Happy Trails, Pete Salant

[Tralfaz]

If you are talking about helping turn the radio industry into a robotic-sounding and in reality, a robot-operated industry (because you can't deny that is what voicetracking is) then Pete Salant was VERY successful.
Conversely, I do believe Salant deserves credit for doing some very good production (promos, etc.).  That's pretty much it.

WNNR was also a victim of a burnt-out playlist.

There are PD's that deserve credit for keeping personality and localism alive (Joe McCoy/WCBS-FM, Scott Shannon, etc.). 

So I disagree with the "success phobia" idea.  People can be successful in good ways and bad ways.

I give credit to those who were successful at programming good radio, not to those who were successful at destroying/dumbing down radio.
 

[CTListener]

WNNR was also a victim of a burnt-out playlist.

Only music buffs (guilty) and radio geeks (guilty, too) care about playlist depth. That's a tiny fraction of the potential audience for any station. Music radio is a background medium, and, unfortunately, the most successful stations are those that blend best into the background, whether it be WRCH and its 400-song playlist at the office or WPLR and its 400-song playlist at the garage. 'CCC and 'DRC-FM have done OK with somewhat larger playlists, but history shows that a direct competitor with a more focused musical approach would likely top either one in the ratings within a couple of books.

GlennO's reasons for WNNR's demise make much more sense than "burnt-out playlist." DRC-FM was a stereo FM with a big-time signal in WNNR's coverage area. That would have meant "curtains" for WNNR even if the owners hadn't gambled in the stock market.

[GlennO]

Granted, there may be songs in a playlist that become "crispy critters" and need a break for some time or for good.  You do have to refresh the music with songs that make the cut.  Play the hits your listeners want to hear today, whatever the format... not six months, six years or six decades ago.  Magic 104 had gotten very complacent 20 years ago when WRCH came along and spelled the end of the Magic 104 Wine & Cheese Party (remember those?). 

I was being sarcastic with the "'fear of success" accusation, but some folks seem very quick to want to turn away from things that work. 

[WPPCProductions]

I remember Pete back  in the 70's on WAVZ. ON Country 92.5 maybe should give  the syndicated show "The Big Time with Whitney Allen" a shot.

[videokilledtheradiostar]

I remember Pete back  in the 70's on WAVZ. ON Country 92.5 maybe should give  the syndicated show "The Big Time with Whitney Allen" a shot.

PS full of BS is a soon to be radio has-been. Dude probably pulled down $100k a year for what? To babysit bird feeders and voice trackers?? His next job will be APD at WDOA  in Tuscaloosa, Alabami. Only a thousand steps backwards.

[videokilledtheradiostar]

Let me be very clear here: Pete Salant cost HIMSELF his job.  Why you ask?  Well, all you have to do is look back in time at Pete's career.  Pete was the self-professed (and I am quoting Salant) "radio doctor that fixed broken radio stations."  What that really translates into is that Pete would go from market to market, and take $$ to turn a personality-driven station into a liner-card reading shell of its former self radio station with announcers replaced by morons who could read index cards.  Salant was the king of "don't say this, don't say that" radio.  He would turn great stations into repetitive, burnt-out crap.  Just look at his "WiNNeRadio" oldies creation with its short, burnt-out playlist and card-reading jocks.  Some of those jocks were very good but were not allowed to show it.  Salant was too busy smoking funny cigarettes and dumbing down stations to see into the future and realize he was slowly eliminating his OWN job.  By dumbing down stations (killing their very personality) he ended up causing radio to be relegated (with a few exceptions in CT like WCCC-FM) voice-tracked stations as listeners no longer expected anything other than "more music, less talk (personality).  Now, with voice-tracked, personality-less stations, there is no need for consultants (that role was put out to pasture years ago) and the role of a P.D. is now going away. Pretty soon, most of these "local" stations will basically be translators/repeaters for national programming (Seacrest, Bob & Tom, Tesh, etc.).  I was very dejected when Salant had the gall to post a pic of him with WLNG's Paul Sidney as Salant was allowed to do a guest-shift on WLNG.  I mean, Salant (boring Mr. Announcer) was the antithesis to what Paul Sidney did so well (personality).  Salant, you never belonged next to Paul Sidney in any photo.  What a joke.  So, thanks Michael Peter "Mr. Radio Doctor" Salant for killing local radio.  Thanks for "breaking" "fixed" radio stations. And, in the end, you get what you caused others to get.  Have a "WiNNeR" weekend!

I could not agree with you more. You are 110% correct and then some. PS is an opportunist who will take advantage of any self-promoting p.r. situation that is available. Where do you go from being PD of a CT AM/FM cluster and getting canned by
Cheap Channel?? Answer, the unemployment line.

[firsttimelongtime]

am i the only one SHOCKED that Stan 'The Man' is the last PD standing between both clusters?

[videokilledtheradiostar]

This board does seem to have a group phobia of success.  Pete Salant may have rubbed somebody the wrong way, which doesn't make him unique.  From what I know of him, you could have done worse.  The guy did hit some home runs along the way.  Regarding 1220 Winner Radio WNNR in the 80s, two factors may have sealed that station's doom.  Neither had to do with oldies presentation or playlists.  WDRC-FM's flip to oldies in 1986 impacted more than their own Hartford AM sister station.  WDRC-FM has just as good a signal in Hamden/New Haven - the market of 1000 watt AM WNNR.  Also, I understand WNNR's investors got clobbered by the stock market crash of 1987.

CT Listener and Bill 1820 are astute people.  There are practical business considerations that drive much of this.  We can second guess all we want.  Would we have been able to make enough of a difference to save station A or station B - or take them to the next level - doing what we wanted?

In radio he is old news. Just another radio creaton in a very long line of opportunistic sleazebags.
 

[videokilledtheradiostar]

am i the only one SHOCKED that Stan 'The Man' is the last PD standing between both clusters?

He's on borrowed time.

[videokilledtheradiostar]

Country 92.5 had a bad book, diving from 7.0 to 5.4.  The station has dropped to fourth place, tied with DRC-FM and ranked just slightly higher than Kiss and The River.

CC doesn't need to replace Pete.  YZ is voice-tracked mid-days and runs syndication at night.  WPOP, WAVZ and WELI run mostly syndicated shows.

Another Cheap Channel mastermind management move. And the hits just keep on comin'. lol