So much for keeping it local....

I have a routine. When I get in my car after work, I switch the radio over to 1600 from its normal spot at WWJ-950. The afternoon drive guy there, Ken Kelly, is pretty funny with a dry and sarcastic wit. He also weaves in some amusing bits of trivia and wry insight on life in general. In other words, he's a lot like me. I've talked to him three or four times, too, when I've called in and he seems like a pretty good guy on top of it.

On Monday, I tuned in as is my habit, only to find some wacky talk radio show on. It was curious, since usually when Ken is off they put in a swing/big-band music show. I thought it was odd that they would put in a talk radio show instead. So, because I'm a curious sort, I called the station and asked if Ken was off sick today. I was informed that he no longer worked for the station and they would be replacing his show. I was so surprised by this that I was only able to stammer out that I was very unhappy with this and I hope they were keeping track of the callers. The girl who answered the phone said they were indeed and I was, by no means, the only upset caller.

So I ran across this article today as well as this one which explain what happened. In the latter article, Catherine Kalman, the former general manager of the station who was fired at the same time, said she "hoped the station would retain a community focus". Since the station is now owned by a Dallas, Texas based broadcast company I don't have much hope for that. It sounds like Catherine feels the same way. WAAM was Ann Arbor's last widely listened to and independently-owned radio station. Three others, WWWW (formerly WIQB) 102.9, WQKL 107.1, and WTKA 1050, are owned by mega-corporation ClearChannel. ClearChannel is continuously (and for the most part rightly, IMHO) being criticized for supressing programming that is original and innovative and dictating strictly what gets played and what doesn't.. That's not very condusive to being independent and giving a lot of freedom to your personalities.

I liked WAAM because of thier independence. Whitehall Broadcasting was an Ann Arbor company. To the best of my knowledge, they only owned WAAM (since 1983) and the personalities there had tremendous loyalty to the company and the owners. Ken was there for 15 years and Ted Heusel has been on Ann Arbor radio for 53 years. He had only a one-hour show, from 11am to noon but it was still interesting. Ted hasn't been fired, really, but he's been offered a one hour show on Saturdays which seems kind of a slap in the face.

I'm trying to find an email address for Ken to let him know how much I enjoyed his show and how outraged I am at his being let go. WAAM may be trying to change their format but I won't know about it. I no longer listen to them. If they hire Ken back, I'll listen again.