A round of job cuts has hit the Pittsburgh radio waves.
Mike McGann is now the former Program Director and afternoon drive host of WJAS. He was let go in a round of budget cuts. McGann was heard on the former WIXZ, WTAE and WTAE-FM/WXKX-FM. McGann returned to Pittsburgh to work at WJAS in December 2002.
Gary Dickson was half of the Merkel & Dickson mooring show on 3WS before Dickson left the market for a job in Boston. He returned to Pittsburgh to replace the retiring Bob Louge on KDKA. Now Gary Dickson is out at KDKA. His late night "After Midnight" show will be replaced with a new nighttime lineup starting Feb. 18.
Scott Paulsen and John Steigerwald team up for the new addition. Also added are the Dennis Miller Show from 12 to 3 a.m. and the "Midnight Radio Network" from 3 to 5 a.m. The Dallas-based show was once solely aimed at long-distance truck drivers. It's now a more general-interest talk show.
The Paulsen and Steigerwald Show" will lead into Bill O'Reilly, who leads into Dennis Miller and then truck driving radio for all you insomniacs. (People get paid the come up with this stuff)
So are the programming wizards at CBS attempting to resurrect "The Man Station" format on KDKA? It seems so. Bad ideas die hard over at CBS. Scott Paulsen and John Steigerwald both were apart of CBS Radio's abhorrent FM talk experiment, "The Zone" WTZN-FM, as was Dennis Miller. They think the younger folks will tune into KDKA. If they wouldn't listen to the crappy FM station why would they go to AM????
The new line up is being officially called "an experiment." We have all seen how past experiments have gone. (Can you say K-Rock? How about "The Zone?" Oh heck, let's just go back to B-94 and work on ruining a AM station.) Once again, the vice president of programming for CBS Radio in Pittsburgh needs to be the one handed a pink slip.
Cost-cutting and staff cuts hit another group
Emmis cuts 46 positions in L.A., New York, St. St. Louis, Austin and Chicago. That's about 5% of its total workforce. Another dozen employees will have their hours reduced or will change positions. A spokeswoman says "Like many of our industry peers, Emmis took these steps as an expense reduction effort and to better position the company." Emmis is providing a "generous" severance and benefits package.
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