11.15.10 Bee-otch of the Day: Kevin Metheny

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: Kevin Metheny Age: ?? Occupation: former radio programmer Last Seen: Chicago Bee-otched For: getting the boot AGAIN!    ---- Tribune seems to be a company that does good things, but also does good ones by fixing their mistakes. In 2007, the company was in bankruptcy when it was purchased by billionaire Sam Zell. The company did some rearranging, such as shutting down their TV syndication division and even selling the Chicago Cubs baseball team to notorious teabagger Joe Ricketts. Tribune has done some good things and some bad ones as well. IMO, I thought it was awesome when their right-leaning Chicago Tribune endorsed President Obama in 2008, the first-ever Democrat that paper ever endorsed in its then-161-year history. However, I think that their cable network, WGN America is a lame joke. It's nothing more than a lot of the same shows your local TV station shows, save for what very little WGN-TV allows nationally, like news and Cubs baseball and WWE Superstars, which is nothing more than unimportant wrestling matches. Damn do I miss Bozo the Clown and old school Empire Carpet ads (sniff, sniff).... Of course, at least the folks at Tribune did some things good for WGN America. For one thing, they got rid of the 'woman's eyes' logo, which was sexy, yet pointless. But the biggest thing that was a great move for that channel was eliminating Bob and Tom's awful Stern clone show for good. Now, Tribune has fixed another mistake: Pig Virus. That's right! Kevin Metheny, Howard Stern's boss at Dubya-Ennnnnn-BC in New York, and the man who helped destroy NBC's radio division has been fired from WGN 720 Chicago, where he had been its programming director. Under his direction, the station's attitude and morale fell through the ground. The station also canned Jim Laski, a former Chicago city clerk who was convicted and sent to jail on bribery charges; he was a Metheny hire. In the 23 months he ran WGN, the Virus did lots of hiring and firing and schedule shuffling that did nothing but anger its listeners. If there's a good thing about the station, at least it's still the top talker in Chicago, although according to Arbitron, it's lost almost a share since August. Just three weeks after the company fired head Randy Michaels, also went Metheny, whom he was instrumental in hiring. It should be noted that Michaels firing was both bad and good news for Stern; the good, of course being Metheny's firing, but the bad being Bubba the Love Sponge's syndicated TV pilot dying. Ya see, folks, Pig Virus is just another PD who makes bad moves and doesn't deserve to work in a big market. It reminds me of a certain PD in northern Michigan (who will remain nameless) who was put in charge of running a certain classic rock station in northern Michigan a number of years ago. He was made boss around the same time as the Jack/Bob/Sam/Max/Laraine-FM craze started, so he thought it would be cool to dump in such groups as A Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails on the same channel that also airs Bob Segar, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. End result: ratings went through the basement and their main competition went almost straight forward classic rock and took over their #2 position in the Arbitron ratings. The PD's bosses showed him the door, and today works as the morning host of a small, 1,000-watt FM country station in BFE, Indiana. The point is, if you're a PD, you MUST know your audience and what they want. Assumption's not allowed. Yes, it's OK to experiment once in a blue moon, but for God's sake, get out there and ask what your listeners want. If you don't, you're gonna get stuck working for a station whose signal doesn't even make it to Indy. Now, Tribune's gonna have to do a little more than just call 588-2300.    --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!