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Worst firings in broadcasting

Topics of general interest that just don't fit anywhere else.
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MWmetalhead
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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Jun 30, 2022 10:02 pm

Larry Osterman was primarily known for his TV work with the Tigers telecasts on Ch 2, Ch 4, and then PASS.
Yes; Larry did play-by-play for the Tigers telecasts on PASS for a number of years. He also called many CCHA hockey games for the network. Did a fine job at both.

Someone mentioned WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids earlier. If we want to talk about West Michigan's worst firings, I'd have to say the brooming of the entire airstaff at 101.3 WCUZ-FM in the early/mid 90's to pave the way for a failed rebranding as "Country 101" tops the list.



paul8539
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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by paul8539 » Sat Jul 02, 2022 8:14 pm

WJRT firing Leslie Toldo. She want to another station, and then sued WJRT for discrimination. And won.



edj
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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by edj » Sun Jul 03, 2022 9:08 pm

WXYZ firing Ron Cameron of course. (couldn’t resist)



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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by format this » Tue Jul 12, 2022 3:50 pm

Here’s a good write up on Osterman: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/larry-osterman/


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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by moldyoldie » Wed Jul 13, 2022 3:01 pm

format this wrote:
Tue Jul 12, 2022 3:50 pm
Here’s a good write up on Osterman: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/larry-osterman/


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Thanks for this, Format, uh, This. :razz So Osterman was indeed fired from PASS before the '93 season. According to my Googling and increasingly vague recollection, he was replaced as play-by-play announcer on the broadcasts by Jim Price...and I distinctly remember Price being godawful doing it! :barf He's been tolerable as a color guy, but he had absolutely no PBP chops whatever. According to the SABR piece, Osterman's firing was called "a marketing decision". :shock:


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paul8539
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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by paul8539 » Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:54 pm

How about CBS cancelling Hogan's Heroes, Petticoat Junction, Gomer Pyle, Beverly Hillbillies, and Green Acres because some advertisers' products were not selling in the big cities, but were selling in the rural areas?



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Jul 31, 2022 1:12 pm

Thanks for the link to the informative article, format this.

Let's face it - he was fired because he was a leftover from the Fetzer era and Mike Ilitch wanted his (vastly inferior) buddy, Jim Price, on the air.

That move was disgraceful, in my opinion.

Thankfully, Ernie Harwell joined the TV booth a couple seasons later, if I remember correctly.



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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by Trophyhead » Thu Aug 04, 2022 1:50 pm

With Realist's contentions in mind, Lary Sorenson went on to call college baseball in the Carolinas.

Jim Price had been doing (PBP) the College World Series on ESPN TV for several years before showing up in Detroit. I spoke to him at a Tigers caravan as he started with PASS, he was very nice to me, which absolves nothing for what we listeners endure some 29 years later.



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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by Bobbert » Thu Aug 04, 2022 6:00 pm

paul8539 wrote:
Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:54 pm
How about CBS cancelling Hogan's Heroes, Petticoat Junction, Gomer Pyle, Beverly Hillbillies, and Green Acres because some advertisers' products were not selling in the big cities, but were selling in the rural areas?
That was the "rural purge" that wiped out all of those shows by 1971. That led to the era of edgier comedies like All in the Family, Maude, Bob Newhart, and the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Also, Hogan's Heroes wasn't a rural show, but audience tastes turned from that to the dark comedy of M*A*S*H, which started in 1972.

Here's a TV column from the Chicago Tribune of 2/10/71:

It will be another five or six weeks before the networks announce with blazing trumpets their plans for next fall, but already the sounds of music can be heard floating down from the executive suites.

At this point most of the music is funereal, signaling the impending demise of prime time programs on which the corporate ax will soon fall.

Most of the sad songs are emanating from CBS, where trends to "urbanization" and "youth" that were begun last fall will continue.

Apparently doomed are such hayseedy series as Green Acres, the Jim Nabors Show, Mayberry R. F. D. and Hee Haw, altho high ratings may win the last two a reprieve from the rural purge.



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Re: Worst firings in broadcasting

Post by Deleted User 15835 » Mon Aug 29, 2022 12:12 am

What Greater Media Did to the entire staff of 105.1 The Edge, firing everyone on Easter Sunday. That was cold.



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