The Herald’s Jessica Heslam says that Howie Carr, back from vacation, will resume his show on WRKO Radio (AM 680) today at 3 p.m. We’ll see. It’s almost unheard-of for a radio station to allow a disgruntled host who says he’s leaving to remain on the air. I’d guess that it’s equally likely Carr will be kept on ice until his contract situation is resolved.
The subhead on Adam Reilly’s column in the Phoenix today is “Why WRKO should cut Howie loose.” But based on Reilly’s conclusions, it might as well have been “Why cutting Howie loose will be a big honking disaster for WRKO.”
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I was really looking forward to Adam’s take on all of this. The guy is great, straight to the point and irreverant. Keep it up, Adam.But Just when I start to get underwhelmed by his take on the WRK-fiasco for lack of a punch there, I come across the “Jacobson Mystique” and I regain hope.”As someone who grew up elsewhere, I’ve never fully wrapped my head around the extreme affection so many Bostonians seem to have for outgoing WCVB anchor Natalie Jacobson.”Right on, Adam. Now if we can also write another similar column and replace ‘Natalie’ with ‘David Brudnoy’, that would close the circle.Natalie is a great lady. She honest, likeable, very smart, a solid journalist but her superstar status always baffled me. A bit overrated for the work she actually churned out the last couple of years.I was expecting this to have happened when Ed Harding was moved to the evening broadcasts. As far back as 2000, she was doing high profile national personality interview but she has taken a much lower profile and I don’t know why, especially after her seperation. It seemed she just wanted to come in and do the 6pm show and clock out. Not up for anything else. (no Red Sox puff gigs, please)In contrast, Chet seemed to be more relaxed after moving to Necn and thriving over there. His interviewing skills and warm sane personality comes across a lot better. Having him ‘read’ the news was sterile in comparison. I hope to see Natalie do less frequent but more meaningful gigs like high-profile interviews and investigative series that take longer to prepare than MacNews half hour shows. Her talent needs to be showcased.Two great people and we wish them the very best.The Globe propping women just for the sake of propping women is so self-destructive and idiotic and etrimental to women’s credibility not be given special treatment. There is no shortage of great women but how they harp on it is a turn off after a while. This is akin to the puff piece on Julie Kahn and how she is oh-so-powerful and so keen to shepherd young woemn in her field. (For what, the unemployement filing lines?)Or the many puff pieces about the ‘sorely missed’ old commish. This is where the Globe can fall legitemately to the ‘social engineering’ charge. It reeks of desperation. The Globe’s mission is to really give a true assessment of public people in politics and entertainment etc. It is truly great to have a leading woman anchor. It is great to have a woman in male-dominated radio. It is great to have a woman commish in almost all-male police ranks. But let their careers and talents speaks for themselves. They are a success story already if they got there on their own merit. We don’t need the Globe to polish their image and elevate and praise them. The biggest problem is that now, the Globe is NOT going to fall hard on Julie and really give readers a true assessment of the situation and her performance. They will not compare Natalie to other media personalities and compare performance and impact in an honest way to readers. And they surely NEVER came hard on the Commish before she bolted in embarrassement. …and it’s because they hamstring themselves with these puff pieces and forget about the ‘warts-and-all’ part that they really are paid to keep an eye on.N.
Well, as predicted by many….He came.He read the bosses’ statement.He played along for now to keep the last drips of money flowing to RKO.To snark or not to snark…..too hard to resist.Adam was right like others who predicted that keeping an employee under the gun is not good for business. It is going to be a joke and a masquerade.We shouldn’t complain: This is going to be fun radio for listeneres but a big hit to Entercom and WRKO’s reputation. It will go down in History as one of Boston’s most ridiculous moments.Is everyone sweating or is it just me?Actually there is another bright side to the story: we mostly complain that radio and media type don’t practice what they preach. Well Howie has proved to be an exception; he showed he can definitely practice something he often does (ludicrous) shows about: the old “Chew-N-Screw”Boy, we are going to miss the “Death Pool” ughhh great radio. It’s less a reflection on him than on the idiots participating. (Come on take it easy now, finish your fifth beer before you dial…there is still another one left in the six pack…)N.PS : Courtesy of WEEI’s the Big Show WeinerWhiner Line yesterday:”Too bad Howie and Jason couldn’t work that issue out and see eye to belt buckle.”
There was never any doubt that Howie would show up — he wants to get paid. But I’m really surprised that WRKO didn’t send him home.
I agree , Adam is a great reporter.It’s a shame his talent is wasted at the Phoenix. Lets hope the Globe Or Herald snaps him up.
Rick: What a ridiculous comment. There is no better venue in Boston to do media reporting than the Phoenix. That’s why Mark Jurkowitz returned from the Globe to the Phoenix. As for the Herald, they do a nice job with media, but who wants to spend his life writing four-inch stories?
Dan,The Phoenix is the paper that is free? With ads for prostitutes? Just my opinion but I think it’s a rag. And all rags have first class reporters as Adam definitely is.
The Phoenix is a GREAT newspaper – and a pretty good Web site – with a track record of finding great journalists and helping them grow. This, eventually, leads them to other, bigger newspapers. Some may not like the fact that there is some objectionable advertisers. But the front section of that paper is the best there is.