Monday, September 11, 2017

9.11.17 Bee-otch of the Day: WKLT


Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.

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Name: WKLT
Age: 35
Occupation: shitty rock station
Last Seen: Traverse City, MI
Bee-otched For: seeing their impending doom


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This morning saw a huge change in radio in northern Michigan.

After 19 years on the air at The Bear, Bob and Tom are out and have been replaced with a new morning show. A show that's quite familiar to many northern Michiganders.

And that show is Omelette and Coates.

That's right! Steve Normandan is back after sitting out for a year after being let go from KLT. According to The Bear's owners, Black Diamond Broadcasting, he and Rick Coates had to honor a no-compete in their contract with KLT which expired this past week.

Of course, there's mixed feelings about Omelette's return. On TraverseTicker.com, there are a few folks bummed that Bob and Tom are gone. However, there are a few who are happy that KLT's longest-running morning show is back on the air after a years' absence. One person said it best: local beats syndicated any day.

I know, I've been rough on Steve in the past for being a Stern clone and all, but in this situation, he's the lesser of all evils. Why? Simple: this is KLT we're talking about. A station that has been #2 in the ratings forever in the 90s due to the lack of decent competition. During that time, bands such as KoRn, Rage Against the Machine, Tool and others saw little-to-no airplay up north because of KLT's negligence. Their excuse was probably "we give the kids to The Peak" (and bear in mind that it was their sister station) and that station was loaded with fake boy bands. I wished we had Sirius and Pandora back then. Thankfully, The Bear and The Zone debuted in 1998, giving KLT much-needed competition.

From 2006 to last year, KLT had Omelette and whatever sidekick he had at the time. His show garnered huge ratings for The Rock Station and brought them back up to #2 in the ratings after being soundly defeated by Bob and Tom and The Bear. But why was Omelette let go? Simple: money.

According to some sources, Omelette and the people trying to buy KLT, Sheryl and Jerry Coyne just didn't get along, so he was let go. Since then, the old afternoon show became the morning show and even worse, the douchebag known as Tom "The Radio Dud" Devitt took over afternoons. Since then, KLT has lost major ad revenue - including losing a $50,000 client - and some ad people quit because the station just isn't the same without Omelette. KLT is indeed a sinking ship. Even worse, the Coynes are playing dirty pool.

Remember the post I made about Smitty getting fired over a segment that NEVER aired on The Bear's sister, Rock 105 and 95-5? It was Sheryl who sent that email to the station's advertisers. Allegedly, the Coynes wanted Smitty to work at KLT doing mornings, but that never came into fruition because Smitty hates KLT. Apparently, Black Diamond didn't want to fire Smitty - who had the #1 afternoon radio show among 18-34 year olds - but because of Mrs. Coyne's little prank, they were about to lose $250,000 in ad revenue.

I feel bad for the Coynes, since Jerry and I used to email each other all the time and felt that Q100 was the decent little station that could. But in the end, the Coynes overstepped their boundaries and announced that they were going to buy several radio stations they couldn't afford. Q100 was the anti-KLT and now, the Coynes are playing kiss-ass with their staff (and it turns out that Jerry and Tom Devitt are friends on Facebook). And in the process, they cost a good jock and programmer his job.

In the end, I wish nothing but good luck for Omelette and Rick. I love watching the biggest pile of white trash rock station up north explode into pieces. KLT is a station that has never evolved or brought in newer, younger listeners over the years.

And it will be that way until some new blood comes in. 
  
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