JIM MORRELL'S BUSINESSES ALL FAILING

[THE_KNICKMAN]

Jim Morrell, who owns PAMAL, with radio station clusters in Albany, Glens Falls, Lower Hudson Valley, and Rutland, Vt. as well as 2 motels in the Albany area and car dealerships seems to be losing badly. He sold his Amsterdam Chrysler dealership to get out from under that, meanwhile his Ford dealership in Cobleskill has closed and his Saratoga GM dealership has stopped selling new cars because he would be required to upgrade the showroom. The only car dealerships I am aware of that are still open are the ones in Brunswick, just outside of Troy. To make matters worse, he faces legal action for an alledged union-busting tactic. Serveral people at one of his motels were dismissed because of apparent union organizing. And from what I gather, the radio stations are not in the best of shape. Granted, the bad economy does not help in some of these things, but you have to wonder how long his enterprises can survive? Not the least of which would be the radio stations!

[THE_KNICKMAN]

One other thing I should point out. WIZR-AM  in Johnstown owned by  PAMAL is coming upon a year from when it went dark. If something is not done there, that license will be cancelled.

[tower17]

Nothing you said in your first post is true. GM hasn't renewed some dealership agreements and it's not Jim Morrell's fault. The Brunswick dealerships are down to just Subaru and his midtown Dodge and Suzuki dealerships are doing quite well.

There was no union busting at his hotel but a disgruntled employee. Mr. Morrell has tried to be cooperative with these people but they find it more rewarding to get paid to picket than to work. Lazy, white trash is what these people are.

If his stations were in such bad shape, why haven't there been Clear Channel style layoffs?

Just because he has more money than you (and me) is no reason to celebrate rumors of his demise or the demise of his businesses. This is a radio forum NOT a place to spew lies.

After your rant about how things are so bad, do you think they care about WIZR, a peashooter AM located in East Noplace?

[THE_KNICKMAN]

Tower, what I said about saratoga was based on a quote in a local paper from one of his managers, It mentioned it was not clear just what GM wanted for upgrades and it could change. The Cobleskill  which was Ford was closed and that company (Ford) was not pulling franchises. And the media also quoted about federal labor law charges about his Motels, and I understand from the article that there were 3 employees involved. So your claim that none of this true is incorrect.  IT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN THE MEDIA.  As far as his radio stations are concerned, who knows what will happen there. But I must acknowledge with them that the economy has had a great affect on broadcasting nationwide. Revenues are down all over. The real bigs ones like Clear Channel, Citadel, etc just got too topheavy with management. 

[thataveragejoe]

Why are you comparing failing US auto dealerships that has happened to everyone everywhere to Pamal Broadcasting? Because he owns both? Talk about apples and oranges. Your assumptions

  As far as his radio stations are concerned, who knows what will happen there.

  are completely and utterly false. You must have an agenda. Revenue down, sure. Failing? Hardly. Your claims are baseless. Mine are not.

[THE_KNICKMAN]

I guess maybe "Failing" was a little harsh. I wondered what was going on with all of these articles  I have read in local papers about JM's various enterprises. Certainly things are not the best in the general world of business. I do not have an agenda and do hope he and all businesses recover from this slump because it means jobs for everyone. If radio prospers, it is because the people of buy the time are prospering creating jobs and so it goes.   I do like to see a locally based radio station  owner compete well with the  the big national guys. Ratingswise I think we can all agree that he has done well up against Clear Channel and Regent in the ratings. I also like to see the smaller community based stations do well because they serve smaller communities in a way that the larger stations cannot. A side note; I did not realize Action Chevy was gone. It was not mentioned when Salisbury for example was dropped. Possibly it was voluntarily dropped, I understand several dealers nationwide have done this?  Peace guys.

[radiopro09876]

Don't worry everyone...Might as well ignore "KNICKMAN". This person goes by the name CLAY ASHWORTH...owner of WCKM-WCQL-WWSC in Glens Falls. Guess sales must be great at the stations if he can post on here about his direct competition.

Clay --- Get over it...walk away from the disaster you left at Pamal/Glens Falls. The best part of it? The stations are prospering in sales AND programming since you left them a few years ago. Now look at where you are. You think you own the great area of Glens Falls/Queensbury/Saratoga because you own the "local" stations. Too bad you lost hockey on WCKM (the Phantoms are now on WNYQ for those keeping score), and your morning jock on WCQL is one puff away from being fired more times than I can count on my fingers.

Keep it up Clay...keep it up.

[tower17]

Who isn't having a tough time? I like Jim and I think he and his company are unfairly targeted on here and have been for years. Where are the Clear Channel, Regent, WAMC, and Anastos discussions? They rarely come up and like him or not, Jim Morrell is a local employer who hasn't laid off everyone to keep some extra bucks in his pocket. Unlike Clear Channel (which laid me off) he cares about his employees.

[tower17]

From what I know the people "laid off" were people that someone wanted gone one way or another. Pamal wins the award for most live dayparts including weekends. I'd like to know what is going on at CC and Regent now as it seems most people in those buildings are mum.

[tower17]

Name one person who was "laid off" - go!

People have left and not been replaced, are you counting that as laid off?

Jackie and Steve? No idea. Not as well as Don Weeks? Do you know?