On this page I am posting several letters. 1) The letter I sent out to our supporters on Wednesday August 25, 2004 asking them to email Cumulus about the end of their "60 Day Test". 2) The letter I personally sent to Cumulus regarding their "60 Day Test". 3) Ron's reply to that letter. He actually replied for a change. 4) My reply to whatever he might like to call what is listed here as letter 3.
LETTER #1 - A request to our supporters
Ladies and gentlemen, former 93.5 WTPA listeners,
I am writing to everybody that signed the petition to boycott WTPA. Back when this all started and many of us emailed the station to express our thoughts on their decision we were asked in a canned email from them to take a Bob & Tom 60 day test. If you found the new show to be as unfunny as I did you probably didn�t listen more than a few minutes to know you didn�t need 60 days to not like them. Nonetheless they have stuck to their guns and kept the new show on the air. Their 60 days is next week, Thursday September 2nd to be exact. I�d like to urge every one of you to write to WTPA & Cumulus and remind them of their 60 day test, remind them 60 days is as good as up, and let them know if you�re still tuned out 60 days later. I would greatly appreciate these emails being sent as soon as possible this week, given the short time left until we hit day 60. On another note I find it interesting and ironic that day 60 just happens to be September 2nd, the night of the Harrisburg Magazine �Simply the Best� awards banquet at the Radisson in Camp Hill. If you�ve had opportunity to see a copy of the August 2004 issue of Harrisburg Magazine you might have noticed that Coffey & Jammer are missing. Given the fact the voting closed for this years awards on April 15, 2004, and the Coffey & Jammer show was still going strong at that time, I personally find their absence rather odd and suspicious. I�ve included a copy of the letter I sent to them below. Kindly take a few minutes to email them and express your thoughts, and please make sure to include all the email addresses I�m listing here. There is a reason for every last one of these people to be on this list. Yes, kindly include this address among those you send it to so we can verify the response they received it, if and when they should choose to deny that. Here�s to all of you having a great rest of the summer, and music on your radios tuned to 93.5 one morning very soon.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Thanks,
Rob
http://www.BoycottWTPA.com
LETTER #2 - My email to Cumulus about their 60 Day Test
Ladies and gentlemen,
Your General Manager, Ron Giovanniello, in an email asked us to take a �60 day test�. This email was sent out to everybody that expressed their objections to your �business decision� to cancel the Coffey & Jammer show and replace it with Bob & Tom. The 60 days in question is up on Thursday September 2, 2004. Your test was an utter failure and a complete disgrace to a once fine station. You went from an award winning morning show, to one of the most annoying and unfunny pieces of drivel on the public airwaves today. To be fair I listened a few times for 5 minutes here, 3 minutes there, I took as much of your test as I was willing to endure. You may have the audacity to call them the funniest morning show in America, but they are the furthest thing from that. When you have to laugh, and not a simple laugh but rather canned chortles and guffaws, at your own material it�s NOT funny. Your regional VP Larry Blum told me during a phone conversation on the morning of July 9th that he has a fiduciary responsibility to his shareholders. While I can�t in fairness argue that he does indeed have such a responsibility, I do believe you would now have to agree that the business decision you made is not ultimately going to benefit those shareholders. Your listener numbers are down, and despite your delusions they�re not going to rebound. You have stood firmly by this very poor decision for the duration of your 60 day test, very soon those 60 days will be up. Do yourselves, the listeners of central PA, and apparently most importantly your shareholders a very big favor and pull the plug on that disgrace you call a morning show. The ratings you will see when the next book comes out will be worse than anything you previously experienced with any morning show in this market, they will continue to be poor until you concede you made an error in judgment and correct the problem. Only you can fix the problem before it further affects your stations bottom line negatively, but all of us in central PA can see to it that does happen if you don�t correct things now. The truly wise businessman knows when to cut his losses and walk away from his mistakes in judgment before they cost him the business, or in this case station, outright. Far be it from me to suggest you�re not all capable businessmen, but now it�s up to you to prove that to yourselves and more importantly your shareholders. Going down with a sinking ship, while very noble, is no way to spur investor confidence.
The bottom line is this. You suggested the 60 day test. 60 days will have elapsed next Thursday. Your new morning show failed their test miserably. You have to decide what to do next. The obvious answer is to pull the plug on Bob & Tom, get the music back on the air in the mornings, and get some local talent on the air to host it. I�ll leave the decision to who could best handle the show in your very capable hands. There is only one morning team in town, and available, that can get you the ratings you desire. Think about it. A reply would be appreciated, and the placement of this letter in the public file of the station is requested.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Rob Snyder
P.O. Box 568
New Kingstown, PA 17072
LETTER #3 - Ron Giovanniello's reply
Rob:
Thanks for your e-mail�again. All e-mail correspondence directed to me is, and has been, placed in the station public file.
Perhaps you misunderstood, but the 60 day test did not mean we would make a decision about the future of The Bob & Tom Show after 60 days�it only meant that in fairness to something �new� that upset listeners try the show for at least 60 days to see if they liked it. Understandably�even after 60 days�some will and some won�t. It is clear you don�t, and won�t, even if it was a 600 day test.
Although I appreciate your passion for this cause and your continued concern for the well being of 93.5 WTPA, rest assured in the end we will make the decision that we think is best for the station.
Best regards,
Ron Giovanniello
Market Manager
Cumulus Media Harrisburg
LETTER #4 - My reply to letter #3
Ron,
I didn't misunderstand anything. Perhaps you misunderstood what all of your former listeners have been telling you for the last 2 months. I understand you will make the decision you think is best for the station. What you need to understand is that it doesn't make you less of a man, or a less than capable businessman, to accept the obvious and actually go WITH the public opinion on this one. I would presume the best for your station would be profitability now and in the future. Do what you, I, and the listeners of central PA know you need to do and you will be profitable. You can not, and will not, manage to right this sinking ship by staying the course with this ill-concieved "business decision". Your business decision was presumably made with good old fiduciary responsibility and shareholder confidence in mind. Any first time investor will be cautioned to do his due diligence before investing his/her money into anything. Due diligence means looking past the raw numbers to the underlying factors. The numbers may have indicated that B&T would be less expensive, as would most nationally syndicated shows, than paying the salaries of C&J. However it only adds up if your lowered expenses are not negated by lowered revenues. Therein we find the "underlying factors" I referred to earlier. This decision may work in a lot of cities or small towns across America, but it WILL NOT work in central PA. You failed to take into consideration the dynamics of the market in which you chose to perpetrate this "business decision". Translated, you DID NOT do your due diligence on this one and as such you receive an F....an C- for effort when it comes to damage control....but an F in practical application of basic business fundamentals. This little dissertation is merely a glimpse of what goes out to all your institutional investors if you haven't taken action by or before day 60 arrives. The next targets will be a multi-pronged offensive to secure a new station for Coffey & Jammer....and an all out offensive on the financial message boards and emails to your investors calling into question the unsound business decisions currently being made by WTPA/Cumulus. With the C&J show on another station you will see all too clearly just how many listeners in central PA really do support this. Combine that with an all out attack of your judgment in the financial sector and you might find it most profitable to unload WTPA before you ride this sinking ship below the surface.
Rob Snyder
P.O. Box 568
New Kingstown, PA 17072