LeBatard out at ESPN

More about the Wingo departure, which seems less than mutual.

 

In radio/tv terms, Trey Wingo was just "a guy". Dime a dozen.

 

Yep. And few things are as expendable as the high salary guy who isn't actually doing anything at the network right now.

 

I'd have to think the pandemic is killing radio since so many people are working from home and not commuting. The only time I would listen is on my short drive to and from work.

It's funny, we had a power outage a couple months back and I realized I don't even have a radio in the house.

 

If you're at home now, you have Spotify. And like a lot of things, their creepy computer AI often knows my tastes better than I - I'm usually adding about 5 to 10 songs to my "liked songs" a week, based on their suggestions in Release Radar and Discover Weekly. Even my favorite radio stations growing up as a kid can't really compete with that, never mind the highly corporate "let's play the same 40 songs in every market" radio now.

 

After Thanksgiving dinner, I had about a 15 minutes drive home , so I decided to listen to the radio instead of hooking into Pandora through my phone. About 8 minutes in, six presets were all in commercial at the same time and remained there for the rest of my drive home. Another reason satellite and apps are better.

 

It took a long time for radio to sync its commercial breaks like TV did years ago.

We had satellite for a while, but the hosts there like to talk, too. Shut your pie hole and play the music, ya fuckstick.

 

Don’t shed a lot of tears for the guy. Even before this happened ESPN was looking to cut payroll. How does Trey Wingo begin his renegotiation talks? “This thing you have me doing, I don’t want to do it anymore.” And then he/his agent leaked it to anyone who would listen. Not sure that’s the best play.

 

I heard this on a podcast this week. In TV, you never - ever - go to the boss and say “I’m thinking about doing something else/my current role isn’t something I’m perfectly pleased with”.

He had a high salary and I don’t think anyone watched or listened to an ESPN show because he was on it. Fairly interchangeable in the Pidto/Ravech class.