UPDATE 7/8/14 7:23 PM: WTAM Indians beat reporter Nick Camino announced on Twitter that he’ll take over the station’s evening talk show time slot, after the exit of Bob Frantz due to budget cuts:
Today has been a bittersweet, emotional ride. I received a promotion to become the new nightly talk show host on Newsradio WTAM 1100.
The #Indians beat has been a blast! I’ll still be doing some pre-game stuff & obviously post-game, but my duties will be shifting. Excited!
I’ll be keeping my hands in some #Indians stuff, but I’ll begin a regular nightly talk show on Newsradio WTAM 1100 when we don’t have games.
Appreciate all the support. As I said, a bittersweet day. Time & hard work are paying off. Talk shows are what I’ve wanted, & I’m thrilled.
Camino says he’ll continue to do the 6-7 PM “Sports Feed” show with Andre Knott…
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UPDATE 7/8/14 6:25 PM: It would appear the budget axe at Clear Channel has turned Bob Frantz into a former WTAM talk show host.
He’s shedding more light on it on his own Facebook account, the same place he posted the news of his departure:
Thank you, everyone. No…this had nothing to do with (Cleveland city councilman/former WTAM Sunday host/”The Spew” fill-in) Zack Reed or anything else. I was told “corporate restructuring” and “eliminating positions”, etc. That’s all.
For those who’ve followed Clear Channel’s recent staffing actions in markets across the country, that’s no surprise.
Right here, we noted that talk WKBN/570 Youngstown news director Jim Michaels was among those recently shown the door after decades at WKBN.
And in the “One True Rochester”, the upstate New York home market of long-time Friend of OMW Scott Fybush, the departure of a big name in that market was reported last week in Scott’s NorthEast Radio Watch:
Veteran WHAM (1180) morning man Chet Walker was off the air and off the WHAM website this morning, where “WHAM Morning News” is shown with no host on the schedule. Walker had been a WHAM fixture since 1985; his longtime morning co-host, Beth Adams, lost her spot at WHAM in 2011 and is now across town at WXXI (1370).
So, when the Clear Channel budget axe fell at Oak Tree…Bob Frantz was apparently “that guy”.
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Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland evening and weekend host, and co-host with afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno of the 9 AM weekday on-air debate show “The Spew”, Bob Frantz…is no longer in the building.
Bob broke the news himself on his Facebook page:
This is one of those posts no one likes to make, but alas, it must be done.
I am no longer employed by WTAM 1100.
What’s next? Working on that as we speak.
More to come….
My best to all,
Bob
Reaction is coming in from upset listeners, and even from former WTAM staffers like former afternoon drive producer Marty Allen (now with the Cleveland Cavaliers radio network):
I’m getting word from multiple sources that Bob Frantz has been let go from WTAM Radio. Bob you know how much I love you but you know its the nature of the business.
Bob do what Chuck Galeti and all other radio outcasts in Cleveland do. Come join the Rogue Radio Network. No Rules..No Restrictions!
There is some speculation as to why Frantz is no longer in the building at Oak Tree, but we have no facts as of this writing…and won’t be able to update this until later tonight. Stay tuned…
One less right winged Con to clutter up the airwaves…..good riddance!!!
To be replaced by a new con! Progressives ALWAYS fail on the radio. Sorry.
Actually, Bob will be replaced by Indians beat reporter Nick Camino (see the update to this item). To the best of our knowledge, Nick won’t be doing a heavy political show. It’s about the cash, not the politics. Nick gets a promotion and presumably, a bump in salary…and CC saves what’s left from what they were paying Bob.
In a reply on one of his facebook pages he said it was cost cutting.
Ohio Media Watch is a farce. Nothing more than a collection of left-wing crackpots and college progressives hiding, lurking behind bushes, waiting to censor conservative opinion. You won’t censor Rush because he makes you money.
Seriously, Bob, you got “Clear Channeled”? Well, you’re in good company, like so many others before you; however, I can’t for the life of me figure out why! Maybe because you’re an intelligent, speak your mind kind of guy. Whatever rule or restriction you broke, so be it. One door closes, another one will open, because you’re good at your craft. Best to you and your career move.
Joey Harper
NOTE: We are approving this comment, but any further political debate in the comments will not be allowed. This is a site about media, not about politics. — The Management
Joey, he lied a lot; he was no friend of facts and he shouted down those who disagreed with. He put patently false information up on his website. One easy example is he said Fox was the most trusted news network according to Public Policy Polling. It was, but it was also the least trusted according to the same poll and he never disclosed that. He put up a video by Neil Cavuto that said healthcare costs had skyrocketed by 5.8% per year from 2010 to 2013. What he forgot to mention was health care costs went up 13.2% a year under George Bush. He claims we have the shortest wait times in the world when we have longer wait times then almost any country except Canada. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
I will try to keep my comments as non-political as possible. With his unique, impassioned and well-researched opinions, I can see why Bob Frantz infuriated one side of the political spectrum. In fact, I would say that Frantz had a natural talent and was born to work behind a microphone. If and when he comes back to radio, I hope he doesn’t land at a sports talk station because his gift is dissecting politics.
Gee Bob, when I was unemployed you considered me as a parasite and a burden to society.
You couldn’t understand why I was unemployed because everywhere you went, by golly you saw Help wanted signs all over the place. You claimed that the reason I was unemployed was because I was receiving unemployment benefits and that made me too lazy to look for a job..
Now you are what you hate.. I just hope people don’t judge you the way you judged other people when they are down and out..
BTW, I just seen a help wanted sign at Wal-Mart they are looking for a Greeter. Good Luck trying to support your family with on that salary..
Haha. Karma is a b*tch
It says “Speak Your Mind” but now you tell up no politics, just media stuff. How do you separate the two? I think the devout censors are more irritated at the conservative comments than what the Frantz haters say. In that sense, this forum is really a farce…
We have no desire to turn this blog about media into the 5087th forum where “true political believers” can duke it out.
There is no guarantee of free speech on this privately owned blog, and quite frankly, the political tussle back and forth annoys us on ALL sides.
Let me get it through your head again: THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL BLOG.
I’m sure conservatives annoy you. Did you say that to the pro-gay forum participants too? I doubt it. And you can’t speak for others, claiming politics bores people. That’s not the reason anyway. It’s about the politics. You are not being honest.
This is the very last I have to say about this.
It is not any particular ideology that “annoys me”. It is, on both sides of the political football game, those who think they need to shout their political beliefs from the rooftops, shout people down, and believe their views are on topic for any forum…even one that does not generally deal with politics.
This problem exists in both “camps”, right, left, left, right, sideways.
Effective immediately, no political posts of any sort will be approved (we have pre-approval here, your comments sit until they are released). ANY sort. Liberal, conservative, libertarian, Green, etc. I have no idea what you’re talking about (“pro-gay forum participants”).
We allow reasoned discussion of media personalities of all stripes, but this is a MEDIA blog, not an ISSUES blog.
We happen to like Bob Frantz and think he got a raw deal over at Oak Tree. Politics has nothing to do with it. We think he’s a talented broadcaster and we listen to plenty of hosts with different views.
But we aren’t about to take personal attacks and be drawn into the MY SIDE IS RIGHT! YOU HATE ME BECAUSE I’M (THIS)! maelstrom. On any side of the Political Football Game debate. Goodbye.
This guy ran so much smack they had a dumpster named after him outside the Rockside Road studios.
But having said that.
He got Clear Channeled.
Clear Channel is doing everything it can to consolidate “air talent” and replace them with something much cheaper through syndication whenever possible. The ratings do NOT matter.
They can’t sell enough advertising to hardly finance their debt not to mention pay for good talent according to Bain Capital and others who took them private and realized the sum of the part really were less the whole which is why they wanted to back out of their acquisition deal years ago.
Really great people get run out at Clear Channel.
Jim Mantel at WGAR got hosed. His #’s were great and they just cut him loose.
Brian & Joe had much better number at MIX 106.5 then what is on now.
I will ALWAYS believe they sent Chuck Collier to an early grave worrying about his status (he was a gem of a man) as his contract was coming up and he already saw the rest of the airstaff run off.
It doesn’t matter but it does
Cheaper air talent is better air talent in Clear Channel’s eyes.
And they blame the reason their overall TSL #’s are down and they blame it on alternative media.
That is correct.
They have/and continue to ruin radio talent… and do not care.
Just to clarify…106.5 is doing much better as “The Lake” than it ever did as “Mix”. The station has turned in solid #1or #2 25-54 numbers for over a year.
It’s sad that real people have to pay for the stupid mistakes made by companies run by idiots. Clear Channel, and its predecessors like Jaycor, paid millions for stations in markets that had no hope of billing that kind of money. The Evil Empire has ruined radio, almost certainly, beyond repair.
It can be a good thing to get Clear Channeled. When you buy too many stations at an overinflated price, the nut comes due and you can’t pay it, so you start “consolidating” positions (firings) within radio stations and they begin the big sell-off, for, guess what? A loss. Oh, how this evil empire disgusts me. Everybody knew this was going to happen when they started gobbling up stations with multiple ownership in many cities, i.e., Cleveland and just about every market in the US. I agree with you Schafe. Local ownership, if you can find it in radio, is the only way to go and life is better; trust me, I’m there. Stay away from corporate radio ownership for a job. You can lose it in a minute.
Joey Harper, don’t forget that your hometown of Akron is one of only two in the top-100 radio markets where Clearchannel didn’t claim at least 50-percent of the ad revenue.
Good riddance and long overdue. Frantz was horrible! I’m glad he’s gone.
NEXT ON THE LIST MOSTCERTAINLY SHOULD BE MIKE T. THE GUY WITH THE 10TH GRADE EDUCATION THAT SHOWS HIS IGNOTANCE EVERY DAY. GOOD RIDANCE TO BOB AND TAKE MIKE WITH YOU.
“Ignotance”, eh? Oh, and riddance has two D’s. Looks like Triv may be ahead of some high school grads after all! The rule on insulting someone else’s intelligence is to do so while sounding intelligent.
I saw Bob Frantz as the play all positions man at WTAM. He would do anything for them at any time. News, sports, talk. Nights, mornings, afternoon fill in when Triv has a hangover, even a Sunday show. What a work ethic. He may be too politically one-sided to eventually take the afternoon drive time but nights were a good slot. I can’t see Camino keeping the audience that Bob had. Doesn’t that matter to Clear Channel? Or advertisers?
You will be missed by many…you are intelligent and spoke the truth…a rare commodity in today’s society…this will end up being a blessing in disguise for you. Thanks for all your insight.
Bob called me a SOB during my call, and again after he hung up on me. Class act. That aside, the old 7/7/7 rule (a corporation could only own 7 AM 7 FM and 7 TV stations) was the correct approach. Bob’s demise was a result of corporate bean counters, the very philosophy he advocated.
Isn’t Nick that grammar impaired sports talk guy. Doesn’t know when to use “you and I” or “you and me” so he just always uses “you and I”.
I still say it was the Zack Reed put-down Bob Frantz did – it was ugly and uncalled for. I didn’t like hearing it one bit. ‘The Spew’ allows the participants to give their opinions and not be the subject of disparaging comments. I liked Frantz on the station but after hearing his Spew on Tuesday – the right action was taken.
I’m happy to see that the talk radio listening audience does care about how the English language is used. Triv mangles it and he just doesn’t care, so to me, he’s pandering to his sports audience who doesn’t care, either. Ignorance is bliss but I think in his case it may be stupidity or apathy. Yes, D, Miller, Akron is lucky to have local ownership, like Rubber City Radio, WNIR and WAPS, 91.3. Nothing like it. Not having to deal with corporate geeks is heavenly.