.jpg)
Byrd began his radio career right here in Chattanooga in 1979. A 1982 graduate of Soddy Daisy High School, he has won numerous National broadcast awards, including the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for medium market personality, and CMA and Billboard Magazine Top 5 Personality of the Year. Ramsey has been in broadcasting since his high school years and began his full time broadcasting career in 1981. He previously worked for Brewer Broadcasting from 1998-2007. He returns to Brewer Media after a brief stint in print, to resume the medium he has long enjoyed.
News Talk 95.3 WPLZ is a recent 2010 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award Winner of Excellence in News Reporting by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). RTDNA is the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism. Brewer Media serves Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia with four radio formats, a traffic network on 18 radio stations and 3 television stations, a publishing division featuring alternative news in Chattanooga, video production services, custom websites, exclusive cap topper rights, and a growing portfolio of websites designed to reach distinct market segments. Brewer Media is committed to connecting our clients with their customers by providing a multi-platform, comprehensive approach in delivering their message with proven results and added value.
What happen to Zack and Rebecca I know Dale went back fulltime to his advertising business. I think Bobby will be a good relacement for Dale. But I am not sure that Ed will match up to Zack. Fred
ReplyDelete1,2,3,4,5,6 different hosts on 2 live shows in 1 year and 2 weeks of life.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you wanna throw in that sports-cliche driven garbage 105.1 afternoon show that would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 different hosts b/t 3 three hour radio shows just over a calendar year.
Nice work guys, real nice. Good to see you did your homework before jumping in feet first into radio formats you have ZERO experience in.
The Pulse newspaper, against the trend of print media, is growing and needs its publisher's full attention. Rebecca is being pressed into service more for news and new media business. Both are still valued employees of Brewer Media Group and will pop in from time to time on Ed's show as well as in the morning.
ReplyDeleteTick tok tick toc With Jackfm now in the firm grasp of Fink's Dalton cluster and the Alive 105 audience now evenly distributed between the combined 150k watts of DOD and Kiss, what will they flip the formats to when the time mercifully comes?
ReplyDeletePrint media is taking off, blah blah
ReplyDeleteRebecca is needed in new media services, blah blah
Dale is concentrating on his ad biz, blah blah
Louis, your pom-poms are seen being waved with great enthusiasm. Your Brewer Media Group rose colored Revos are a damn nice shade.
But this station is just not working. People who have no inside knowledge of the radio business know this and the most seasoned radio vet knows as well.
The Mornings are not appointment listening. This isn't Atlanta. We don't need a WSB clone. The weather doesn't change that much. The traffic in Chattanooga is very predictable. We don't need it on the freaking 5's. It's overkill. Same w/ the afternoons.
No identity can be made with the audience b/c of the extremely high turnover of anchors & hosts. Not to mention the segments are interrtupted by said overkill of traffic, weather, Wall Street report, Dave Ross filler, etc. & Chattanoogahaseverything.com filler.
So even if the shows had a host that began to identify and click w/ the Audience, as soon as anything starts to roll, Hey it's 5,15,25,etc after the hour. Time for another look @ traffic. "So Chris, how does it look" well John Q TalkHost, THE SAME IT WAS THE LAST 5 TIMES YOU ASKED ME"
and now weather. "It's summer time in chattanooga so it's gonna be hot partly cloudy with a chance of T/Storms"
Yeah. We freaking know!! please tell me something, sometime, anything that I don't already know.
I'm not saying don't do traffic, weather, & news. Add all those elements. They need to be there. But 18 times in one show. How about this for an idea. ENTERTAINMENT!!!!!
intrigue me, make me want to know what the host will say next. Whether i agree or not. I want what they call "Infotainment"
I don't want just information.
This station has 25 freaking thousand watts.
Please stop wasting it and then coming on a blog to tell everybody that everything is alright.
And Clark howard is a borefest & Glenn Beck's listeners nationwide are dropping b/c he has officially gone crazy. He's shot-gunning the FOX Network kool aide.
I want to like this station. But I can't. And I'm in the majority.
One of the smartest and on-point posts in the history of this website.
ReplyDeletenice job.
The Mornings are not appointment listening. This isn't Atlanta. We don't need a WSB clone. The weather doesn't change that much. The traffic in Chattanooga is very predictable.
ReplyDeleteActually - if they WERE more like WSB, it'd help them out a lot. But then again...so would a lot of things.
You gotta, GOTTA serve up the 'sizzle'. NOT just the steak.
As a not in the biz listener, I can tell you my impressions. Dale was boring. When I first heard him on the air, I was excited to hear him because he had done a decent job guest hosting at the competition. After a few days, I gave up in disappointment.
ReplyDeleteZach was incredibly boring. He would drone on in a monotone about unexciting topics for hours on end. Actually, it was just a few minutes, because that's as long as a segment would last. Rebecca was a breath of fresh air, and even though she added no substance to the show, I really enjoyed hearing her cheerful voice (same for Lysa in the mornings, for the short time she was there.)
And Clark Howard: slow and boring. And Leo LaPorte: slow and boring.
After a while, I just thought the station's intent was to be boring. At any rate, I think Bobby is a great improvement in the mornings.
One way you can tell how few people care about the station is that it took two weeks for this board to take notice of the changes, or at least to care enough to write about them.
Hmmmm... A "non-radio" employee who claims to have given up on the station but can recall every lineup change in the formats 1 year history - AND - who knew that Lysa spells her name with a "Y"... Riiiiiight
ReplyDeleteIn other news former four-time 105.1 host Brittany Jackson was arrested. Good to see one of the former employees of Brewer is doing something positive with their lives.
ReplyDeleteI am missing the Sports reports now. The gentleman that did that had a hard name to remember is he still there?
ReplyDeleteWhen will Brewer wise up & pull the plug on these two money draining stations (95.3 & 105.1). They were bad financial choices from the beginning & ratings are certainly bearing that out. They should have kept Roy Jaynes on board & let him program a couple of cheaply ran music formats. The return on investment wouldve been much better. This was just an obvious bad move & huge waste of cash.
ReplyDeleteWell Brewer Medias consulatant was in town the past few days. Made some suggestions. But things are not gonna change because Keith Landecker the Operations Manager is only concerned about Power 94 and if any of the other stations in the cluster start to perform well and even better than Power 94 that is a no!!!!
ReplyDeleteWho is Brewer's consultant?
ReplyDeleteCan you say ARE THE BREWERS MISSING ALIVE 95 AND THE OLD DAYS IN CLEVELAND? I bet they are!
ReplyDeletedave stricker is the om for the talk formats. i always heard landecker was the one holding 95 down because he wouldn't give the nod for it to go all the way chr. but you better bet jim is regretting moving bradley to carter st. jackfm was virtually free money. and except for logan (who is being poorly used i might add) all the heavyweights from 95 have moved on to bigger and better. dewayne and abby and lila are at the duke and mike lee went to j103 and i'm pretty sure the joey thats on wusy is the same one from 95 too. the stars brewer have now are all being wasted. gary poole and bobby byrd and logan should be djing some sort of music format. and is ed ramsey the ed from the old mike and ed? if so he should be doing music also.
ReplyDeleteand how much does somebody want to be that they are spending more on the pulseless robots they have now then they were on the afore mentioned names who have all gone on to become market heavyweights?
There are indeed a handful of "heavyweights" in this market. None of whom were named in the above post.
ReplyDeletesuch a true statement above. what i should have said was the closest thing to heavyweights they ever had on that frequency. other than power94 brewer is usually where ppl go to either begin or end their career or because no one else will hire them
ReplyDeleteLandecker may be a nice guy and smart but he is LAZY! That whole staff want go above and beyoned. Smeone could turn a an urban and work the streets hard and kick their ass!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statment above and have for a long tim ethat someone who would actually work the neighborhoods that target the urban listening community would put a serious dent in Brewer little kingdom.
ReplyDeleteFYI look for a new Urban to pop up before the end of the year!!! There is talk in progress now. Landecker better hold on. A radio beat down is on the way!!! Magic and Eric are good personalities but have out grown the format. They are not hip to the format anymore. Eric is Quietstorm material and Magic is using the same ole catch phrases since she started at Power 94 back in 1981, KEEP IT LOCKED IN!!! MORE MUSIC ON THE WAY!!!! Same phrases Thomas Henderson used God Rest His Soul. The need to be on Groove 93.5 and not Power 94. The new personalities coming to the new Urban station in town is gonna rock Power 94s world!!!
ReplyDeleteAs for 95.3 and 105.1 the should have stayed music formats, especially Alive 95. But Landecker want allow another music format in the building to scratch the music surface of Power 94.
Anyone know whatever happened to Cadillac Jack after the format change?
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to Keith he had noting to do with Alive 95. Duane Shannon was the OM and ran that group with the help Mike Lee, Ed Ramsey, Mike Powers, Lila Walker, Abby and Joey. Then Bobby came in when they took 93.9 Cat Country. All around solid staff!
ReplyDeleteI am not a radio professional either. I too was mondo excited when Pulse showed up because I was sick and tired of getting around 25 minutes of talk per hour at 102.3. Then I heard Pulse and there was even less interesting content and even more commercials. I agree that in the morning it can't seem to get off the ground because it is too much information and way too many breaks. If they could offer more intersting talk with less commercials I think they could eat WGOW's lunch. We as listeners tune in to hear entertainment, not endless info and commercials.
ReplyDeleteDuane's staff was solid. Not sure why Lila left but the story goes that Duane and Abby and Mike Powers were forced out. And the rest of the staff dissolved somewhere between the sale to Whitfield and the arrival of Roy Jaynes. While not AS solid the station did still have a solid lineup (at least based on Cleveland standards) until Jaynes showed up. What kind of company lets one man replace a decent staff with a bunch of college inters just to blow it up 6 months later? Interesting to note that most of the departures have moved up to better stations and the ones who are left know nothing about doing talk radio.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you Duane and Abby were not FORCED OUT they both resigned beacause they did not like working for the new GM as most of us didn't. Three weeks later he flipped it to Jack FM and the rest is history and that segment is called FAILURE! Don't let sales people program radio stations. As far as Mike Powers I don't know him well enough to know what happened. But I was there when Duane turned in his resignation and the GM asked Abby what she was going to do and she said I am leaving too. To date Jim and Duane are still good friends and have a tremendouse amount of respect for each other.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah and Lila had left a few months earlier to take a production posistion with WDEF & WDOD. After Duane got hired on with Citadel he brought her back in to work with him and Abby at The Duke for middays. Four years later they all still work together. Duane also got Joey on for some work with Citadel and has reached out to Mike Lee for opportunities.
ReplyDeleteSo who is the real Mike Lee? The "Iradj" who marched against the "evil empire" of Bob Lubell on the forum, or the softer, kinder, kiss and make up to Bob because I need a job? He is a "heavyweight" alright.
ReplyDeleteThe real Mike Lee is responding to the above post. I did say some pretty tough things bout Bob and I meant them. However, Bob and I met over lunch when I was still with Brewer and we ironed our issues out. When I left radio to drive a truck I had no desire to come back. When family issues required me to come off the road, I actually began voice tracking for J103 on a volunteer basis while working another job out of radio. 2009 was a rough year for J103 financially and I was glad to help out. Steve Green runs J103 day to day and is a great GM. I didn't join J103 until December of 2009, three months after starting as a volunteer.
ReplyDeleteBelieve what you want, but Bob and I didn't kiss and make up so I could have a job. I'm enjoying my position and every one I work with at J103 and I'm glad it worked out the way it did.
Jim Brewer and I are still good friends, as Duane and I are. Mike Powers has a great positon with WCLE AM/FM in Cleveland and has put on a great sounding AM Talk station there. Pretty much everyone from the old Alive 95 Cleveland has landed on their feet with no regrets. Life is good.
Well while I'm thrilled that this blog is getting some action, the last 8+ posts are way way besides the point.
ReplyDeleteAnd since the name has finally come up. Dave Stricker is the OM/GM/dude in charge, whatever, of the news/talk/sports division of this "media group"
He is in his 60's and remembers when radio was such a relavent media. He isn't from Chattanooga & knows the company card @ the Read House more than any other defining element of the Chattanooga social & media landscapes.
A very nice guy. But he is an old school radio guy and an old & new school all around salesman.
He claims he had/has no intention of taking on GOW? why? b/c he's dillusional & wants to fail it would appear.
Now Dave. Time to fire somebody soon right? somebody most of us haven't heard of, so he might not get called out on it.
That's the problem for the Brewer family themselves, who I like. NOBODY has heard of Dave Stricker. So every garbage move he makes, makes the family business look bad. Because they get all the blame. And he pulls a nice pay check and a comfy office.
while everybody involved works their ass off to win a fight that's not winnable.
and yes I know that Stricker's name is spelled w/ a 'Y'
Not a big fan of the new talkers. I enjoyed Dale, and agree Zach got off on random topics of no interest. What about Robert T? I know he had a non compete, but they could lock him in now for the future.
ReplyDeleteI hope they lock in RTN. I would rather have an all night root canal than listen to Clark Howard and Andre is unlistenable. I would tune into 95.3 EVERY afternoon to listen to Nash. Until then I will keep listening to XM/Sirius in the mid-afternoon.
ReplyDeleteOff subject: Brad at the mountain recently posted on Facebook that he would never be caught self promoting himself for some cheesy award that know one cares about. Note to Brad, every time you open the mic and say your name you are self promoting and fighting to win ABRITRON ratings which in it self is an award. Radio is the business of self promoting to win awards, ratings, whatever it takes to win! So good luck with all your promoting!
ReplyDeleteDidnt Brad do the Weather hits thing? That is self promoting cheesy yes but still self promoting.
ReplyDeleteTalking about facebook on the radio is self promoting. It may not win you an award but you are talking about it to serve one purpose: Gain more friends or listeners.
ReplyDeleteTuesday morning's drive-time canned sports update was Sunday's sports news.
ReplyDeletethanks for that. good job
the pulse is still beating..word on the media street is the jammer is coming back
ReplyDeleteEven Jammer can't save a station with a POS signal and no promotion...
ReplyDeleteRobert T. I wish you would quit posting on this site. We know you want back in radio but, truthfully, you should have never been on the air to begin with!
ReplyDelete"Even Jammer can't SAVE a radio station......what do you mean "save"? It's more like the final nail in the coffin. And yeah....he is coming back.
ReplyDeleteI am new who is Jammer?
ReplyDeleteI missed Jammer so much, even though I did'nt "know" him personally, I remember laughing my ass off when KZ did the morning zoo, and the bill board on Brainerd Rd., reminds me of good times in the '80's. I hope what I here around town is true!
ReplyDeleteJammer was seen at Riverbend talking to 'all the right people'..I was privy to the private areas and he has all the right connections, trust me..to the person who is 'new', Jammer did a helluva talk show for about 5-6 yrs..very informative, opinionated, I agreed with about half of what he would say, but he is interesting, variety type show, and is connected to all the right movers/shakers in town..he gave the school board, city counsel and county commissioners a lot of hell..I have never met the dude,but he is better than any radio show in THIS frikkin town...I drive for UPS and know what they all sound like...lol..
ReplyDeletejammer also talked a lot about sheriff john cupp back then..& how dirty the dept was..of course, that was before billy long...lol...I came through the artist area of the backstage on the coke stage last Sat and saw jammer and sheriff hammond laughing together..so that's a good sign! a cop friend of mine told me later he is doing a new show...4-7pm..i wonder how long it will take the 1970's radio programmers they have there to understand this is 2010?? Give em hell jammer!
ReplyDeleteGet ready for Maxx Radio
ReplyDelete