Sunday, 27 April 2008

After leaving WRIF Drew Lane is pondering his options Detroit Free Press

Other editions Mobile News Feeds E Newsletters Subscribe to the Free Press Find it Jobs Cars Real Estate Apartments Shopping Classifieds Sponsored by Your browser s security settings are preventing some features from appearing. See instructions for fixing the problem. After leaving WRIF Drew Lane is pondering his options By JOHN SMYNTEK FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER April Print this page E mail this article Share this article Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine What s this Drew Lane longtime Detroit morning radio personality answers key questions Thursday about his departure from WRIF FM . . QUESTION How are you holding up It s been a tough week. ANSWER I m okay. I can t even describe how much stress I felt Tuesday and Wednesday. It s so weird not just being able to turn on a microphone and explain yourself. Q When might that happen A Well I called to find out if I could get on the WRIF Morning Show Wednesday to challenge some things that were being suggested. Part of me kne! w it was a bad idea I m one person they have several people who are part of the show. At the same time I knew there were listeners who would believe what I had to say. I assumed WRIF would say Sure because not only did they have a numbers advantage but if the situation was reversed I would ve done it in a heartbeat. Why Because who in the world would turn off the station if you teased that the P Oed guy who resigned was coming up to talk about his departure However you have to be in a comfort zone on the air and if something is outside of that you re a fool to do something. If that s where they were they made the right decision. I m just a ratings hog who thinks Will people want to hear this Even if the audience gets a little upset with you you have to remember they ve been your loyal friend for years and they ll get over it. But right now it might be awhile until anyone hears from me. I need to let this week s frustrations pass. Q Are you still angry at your former show ma! tes A No of course not. One dispute doesn t erase years of the joyride and success we had. It s almost incredible how few arguments we had during that time. We were too busy laughing and enjoying the success. Q When you originally wanted to move the entire show to afternoons was it really just burnout A Yes for the most part. It s also true that when people expect you and pay you to be No. that can creat agonizing pressure. Actually I wanted to change the whole dynamic and give the show a new challenge for an afternoon audience. At the same time WRIF has an afternoon personality who has been there years. Arthur Penhallow . I would hate to be the guy blamed for pushing him out. Even if he went to WCSX Ken Calvert could go. Ken has very good ratings is a good talent and a friend. I will say though that possibilities were discussed and I took them seriously. In my last conversation with Greater Media I was begging them to announce my departure and I can honestly say I think they either didn t believe me or they thought I d lost my mind over Tess ! his fiancee Tess Schuster health and once she felt better I d be game for mornings. Q What were the mechanics of moving to afternoons A I had offered the entire morning show to come with me in my new venture. I had set aside money to pay the lower rung show members for a couple months off turn off the phones recharge write down new ideas etc. Mike Clark was cool with it but somewhere along the line he figured there would be a pay cut and changed his mind. He said he couldn t sleep not knowing what his next job would be. WRIF was my th radio station and I knew with our ratings numbers people the beancounters would fight for us. Mike Clark and other show members have primarily worked only for WRIF so there s a comfort zone there. I admire his bravado to take on the morning show without a year partner. Self confidence is a good thing. I m not motivated by money and I m sure some of that comes from the generous paychecks I got at WRIF. Honestly though I still don t think of mys! elf as a wealthy person. I still remember being five years out of college making a week with no health or car insurance. I feel guilty not getting a paycheck. Q You say you told Greater Media officials Dec. you wouldn t be back and they delayed making that public. A web posting Thursday removed later in the afternoon said it was accepted this week. So when did you cease being an employee A They know the truth. I know the truth. It was Dec. at the Townsend Hotel. I don t want to continue a big ugly mess over this. I would like to say though that they were extremely kind when Tess got sick and I first went off the air. Tom Bender the former GM now in charge of Greater Media s internet and digital operations was really the first person I could talk to who understood what I was going through. I worked three months following the diagnosis and never let down my work ethic. In retrospect that was stupid. I should ve just resigned immediately last September. I knew I was leaving and if I returned it would ve been so brief it would ve just interrupted ! what they were trying to do long term. I should say though that when I first went off the air in September for a month or so I thought I d comeback work a couple of months and say goodbye. Q Would you ever work at WRIF again A Never say never but the impression I get is that it s mornings or nothing. I informed them that I was talking to Mr. Skin Jim McBride based in Chicago a couple weeks ago and Greater Media officials were kind of wishy washy. Skin is a really bright guy very funny and very knowledgeable on a lot of subjects. He s much more than a nudity savant. On the other hand who can predict chemistry Plus there s the fact that it s only a proposition at best. Last week I insisted to Greater Media that they needed to make this announcement. My insistence was three fold First this had gone on way too long. Secondly I knew it would get out because research is being done on the possible new show with Mr. Skin. And finally I thought they would want the new show if Skin a! nd I could put it together. In the last hours I ve learned of a few syndicators who believe in it and we already have commitments in Chicago and Detroit. Q To which show do you give the better chance of future radio success the current WRIF current Morning Show or whatever you end up doing A That s an easy one. They have of a show that usually beat the nearest age competitor by or points in a bad month. If the station gives them the time it takes they ll be fine. Trust me I m sure any success I can muster down the road will never approach the time I had at WRIF. Radio execs are impatient. When I started at WRIF we had a . share. They have anywhere from an to share or more to start with. It s hard to kill a winning show if you can keep the chemistry going. They can do it it just takes time. Wherever I end up working they will not hand me daypart from a show that s earning an share. You d never let go someone doing that well. When we started at WRIF both with Zip original partner Peter Zipfel and Mike Clark we struggled like hell. I was so certa! in we would be fired about two years into the job I made demo tapes and thought I was going to a new job in Atlanta and San Diego. An offer of a year in Atlanta was hard not to want to grab but our show was catching on here and I sick of moving. I was starting to really like living back in the Midwest and the listeners were great. Q Any other misperceptions you would like to straighten out A I d like to but I never wanted an ending like this. I found the whole thing crushing. I don t want all the hard work we put in to go down the drain. Those people were are very good friends. I hope the station gives them the time it takes to find what works. All of them are doing new jobs and you don t become an expert at something overnight. People can be so hard on new morning shows. Give it a chance Q Do you have any major regrets A Oh sure I ve got plenty. I should ve just manned up and shut up taken the high road. I ve dumped on plenty of people on the air and I don t usually have s! uch thin skin. This subject has been such a long running bugaboo with me that I felt I had to do something. This stupid disagreement was the th most sought item on Google Wednesday. On freep.com the Lane stories have been the most viewed story for almost three days. The hardest part is that a friend and a very accomplished successful employee of WRIF Bob Kozaitis died the same day it broke. Now I don t even know if I should go to the funeral because I don t want to be a distraction. Other regrets I ll put em in a book I m writing which I hope to put out when I return to radio. Q Did this whole ordeal perhaps energize you Tuesday you sounded like you were looking for a microphone A It really did. I need time though because I won t start a new venture until I feel I have the right players. I even started thinking Is there someway I could do morning drive again But I think that will pass. Q Normally when a show leader decides to move on everyone on the show follows. The Dick Purtan and Jim Harper crews followed them to new stations. Why wouldn t ! your gang follow you A I found out management told them I was going through a tough time and just to leave me alone. Mike Clark thought we would lose bargaining power if we took a couple months off and didn t have WRIF as a current bargaining chip. I knew we could create a bidding war with our ratings being around the radio block a little more than he had. Many say If it ain t broke don t fix it. I agree but I felt breaking up the chemistry was worse that changing stations and dayparts. I m sure the others had the same instructions Don t bother Drew. Finally if the staffers thought I wasn t coming back give them credit for having the confidence to be more out front on the air. At some point you have to make a name for yourself. Trudi Daniels newscaster and myself are the only members of the show who have really traveled the hard radio road starting in small towns and slowly moving up the ladder. I think between us we ve worked at or stations. I really got the feeling Mike C! lark wasn t so sure it would work and he d take a big pay cut. There s nothing wrong with that. Once again you have to give him credit for believing that he could keep it cooking. Q Did you feel betrayed by the way this happened A I didn t have my eye on the ball and the other people signed lucrative contracts to stay at WRIF. I m sure they were told We love you guys we re confident you can step up and continue this great legacy this is a Mom and Pop shop unlike CBS and Clear Channel. I m foolish to believe that just because I ve been well paid and don t put money above all else in terms of work that everyone thinks that way. So there are no hard feelings there. I guess the only bummer is they didn t feel they could tell me. I was way too upfront about my plans when I should ve kept them under my hat. I have a pathetic habit of confusing business with friendship. I really believed some of the big shots at Greater Media were good friends. That s just plain na ve. Once you re not bringing in dollars you re yesterday s news. The one good thing ab! out all this is I can t help but feel some people just didn t believe in my plan or didn t trust me. That motivates me like any Type A person. This I will promise people who give me a shot I will give to paraphrase O.J. Simpson an absolute effort not guilty would be the proper quote to create the best show I know how. If I had a choice to be No. for less money or No. for more money I d rather be No. and then renegotiate Q Is the battle officially over A I hope so. I plan to take the high road. As I mentioned I wish I would ve just shut up Wednesday. I ll want a chance to clear this up in a much less emotional environment. In your voice Read reactions to this story Newest first Oldest first Add your comment max maxchars characters You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login Register staffMark authorIcon authorHandle wrote commentBody commentTimestamp recommendLink reportAbuseLink Report item as required X Obscenity vulgarity Hate speech Personal attack Advertising Spam C! opyright Plagiarism Other Comment optional Missing input fields. You must fill out the comment body in order to submit a comment. Comment too long. The comment you have entered is too long. Please limit your post to maxchars characters or less. PATRICIA BECK Detroit Free Press Drew Lane former cohost of WRIF FM s Drew and Mike Show. 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