Drew Lane Out at 105.1? Is Greater Media Going to Make a Push for Mike Valenti?

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By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
October 19, 2015

After over two years of dismal ratings and putrid radio broadcasts, the first shoe to drop regarding the ongoing failure of Detroit Sports 105.1 made a loud thud earlier this morning.

Bill Shea of Crain’s Business Detroit broke the news that Drew Lane — the personality Greater Media built the new sports station around — is no longer employed at 105.1.

See, Bill? It’s not that hard to give credit to someone else for breaking a story. It’s something you should learn, ya fat, untalented trade-magazine hack.

Anyway, this isn’t the first time that Lane and Greater Media have reached an impasse related to contract negotiations. This might be the first time that Lane is completely expendable though as his ratings at 105.1 never matched the station’s expectations and his show was anything BUT sports.

Even though Lane’s ratings were way down from his peak numbers back in his halcyon days at WRIF-101.FM, Lane’s program with Marc Fellhauer was still the highest rated at the floundering station. It would appear that Greater Media made the business decision to go with cheaper talent for now with the calculus being that Lane just didn’t deserve to earn top dollar for his current production.

So where does Greater Media go from here with the 105.1 albatross? I was going to be posting a story this afternoon — hinted at over the weekend — that 105.1 could make a run at Mike Valenti when his contract expires with CBS Radio (97.1FM) this coming spring.

My sources tell me that Valenti’s deal ends in March and he has made it known that he is not happy at 97.1 and would be willing to entertain offers from Greater Media.

Now, this could be a ploy to extract as much money possible out of 97.1 and the scuttlebutt is all designed to portray Valenti as having a viable alternative up the dial.

But with 97.1 re-upping with the Tigers and Red Wings last week, 105.1 could look at throwing a massive contract offer to Valenti as a last ditch Hail Mary attempt. There would be a lot of questions regarding a potential Valenti/105.1 marriage though ….

How long is Valenti’s non-compete, and what the hell would 105.1 do if it were six months long?

Would Valenti’s audience even follow him to 105.1? Lane’s didn’t and there aren’t many bigger Detroit radio names than Drew Lane. (Of course, Valenti would be a better fit from day one since he actually likes talking about sports.)

Are the institutional advantages (Tigers, 97.1’s head start, etc.) too great for 105.1 to ever overcome even if they bring in Valenti? Does Valenti HIMSELF think he is the reason behind the high ratings at 97.1?

All he has to do is peruse the numbers for homerish, virginal manatee loser Scott Anderson and wonder if ANYONE could do well at 97.1 with their inherent advantages. (And trust me, Valenti has no respect for Anderson.)

It should be interesting moving forward as industry insiders continue to maintain that Greater Media has no intention of giving up on sports talk radio on the FM dial.

Now that the entire reason they switched from Adult Contemporary to Sports is apparently gone, what is going to save them from their current .8 rating? Stay tuned …..

(UPDATE: Some interesting news broke after we posted this story. Valenti’s camp scoffed at the idea of him leaving for 105.1 ….. but not leaving 97.1. We’ve also been told that Valenti’s agent has already advised Greater Media what it would take to get Valenti and management balked. Finally, Tony Paul of the Detroit News is reporting the following:

So now 105.1 has parted ways with Lane. They got screwed out of the Tigers. And they don’t think Valenti is worth the money his agent Mort Meisner is demanding.

What’s their play?

The return of Billy Joel and Celine Dion?

Or Gregg Henson????