Rusty Keys Jumps Ship!

[maxxfordham]

HUH! Well, it might be somewhat old news by now, but I don't see it having been posted here yet, so I'll have a whack at it.

About... oh, maybe 3 weeks or so ago by now, I guess, I just discovered something that took me by a decent bit of surprise! I was listening to FM100 (...point three) and there was this remote broadcast, and suddenly the name the DJ announced as his own threw me off! "Rusty Keys here at the..." "...FM100.3..."

RUSTY KEYS?! FM100? WHAT is Rusty Keys doing at a remote broadcast on FM100?!

Yup! He had just jumped ship from his post as PD at B98.7! I couldn't believe it! But I can't get him to even acknowledge my question about why in any e-mails I've sent him, even though he has answered others of my questions. Couldn't he just tell me that it's private then, instead of pretending like he hasn't even seen it? That jerk! Naw... other than that, he's a pretty nice guy. :-)

But still, that's just funny seeing that happen with him. I have been so used to him being the PD of the Bee for several years. Well, but you know, it's not really that shocking. Haha, it's not as if it were Mick or Allen making that kind of move! Hahaha, now that would be really pretty funny! Well, anyway, I guess this reminds me of the time when I was a bit shocked to have heard Brian Foxx on FM100 because he came from KISN97! Well, I'm used to it now, though. Brian shows up at all those free Christmas miniconcerts at the mall (which, sadly, the last one of for the year has just happened yesterday from when I'm writing this).

Yeah, and when Fisher moved to KOSY a few years ago... well, but for me it just sticks out as a little more odd when they move to FM100, because when I was young, my mom listened to that while it was still a dumb ugly "elevator music" station! :-D

Donny Osmond (whose niece Anmaree I have just taken out on a date to a performance of the 20th anniversary of the Forgotten Carols!) has been one of the personalities on the Bee for a good while even before Rusty left, but then I don't remember what slot that was, but he's on during 3-7 now. I wonder if his show is recorded in Vegas and then sent over, or what, exactly.

I don't know who the new PD is, but I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if that position has now been crowned onto Shawn Stevens.


Happy Christmas!

[radioman101]

Good to know Rusty Keys has landed somewhere - he was actually blown out of Citadel months ago and Shawn Stevens has been the PD for months as well.

[maxxfordham]

So do you know why the Bee got rid of good ol' Rusty?

Oh, shoot, I wish I had been paying more attention and writing to Shawn months ago, then, to request that the Bee do their all-Christmas program again this year like they had in 2005 (because they had a somewhat better Christmas mix than 100 and 106.5 have).

So do you know why Citadel or Cumulus got rid of Rusty? What was the issue there? Wasn't he programming just fine? Were his ratings down? Is there really a difference between the way he programmed and the way Shawn does it now?

Huh, haha... "blow out:" 4. to get rid of something or someone, as from an engine through its exhaust pipe, or as by a fan through a nearby window, or as being shot from a cannon.

I heard that term used for deleting a sound file from a computer hard drive once or twice. Why does that seem to be a somewhat common radio term for getting rid of something or someone?

[radioman101]

Don't know for sure, but I think it was sometime around or before early September. I've done some searching online and haven't found anything announcing his departure, so I'm not sure.

As for the reason, not sure of that either. Very interesting to piece together the mass exodus of people leaving Citadel/Cumulus in the past few months, both forced and willing.

[maxxfordham]

Hmm, so the company sounds like it's having some kind of layoff season, I guess. Signs of failure? Hmm... I wonder why.

And what's this with "Citadel/Cumulus," anyway? Did Cumulus already exist, and was this a buyout, or was this just a name change? Yeah, I've just somewhat recently heard "A Cumulus radio station" or something like that in only mane the last 2 months or so, and I wondered why the name switched. And of course you'd already know, but the website stuff (except for the name of the address and the title that shows up in the top of the browser window) has switched, too. But how long has that been?

[CAwasinNJ]

Cumulus has been a large radio owner for some time. Citadel bought the ABC O&O stations and the ABC Radio network right about when the economy tanked and overextended themselves. Because of that, Citadel was in deep financial trouble and Cumulus bought them.

[maxxfordham]

Huh... interesting. Okay, thanks for the update.


Merry Christmas!