| General Non-Fiction posted June 9, 2009 | Chapters: |
...6 7 -8- 9... 
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Longstanding personalities and workers.
A chapter in the book Performance Problems -Production
The Rocks Behind 98 & Hearst-Argyle
by Mike K2
98ROCK is still blessed with one of its original personalities, Sarah Fleischer. She was there when the station first went on the air March 28, 1977 and that was her second radio gig, where she has been happy ever since. Before that, she learned radio at the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland and then worked for a year at WMAR-Music. She was also born and raised in Baltimore.
Though she is also known as the, "Queen of 98," I consider her more as the rock behind the station, and she plays the music in the morning, which she has done from the start. In a sense, she is easily overlooked as she plays the music for the mid-morning to afternoon time slot. I asked her if she wanted to become a more prominent personality such as the participating in the morning show.
Sarah's demeanor reinforced her answer, "No way! It just doesn't suit my personality. I'm not that chatty, as I am more to the point. I am a more music intensive person and what I am doing now suits me the best." The mid- morning consists of 98ROCK Blocks and the Music Hair Ball and even plays more of the rock classics that I grew up with.
I also mentioned that I noted that her show doesn't credit a producer. Sarah states simply, "No, I don't have one as they aren't necessary for me and I enjoy doing that work myself." Even with Sarah's show, there is caller interaction; music requests, contest participants, occasionally others.
Not all listeners are nice to her. At an event she offered a coworker a bumper sticker and well imbibed co-worker said things like he would rather die, than have anything to do with 98ROCK; -at the time he was a country person. Being a curious statement she had to ask why and this led to him delightfully ridiculing her.
She took it in stride, by making a funny face, blowing some air and laughing. She recently received an off air call and the caller referred to her as a, "Bitch!" The call received on air mention and the way she discussed this was curt and humorous. The next several calls ridiculed the person and got Sarah nothing but compliments. It is obvious that Sarah, the person behind the microphone always has the last laugh. Sarah Fleischer's enthusiasm and enjoyment always comes through.
Baltimore has always had a few stations to where personalities have enjoyed long careers in Baltimore. I think the number one reason is their respective listenership, which has a high number of faithful listeners and gets higher advertiser dollars as a result. They also seem to be willing to give a better quality of life to its personalities and the people behind the scenes.
In my mind, Sarah is a rarity in basically staying with one station for so long and I feel that both Sarah and the station has benefited from that, not to mention the listeners. The title of show host or disk jockey has a certain celebrity value, but in many cases, it can be a minimum wage job or have very long hours. It is not uncommon for a lasting personality to be a host, producer for another show and the program director. At times, this affects the quality of that programming. Many also work a second job in order to make enough to remain in radio as a primary occupation.
Another problem that radio stations can have is keeping a certain amount of faithful listeners. The main reason is due to change as there is a desire to capture immediate advertiser dollars. Where I am employed, there was another station that had changed its format to rock and since many people felt that 98ROCK had moved to playing too much modern rock switched the shop radio over. It seemed indeed that the radio would remain forever, in a short while; the station changed its format.
Not all of 98ROCK's competition had the same spirit. One radio station changed its self-advertising to be a, stated direct head to head competitor to 98ROCK. Even within the stations advertising they said, "We're not like that other radio station... We have less talk in the mornings, unlike that other rock station." Other claims were even more fervent.
98 ROCK handled it all in stride and even humorously touted their selves as, "We are that other radio ROCK station!" Or, "We don't need to compare ourselves to any other station." There was even some interestingly spirited talk by the hosts in conversation, "We give you what you want; not what WE think you want." I actually felt that the competition actually bolstered the pride of not only the 98Rock radio station, but its faithful listeners and yet, there was no mean-spiritedness with any competition.
That station actually, in a relatively short time, suddenly and shockingly changed it formatting to a Spanish speaking one. In a sense, 98ROCK gloated a bit and even encouraged listeners to switch over to help them out and since they weren't competitors any more, even aired their programming to satisfy their disbelief. Mickey was fascinated with this for a short time.
In one respect, 98ROCK comes off as a fun loving and dysfunctional family, which makes it easier to forget the mega-corporation aspect of it. I think the fundamental aspect to all of their Baltimore stations successes is that they give plenty of room for each station to develop to the best of its ability and also not only to retain their talent, but retain many of the people who work behind the scenes.
Even within 98ROCK there are hints of them being part the Hearst-Argyle Corporation. There is infrequent mention of their real big boss, known as Big Ed and calls from Dave Hill, the program director as he calls the 98ROCK morning show in route to his business trip in New York. But on a day to day basis, the big corporation lets the facets of the empire run themselves.
Steve Rouse who is now retired does fill-ins for the various 98ROCK personalities as well as WBAL Radio personalities and has a weekend radio show. Visiting on the morning show, he mentioned that over the years, he was four or five separate morning show personalities including my favorite, Glen Burnout. He still does a weekend show on WBAL.
WBAL has had its own long standing personalities; in all departments as its format is; talk, news and sports oriented. One such person was Allen Prell who many years ago retired. I could never figure out how he wasn't canceled; he had a higher pitched squeakier voice, unconventional and liberal. I found it amazing beyond belief that a 50,000 watt blowtorch, would permit a segment known as, "Honest Al's Yard Sale." Where callers would call to sell the wares they no longer wanted.
I guess the answer is that everyone tuned in, even when I listened to other stations, I would listen for a while to find out what the man had to say next. Also, it is a credit to a good host that listeners also develop a desire to keep track of other call in listeners.
Ron Smith is another example of a long standing host and has been on the air in his afternoon time-slot since I started listening at work in 1984. Ron worked on Wall Street in the financial and then went over to Television News, becoming an anchor. A fellow worker went to WBAL to become a producer and then invited Ron down to try his hand at radio. Which he has done ever since.
Ron is more independent and has the ability to have the listeners consider more than the average host. I love it as people ask him how they can become as smart as him, Ron simply replied, "That's simple, I read a lot." I feel he is one of the most complete and up to date host's as he maintains a working knowledge of many facets such as history, human nature, philosophies, and also common sense.
In the Iraq war, he felt that we shouldn't be headed over there and gave his logic point, by point. To be honest, I believed that what he stated was most likely the realistic way things that would happen and progress. The difference between him and me is that I felt that we had no choice and needed to shoulder the burden and responsibilities. It irritated me to the largest extent when the American People labeled it Bush's War and felt that we didn't belong there. To be successful at anything, one needs a long memory and commitment.
In the AM talk radio world, competition is a bit different. There is another talk station know as WCBM-680. At one time, a family owned enterprise; they too have their own long standing personalities. While both have their tongue and cheek comments about the other, they don't really try to go head to head as far as the listenership.
The best example of this is that on either side, they generally don't take callers about other talk show hosts, within the station or without. One there is no need to disrespect the other and with the time constraints, they want to keep callers on topic. Even when they have a more, free- wheeling segment, this is kept to a minimum and discouraged. From time to time, one host may mention something as a point of reference, something another host has talked about or worked on. In AM there is also a mix of media as a few also are columnists.
WBAL-TV also has its own stories; they picked up Jayne Miller as another TV station decided not to renew her contract as they felt that she had become too old to continue to make TV appearances. WBAL had no problem picking her up. I remember discussion about this and WBAL-TV had the logic, well if men can be allowed to age as an anchor, woman should be able to as well.
That stations loss war really WBAL's gain and Jayne Miller definitely lent her talent to the station. I remember on caller saying something and Amelia saying, "You better be careful with that one; you don't want to get the watchdog, Jayne Miller on you." Jayne Miller is part of the I-Team.
Whether we are talking about 98ROCK, WBAL, WBAL-TV or Hearst-Argyle, I feel that they should be commended; especially in today's world, for allowing various talents to develop and be slow changing enough that whether a personality or worker, behind the scenes they can enjoy a long and successful career provided you are willing to work hard.
One other notable thing is the amount of pride and enjoyment that all of the employees have shown me. The one's that have stayed there throughout their career are appreciative to both their station and Hearst-Argyle Entertainment. I find that uncommon and something the listeners and viewers benefit from.
98ROCK is still blessed with one of its original personalities, Sarah Fleischer. She was there when the station first went on the air March 28, 1977 and that was her second radio gig, where she has been happy ever since. Before that, she learned radio at the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland and then worked for a year at WMAR-Music. She was also born and raised in Baltimore.
Though she is also known as the, "Queen of 98," I consider her more as the rock behind the station, and she plays the music in the morning, which she has done from the start. In a sense, she is easily overlooked as she plays the music for the mid-morning to afternoon time slot. I asked her if she wanted to become a more prominent personality such as the participating in the morning show.
Sarah's demeanor reinforced her answer, "No way! It just doesn't suit my personality. I'm not that chatty, as I am more to the point. I am a more music intensive person and what I am doing now suits me the best." The mid- morning consists of 98ROCK Blocks and the Music Hair Ball and even plays more of the rock classics that I grew up with.
I also mentioned that I noted that her show doesn't credit a producer. Sarah states simply, "No, I don't have one as they aren't necessary for me and I enjoy doing that work myself." Even with Sarah's show, there is caller interaction; music requests, contest participants, occasionally others.
Not all listeners are nice to her. At an event she offered a coworker a bumper sticker and well imbibed co-worker said things like he would rather die, than have anything to do with 98ROCK; -at the time he was a country person. Being a curious statement she had to ask why and this led to him delightfully ridiculing her.
She took it in stride, by making a funny face, blowing some air and laughing. She recently received an off air call and the caller referred to her as a, "Bitch!" The call received on air mention and the way she discussed this was curt and humorous. The next several calls ridiculed the person and got Sarah nothing but compliments. It is obvious that Sarah, the person behind the microphone always has the last laugh. Sarah Fleischer's enthusiasm and enjoyment always comes through.
Baltimore has always had a few stations to where personalities have enjoyed long careers in Baltimore. I think the number one reason is their respective listenership, which has a high number of faithful listeners and gets higher advertiser dollars as a result. They also seem to be willing to give a better quality of life to its personalities and the people behind the scenes.
In my mind, Sarah is a rarity in basically staying with one station for so long and I feel that both Sarah and the station has benefited from that, not to mention the listeners. The title of show host or disk jockey has a certain celebrity value, but in many cases, it can be a minimum wage job or have very long hours. It is not uncommon for a lasting personality to be a host, producer for another show and the program director. At times, this affects the quality of that programming. Many also work a second job in order to make enough to remain in radio as a primary occupation.
Another problem that radio stations can have is keeping a certain amount of faithful listeners. The main reason is due to change as there is a desire to capture immediate advertiser dollars. Where I am employed, there was another station that had changed its format to rock and since many people felt that 98ROCK had moved to playing too much modern rock switched the shop radio over. It seemed indeed that the radio would remain forever, in a short while; the station changed its format.
Not all of 98ROCK's competition had the same spirit. One radio station changed its self-advertising to be a, stated direct head to head competitor to 98ROCK. Even within the stations advertising they said, "We're not like that other radio station... We have less talk in the mornings, unlike that other rock station." Other claims were even more fervent.
98 ROCK handled it all in stride and even humorously touted their selves as, "We are that other radio ROCK station!" Or, "We don't need to compare ourselves to any other station." There was even some interestingly spirited talk by the hosts in conversation, "We give you what you want; not what WE think you want." I actually felt that the competition actually bolstered the pride of not only the 98Rock radio station, but its faithful listeners and yet, there was no mean-spiritedness with any competition.
That station actually, in a relatively short time, suddenly and shockingly changed it formatting to a Spanish speaking one. In a sense, 98ROCK gloated a bit and even encouraged listeners to switch over to help them out and since they weren't competitors any more, even aired their programming to satisfy their disbelief. Mickey was fascinated with this for a short time.
In one respect, 98ROCK comes off as a fun loving and dysfunctional family, which makes it easier to forget the mega-corporation aspect of it. I think the fundamental aspect to all of their Baltimore stations successes is that they give plenty of room for each station to develop to the best of its ability and also not only to retain their talent, but retain many of the people who work behind the scenes.
Even within 98ROCK there are hints of them being part the Hearst-Argyle Corporation. There is infrequent mention of their real big boss, known as Big Ed and calls from Dave Hill, the program director as he calls the 98ROCK morning show in route to his business trip in New York. But on a day to day basis, the big corporation lets the facets of the empire run themselves.
Steve Rouse who is now retired does fill-ins for the various 98ROCK personalities as well as WBAL Radio personalities and has a weekend radio show. Visiting on the morning show, he mentioned that over the years, he was four or five separate morning show personalities including my favorite, Glen Burnout. He still does a weekend show on WBAL.
WBAL has had its own long standing personalities; in all departments as its format is; talk, news and sports oriented. One such person was Allen Prell who many years ago retired. I could never figure out how he wasn't canceled; he had a higher pitched squeakier voice, unconventional and liberal. I found it amazing beyond belief that a 50,000 watt blowtorch, would permit a segment known as, "Honest Al's Yard Sale." Where callers would call to sell the wares they no longer wanted.
I guess the answer is that everyone tuned in, even when I listened to other stations, I would listen for a while to find out what the man had to say next. Also, it is a credit to a good host that listeners also develop a desire to keep track of other call in listeners.
Ron Smith is another example of a long standing host and has been on the air in his afternoon time-slot since I started listening at work in 1984. Ron worked on Wall Street in the financial and then went over to Television News, becoming an anchor. A fellow worker went to WBAL to become a producer and then invited Ron down to try his hand at radio. Which he has done ever since.
Ron is more independent and has the ability to have the listeners consider more than the average host. I love it as people ask him how they can become as smart as him, Ron simply replied, "That's simple, I read a lot." I feel he is one of the most complete and up to date host's as he maintains a working knowledge of many facets such as history, human nature, philosophies, and also common sense.
In the Iraq war, he felt that we shouldn't be headed over there and gave his logic point, by point. To be honest, I believed that what he stated was most likely the realistic way things that would happen and progress. The difference between him and me is that I felt that we had no choice and needed to shoulder the burden and responsibilities. It irritated me to the largest extent when the American People labeled it Bush's War and felt that we didn't belong there. To be successful at anything, one needs a long memory and commitment.
In the AM talk radio world, competition is a bit different. There is another talk station know as WCBM-680. At one time, a family owned enterprise; they too have their own long standing personalities. While both have their tongue and cheek comments about the other, they don't really try to go head to head as far as the listenership.
The best example of this is that on either side, they generally don't take callers about other talk show hosts, within the station or without. One there is no need to disrespect the other and with the time constraints, they want to keep callers on topic. Even when they have a more, free- wheeling segment, this is kept to a minimum and discouraged. From time to time, one host may mention something as a point of reference, something another host has talked about or worked on. In AM there is also a mix of media as a few also are columnists.
WBAL-TV also has its own stories; they picked up Jayne Miller as another TV station decided not to renew her contract as they felt that she had become too old to continue to make TV appearances. WBAL had no problem picking her up. I remember discussion about this and WBAL-TV had the logic, well if men can be allowed to age as an anchor, woman should be able to as well.
That stations loss war really WBAL's gain and Jayne Miller definitely lent her talent to the station. I remember on caller saying something and Amelia saying, "You better be careful with that one; you don't want to get the watchdog, Jayne Miller on you." Jayne Miller is part of the I-Team.
Whether we are talking about 98ROCK, WBAL, WBAL-TV or Hearst-Argyle, I feel that they should be commended; especially in today's world, for allowing various talents to develop and be slow changing enough that whether a personality or worker, behind the scenes they can enjoy a long and successful career provided you are willing to work hard.
One other notable thing is the amount of pride and enjoyment that all of the employees have shown me. The one's that have stayed there throughout their career are appreciative to both their station and Hearst-Argyle Entertainment. I find that uncommon and something the listeners and viewers benefit from.
I would like to thank Sarah Fleischer personally for, not only her assistance in this chapter in providing information about her career, but also for the speed at which she replied. Making my time easier and chapter more complete.
When Mickey and Amelia first joined Spiegel; at the end of the show Amelia announced, "Coming up next is the Queen of 98ROCK Sarah Fleischer. I yelled out, "Oh! Come on!" Coworkers just laughed. Now in my mind, she not only fittingly holds the title, but I also consider her a rock as well. At the Fells Point Festival, I asked Dave Hill the program director about facts in reference to Lopez, he advised me to contact Sarah Fleischer as she is considered the, "Impromptu Historian of 98ROCK." He help was not only invaluable but expedient as well. In talking to the various personalities, one quickly gains a sense of just how much they love radio and that really comes through. One reviewer asked me how they are personally and I made the comment that they enjoy what they are doing and love their listeners, but there are time constraints and they do need to enjoy their personal time. There is more to radio then speaking into the microphone, there are also appearances which will be included in the last chapter. To me she is also the station's balance point as she lends her warm personality and grace to mix of personalities.
My all time favorite was Glen Burnout and it was a trip as we listened, we joked that if they hire him, we will always find a job at 98ROCK. I was let down to find out that he was just an invented personality as I really thought he was real. It does explain why when met him at an event in Baltimore's Inner Harbor; when I said to him, "Glen, I am really happy that 98ROCK hired a person like you."
He replied, "Oh come on! Look, there a long line and your have to move on. Here, have another bumper sticker." In the end, it reinforced in my mind that I should have the ability of being an assortment of performing poets. I have so much fun and really, it has aided in developing the expanse of my poetic writings.
Outside of a few Email exchanges, Ron Smith doesn't know me. In fact I know more about him personally though a friend. To me he is a top notch individual and excellent person. His name does come up and his outside of radio life, matches that as his on air personality.
In one case, a friend and fellow adult scout leader was unknowing near his house firing their AK-47's. This is more or less a paraphrase, but Ron Smith walked up to them and said, "I just have to see what I heard. "Yep, that's the same damned gun they shot at me with in Nam."
That lead one of the people to mention, "You know you sound familiar?" My friend not only enjoyed their conversation, but driving home talked about the fact that their boss also enjoys Ron and maybe he will advertise on his show. I always laugh when I hear Ron do their spot.
Just on last interesting tid-bit between WBAL and WCBM. I remember the big deal with WCBM converting to 50,000 watts and also procuring the Rush Limbaugh Show. Since then, the show has changed stations a coulpe of times through contractual changes, but Rush has always been able to maintain a slot in the Baltimore market.
© Copyright 2024. Mike K2 All rights reserved.
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