By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 7, 2014
For many years, both the Free Press and Detroit News employed a sports media critic. It was not always an exclusive gig but it was definitely a beat that was covered in detail.
With the explosion of sports talk radio stations and burgeoning media ventures in Detroit, today there is more of a need for this sort of writer on the staff of the two major dailies. Due to budgetary constraints, however, neither paper covers this beat.
A few months ago it looked like Tony Paul of the News was going to make it his mission to cover the Detroit sports media members who write and talk about the local teams; Paul was then offered a gig at Detroit Sports 105.1-FM and the obvious conflict of interest submarined that print option.
Hell, I even tried to coerce Freep sports web editor Brian Manzullo — he and I seem to have similar opinions on sports talk radio — to make a pitch to start writing articles on this topic. Unfortunately, my recommendation to Free Press sports editor Gene Myers doesn’t hold much weight.
Consequently, when Terry Foster allegedly states on the air that there are ways to keep one’s wife in check without knocking her out and his radio partner Mike Valenti has to clean up the mess, NOBODY follows up on this crap.
Except me.
(I am working on getting the audio from that particular Foster comment to confirm what was actually said. I’ve been told by a half-dozen or so followers that the “quip” was made and I will publish the clip when I get my hands on it.)
In the meantime, here is what is going down in the Detroit sports media world. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it™ (Chuck Mosley).
105.1 Ratings Are Embarrassing
Next Tuesday will mark the first anniversary of 105.1-FM switching from adult contemporary music to an ESPN-affiliated all-sports station; the transition has been anything but smooth.
In fact, if it weren’t for Malaysian Airlines, Greater Media may have been in the running for Worst Business Model of the Year on the back of the humiliating performance of Detroit Sports 105.1.
The station was probably doomed from the second the flip from Billy Joel to Drew Lane was made since the former WRIF morning talking head knows less about sports than your grandma does. And, coincidentally enough, he even looks like her. (Lane uses more prescription medications, though. Allegedly.)
The ratings for July have been released and, after 11 months of talking sports in the market, 105.1 is an absolute failure. The station put up a 1.1 mark last month, which is only about one-third of the audience it had when Celine Dion was belting out the theme to “Titanic.” Hell, Tom Mazawey and Matt Dery should be practicing “My Heart Will Go On” as we speak since WMGC is probably heading toward a ratings iceberg.
How bad are things at Detroit Sports 105.1? Among the spots on the dial drawing higher ratings, there is a public radio station out of Ann Arbor, a gospel station and a station that plays CLASSICAL MUSIC. And not Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. The stuff that was composed when blacks were still slaves. (Or, as Drew Lane might say, the good ol’ days.)
The combination of awful local talent like Marc Fellhauer and Ryan Ermanni and syndicated ESPN shows is good for 24th in the market.
24th!!!! Did you even know there were that many stations in town??
After almost a year in Detroit, the station hasn’t gained a toenail-hold in the community. I guess the promotion you get from those average-looking chicks giving car washes in the Plymouth/Canton area every night isn’t as powerful as having the local broadcast rights to the Tigers.
And speaking of 97.1, on the backs of Miguel Cabrera, Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello, that station is #1 in the market. Not number one amongst sports stations. NO, #1 overall.
Of course, a lot of that can be attributed to Detroit’s baseball team since 97.1 loses half of its audience the minute the Tigers get eliminated from the postseason.
How bad is it for WMGC? Here is the weekly listener count during July:
97.1 — 887,000
105.1 — 184,000
Jesus Fucking Christ. How does program director Jason Dixon still have a job? He must walk around the 105.1 compound in Ferndale doing his best Darryl Rogers impersonation …..
“What does it take to get fired around here?”
It would appear that his ingenious business plan was to throw all of the money at the homophobic and racially-insensitive Lane — a guy who knows NOTHING about sports, mind you — while spending zilch on talent during the rest of the day.
Ermanni is a proven loser in the market who never achieved any sort of ratings success at WDFN. NOBODY knows who Rico Beard is; if they do, they have him confused with Rod Beard. And Dery has ZERO business hosting his own show.
The station is a total shitshow that can’t even put a dent into the ratings of 97.1 — which merely masquerades as a sports station and pumps lowest-common-denominator polluted drivel into Motown’s airwaves.
People were literally BEGGING for an alternative to 97.1 and when one was provided, they said NO THANK YOU.
Greater Media built an entire radio station around Drew Lane and he is currently 17th in the market. What an abject failure. And that is the station’s crowning success as neither Dery’s program nor any of the ESPN shows cracked the Top 20.
As I was wrapping up this section of the article, I received the following email from a reader. I shit you not …
Drew/Marc are on in the office and they went from talking about John Travolta’s alleged homosexuality (with drops, fake voices, bro humour) to 20 mins talking to Charlie LeDuff about city govt. Tell me why Mike wasn’t brought over to 105.1? Not that it would have made it any better.
How much longer can this embarrassment to the Greater Media higher-ups be allowed to go on? The content is humiliating and the ratings are even worse.
The Pro-Russian Ukrainian dissidents need to take a surface-to-air missile to these fuckers’ antenna.
The Reason Eric Thomas Got Fired in Flint
There are so many horrid “personalities” at 97.1 that you can almost lose track of them. From Scott “The Cardiac Arrest Waiting to Happen” Anderson and his railing against Wins Above Replacement to Dan Leach’s “pre-killing spree John Wayne Gacy” social media presence.
One of the lesser-known atrocities at the CBS Radio sports talker is Eric Thomas, who usually works the graveyard shift at the station.
You have to wonder where 97.1 finds the people to take these janitorial positions for what is most likely less than $25,000 a year sans benefits. I am guessing that Leach is part of some work-release program for the mentally ill. We do know that Thomas used to work in Flint.
Flint, Michigan has to be the 923rd-largest radio market in the country. Eric Thomas got fired from THAT blossoming radio mecca.
Thomas was employed at a station in Michael Moore’s hometown called Banana 101.5. I can only imagine the hilarity and hijinks that ensued there.
Anyway, I guess a rival station (The Nectarine?) hired some dude named Shawn Powers and one day Thomas unloaded on this guy in a misogynistic, homophobic tirade that would trouble even Lane and Fellhauer.
Thomas ranted that this Powers fella looked like he had “Down’s Syndrome.”
He also dropped a “I hope you die in front of your kids on your kitchen floor” blast.
He called Powers a “big, fat diabetes-having son-of-a-bitch” and said, “I can’t wait until all of your limbs are gone from diabetes.”
Now, keep in mind that 97.1 once had their security thugs rough me up outside of Comerica Park because I called Foster “Type-2 Terry” in response to “The Truth” labeling me a racist on Twitter. But it would seem their executives have no trouble putting a guy on the air who openly rooted for a rival to end up like Monty Python’s Black Knight.
Thomas also accused Powers of giving oral sex as quid pro quo to the man who hired him.
You must take five minutes out of your day to listen to the entire meltdown that cost Thomas his job.
(Or you can listen to it by clicking this link. Whatever is easier. BUT YA GOTTA LISTEN!!!! ERIC THOMAS GOT FIRED FOR THIS)
That he got another job after THAT vitriolic rampage is mind-boggling. Of course, the people at CBS Radio probably figure no one is listening at 3:12am anyway.
Parker and The Man Gone Again
Back in March there was quite a bit of publicity surrounding the return of Rob Parker and Mark Wilson to the Detroit airwaves. The duo was reuniting and bringing back their old “Parker and The Man” show that had separate stints on WDFN and 97.1.
And while the show was going to be broadcast on WDFN, the press releases and media stories neglected to mention that Parker and Wilson were actually BUYING air time and weren’t actually hired by 1130.
Here is what Weston Silver — the brains of the new venture at WDFN — had to say about the plan back in March:
Parker and The Man is a proven commodity in Motown. We’re thrilled to be able to put them back on the air.
Silver is the CEO of something called Woodward One Media — the group that was buying the air time for Parker and Wilson in hopes of selling advertising on WDFN.
Well, something didn’t go according to plan because the show was removed from the air at some time over the last few weeks. I have heard rumors that Woodward One Media was having trouble selling the ad time and a decision was made to pull the plug on the operation.
I mean, who would have thought that NO ONE was interested in listening to Parker discuss sports in 2014? At least when he lost this gig, it wasn’t because he was calling an African-American quarterback a “cornball brother.”
And Finally …….
You probably have heard by now that 105.1 wanted to broadcast their local shows live from Lions practice in Allen Park and that 97.1 (the Lions rights holder) said no way.
So, in an effort to bypass CBS Radio’s edict meant to bar Dery and Ermanni from Lions headquarters, 105.1 decided to rent a scissor lift and broadcast on an adjacent property from 50 feet above the team’s practice field.
It was nice of 105.1 to give me the idea. Next year when the station is hosting the second annual Matt Dery Golf Tournament at Twin Lakes, I will just rent a scissor lift and plant it on the property of Blackheath Golf Club, which is right next to the course where the 105.1 listeners and “talent” will be playing.
Oh, who am I kidding? What are the chances that Dery will still be employed by 105.1 next summer?
Hell, if the station is still stuck at a 1.1 rating, they might be back to Lionel Richie and Elton John tunes by then.