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Name: WOOD Newsradio 1300
Age: 86
Occupation: AM talk station
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: telling fans of local talk radio "fuck you"
Age: 86
Occupation: AM talk station
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: telling fans of local talk radio "fuck you"
In the great words of the 1980's hair metal band Cinderella, "don't know what you got 'til it's gone".
Last Friday, Clear Channel-owned news/talk radio station WOOD-AM 1300 told early midday hosts Scott Winters and Michelle McKormick that they heard their last show and it was their last show. The hosts of the daily local call-in show Mouth 2 Mouth were let go in favor of Glenn Beck, whose show began airing on 1300 on Monday.
Previously, the morning zookeeper was heard on sister WTKG 1230, which - oddly enough - still airs the show. Both WOOD and WTKG also air The Dave Ramsey Show , albeit at different times.
Clear Channel Radio GM Tim Feagen told The Grand Rapids Press that Winters and McCormick's canning was solely a business decision and that Beck's exploding popularity made it so that they had to move him over to WOOD.
Winters joined WOOD in 2003 alongside long-time partner Rick Beckett. The two enjoyed massive success at WKLQ and WGRD throughout the 1980's until they were fired from GRD in 2003. However, Beckett - who was notorious for his drug problems which led to his poor health, namely diabetes - died in February 2009 from a heart attack. McKormick - best known for her stints at I96 (now ESPN 96.1) here in GR and Howard Stern outlet 97.1 FM Talk (now 97.1 The Ticket) Detroit - joined the show shortly after Beckett's death.
WOOD-AM was in 4th place in the Summer Arbitron ratings with a 6.3, down from a 7.0 last Summer.
Many in the Grand Rapids area are undoubtedly angry over Winters and McCormick's dismissal. Some even claim that Mouth 2 Mouth was the only show worth listening to on WOOD. With Beck now taking over early middays, it leaves the morning show, hosted by Gary Allen and Steve Kelly as the only program on the station that's live and local. The rest of WOOD's broadcast day is comprised of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dave Ramsey, Michael Savage and George Noory. Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and Noory are syndicated by Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks while Ramsey and Savage are self-syndicated and through Talk Radio Network respectively.
Plus, there's even a Facebook page protesting WOOD's decision to can the show. As of 4 a.m. this morning, there's 263 members of the forum, me being one of them.
Ya know, folks, this is the reason why I hate terrestrial radio. Since Howard Stern signed with Sirius, I almost never looked back at local radio, which tends to be friendlier to syndication than that of localism. Hell, I came from northern Michigan, and I was pissed the last time I drove up and was flipping through the dial, listening to the SAME EXACT COMMERCIAL on maybe five different stations. Why? It's because the programming on many of the stations up north come from Dial Global in an effort to save money and basically tell those wanting to work in the business "fuck you".
OK, I'll admit. The only time I listened to Mouth 2 Mouth was Scott Winters' first broadcast after Beckett died. I was never a huge fan of theirs. However, they were the lesser of two evils. Glenn Beck is nothing but a pathetic, racist jerk whose BS has brainwashed millions of people into thinking that President Obama is evil. Even worse, his shit's profitable since advertisers love him.
Ya know, I hope Cheap Channel's happy. They're saving several thousand bucks per year by airing bullshit instead of something closed-circuited for Grand Rapids that brings the community together. To make things more tragic, this is good news for Citadel's ailing WJRW 1340 since they actually have (GASP!) local talk. It's beyond boring, but at least it's local.
Local honest-to-goodness radio, we'll miss you.
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