RI: “In reading Mancow's press release, it looks like his show is generating tons of money. How can you walk away from that?”
MN: “How do I answer those questions? Number one, it doesn't generate that much money. The numbers they gave are not accurate numbers. His ratings are very good. But his syndicated show has become difficult for us because we want a local Chicago show. And when I look at the stations he's got syndicated they're in Rapid City and Tucson and Salt Lake City and a couple of other markets. They're in general very small markets. He's on in LA but it's an AM station. It's not what I would consider a major, nationally syndicated radio show.
“We've been allowing him to do a nationally syndicated morning show, but it's really starting to affect (us locally). Example, when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series, the next day I think we were talking about 'a car that blew up on a Los Angeles side street.'
“ That's just an example, but we weren't getting a local Chicago show, and his greatest strength when he first signed on (was that) he was local. He was everywhere. And it's become a distraction. That is the biggest reason that we wanted to make a change and have a local show that we – and I'm going to use the word control and I don't mean that in a controlling way – but one that we had input on and worked with, and not just kind of responded to when things were happening in Salt Lake City, Tucson and Rapid City.
“I love talent but I'm just a believer, especially with satellite and Internet and all these other types of choices, I think local is the greatest strength of radio going forward, and I need a local show.”
RI: “Do you have anyone in mind right now?”
MN: “Not any one individual, we're looking for an ensemble cast. We've got a September 18th deadline. We've got about six, seven people that we have just about wrapped up, but some of them are still employed so I can't really say their names. But in the next couple of weeks we should have some people onboard. My goal is to allow them to do practice for about a month. They can do their shows for about a month inside the studios. I might even use my HD Radios and let them do a few things there, since, I think there are about 10 HD Radios in the market right now. Although I think that number's gonna grow. Just to let them get used to really doing a radio show.”
RI: “The point is moot, but if Mancow had been willing to go back to doing a Chicago-only show, would you have been willing to stick with him?”
MN: “I don't think so. I had just gotten the results of a Coleman Research project and I think the best way to say it is that what Mancow was famous for was no longer was in sync with what the rest of the radio station was. It was two different radio stations. I had Mancow's Morning Madhouse and then I had 20 hours of another program almost.”
RI: “Thank you for your time.”
MN: “Thank you.”
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