Spencer Graves Fired?

[Delawhere]

Oh my GAWD, really???

What's next, is Spencer going to throw a cherry bomb in the girls bathroom during the sock hop?

What a rebel!!!  Theater of the mind, indeed...if only you relics had a mind.  It's 2012.  Pull up your Depends and take that nostalgia crap somewhere else.

Spencer is a tool, doing antiquated tool radio, on an antiquated tool radio station.

[MikefromDelaware]

Delawhere, suck on your pacifier while I reply to your "witty comments".  Why attack all of us here?  You think that only YOUR young uninformed opinion is worthy to be posted here? That anyone older doesn't have a clue or a right to be heard?  How arrogant of you.

That's one difference between young and older folks.  Many of the young think they know it all and that they see all things clearly, even though there's only a couple of chapters written in their book of knowledge.  Many younger folks tend to be more arrogant with a lack of humility that tends to come with age.   

Those of us who are now "older" or more mature have been around the block a time or two.  As a result we have far more chapters in our book of knowledge, because we've experienced more.  We've had plenty of experiences both good and bad so we realize that we don't know it all, and due to that have gained the humility where we'll express our thoughts, but also realize we can learn from others.  Each person brings their unique experience of life (in this case radio) to the table for whatever we're discussing here.

So you missed an opportunity to have offered some intelligent thought here that might have taught all of us "geezers" something new about radio or life, etc.  Well maybe next time.   

Oh by the way, most folks who listen to the radio do have mental pictures of what the DJ's, news anchors, talk show hosts, etc, look like.  Just like when someone is reading a book or listening to an audio book.  Both listener and reader picture how things being described look like in their "mind's eye".  THAT is the theatre of the mind (they usually are shocked when they finally do see a photo of the radio personality or see the person in person as they never look as they pictured in their mind).

[radio19720]

Hey Mike,   Got to say, I agree with Delawhere on this one.   This is 2012.   The internet tells you what the people on the radio look like and honestly.  If you set a firecracker off at your work, would you still work there?     Didn't think so.   This was a stupid stunt to lead into some vacation time.   
The real question, when is the last time spent over 10 minutes listening to Delmarva's Mother Ship without flipping?   I tried and can't make it past 2 songs.   

[MikefromDelaware]

Radio 19720, I don't have a problem with Delawhere's opinion, but his bashing all of us for expressing our opinions. 

I made your point back in my first post on this topic.  Yes, totally, if someone set off a real cherry bomb or whatever inside their place of employment, they'd be history.  Did he really set one off inside WSTW?  I doubt it.  It is radio, sound effects create the image and his mouth does the rest, along with, apparently, his facebook account. 

However, I tend to forget that most of the younger folks listen to radio, not via the radio, but online via their I-phones, Blackberry's and I-pods which does offer photos of the personalities, if they click on the right place on the web site.  I see your point.  So the theatre of the mind isn't as big a factor today as it was back in our day.

I must confess I don't get the obsession with facebook.  I do use it to see photos of family and friends, but see no other real value for it as email is easier to use to send messages.  The font is also larger than on FB.  It would never occur to me to use FB to create an issue or stunt as apparently Spenser did.  I guess that's a generational thing as millions if not billions of the younger folks are using it (I'm assuming around the world) that it now has its own stock traded in the stock market.  You know what they say, cool marches on and I missed the parade. 

Now as to your question about the last time I spent more than 10 minutes listening to WSTW without flipping?  They were still being called WDEL-FM, so back before the call letter change was the last time I spent more than 10 minutes listening to 93.7.  I've scanned by, but never really have cared for WSTW's music or WJBR's either for that matter.  So I don't listen to either other than to stop by while scanning and then moving on. 

However, in both WSTW's and WBJR's defense, I'm 61, their advertisers don't want, care, or even desire that I listen so it makes good business sense to target those folks younger like Delawhere.  So when I want music, I generally do not go to the radio other than for Classical Music on WRTI's Wilmington repeater at 107.7 and to WVUD 91.3 for their Classical Music, and sometimes to WSOX 96.1 York PA for their Greatest Hits. 

More often, I go online and can find all sorts of music that I, as a baby boomer really like (Classic Country, Oldies from 50's to early pre-disco 70's without the excessive amount (for my ear) of Motown/Soul that WOGL plays, etc).  I pretty much only listen to "old school radio" for spoken word programming: News/Talk format: WDEL and WHYY-FM; Sports/Talk format: WIP-FM, WPEN-FM, and WWTX 1290 the ticket.  I will check out 610 WIP also, when in September they start airing CBS Sports Radio (see Philly thread for details on that).

I get your point.  For those of you who had been avid listeners, to WSTW, it apparently lost a lot of why you tuned in.  The 12+ numbers seem to bear you out.  I remember when it was a battle for #1 between WJBR and WSTW.  Now WJBR and WDAS-FM seem to battle for that top slot with WXCY with country music is in third place with WSTW tied with WUSL for fourth place.  They still are a major player in the market, albeit a smaller one than in past years, obviously they've lost something that made them one of the two top Wilmington stations.

[jhguthlac]

I think Delawhere is actually Spencer. Sounds like his IQ level.

[mrpizza]

Just saw Spencer yesterday at a WSTW event. He's also apparently replaced Joe Alan as the official spokesman for Concord Pet. I can't really comment about the fireworks thing because this is the first I've heard of it. What I can say is that he's still there and in fact I called in this morning and talked to him and Nancy Johnson. I would say there's reasonable doubt about it having been real fireworks. Radio and TV stations have all the state-of-the-art computers capable of replicating any sound effects you want. My conclusion is that this is hearsay because he most certainly would have been canned otherwise. Pete Booker, Chris Carl, and I'm sure Allan Loudell would have seen to that.

[650AM]

What pull does Loudell have at WDEL/WSTW?  Little to none, I would imagine. 

[MikefromDelaware]

My understanding is Allan isn't in management at all at WDEL as he was at WILM.  So my guess is, the only area where he gets any real say is in his twice a day newscasts and the Loudell commentary, which probably works just fine for him as he's all about the news and world events/issues.

Chris Carl is the PD (I believe that's his title) at WDEL and  Pete Booker is President of Delmarva Broadcasting.  Yes, these men would have some definite say, Chris over what happens at WDEL, not WSTW, and Pete over all the Delmarva stations.

Speaking if which, we were down at the beach on Friday, had a great time, and did tune into Cat Country 105.9 while in the car.  Sounded good, enjoyed listening to it.

[650AM]

I agree Mike.  Loudell is a "mere WDELemployee" and it must have been quite an adjustment for him to get used to that.  What I don't understand is that he apparently arrives at the station at about 6am, staying all day, through to the end of the afternoon news block.  Why would anybody want to do that?

[MikefromDelaware]

Allan, of course should answer this, but as I did work with Allan for 5 of my 7 years at WILM, I'll offer what I know.  Allan loves what he does.  He eats, sleeps, drinks radio, news, and world issues.

From what I understand, Allan prepares and airs his Loudell Report each morning for the AM newsblock with Peter and Melanie.  He's busy in the AM lining up interviews, etc, for his noon newsblock.  Same with his afternoon newsblock, he spends the earlier afternoon lining up those interviews.  Allan also has a blog at WDEL.com where he writes some commentary about some of the bigger issues going on and sometimes the lesser issues with links from various media reports.  He monitors the blog and chimes in with his comments every now and then.  If you want to better learn what makes Allan Loudell tick, visit his blog: 

http://www.wdel.com/blog/section.php?sectionid=3