Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

McCoy back on airwaves

Matt McCoy back on the air

I’m told a familiar voice will soon be heard again in the Mobile market’s airwaves.

Sources tell Lagniappe Matt McCoy, longtime morning man for WABB-FM 97.5, will soon be taking the mic at Q100.

McCoy will be doing mornings for the Cumulus-owned station based in Pensacola. The station’s format is adult contemporary, but we’re told the format may be spiced up a bit when McCoy starts Aug. 18.

McCoy’s co-host is still to be determined. However, we’re told it will not be Jay Hastings, who was the other half of “Matt & Jay” at WABB. McCoy has been off the air since being let go from WABB over a year-and-a-half ago. In the interim he’s been teaching radio at the University of South Alabama.

We wish Matt luck in his new endeavor.

The Beaver has landed

If you like what you’re hearing on WABB-FM 97.5 after Aug. 18, you can give thanks to Beaver.

That’s Chris Smith, aka “Beaver,” who has been announced as the station’s new program director. Smith comes to the Mobile market from WERO-FM in New Bern-Jacksonville, N.C., where he’s been since 2004. There he served as assistant program director/music director. He’s also had stints at WDCG-FM in Raleigh-Durham and WAPE in Jacksonville, Fla.

“Chris’ passion for radio, creativity and strong people skills make him the perfect person to continue to enhance WABB’s strong presence in the Mobile market,” Betsy Dittman, general manager, said in a statement.

No word on how Smith got his nickname, though.

Wilson dies

Tom Wilson, the former owner of WDLT FM 98.3, died Aug. 1 in Metarie, La. His radio career was one many Mobilians may remember. Wilson, 59, also worked at WBLX in the ‘70s.

Wilson bought WDLT in 1992, changing from a light rock format, and eventually settling on the adult contemporary format that has made the station so popular for more than a decade. WDLT is routinely among the highest-rated stations in the Mobile market.

He sold WDLT in 1997, and the station is currently owned by Cumulus. Wilson also owned WQUA-FM in Citronelle.

Newhouse ends news service

If you need any more evidence of the awful state of affairs in the daily newspaper business nationwide, look no further than the end of the Newhouse News Service. NNS was founded in 1961 to provide content to the Newhouse company’s 26 daily newspapers – including the Press-Register.

Due to declining revenue, the company decided recently to scotch the NNS, which included the company’s Washington bureau. The service will end after the Nov. 7 election.

According to an article in Editor & Publisher, the decision was made after newspapers looked at their 2009 budgets and decided things were too bleak to continue paying for a Washington bureau.

NNS reportedly has 24 staffers, 11 of whom write for specific papers.

Strange bedfellows

Even if things are tough in the daily newspapers’ advertising departments, the Press-Register seems to be getting some help from an unexpected place – Boeing.

I’m sure this reporter isn’t the only one who noticed a full-page, full-color ad in the Aug. 7 P-R touting Boeing’s longstanding relationship with Alabama. This seems an interesting spending choice for the airplane giant considering the amount of blistering editorials the P-R has written during the ongoing tanker contract fight, not to mention the general attitude held by locals who think that Northrop/EADS plant needs to get up and running.

Can’t blame the P-R for taking the ad, it was just surprising Boeing thinks an ad is going to patch up their damaged reputation in this part of the world.

E-mail gone wild

In yet another fine example of how the Internet has changed us, the P-R recently was inadvertently dragged into one of the more ridiculous fights I’ve ever seen.

It seems a young P-R sales gal and some of her friends went to a local restaurant recently, and depending on whose side of the story you read, they were either rude to the owner or didn’t like their food, or both. The cops were called and soon thereafter the most forwarded e-mail of all time was born.

The young saleswoman recounted her version of events in an e-mail and sent it to everyone in the known world. And all of those people forwarded the message – completely unsure of whether even one word of it was true – to everyone in the known universe. We only received it here about 22,000 times.

But because the saleswoman chose to include her position at the P-R in the letter, and reportedly sent the message from a company computer, Publisher Howard Bronson and Advertising Director Larry Wooley were dragged into the melee. Not only were two saleswomen fired for sending the messages, but the P-R honchos met with the restaurateur and Wooley felt compelled to write a letter to just about anyone whose e-mail account he could find.

I still don’t see why the P-R felt it had any reason to be apologetic for the unauthorized actions of a couple of employees, but Wooley’s letter was rather strange and included a turn as a restaurant critic. In part, Wooley wrote, “The Mobile Press-Register in no way sanctions, authorized or believes any part of the description that was purported by our former employees. To the contrary, we have eaten at this establishment on numerous occasions and find it to be one of the best restaurants in Mobile.”

While the Well-Fed Reporter may have nothing to fear, this whole mess should serve as a warning to others – think twice before you send it out there into the ether. E-mail is forever.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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