D&D - Jan 4, 2010 -- Goodbye again, D&D :-(

Well, so much for that anniversary show tomorrow. D&D are once again unemployed; details are sketchy, but I would assume based on the timing that their contract was not renewed. Greater Media (in my unapologetic, pissed-off opinion) treated them like shit this year, although the guys were professional as always and didn't burn any bridges today. There was barely any advertising outside of WCSX (if any at all) when the year began; Jeff mentioned as recently as last week that a long-time listener (Gay Ken) STILL didn't know they were back on the air in 2009. They show format appeared forced during the majority of the year--as Supersize Scott mentioned over the weekend on the Yahoo Group, the deluge of (sometime really, really uninteresting) interviews at times sucked the life out of the show. The first 2/3 or so of the year seemed to feature an endless conflict between the on-air talent and management about how much music to play on their morning TALK show (no insider knowledge here, btw, just making an ass out of 'umptions). Top-rated Drew and Mike are still around on WCSX's sister station and they seem to get by just fine as a 100% talk show. Even the truncation of the 9am hour back in April didn't resolve this conflict. Also, nothing against Jason Carr or Jamie Samuelsen, but if I wanted sports reports, I would turn on a sports station. Lord knows there are enough of them in Detroit now. The segment lengths got better in the last few months with the less-frequent commercial breaks, but that brought its own round of complaints that the commercials lasted forever. Props to WCSX to letting the guys to a farewell show and air some "Best Of" segments today, but my pissed-off mind is still hoping Greater Media gets their ass handed to them in Lynne Woodson's sexual harassment lawsuit.

I've got a couple predictions (and we'll see if I'm any better at this than Gregg Henson) -- WCSX will switch to all-music morning programming [listening to todays show for the first time right now and HEY I got this one right already! This is a "trend" in morning radio across the country, Doyle just said], and D&D will either find employment within six months or I'm afraid they may be done in radio. "I don't know if we're going to get another show in Detroit or not," Jeff said this morning, adding only partly facetiously, "I don't know if we're ever going to get another show!" Getting canned (or "not getting their contract renewed") twice in just over two years may "blacklist" them (my word, not theirs) and keep them off the air in Detroit for good, so a move to another city is most likely in the cards. They have 10-plus years (fifteen total, Jeff just said) of a experience and a large fan base in Michigan (and New Jersey and maybe Boston) that may help get them into orbit (i.e. satellite radio), but I personally don't really see that happening. Though I would LOVE to hear an uncensored D&D Show, I think their personalities have changed and cooled a bit since their Epic Fine days and I don't know if two married guys with multiple kids each would ever do a "strange sex acts" segment again. As I wrote a couple times already, I'm just now listening to the recording of this morning's show. Sounds like the "divorce" was mutual -- Jeff mentioned that they were given the chance to change the format of the show if they wanted, but in the end, they were a TALK show that didn't truly fit on a music station. "We weren't disc jockeys," I just heard him say, "we never really have been." I never could find the quote, but I know he wrote something along those lines ("I'm not a damn DJ," or something akin to that) on the Yahoo Group back in mid-2008, which is why I found it very strange that November when they announced their hiring by a classic rock station. I've said this on here many times before, but it was very refreshing to listen to a funny talk show that didn't involve politics or (for the most part) sports -- and honestly, I really don't care for the obscenity and vulgarity of Howard Stern, so the PG- and PG-13-eqsue humor of D&D was a good fit for my ears (I've only been a regular listener since about 2005, so I can't speak for what the show was like before that).

Working on the audio right now -- it'll be posted soon, but I wanted to get this up on here just on the off-chance that there are people who come to this blog for their first D&D news of the day. The show will be brought to you commercial-free today as a "Screw You, WCSX" moment -- I know Jeff warned against that, but I'm still bitter from the loss of the 9am hour, so of course I'll still be pissed off about this.

Here's the show:

Deminski & Doyle - 2010-01-04 Hour 1
http://sharebee.com/19c58953
Filename: 2010-01-04 Hour 1.mp3 Size: 22.39 MB

Deminski & Doyle - 2010-01-04 Hour 2
http://sharebee.com/d5ca27e1
Filename: 2010-01-04 Hour 2.mp3 Size: 19.85 MB

Deminski & Doyle - 2010-01-04 Hour 3
http://sharebee.com/cff5e7d6
Filename: 2010-01-04 Hour 3.mp3 Size: 13.75 MB

Please keep checking back on this blog over the next couple weeks; not only will we continue to bring you up-to-date D&D news (even if there's no audio to post), but we're going with an idea another D&D fan e-mailed me this morning starting tomorrow.

UPDATE #1: Here's an article up at freep.com, confirming that Ken Calvert will move to mornings and Programming Director Doug Podell will take KC's afternoon slot. Big news is that (according to the Free Press) Jamie and Nicole will be staying with WCSX to do sports and traffic, respectively.

UPDATE #2: Hour 1 now available above; WCSX.com has dropped the link to the D&D section of the website, though the page is still available (for now). No podcasts today, just one new link:

1. DRUNKEST GUY EVER GOES BACK FOR ONE MORE BEER (video) - Drunkest guy ever--watch this video!

UPDATE #3: Hour 2 uploaded. Rumor on Facebook that D&D are "in talks for satillite radio contracts." Also, "decision to end their deal was made several weeks ago," according to Greater Media market manager John Gallagher (who also says he will help D&D find another gig). The Detroit News reports that their contract with Greater Media was for "more than [one] year," so at least their credit card balances won't balloon as quick as it did in 2008. Wonder if WCSX gets off the hook for their contract if and when they get on the air again somewhere? Maybe that's why Gallagher is so high on helping them out. Jay Towers is also out of a job at 97.1 (thank GOD!)...there are many more articles on the web about the D&D / WCSX split; see here, here, here, here, and here. The D&D section of WCSX.com is no more, though their podcasts are still up (for now) [gone now]; they now have info about KC's and Podell's new gigs. Changes go into effect on Jan 11th -- not sure who's going to run the morning show for the rest of this week. Also no word on the future of Jim O'Brien or Rudy.

UPDATE #4: Hour 3 all done and uploaded. I swapped out the commercials for today with some segues I pulled out of old shows, left the intro unedited (didn't add in the listener-made remix), and modified the ending of the show just a tad. There's a new rumor out on the Yahoo Group that Greater Media wanted to move D&D to afternoons on WRIF -- while I'd love to see a format change and the reintroduction of FM-Talk in Detroit, I don't see this happening. John Gallagher already said D&D are "no longer Greater Media employees." Then again, they swapped Jamie Samuelsen from one station to another earlier this year, so we'll just have to wait and see.