By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
May 30, 2016
In 2012, after 50 years, Avis ended their advertising campaign in which the company boasted that they had to work harder for their customers because they were the number two car-rental company in the U.S. (behind Hertz).
Apparently, there is no chance of Detroit Sports 105.1 running with that old promotional positioning after how they handled this Memorial Day as the number two sports talk station in Detroit — by a wide margin — mailed it in while 97.1 kept its foot on the gas.
Before we get to the particulars, let’s take a look at the April radio ratings in the Motor City ….
Yep, that’s WXYT-FM in the #1 slot among ALL stations (with the assistance of Detroit Tigers baseball). And then there is 105.1 near the bottom as the second lowest rated FM signal in the market.
So which station had local programming on this holiday Monday while the other station aired ESPN national shows and a baseball game with zero local ties? If you guessed that Greater Media lazily flipped the syndicated switch, you win!!!!
Like, can you imagine? You are getting absolutely humiliated in the ratings and you take a vacation day while 97.1 sends out Mike Stone, Doug Karsch and Mike Valenti?
If I am working at 105.1, not only am I showing up on Memorial Day, I am offering to do Tigers postgame shows at night and volunteering janitorial services over the weekend.
Who is running the ship over at 105.1 as they allow Sean Baligian, Tom Mazawey, Rico Beard and Ryan Ermanni to barbecue while the TWO HIGHEST-PAID SPORTS TALKERS IN TOWN (Valenti and Stoney) are working their normal shifts?!!?!!?!!?
(And seriously, Valenti’s agent Mort Meisner is obviously no Don Buchwald. How the hell is Valenti working on Memorial Day in the first place? Couldn’t get him national holidays off with his latest “10-year” contract? But that’s a story for another day.)
If you are 105.1, how do you give up an inch when you are being mopped up by the competition? Who the hell even made this decision considering the station currently has neither a program director nor a sales manager. (Yep, the former head of ad revenue was recently moved to WCSX.)
But it gets better. Some Twitter egg asked Mazawey and Beard why they weren’t working while 97.1’s heavy hitters were. Check out these responses …..
Hahhaahha. Beard blocked the guy and Mazawey claimed that spending time with family trumps earning a living. How are you going to feed those three daughters when you are unemployed, Tom? Well, this Twitter follower of mine had a suggestion ….
Of course, this was a response to my article on Memorial Day (I didn’t take the day off, guys!!!!) where I summarized how Mazawey blamed rape victims for crimes committed against them.
Actually, maybe it was a good idea that this moron didn’t show up for work. We probably were spared Mazawey criticizing Parisian fans of The Eagles of Death Metal for congregating in a public location.
It has now been over seven days since I sent Greater Media Vice President Buzz Knight a life preserver in which I offered to help save his flailing station.
As of this writing, I haven’t received a response. At this point, my only advice might be to give Buzz the name of the lady who came to my house last July to euthanize my cancer stricken dog, Chili.
I mean, THIS is annihilating you ….
Whatever THAT is.
If you are getting outworked by the station that is destroying you, maybe it’s just time to flip the switch.
For good.
Because this video explains what’s really going on in the “battle” between 105.1 and 97.1 ……