Lions wants to control their flagship station.

[RobBase]

Do you listen to 97.1? I listen to 97.1 almost daily and while they are tough on the Lions, it is well deserved. When the Lions are playing well, or certain Lions are playing well -- they praise those players.

The Lions want a show where you don't talk bad about the Lions. A pretty simple solution to this is -- win games.

I do, and have for years. Always thought Valenti's Anti-Lion act would one day cost them their relationship w the Lions. Now it finally has.

Can't be Anti-Lion and personally attack people in the organization in a crude and vile way when you're the flag ship show. Simple business smarts.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

WJR was the shit back in the day.

Yep !

I used to fall asleep at night listening to Ernie and George while studying. this would be when they were on west coast trips. I'd wake up in the am, while the radio still on and with Paul Harvey on.

 

[broncosmitty]

Yep !

I used to fall asleep at night listening to Ernie and George while studying. this would be when they were on west coast trips. I'd wake up in the am, while the radio still on and with Paul Harvey on.

I remember Paul Carey's last game. Cold and rainy. I stayed in the van listening on WJR while my moms shopped the local Scratch/Dent/Fire sale store.

The Goodie Barn. Lol.

Loved those west coast trips. Fed the wire thru my bedroom screen in the summer. Games came in great.

 

[broncosmitty]

Mark Champion got canned on play by play for being just like us.

Sick of the Lions sucking ass.

He's great at play by play in any Sport he chooses imo.

 

[Howie115]

Not censorship. Simply can't be anti Lion and still be the flagship show. Business 101.

I get the business component, but since when is telling someone they can't be anti-Lion (or can't be anti-anything) NOT censorship???

Whether you think Valenti's over-the-top criticism is warranted or not, or "vile" or whatever, telling an on-air person or station what they can and cannot say IS censorship. Broadcasting 101.

 

[RobBase]

I get the business component, but since when is telling someone they can't be anti-Lion (or can't be anti-anything) NOT censorship???

Whether you think Valenti's over-the-top criticism is warranted or not, or "vile" or whatever, telling an on-air person or station what they can and cannot say IS censorship. Broadcasting 101.

It's not censorship when you walk away from the problem (Valenti). They never said he could or could not say anything, Lord knows he said whatever he wanted for years, and made himself look like a classless dirt ball by doing so. In end, his behavior cost his employers the biggest show in this town. He will never work anywhere else again. Career suicide. In the long run, Valenti will suffer most, as he should.

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

It's not censorship when you walk away from the problem (Valenti). They never said he could or could not say anything, Lord knows he said whatever he wanted for years, and made himself look like a classless dirt ball by doing so. In end, his behavior cost his employers the biggest show in this town. He will never work anywhere else again. Career suicide. In the long run, Valenti will suffer most, as he should.

The biggest show in town? You need to re-think your business acumen. The Lions are on 16 days a year. They are literally the smallest fish in this town, as the Tigers are on 10 times more and the Red Wings and Pistons are on 5 times more. Which means all those teams have that much more time to make advertising dollars.

 

[RobBase]

More useful info on the new partnership:

Crain's Detroit Business : Subscription Center

Parkinson called Meisner's accusation "categorically a lie" and "untrue" while noting that Valenti has been with the station during past radio negotiations and his on-air criticisms were not discussed then, either. She also said Meisner was not part of the talks with WXYT and that a host of people who were part of the negotiations would also deny the team sought to censor the station or have Valenti fired.

"It's not like they changed formats," she said of the station's handling of the Lions over the years.

WJR in a statement said it will do live game broadcasts, the pre- and postgame shows, a regular-season weekly show and additional offseason programming.

Nice! Really looking forward to this next season.

 

[Howie115]

I get that Valenti is viewed as an ass by many. But in the eyes of most fans, the flagship change makes the Lions organization look like pussies more than it makes Valenti look like an ass.

 

[RobBase]

I get that Valenti is viewed as an ass by many. But in the eyes of most fans, the flagship change makes the Lions organization look like pussies more than it makes Valenti look like an ass.

Stupid, easily manipulated people. His agent made up a lie. Simple as that.

 

[Howie115]

Stupid, easily manipulated people. His agent made up a lie. Simple as that.

I don't doubt it. Agents are paid to lie.

Still, in an earlier Detroit News interview, Parkinson was asked if Lions team reps had ever called the station to complain, and she said "I won't deny it." But she added it was only when there were factual misrepresentations to correct.

Now, Mike Stone says the Lions called DAILY to complain about some comment or another made on the air, and I tend to believe him. And I find it hard to believe there were that many "factual misrepresentations" to challenge. I don't think Parkinson is telling the whole truth either.

This may have been a business decision, first and foremost, but to suggest it had absolutely nothing to do with the Lions wanting more control over content on their flagship is ridiculous.

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

Stupid, easily manipulated people. His agent made up a lie. Simple as that.

"It is sad to say goodbye," said Debbie Kenyon, senior vice president and market manager for CBS Detroit. "But in the end it came down to the integrity of CBS — the refusal to be censored in talking about the team and making honest assessments on the air about this team."

I guess the Senior Vice President and Market Manager for CBS Detroit is in on the ruse too. Maybe the stupid, easily manipulated people are those believing the Lions.

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

Mike Stone says the Lions called DAILY to complain about some comment or another made on the air,

Mike Stone is lying too. Valenti is lying. Terry Foster is lying. Valenti's agent is lying. The Senior Vice President of CBS/Viacom is lying. Only one telling the truth is the Lions. You know -- the team who left the #1 radio station in Detroit, which has one of the highest rated sports talk shows in the Nation -- to join WJR, whose main demographic is retired senior citizens.

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

O'Brien also said the station will be airing a fair amount of Lions-centric programming, but has no plans to add daily sports-talk shows.

No wonder the Lions went to WJR. They don't have to listen about how miserable they have been if they move to a station with no sport talk shows.

 

[Howie115]

Let's face it ... pressure on the Ford family to sell the franchise has reached an all-time high this season. And that dialogue was ramped up by Valenti and others. You can talk about Valenti being a pompous ass all you want (and I agree he is), but it is no surprise the Lions announced the move to WJR less than 24 hours after Rod Wood was announced as team president. It helped shift the focus away from yet another Ford crony hiring, the kind that has plagued the team since William Clay's butt-buddy Russ Thomas on through to the present day.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Agents are paid to lie.

so are Head Coaches when their star player freelances and they deny it in presser's.

not much different than GM's and coaches lying to the public that retaining their star defensive player is in the bag. Or that Tahir Whitehead, Jonte Green, Chris Greenwood and Rodney Hudson are improving on a weekly basis.

oh crap, wrong thread.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

It helped shift the focus away from yet another Ford crony hiring, the kind that has plagued the team since William Clay's butt-buddy Russ Thomas on through to the present day.

Off topic of Radio Deals but this shit storm of a franchise will remain the same, JMHO

Sheila Ford will keep that torch burning brightly too. She's more of the mastermind behind any moves than Martha, imo. She's hell bent on being a majority voice and atop all decision makers. She's still butt-hurt for being dissed as a higher up executive in the Ford Motor Co., imo.

Birkett: Inside the power struggle of Lions ownership

snippets from that article

But Ford has made a point to involve her children in major organizational decisions, and no one has her ear more now than her second-oldest daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. She is one of the team’s four vice chairs along with her siblings Martha Ford Morse, Elizabeth Ford Kontulis and Bill Ford Jr.

The Hamps’ emergence as powerbrokers inside the organization comes at a time when Ford Jr. has been nudged aside.

Ford Jr., who said in an interview with WJR-AM (760) last month that he has been “less involved” with the Lions since the passing of his father, William Clay Ford, in March 2014, clashed with the Hamps around the time he hired Alan Mulally as Ford CEO in 2006, according to news reports at the time and the book, “American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Co.” Steve Hamp left his position at Ford shortly after Mulally came aboard.

“In a family like the Fords, the usual sibling rivalries often escalate into business battles,” author Bryce Hoffman wrote in his book. “This was certainly the case between Bill and Sheila. It had long been understood in the family that Ford women would never be appointed to the company’s board of directors, let alone the chairman’s post. Friends said Sheila resented this, just as she resented her exclusion from the family’s football franchise, which Bill ran with his father. They suggested this made her a more vocal critic of her brother, and that criticism increased after Hamp joined the company as Bill’s chief of staff in late 2005.”

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Can it get/be worse

Maki takes control of Lions business operations

Whatever you think of the Lions, the team remains a business first and foremost. And Allison Maki now will be in charge of the whole enterprise after owner Martha Ford named her interim chief operating officer.

Maki will report directly to Ford and oversee the day-to-day business operations of the team, which would include dealing with the salary cap, although not many contract issues should arise before the start of free agency next season.

BB_72; nothing against women in high level executive positions... but

 

[RobBase]

I don't doubt it. Agents are paid to lie.

Still, in an earlier Detroit News interview, Parkinson was asked if Lions team reps had ever called the station to complain, and she said "I won't deny it." But she added it was only when there were factual misrepresentations to correct.

Now, Mike Stone says the Lions called DAILY to complain about some comment or another made on the air, and I tend to believe him. And I find it hard to believe there were that many "factual misrepresentations" to challenge. I don't think Parkinson is telling the whole truth either.

This may have been a business decision, first and foremost, but to suggest it had absolutely nothing to do with the Lions wanting more control over content on their flagship is ridiculous.

I'm not denying friction w Valenti. That's been obvious for years. The made up crap claiming the Lions would have re upped only if he was fired is pure TMZ bullshit.

I'm also not denying that the Lions no longer wanted to associate a the ticket and it's act. I don't blame them.

 

[RobBase]

Can it get/be worse

Maki takes control of Lions business operations

Whatever you think of the Lions, the team remains a business first and foremost. And Allison Maki now will be in charge of the whole enterprise after owner Martha Ford named her interim chief operating officer.

Maki will report directly to Ford and oversee the day-to-day business operations of the team, which would include dealing with the salary cap, although not many contract issues should arise before the start of free agency next season.

BB_72; nothing against women in high level executive positions... but

Nothing wrong with confiding in trusted and successful business people, regardless of sex.