You don’t hear many inside baseball on-air conversations about management that don’t result in a firing. When you produce great ratings at the 5th highest revenue generating station in America, you get a little more leeway.
Despite coming in as the 5th highest billing station in the country and producing great ratings for the company, Beasley Media Group recently fired ‘Toucher and Rich’ morning show producer Mike Lockhart. That didn’t sit well with co-host Rich Shertenlieb who took his grievance to management and tried to explain how important Lockhart was to the show.
Shertenlieb said the firing took everyone at the station by surprise. “Our show and the station couldn’t be doing any better. It’s literally a radio company’s dream come true.” Less than 24 hours after the revenue figures were announced, management pulled Mike Lockart into the office and fired him, to the shock of everyone on the show. “None of it made any sense to any of us,” Shertenlieb said.
Shertenlieb said management didn’t understand what Lockhart did. “When the sausage is good, nobody cares how the sausage is made. I plead my case to management about how essential Mike Lockhart is to the show.”
Shertenlieb also pointed out that there are other shows within Beasley, with lower ratings, that have the same staff size, and were not asked to let anybody go. Shertenlieb said the burden of the additional work, with Lockhart no longer there, would fall directly on him. Notes were taken from the meeting with management and phone calls were made but “the powers that be had said no.”
Shertenlieb said ten minutes later he knew what he had to do. Following days of meetings, Shertenlieb said, Lockhart is returning to the show “and I will be paying his full salary, plus the 38% markup that the company charged me for administrative fees.”
In return Shertenlieb said for the honor of paying Lockhart’s salary, the show is also required to write 4 articles per day for the station’s website. “But that was much better for some of the other things they were asking for.”
Shertenlieb said he’s no longer going to speak about the matter, but the bottom line is “we love Mike Lockhart.”
Listen to the audio of the Lockhart firing segment HERE.
Beasley stock less than a dollar?
A hot dog costs more than their stock.
They just got done firing all the clowns that ruined them. Too late though…
I never really understood why more hosts don’t do this as normal if they can afford to. I had a morning guy (very very big name – Marconi winner) work for me who paid ALL the people on the morning show. Traffic, news, sports, writers (3), sidekick, voice people (3), even a board op. They all worked for HIS company, and they had big ratings. If you’re the GM, try and mess with that. As in the entire show walks to another station, intact. Obviously he got paid big money and in a normal scenario that might have put a target on his back given the salary size. But with everyone contract locked to his company etc etc, no one in their right mind would mess with that. Again, given the ratings you’d be an idiot to want to in the first place. But totally controlling your own show and its pieces is very powerful.
How embarrassing for Beasley.