Dennis Fithian and Ryan Wooley Laid Off at 97.1
Like many industries, it's a brutal time for sports talk radio. Fithian and Wooley were both laid off last night, and everybody else is taking a pay cut. Lots of furloughs, too. More layoffs might be coming (don't hold your breath for Valenti).
LINK.
With no sports to talk about, nobody is listening to sports talk radio. And bars, restaurants and most other places have nothing to advertise.
I'm no furlough right now, along with 95% of my company. It's cheaper to let the government pay everybody right now then to put yourself out of business paying personnel you don't need.
Honest question: do you get unemployment while furloughed? Or just if you're officially laid off?
You are eligible for unemployment when furloughed. The potential furlough plan at my job is to have people collect unemployment until the furlough ends. At that point they will make up the difference in pay over the time they were furloughed. They also keep their health benefits. Outside of the concern that they could outright fire you, that's not a bad deal.
You do. If you have no earnings in any given week, you can file and receive an unemployment claim.
As everyone else already stated, yes. Normally that would still suck as unemployment in MI only pays $362/week. But with the new bill that passed, they are supposed to pay an extra $600/week. As long as I'm back to work by August, when the stimulus runs out, I'm not too worried. More worried about the economy taking a dump and the repercussions from that on my sales/commission career.
I’m wondering how many businesses will take the small business loan and keep their employees in order to allow the money to be a grant and not a loan. I wonder what will be more financially stabilizing for business owners
Now if we can just get rid of Big Drew and jackass Jim.
Is there any such thing as "good" sports radio? 90% of it just seems like some old Italian guy yelling at the air about random contrived shit. Or maybe that's just the east coast.
Podcasts are the place to go for actual meaningful analysis these days, I feel like.
I’ve listened to sports radio in other major cities like Chicago and Houston. There’s a fair bit of yelling but Detroit is way worse about it because literally every sports team in the city sucks right now. Other cities sports radio seem to also have less hot takes and more analysis or interesting questions. May also be because of a more engaged and optimistic fanbase
Kind of harsh to say Detroit teams suck right now. None of them have lost a game in weeks!
Well...except the lions of course. They manage to lose even in the offseason. It's pretty incredible really.
The Lions are a bizarro gift that keeps on giving. A perpetual motion machine of suck.
Out here in San Diego, I enjoy the local sports talk despite only having 1 damn professional team. Tony Gynn Jr and Chris are a great listening and provide insights on the game of baseball that I never knew.
1st and foremost, it’s a shame the Chargers left SD to go play second fiddle in a city that doesn’t even really want 1 team.
2nd, Balmer should have moved the Clippers to San Diego.
For one of (if not the most) beautiful big city in the nation, only one sports team is a shame
Both seem like really good dudes. Hope they land on their feet ok.
Would love to see Fithian return to WTKA in some capacity.
Jamie Morris could use a good sidekick on WTKA. I love Sam in the morning.
This might not go well on this blog, but I’m kinda getting tired of Sam’s sschtick. I’m out of state, so I listen to the podcasts. 2+ minutes of commercial time followed by 6 minutes of recruiting roundup punctuated with referrals to his 247 pay site, then a 1 minute closing is a waste of time. Also not a fan of his interviews with his unqualified sponsors on sports topics. Tired of him and Bacon talking about their kids every show. I rarely listen to them anymore.
Don't forget the random laughter at nothing that always comes in the Bacon interview several times.
Dennis is a really good guy and a Michigan fan. I got to know him when I interned at WTKA back in the 90s. One of the reasons I don't give a lot of the radio guys crap is because most of them work other gigs while trying to make a career in sports radio. Hopefully, they can get back on the air soon.
I’d take Fithian, Webb, Shand etc. before listening to Jeff Defran again ...I wanted to punch his face right thru the speaker on my radio before I switched stations or turned it off.
Jeff Defran was just plain stupid. He and "Huge" Bill Simonson and really dumb. Wasn't there a guy on WTKA who was an Ann Arbor sportswriter that accused of being a pedophile?
EDIT - found it
"Former Ann Arbor News sportswriter and columnist Jim Cnockaert was indicted in Montana on two felony charges of possessing and receiving child pornography, officials said."
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2009/04/former_ann_arbor_news_sportswr.html
That's crazy! I didn't see that along the way. I remember him during the Fab Five days ... he just seemed like the usual dopey professional sportswriter.
Seeing people lose their jobs is one of the worst things going. It can be just brutal on a persons mental well being. I hate it.
I work in radio. It was a brutal business before this (thanks to deregulation & corporate takeovers, but that's this country in general. yay for corporate executive bonuses & cutting workforce!)
Fortunate for me I left the operations side & now work in traffic, where even though the advertisers have been dropping left & right the people who schedule & remove commercials are vital. I can also work from home.
Were you happy with how Dan Aykroyd portrayed you in that biopic?
I worked in radio in sales and management from 1995 to 2013. Bought a lot of lunches for the fine folks in traffic and continuity!
Doesn't surprise... my industry is usually recession proof, and I just caught word that a few people at our corporate offices are being let go. I thought it would be the marketing folks, but it's staff accountants (Yikes!), and all of our clients are still with us and paying bills.
Entertainment is always the first to go in recession, and the budget constricts, the sphincter gets smaller!
Thoughts and prayers
I saw the tweets about Ryan Wooley, but hadn't heard about Fithian.
It was probably only a matter of time at a lot of sports networks sadly.
Tweeted after emotions settled
?Thanks for all the support and messages. I read them all