In the last hour, an unimpeachable source informed me Domink Diamond resigned from the Radio 965 morning show today. His last day at the station will be March 28th. He will be the new morning guy at The Edge in Toronto.
I will be very careful when I speculate and analyze radio news from now on. I am still smarting from the flesh that was ripped off me a couple of weeks ago.
It is unusual for a person to leave a station half way through a ratings period. I am not going down the road of wondering why someone would leave a station during a ratings period to take a job in another market also during a ratings cycle. But it is happening, twice in fact. See below.
Newcap apparently has a plan in place, someone to take over for Dominik after he leaves Radio 965. I do not know what that plan is. I can speculate, of course; but doing so would involve wondering about people who have feelings and perhaps existing jobs at other stations who might be embarrassed and/or chagrined by my speculating about them. I will just state that there are plenty of radio people currently at loose ends in this market who would make excellent successors to Domink. Not replacements, as Domink is a one-of-a-kind broadcaster. Successors.
A note about Domink. When he first went to Q104 a couple of years ago, he told me that he had read some of my interviews in preparation for taking the job there, to get to know the jocks he would be working with. He left before I could interview him. When he came back to town, barely six months ago, he did promise to sit down with me, but I failed to follow up. My bad. When I asked him today for an "exit interview", he wrote back and politely declined, citing that I was bigging up the station's main rivals and that sitting down with me would not be appropriate.
I feel like shit about this.
When I sit down and talk to radio folks, I do not care what station they work for. I care about the work, the craft, and not where the work and craft are practiced and performed. I treat all broadcasters with respect. I want to discuss their careers in great length and do it in a way that should make them feel good about what they do during their daily shifts. God knows they probably don't get enough credit for what they do from other sources.
Earlier today, I interviewed Don Connolly at CBC's Information Morning. Would my friends in private radio then conclude I do not want to talk to them any more? I hope not, because that is not the case. I just want to talk to everybody is all.
So, Domink Diamond, I hereby apologize for any hurt I put your way, as well as any ill feelings I may have generated with anybody at Newcap because of any recent comments I may have made. And, of course, sir, I wish you the very best in your career. You will kick serious rear end at The Edge.
In other news, someone at either C100 or The Bounce is leaving that station's morning show. I do not know who it is, or which station. I will find out and report back to you.
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
3 comments:
It's not surprising. Major market talent seldom takes a step back to a medium market unless there is personal reasons. You always traditionally have looked forward and up. Dom is major market talent, as he has proved with his gig at Q107. Now he's going to morning show at The Edge? Good for him! I wish him well. I only met him briefly once, but seemed to be a decent guy. I will dare say the Halifax Market isn't necessarily a good fit for him. I don't think it's one thing per say, but could be a variety of things. He's unique in Canada, and while as much as it can be an advantage, it can also be a disadvantage. I'm glad he's found a station where believes he will work well.
It's funny to reflect how Newcap has performed in the market over the past 12 months. I remember how Steve Jones was interviewed about the format flip saying KOOL was doing good, but they wanted it to do better. They fired a well established morning show, and flipped format hoping to do better. Since then, the cume #'s in the fall book were cut in half, the competition steals the successful morning show, another station flips to fill in the gap and jumps substantially and now the morning guy calls it quits? OUCH!
Just goes to show you that you can do all the focus groups you want and other research, but the art of programming still comes into play. Certainly the Status Quo for leaving KOOL alone is looking good right now.
I'm sorry Bev you had to learn the hard way. If anyone entrusts you with details, you have to keep quiet. even speculation may hit the nail on the head. I can understand Dominik's position. He was paid to be faithful to the brand that employs him. Those in the industry don't always think they are "all one happy family" in fact politics in the industry can be worse then politics in government. I certainly don't miss that BS. Some do however, but understand the need to be quiet about certain things. That's critical to stay in the industry.
The thing is, Scott, the format at Radio 965 is barely six months old. They had to have known that the first book would not be a pleasant experience. I always thought that the proof would be in the second book, to come out of the current ratings period. If that showed signs of growth, like I was confident it would, then they could get a foothold and build an audience.
The fact that the morning guy is leaving the station half way through the ratings period makes me wonder about the perceived viability of the format. Perceived from Newcap's POV, I mean.
I wish Dominik the very best, and am sorry to see him go, and sorry that I clearly pissed him off at some level.
Bevboy
It could have nothing to do with the format and everything to do with management pissing him off. He seems to be a bit of a nomad and has done TV, radio and written in the local Chronicle herald when he was here the first time. Not to mention the years in the industries in the UK. I don't think he's the type to put up with BS when he doesn't have to.
A format that doesn't have some kind of contest during ratings is shooting themselves in the foot in this market. It's all about $$$$ especially when Bell goes out and likes to buy the book by throwing money at it. Even still, they don't really do that well in cume. classic hits do well in this market, and that's been shown over and over again, or heritage stations like Q and CHFX. It's hard to get people to flip the dial in this market.
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