Arnie under attack/loses gigs => after speaking out about SUV's

[doc9464]

http://www.bopnews.com/archives/005646.html

Read the comments too please.....an employee of the station speaks out as well

Thoughts?


Arnie is a great host.....AAR please look this way....WHJJ pvd...look this way

[mwebster]

To paraphrase, there are lies, damn lies and blogs.

Arnie is not off the air.  She has not lost any gigs.  Her program is still heard on WTPL-FM "The Pulse."
Two AM stations which also carried her show discontinued it some time ago and that information was posted on this board.  
One of those stations had carried Arnie's program on its online audio stream.
However, WTPL has begun streaming an Arnie's program has been available online for the past few weeks.
The program director of one of Arnie's former stations has replied to the blog posting and says the decision to cancel the show on his station was Arnie's - not the station.
There is nothing about this alleged story on Arnie's website.

Blogger Stirling Newberry says (1) He talked to Arnie.  (2) The station is thinking of cancelling her show.  He does not say Arnie said the station is thinking of cancelling her show.  He does not say how he came to the conclusion the station is thinking of cancelling her show (or how he determined the reasons for the decision).  At the very least, Newberry is guilty of sloppy reporting.  At most, he is another blogger lying through his teeth.
Doc9464 is the one who says Arnie lost her gig.  Newberry only says the station is "thinking" about it.  Doc is a political zealot who has been known to ignore facts to stir things up.

This story sounds like Brian Maloney claiming he was fired from KIRO for criticizing Dan Rather.  The difference is Arnie is too classy for that.  The same can not be said of Newberry.

PS: It's 12:38 pm.  Arnie is on the air and doing her show.  And the station has run spots for local car dealers in her show.  Actually, she seems to have a full spot load.  

Edited by mwebster on 12/15/05 05:39 PM.

[raccoonradio]

But a Globe article says the show will be off at the end of the year.
See this post on Northern New England board including link to Globe article.
Globe article was via Concord Monitor

http://www.radio-info.com/mods/board?Post=609065&Board=northne

> PS: It's 12:38 pm.  Arnie is on the air and doing her show.
> And the station has run spots for local car dealers in her
> show.  Actually, she seems to have a full spot load.
>
Yes but the Globe implies that by the end of the year it'll be gone.

--
Arnie Arnesen's radio show is going off the air at the end of the year, and the outspoken, left-of-center host cites her rants against auto advertisers as one reason (snip) Jeff Shapiro, WTPL station owner, said Arnesen's program had become a hard-sell to businesses.

[raccoonradio]

http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/REPOSITORY/512150360/1031

"Arnesen said her break with the station isn't the first time advertising has been an issue. She has been told by Shapiro before that businesses were afraid of what she might say. But she's never really considered changing.

"The advertiser issue is shoved in my face all the time," Arnesen said. "But if I change then, I'm not going be Arnie. If I change, then what's the point of listening?"

Edited by raccoonradio on 12/15/05 06:12 PM.

[mwebster]

raccoon...
thanks for the link to the Globe article.
Like broken watches, even blogs are sometimes right.

KPOJ in Portland got somebody from New England to come do a local show and it worked out pretty well.  Maybe some other progressive talk station will follow their example with Arnie.  

Unfortunately, if Arnie is unwilling to relocate, there are no progressive talk outlets in New Hampshire and slim pickings for the format with mostly marginal, low-power AM stations in the rest of New England.  Providence and New Haven might be possibilities.  Certainly, Arnie would be an improvement over Imus who is currently carried in morning drive on the Providence station.  And Clear Channel could always decide to do something local on their Boston-Framingham progressive talkers.

Arnie needs to deal with the realities of the business if she wants to stay in radio.  There are some fuel efficient hybrid SUV's out there and her program might work well for Toyota, Honda and VW dealers (among others) if she talks about good cars instead of bashing cars and car dealers in general.  Maybe her mother told her she could catch more flies with honey...

Ironically, this afternoon she interviewed a Boston Globe reporter about Mass Governor Mitt Romney and did not mention that his old man was the guy who first promoted the idea of smaller, fuel-efficient cars.

[raccoonradio]

> raccoon...
> thanks for the link to the Globe article.
> Like broken watches, even blogs are sometimes right.

Well maybe you hadn't seen those articles yet (Globe/C. Monitor)! No problem

> Unfortunately, if Arnie is unwilling to relocate, there are
> no progressive talk outlets in New Hampshire

Would WKOX/WXKS in Boston hire? They still have no local hosts. As it is,
the TV show Arnie does (full disclosure: a friend of mine may wind up
on the show doing pop culture!) is on a TV station based in N.H., but
the skyline seen behind Arnie looks more like Boston. If she's linking
herself to Boston there, why not do a radio show there too? ((Meaning
Boston area station...maybe do it from a home studio if the drive's too
long for her)


 And Clear Channel could
> always decide to do something local on their
> Boston-Framingham progressive talkers.

You read my mind.

if she talks
> about good cars instead of bashing cars and car dealers in
> general.  Maybe her mother told her she could catch more
> flies with honey...

Fuel-efficient (but expensive, for now) hybrid cars...
Am reminded of a caller to Hannity named Jonathan from California who
said the now legendary line, "I drive a Honda Prius, God Bless
America". Apparently Sean was trying to get him to say that he (Jonathan)
drove a gas guzzler himself, but Jonathan blurted that statement out
(made up?)...and Sean has reminded him more than a few times that Honda
doesn't make the Prius! (Toyota does...)

[mwebster]

>
> Well maybe you hadn't seen those articles yet (Globe/C.
> Monitor)! No problem

No.  I only had seen the blog article which started this thread.  

>
>
> Fuel-efficient (but expensive, for now) hybrid cars...

More coming on the market and the prices are coming down.  My point is Arnie's station has a lot of car dealers running spots.  Rather than biting the hand that feeds her, she can catch them doing something right.  In addition to hybrids, there are other models with good mileage and good safety ratings she can mention.  She can stay true to herself and not antagonize advertisers.  The remark about F-U v's was asking for it.  Conservative hosts have an advantage in that they mostly bash liberals, foreigners and (excluding war) the government;   business gets off easy.  With Arnie (and most progressive hosts) the real culprit gets off easy:  The evil automakers don't put guns to anybody's head and make them buy SUV's and mini-vans.  The price of gas goes up and all of a sudden people want small cars; it goes back down again and people start looking at big cars.  Mileage numbers are on all the car stickers.  Anybody who buys an SUV or mini-van thinking they won't shell out for gas should not be allowed out without a keeper.

[mwebster]

Arnie, what were you thinking?
I listen to your show and I admire your work.  But, lady, you must have lost it.  You committed professional suicide:

"I have started calling SUVs FU-vs, because it's not acceptable anymore that 90 percent of people who own them don't need them. For the 10 percent who do need them I say, 'Have them, have a semi-truck,'" ARNESEN said. "Here's the problem: If the bread-and-butter of small radio stations is car businesses, who's going to buy me?"

You say you know small market radio depends on local car dealers.  You know these people buy based on their own reactions to programming.  So you go out of your way to annoy them?
I imagine station management talked to you about this.  It does not sound like this was a surprise.  You say you love radio but apparently you love ranting more.
You are not on the radio for personal self-expression.  You are there to sell stuff.  
At the same time you live down to conservative hosts' worst characterizations of liberals by turning into an elitist scold lecturing your audience on what they do or don't "need."  Who elected you Queen?  There are enough right wing - social conservative prigs telling everybody how to live their lives.  We don't need you to do it, too.  
Progressive talk radio is still in a tenuous position.  Shame on you for weakening it further.  Now you can be presented as evidence that even if progressive talk gets an audience, advertisers will stay away.  
You are also evidence that political operatives have difficulting morphing into true radio professionals.