John Gambling
Posted on 03/03/2008 9:59:39 AM PST by neverdem
John Gambling
City radio veteran John Gambling is out - and Curtis Sliwa is in.
Gambling was fired from WABC, a victim of hard times at the station's parent company, Citadel Broadcasting.
Sliwa will get Gambling's 10 a.m. slot starting Monday. Also out is WPLJ afternoon host Rocky Allen.
Further changes seemed imminent following a scorched-earth fourth quarter financial report from Citadel CEO Farid Suleman.
There was no official announcement from WABC or Citadel that Gambling and newsman George Weber were dismissed, but company sources confirmed it. They said Sliwa will take over Gambling's 10-11:45 a.m. slot.
That's a prominent position on the station because Mayor Bloomberg is a live guest on the show every Friday. It was not immediately clear if Sliwa will host the mayoral segment.
Asked for comment, Bloomberg spokesman John Gallagher said: "The mayor thinks John Gambling is a class act and enjoyed spending Friday mornings with him."
Gambling and Weber were just two of numerous employees Citadel fired in several cities Friday. Citadel bought WABC (770 AM), WPLJ (95.5 FM) and most of Disney's other radio stations last year.
"The fourth quarter and the year was difficult for the broadcasting industry and the company," Suleman said in his year-end conference call. "The performance of the larger-market radio stations acquired in the ABC merger was particularly disappointing."
Suleman said he remained confident about long-term prospects, but promised "a major restructuring of these stations to both improve short-term profitability as well as position them for future growth."
Suleman's remarks seemed to place WPLJ on the firing line.
He said rival station WWFS (102.7 FM, "Fresh"), which began playing some of the same music as WPLJ last year, had delivered a devastating blow to WPLJ's advertising revenues.
Cash flow was "down over 50% on a 70% decline in revenues," he said.
WPLJ has long had modest ratings, but made a lot of money because it is popular with the "soccer moms" whom advertisers love to reach.
WPLJ was "totally repositioned because there was a void in our music programming, and 'Fresh' came in and provided a real good format alternative for people to go, all day," Suleman said. "We allowed that to happen. We're not going to do that going forward."
Reports that Sliwa would get Gambling's WABC slot began to surface last fall after WABC hired Don Imus for the morning show, displacing Sliwa and Ron Kuby.
Sliwa was kept on the payroll, reinforcing his image as WABC's ultimate survivor.
Gambling's ratings were solid, but he was vulnerable because he was the only purely local host in WABC's daytime lineup. The rest are syndicated national hosts who are harder to remove.
Sorry to hear about George Weber, but he might've guessed it was coming since the Imus program has its own newsguy, so Weber's hours were severely cut back.
Curtis w/o Kuby to balance him out can sometimes really veer off into looney-kazooney territory.
I have NEVER cared for Rocky Allen or his "show-gram". They'd be better off with music in the afternoon. I scan the dials when ABC is on one of its 10-minute commercial breaks (and no one interesting is on WOR either) and I rarely stop on PLJ in the afternoon.
Looks like he got a decent gig.
I always liked him.
Rush, Sean, Monica, Laura, Mark Levin and Mark Simone are the best on the WABC. I even like Andrew Wilkow when he does guest spots.
I agree - I was a loyal WABC listener, but this Imus thing has really ruined my mornings. I am proud to say that I have not heard more than one second - literally - of Imus on WABC, and that was by mistake. And now Gambling is gone? Awful.
I hated Ron Kuby’s views but Curtis without Kuby is a bore. (And Curtis seemed all too happy to get rid of him, although i assume he had no choice and was just making the best of the situation in which he found himself.) No wonder the station lost money - they paid Imus a mint and lost listeners!
Actually, WOR has a decent morning show, and Steve Malzberg in the afternoons. Michael Savage also, although I’m more of a Mark Levin fan.
Yes, the station will probably have more problems - it’ll get worse before it gets better, if ever.
I agree with much of what you said, but I’d try Steve Malzberg, on WOR from 4 to 6 pm.
I can’t imagine they’d keep Sliwa and fire Gambling. Maybe no one is listening in that time slot anyway and Curtis works cheap. I dunno.
“I liked him better, paired with Kuby.”
I’m sooooo bereft without Curtis & Kuby and their whole gang. I can’t believe how much fun it would have been listening to them during the slug fest the dems are having. Hey, the slug fest on our side too.
To me this is somewhat good news, at least I’ll have something to listen to when I get to work. Still don’t know what to do between 6 and 10, that’s for sure.
I may try and tune in William Bennet on the computer, I think I can do that since we have Sirius in the car.
I don't know much about John Gambling, but good for Curtis! Hope his new show is a success.
I never cared for Gambling. He is a “Bloomberg Republican”.
In other words...a fence sitter.
btw I couldn't stand her when she was NYC's First Lady either.:0)
I now tune into NJ 101.5, it's better than nothing and at times, it get's the blood boiling.
Limbo, Savage, Gambling, do these radio hosts have real names?
Heh. Strange kind of old alumni association!
Waking up and breakfasting to John Gambling the Elder
was an invariable weekday routine.
Long gone and far gone from NYC, gratefully.
Say, do you guys remember what a lucifer was
... and a fag, for that matter, when it was nothing like today’s?
Or John, Jr. coming on the air for experience when he’d be home
from Dartmouth on vacations?
Good times ... i s’pose.
People forget, during the darkest days of the Clinton years, Sliwa became a Clinton defender.
I suppose skirt-chasers rally to each others defense despite differences.
How else to explain that?
I listened to Gambling every day EXCEPT when Bloomberg was on each Friday. Then I tuned away. Bloomberg’s voice is unbearable, the ultimate nebbish whine.
Thanks, C. What a bloodbath!
I listened to Gambling every day EXCEPT when Bloomberg was on each Friday. Then I tuned away. Bloomberg’s voice is unbearable, the ultimate nebbish whine.
Maybe if Citadel hadn’t spent ten million on a mummy like Imus they wouldn’t be in this cash flow situation. When Imus tanks or ends up in an oxygen tent in six months Citadel will be the illustration in the dictionary for bad business decision.
Only one in a thousand New Yorkers know that. My compliments!
“Bloomberg’s voice is unbearable, the ultimate nebbish whine.”
Kinda like Liberace’s, but with a severe nasal congestion...
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