Gail Force Productions

These are from All Access online.

CUMULUS Hot AC KBBY (B95)/VENTURA PD/afternooner TODD VIOLETTE is part of the economic slowdown that’s sliding through the company.

TODD was formerly APD/MD at KZZO/SACRAMENTO, APD/MD at KRBZ/KANSAS CITY, and weekends at KIIS/LOS ANGELES

Shneek The Freak Out In Time For Halloween

CUMULUS Top 40/Rhythmic KVYB (THE VIBE)/VENTURA middayer SCHNEEK THE FREAK is out and looking for his next scary opportunity.

Two Exit KROC-A-F

Two more casualties of the CUMULUS layoffs have surfaced in ROCHESTER, MN, where Talk KROC-A morning co-host STEVE “SKOOP” SKOGEN and Top 40 KROC-F midday host MEGAN KENNEDY were laid off FRIDAY, according to the ROCHESTER POST-BULLETIN.

SKOGEN’s departure leaves RICH PETERSON and news anchor KIM DAVID continuing in mornings on KROC-A.

Cumulus Cuts Hayes

APD/MD/night jock DERRICK HAYES becomes the latest victim of CUMULUS budget cuts, as he exits Top 40 WZYP/HUNTSVILLE, AL

Todd Baker Exits Mornings At WWFF

Just six months after joining CUMULUS Country WWFF (93.3 THE WOLF)/HUNTSVILLE, AL, morning personality TODD BAKER is out as part of the CUMULUS cuts. Previously, BAKER was the afternoon personality at MT. WILSON BROADCASTING Country KKGO/LOS ANGELES.

Morning Producer TIM MICHAELS also exits.

Doug Harris Exits KTCX

CUMULUS Urban AC KTCX (MAGIC 102.5)/ BEAUMONT, TX PD DOUG “ST. JOHN” HARRIS exits, another product of budget cuts. HARRIS has been at the station since 2003. During that time the station remained at or near the top in market share.

ADRIAN SCOTT, who is APD/MD and also does middays, sews on temporary PD stripes. She and night slammer JAZZIE REDD will share the afternoon-drive shift.

Tony Banks And Others Out At WAOA, WHKR

CUMULUS Top 40 WAOA (WA1A)/MELBOURNE, FL PD/afternooner TONY BANKS exits over budget issues.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Cuts To The Bone In Dallas

There seems to be some under-the-radar staff cuts going on at CUMULUS Classic Rock KDBN (THE BONE)/DALLAS.

Weekends/swing guy PALADIN tells ALL ACCESS that he has been relieved of his duties. It also looks like night guy JEFF DAVIS is out and the station is opting for jockless programming during those shifts.

Cumulus Downsizing In Smaller Markets

Sources tell ALL ACCESS that some downsizing has hit the CUMULUS clusters in ROCKFORD, IL and the QUAD CITIES. Classic Rock WKGL/ROCKFORD afternoons BRIZZ, night-timer TYLER COX and News Dir. PAUL HANNIGAN are out, while Top 40 KBEA (B100)/QUAD CITIES PD STEVE FULLER and nights/imaging JESSE MITCHELL have left that building

Technorati Tags: Cumulus Cuts

I grabbed these off www.allaccess.com which is an online industry magazine. These are the latest firings from Cumulus. I guess it is good to know that it wasn’t just this market but is sad that so many fine people are out of work. And this list is just from the last few days. I didn’t feel like going into the last several weeks and finding all the people they let go. And it isn’t just Cumulus. It is all the big Corporate Radio companies that are slashing jobs.

Downsizing At Cumulus/Houston?

ALL ACCESS hears the budget cuts have made it to HOUSTON, with Adult Hits KHJK (JACK FM) PD DAVE DILLON out.

More details soon.

ALL ACCESS has learned that the budget axe has fallen at CUMULUS/TOLEDO, with nine layoffs so far, including Alternative WRWK morning host KEVIN MURPHY. We hear WRWK will now be music intensive – no jock at all; Country WKKO middayer BILL MANDERS, a 38 year TOLEDO radio vet; Oldies WRQN night slammer BUDDY CARR; Country WKKO night crawler CRAIG SNYDER, who’s been with WKKO since about 1988; Hot AC WWWM afternoon driver DAVE FULLER and morning producer/Promotions Asst RYAN YOUNG; Cluster Traffic Mgr. TIM MCMAHON; WXKR/WTOD/WLQR/WRWK Promotions Director TOM STAUDT and Sports WLQR pm drive host MATT MELZAK.

Some are reportedly being retained for part-time.

Re-alignment of duties reportedly has WWWM/WRQN PD RON FINN going from doing live middays on WRQN to voicetracking the shift, leaving FINN to team with WWWM host LYN CASYE for WWWM AM drive. CASYE will also VT nights on classic rock WXKR.

Three Exit Cumulus/Youngstown

CUMULUS/YOUNGSTOWN parted ways this morning with 3 veteran air personalities, Classic Rock WYFM (Y-103) night time legend DAVE MESSERSMITH is out after 23 years on the air, and Country WQXK (K-105) night jock BURTON LEE and morning show co-host K-MAN.

YESTERDAY Top 40 WHOT reportedly let all part time air staff go.

Will all 3 stations will now run syndicated programming in the evening?

CUMULUS Classic Rocker KSAN (107.7 THE BONE)/SAN FRANCISCO eight-year veteran PD LARRY SHARP exits his post. Sister AAA KFOG PD DAVE BENSON will assume his duties.

Yikes. You know that Cumulus and other companies won’t be filling these jobs. They will voice-track, syndicate or just run music with station jingles. As long as the shareholders still get their money they don’t really care about the folks who have been in these markets for nearly 30 years! I thought my 15 years was a lot.

As for me I made my first trip to the unemployment office today. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. With all the people who have been let go from their jobs this past week in Macon I thought there would be a pretty long wait. All in all I was there just over an hour and most of that time was spent filling out paperwork and then filling out an online form. I don’t really understand the need to fill out paper work and then do the same thing online but whatever. I was thinking that maybe I should get a job there since the gentleman that was supposed to be helping us was on the phone having a nice personal conversation. I was thinking does he think we are non-persons? That we are invisible and can’t hear him? He was so wrapped up in his conversation that I ended up helping one fellow fill out his online claim. I told him that it was first time there too but I would do what I could. So I pulled up a chair for a minute and walked him through some of the form. Maybe that got the guy off the phone because he hung up after that and started helping all of us that were confused as to what we were to do.

I am thinking that I am not going to qualify for much since I do work part-time. But at this point anything coming in is better than nothing. I find myself so hesitant to spend money. I had to buy gas today and was so thankful that the price has come down. I needed some groceries and went to Wal-Mart. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart. I don’t really know why. I think it is because it messes with my sense of order. Silly, I know but to me Wal-Mart is not orderly. It is too big, too busy and I just want to get in and get out. But I did find cereal that was cheap. Don’t buy it in the box, buy it in the resealable package. You get more and it is cheaper by nearly $2.00. Why is that? I can’t tell you the last time I have bought hotdogs but I bought them today. Well turkeydogs. Some veggies, milk, bread, eggs. You know, the basics. I seriously need to talk to Victoria. She still has a job with Cumulus and we have spent some time talking about how she shops smart. She uses coupons, discounts and she can buy 8 bags of stuff for the price of 3 bags of stuff. She needs to tutor me. I need to be tutored. I didn’t do to bad. I made it out of there for under 40 dollars.

Next week I am going to have to buckle down and really start looking for work. I have been auditioning for an on-line voice over company. You can audition for voice overs for radio ads, tv ads, website narrations, books on cd, things like that. I have got two jobs lined up. Yay for me! Hopefully I will pick up some more.

I have a friend who is trying to get some home improvement jobs lined up. He is good at ceramic tile, installing crown molding, chair rails, flooring. He has done work for me and we are going to try and line up some small jobs. I love doing small home improvement work. I love painting and designing a room. So he made up some cards and is going to pass them out. I even asked my neighbor if he would be interested in hiring me to scrape and paint the fascia around his house. It was rotting and he finally got it replaced about 5 months ago but he still hasn’t gotten it painted where new lumber was put up. So it is bare and exposed to the elements. I would be happy to do that job. For a fee.

So ends my first week of unemployment. I kind of took it easy this week although I was on the computer and auditioning for voice over jobs. Plus I went in every day to my part-time job. So thankful for Allen at COH for being so kind to me there and giving me some extra hours. I thank God that I have good people in my life. I have gotten so many nice comments on my myspace page from listeners. I appreciate that so much.

I guess if I get some time this weekend I will post Chapter 2 in my work biography. I have been reliving those days in my head for the past week. Now it is time to put them down on paper. Or in this case on the blog.

Do you have any money saving hints? I would love to hear them. Leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: Cumulus, jobs, shop smart, unemployment

Or…what do I really want to accomplish with this site.

I have to say thanks to my cousin Ken Gary. Ken is the one who built this site for me. It was a gift and a complete surprise. He sent me the link and when I opened it up and found this page I was pretty stunned. He told me to have fun with it and use it however I wanted. He is pretty sharp and has a great background in computer programming and has a ton of his own sites. So thank you Ken. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. So the past few days have been discovery days. I have been trying to discover how to use this site and trying to discover what I want to do with my life. For those of you who don’t know, on October 24th of this year, after working in radio for 30 years, 15 of them at WDEN in Macon, Georgia, I was released from my job due to Budget Cuts. It wasn’t just me. There were cuts in Cumulus markets all over the country. Along with me others cut in Macon were longtime WPEZ morning personality Paul McClelland, B95 night-time personality Zander and DJ Whiz from our Urban station Blazin’. So instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for myself I have been talking to others about what I want to do with my life and my career. This is when Ken decided to build me this website and that brings me to my “Mission Statement”.

My main goal is communication. I have always loved writing. It was a passion of mine when I was much younger. My mother encouraged me to write and to this day is still hoping that I will write a book. Instead of a book maybe it will be a blog. I am on a journey. I want to log the steps I am taking. I want to talk about the loss of not only a job, a career and a passion but also the loss of a bit of identity. Gail Daniels, mid-day personality on WDEN. That is who I have been for 15 years. 30 if you count all the stations before that. I have always believed that it wasn’t wise to get too caught up in the fact that you were on the radio. It could not become the most important thing. I knew that it could all end one day and if radio was the only thing that identified who I was, was the only way I felt validation in this world then I would not be able to carry on if it all ended. I think I did a pretty good job of remembering the important things in my life were what formed the nucleus of who am, my family, my faith, my belief that what I do as far as work is not what makes my life worth while.

So here I am. The day has finally come that I feared would come and it is time to see if I can walk the walk and talk the talk that I have been telling myself all these years. I am Gail Daniels but I am not “Gail Daniels”. Maybe by doing a daily blog I am just substituting one public persona for another. Possibly. But I have always shared my life on the air. I guess this is my way of still sharing. I may only have one reader, well two (thanks Tina and Dad!) but it will be my release and a way to chart the path I am on.

So. Communication is one element. Work is another. I have other selfish reasons for doing this blog. I want people to know I am available for voice work, voice talent, commercial voices, radio voices, on hold messaging, book narration, corporate narration, website narration, website training narration. Whatever need there may be for voice work I am available. I have my own home studio and equipment to do it. I can write and produce complete ads and if I can’t do what you need when first asked I will figure out how to do it. So work is pretty important.

I am also thinking about doing a daily entertainment report like I did on WDEN. I have the ability to write and record a short show and post it on this site. Maybe it won’t be daily but it might be something that will do a few times a week or once a week.

For now these are the things I will be concentrating on. Communicating my personal journey, finding work and comments about life in general. I hope you will join me and if you like what you are seeing please encourage others to check the site out.

Here’s to new beginnings.

Technorati Tags: book narration, narration, voice work, website narration

More Cumulus cuts - this time in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida & Alabama

Technorati Tags: Cumulus, Firings, radio

Press play below to listen to samples of my work.

My Commercial Work:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On Hold Messages:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Story Narration:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Commercial Demo:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Technorati Tags: Gail Daniels, Voice Over Demos

I thought I would pass this along. This is from a friend of mine that I used to work with back in the early 90’s when I worked at KIKK in Houston. I found it very interesting and you can bet I will be online listening to this news conference in November. He sent this letter to Jim Rose

*********************************************************
Hey Jim, are you aware that Cumulus Radio is hemorrhaging people? The last week or so has been really bloody in markets like Columbia, S.C., Topeka, KS, and Macon GA. Those are just places I’ve heard from longtime staffers who’ve been put on the beach because of budget cuts. For many of us who’ve stayed connected to the business long after we decided to bail on budget watchers who’ve carried the industry down the syndicated programming, “good-better-best” group ownership route, this is no surprise.

But while Cumulus has refused to discuss the reasons why entrenched, involved and engaged voices with at least a decade on the air in some markets are being pushed out the door with no advanced warning and without a chance to even say “See ya” to their listeners, the company is at least offering the general public a chance to listen in on their discussion with shareholders about their budget woes.

I offer the attached news release from the Oct. 27 business wire for your readers: ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cumulus Media Inc. (NASDAQ: CMLS <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=cmls&d=t> - News
<http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=cmls> ) will host a conference call on Thursday, November 6 at 11:00AM ET to review the Company’s third quarter 2008 financial results. The call will be open to the general
public on a listen only basis. A press release summary of the Company’s third quarter financial results will be issued at 7:30AM ET on November 6, 2008. The conference call dial-in number is 888-254-3609 for both domestic and international calls. Please call five to ten minutes in advance to ensure that you are connected prior to the presentation. The call also may be accessed via webcast at www.cumulus.com <http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.c> cumulus.com&esheet=5805665&lan=en_US&anchor=www.cumulus.com&index=1> .
Immediately after completion of the call, a replay can be accessed until 11:59PM ET, November 22, 2008. Domestic and international callers can access the replay by dialing, (888) 203-1112 pass code 8069142. Cumulus Media Inc. is the second-largest radio company in the United States based on station count. Giving effect to the completion of all pending acquisitions and divestitures, Cumulus Media Inc., directly and through its investment in Cumulus Media Partners, will own and operate 340 radio stations in 66 U.S. media markets. The Company’s headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia, and its web site is www.cumulus.com
<http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.c
cumulus.com&esheet=5805665&lan=en_US&anchor=www.cumulus.com&index=2> .
Cumulus Media Inc. shares are traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol CMLS.
> ——————-

Of course, even if you can’t ask questions, it might be interesting to Blog your observations. Perhaps e-mails to the right business news sites could stimulate good discussion about the dangers of dumbing
down the business to a few national voices and local cut-ins for traffic and weather in multiple day parts. The syndicators started with morning drive two decades ago, they’ve got afternoon drive in some big markets now… can middays really be that far behind. Sad to say, but board operators don’t need good pipes, and some of the rising syndicated talent I’ve heard recently can’t even pass the listenability standards many of our friends here had to meet to have a crack at anything besides overnight shifts. Success at stand-up comedy does not necessarily make for good radio… but that’s just my opinion.

Derrill E. Holly

Technorati Tags: budget cuts, Cumulus

Life changes, Nothing ever stays the same. So I am about to begin a new chapter in my life. All the chapters leading up to this one have been filled with great memories, sadness, happiness, adventure, mistakes, you know, all the things that make a story great.

Chapter One

My radio career began at the tender young age of 17. I worked from the time I was legally able. My first job was at River Forest Nursing Home. It was run by some sort of Mennonite group. My best friend in High School was already working there and convinced me that we would have “great fun” working together. So my weekends were spent clearing slop off the plates and trays of the residents of the home. First of all, the food that these folks got was nursing home food. For old folks. So it was soft, bland and not very pretty. If you thought it looked bad going out you should have seen it coming back in. I believe these poor souls were so unhappy that they were dumped into “the old folks home” that they took out on us lowly kitchen workers. Napkins were shoved down into the glasses with mashed potatoes dumped in on top of that. It was like a parfait of regurgitated food and paper.

Each tray had a small metal holder, like you would use at a party to designate the seating arrangements for your guest. You would put a pretty little card in the holder and everyone would ooh and ahh over how cute it was. Our card holders would hold the patients name card and all the dietary limitations that they had. After every meal we had to dig them out of oatmeal, eggs, squash, milk, coffee and potatoes again. They were laminated and we had to wash them off and stick them back into the holder for the next go round. I was 16. Not the romantic adventurous job I had in mind for my first foray into the working world. I will never forget the smell of urine and disinfectant that permeated that place.

One of the residents that I will always remember is Ike. Ike was somewhat senile. But he was still a randy old man. He had a cane that he used and anytime a pretty girl would walk by he would take that cane and smack her on the butt. Come to think of it she didn’t have to be pretty. We learned to stear clear from him and cling to the other side of the hall when he was making his way down it. He also had a tendency to let it all hang out on occasion too. If you know what I mean.

One bright spot in my day was talking to one elderly lady who still had it together. I wish I could remember her name. I think it may have been Olive. Both she and her husband were living in the facility. They weren’t in the same room. It seems the Mennonite woman frowned on that. Women in one wing, men in the other. But every waking hour those two spent it together. It was so sweet and it made me dream of having a love that would endure forever.

One thing that I did not want to endure forever was being a dishwasher at a nursing home. So I scoured the want ads. In my little town that would take about 10 seconds. Or less. But lo and behold I found something I thought I could handle. Being a dishwasher…..at the hospital! So I hauled myself up there after school one afternoon and applied. I didn’t have a car and getting use of the car was an act of congress. But the hospital was about a mile or so from school so I could walk every afternoon and my mother or someone would pick me up. I believed that this job would be much better than the nursing home. Wrong. Now when trays came back we not only got the food parfaits but syringes that nurses would forget to dispose of properly. This was before the AIDS epidemic so things were a little more lax. Band aids, Gauze, finger splints, whatever. It would end up on a tray for the dishwashers to take care of.

The hospital was old. The elevators were like something out of a horror movie. Well the staff elevator was. There was nice bright shiny one in the bright shiny lobby for guests to use. I dreaded having to ride that thing upstairs and down. It was dark. The hallway TO the elevator was dark. What was worse was having to go down to the basement to get supplies. Dish washing soaps, towels, cleaning supplies. Another horror movie set. Dark and mysterious. I always thought there might be dead bodies down there. The morgue. But to be honest I have no clue. And since the hospital only had something like 50 beds the chances that there Zombies were running rampant in the basement hallways were pretty slim.

My hospital bright spot was a boy. I don’t remember his name. I remember he was cute. You know, the important stuff. Unlike the nursing home the dish washing area was in a separate room off the kitchen. He and I would have water fights with the spray nozzles. We would laugh ’til we cried and the “mature” women in the kitchen would roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders and then ignore us.

The hospital is where I first learned to wrap baked potatoes in aluminum foil to keep them from drying out. Hey were talking 1976-77 here.

But even then the economy fell and I got laid off. It was back to the nursing home. Part-time. So in what would become a lifetime habit of mine I got a second job working at Jim Vetter Ponitac Buick as a receptionist/bookkeeper. For some silly reason they wanted me to help out with bookkeeping. I had to enter figures into a ledger. Me. The queen of transposed numbers. Then they expected me to reconcile it. Me. The queen of bounced checks. Ok..again. This was before everyone used computers that did all that for you. Needless to say I did all my entries in pencil. Eventually they threw up their hands and just had me on the phones. It was at this time that I had my first clue that I had voice people liked to hear. I would have great conversations on the phone with customers who called and who would tell me how much they enjoyed listening to me talk. I had so many compliments that I thought I always wanted to be receptionist.

So I was working part-time at the car dealership and part-time at the nursing home when the full-time position of cook came open at the home. I was offered the job since I had been pretty much doing all the cooking when I was there anyway. I was just out of high school 17 years old and I thought it sounded like a pretty good move for me but I wanted to see what else might be out there so I checked the help-wanted ads in the paper and saw an entry that intrigued me. Our local radio station, WLKM, was looking for part-time weekend help. Now this sounded like fun. Much better than poached eggs, dry toast and the other “gourmet” dishes I was cooking up. So I drove out to the studio on the outskirts of town and applied for the job.

I was taken into a studio, a mic was placed in front of me and I was given some news copy to read. I recorded it on a reel to reel machine and I was fascinated by the big black board with all the knobs, switches and dials. I loved the sound it made when you clicked the mic toggle switch. “SNAP”. I was hooked.

Amazingly, they took a chance on a 17 year old girl with no experience and hired me. It was a whole new world.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 coming soon.

Technorati Tags: biography, jobs, radio