Having recently lamented the demise of the Steve LaVeille Broadcast on WBZ AM in Boston, driving home tonight I was further dismayed to flip between the Boston and Providence oldies FM stations and hear the same songs. They’re both carrying a syndicated show with Tom Kent.
Category: Radio
LeVeille Wants Off The Night Shift
There’s a brief interview with Boston radio personality Steve LeVeille in today’s Boston Herald:
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/?p=712
“This is the nature of the business,” said LeVeille, noting that there’s been a lot of layoffs at CBS over the last year-and-a-half. “It wasn’t any big surprise.”
As for his next gig, LeVeille told MediaBiz he’d like to host a morning show in Boston and he plans to hire an agent.
Another version is on this page, that can also be found on Steve’s website.
He doesn’t want his old job back? LeVeille wants a morning gig. I’ll take him at his word and assume he’s not just being a nice guy.
Steve LeVeille, one of America’s unemployed
There’s a “Bring Back Steve LeVeille” campaign. Link here. Also, a small but significant change has been made to Steve LeVeille’s homepage.
I was talking to my buddy SamJay, another former radio biz guy like myself, and I mentioned that if Steve were back on WBZ, but his start time was moved down to 1 AM, I’d have a hard time catching him, because I listened during his first hour, before going to bed. Sam pointed out that Overnight America starts at 1 AM because it’s midnight in St. Louis, so WBZ cuts the last hour for its morning drive slot. Which means that even if Jon Grayson somehow gets Boston fans, they’ll be ticked off because they can’t listen to the whole program. SamJay says the only explanation is CBS wants to ditch WBZ AM 1030, and maybe all of the stations that are carrying Overnight America, so nobody there cares, and I think he’s right.
Further Boston radio distress?
WGBH FM 89.7 didn’t play The Writer’s Almanac Monday morning at 8:55. Is this a permanent schedule change? I hope not.
Whew! Not to worry. It’s playing right now. Don’t know what happened yesterday.
Steve Leh-VELL-ee
As a good counterpoint to the audio clip I posted with Jordan Rich introducing Steve LeVeille’s replacement, this is a brief excerpt from an interview LeVeille did a couple of years ago with Ed Walsh, when he was replacing longtime WBZ morning man Gary LaPierre.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JAN/LeVeilleWalsh.mp3]Overnight America, Overnight Success?
I had assumed that “Overnight America” was an existing program, but apparently not. Its premiere was last night, on four stations.
http://www.kmox.com/pages/3583198.php
According to Arbitron, Boston is the #10 radio market, and St. Louis is #20. Am I missing something here about taking the overnight slot from Steve LeVeille and giving it to Jon Grayson? Who besides the guys making the decision think it was a good one to make?
http://www.arbitron.com/home/mm001050.asp
