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Yet Another Exits Broadcast Park

WNIRLogoWe’d been hearing the rumors Friday afternoon…that talk WNIR/100.1 “The Talk of Akron” weekend and fill-in host Bob Earley had left Broadcast Park.

The rumors have been confirmed, first by Earley himself on Facebook, then by Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com pop culture writer Rich Heldenfels.

Get ready…you’re not gonna believe this one. (And a warning, we’ll veer into musings and opinion here, as it’s almost mandated.)

Bill Klaus, WNIR CEO and station manager, said, “We had a disagreement in the direction of [Earley’s] weekend program and he chose to resign.”

He declined to elaborate.

Earley said the disagreement began with his plan to have Jennifer Downey, president of erotic-goods chain Ambiance, on his show Sunday. Downey has often appeared in local media, and those appearances are especially common around Valentine’s Day.

The station had apparently first approved the appearance, then disapproved it, according to Earley in Heldenfels’ article.

Other restrictions, including pre-taping the adult shop’s spots and restricting Earley mentioning it on WNIR as a sponsor of his “Rockin’ on the River” concert series, and…boom, there goes $20,000 in sponsorship money from WNIR.

That’s the figure Earley tells the Beacon Journal he spent each year on advertising “Rockin'”, a summer outdoor concert series on the Cuyahoga Falls pedestrian mall, on his now-former station.

(There’s no word on what WNIR has been paying Earley for his weekend show or fill-in work, though it’s not hard to imagine that WNIR could have still came out ahead financially.)

After no previous major problems with Bill or Bob Klaus, after 5 years as a regular weekend host and 9 years in some fill-in capacity, Bob Earley had enough.

“I consider them my friends. … I’m not going to get into any bad-rapping or anything else. Just like with Maggie [Fuller, formerly of WNIR], it was definitely time to draw the line.”

Remember, even when Earley and now-evening host Jim Isabella did their marathon fill-in shifts after the death of midday host and talk radio icon Howie Chizek, Earley made it rather clear he didn’t want a full-time gig.

The Bill Klaus quote in the Beacon (“we had a disagreement over the direction” of Earley’s weekend show) is laughable to anyone who’s actually heard Earley’s Saturday and Sunday night program.

Since its inception 5 years ago, “Earley in the Evening” had NO direction. The program was always an “anything goes” gathering of Earley and his callers, talking about everything and nothing.

As far as the “Ambiance” ad is concerned, well, “Earley in the Evening” wasn’t exactly G-rated.

No, it wasn’t R-rated, either, but banter and flirting was quite a regular component, always done in a humorous manner.

As Heldenfels points out, and as we’ve reported here numerous times over the past couple of years, there’s been nothing as constant as change on Route 59, across the street from the Walmart between Kent and Ravenna.

Some of the change has been thrust upon the folks at Broadcast Park…with the untimely deaths of Howie Chizek and evening host Tom Erickson.

Other changes leave one scratching one’s head…regular caller John “Couch Burner” Denning replacing 38 year station bedrock Chizek? Where did THAT decision come from?

(And considering his apparent foul mouth away from the microphone, as evidenced in the Maggie Fuller case, does he run his own profanity delay during his show, or does someone do it for him?)

Not every decision at Broadcast Park has been mind-numbingly awful.

Isabella makes sense as Tom Erickson’s successor, for one. And the Klaus brothers actually turned to two broadcast veterans, Chris Fox and Angela Bellios, to replace the retiring Stan Piatt and Ms. Fuller after her resignation.

But don’t get us started on how Piatt’s exit was handled by his bosses, or how a state review board says Denning’s off-air misbehavior was mishandled.

It’s getting so bad, the question that nearly universally comes up when something happens at WNIR is: “What have they done now?”…

Comments

  1. I didn’t realize people listened to WNIR after Howie died.

  2. No big loss. The quality of the weekend show has been suffering for about a year. The fun was gone and vulgarity was becoming the norm.

    It’s interesting that the Kaiser actually got it right with the new morning show, but still refuses to acknowledge the failure of the mid-day show. That time slot should have gone to Jim Isabella. The Kaiser should really consider swapping the time slots for both hosts. It won’t happen, but it should.

    Still hard to believe that WNIR does not have a caller-id system installed to screen out some of the annoying callers such as The Booosh Man and his alter ego the Shut Up Guy and a certain braggadocio uncle during Golic’s show.

  3. Piney Woods says

    Earley in the Evening, was a welcome relief from the daily grind of politics, and the wild news of the day ! Bob gave NIR listeners a chance to be themselves (or someone else), let loose, and have FUN. Almost always in somewhat good taste. Earley ran a great ship. As a regular caller, and friend of Bob , I did not always agree with the subject matter so I (like others) just did not call. This is what made the show so very popular ! The callers and Bob complemented each other so well.
    We will miss you Bob Earley.

    • I agree with Piney, and I think some of the best Earley shows were the ones where Bob had his own pre-conceived topics, rather than the show where he would just “wing it”. I am really going to miss Bob’s “Remember When” nights where we talked about the old bands, bars, restaurants, cars and hang outs of our past. I hope that wherever Earley lands, he will bring those nights back.

  4. Earley was the best fill-in just because his show was such a change of pace and he took a lot of calls. Earley In the Evening was juvenile but local talk is always better than network.

    I have gone from being a regular listener (having it on in the background for most of the day) to almost never listening. I wouldn’t listen to Couch if they paid me and I wish Maggie all the success in the world in her lawsuit. I have zero respect for him. He fronts as the friendly funny guy but he is an angry elf and it shows when he gets a little frustrated.

  5. The new morning show is awesome ( Stan and Maggie were stale) after that its less than ideal ,it goes without saying NOBODY can replace HOWIE CHIZEK but anybody may be better than Denning (tough to listen to) as far as Golic right wing political agenda and NRA support !, come on broaden your topics the center/ left audience will not listen (although he probably does not care ). Mr. Bob Earley will be missed, fun off the wall program, sometimes flirtatious, always suggestive,never the less light hearted, laughter is great medicine !!!!

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