Another local voice goes silent

I used to be the news director at a station in northern Wisconsin. The station offered live, local news and talk for four hours a day. Listeners loved it and enjoyed weighing in on issues that directly effected them. But eventually the costs of local on-air talent became to much and the owner turned off the mics and replaced the programs with cheaper syndicated music.

The same thing happened this week to Milwaukee’s urban talker, WMCS 1290-AM. Last Friday, “Morning Magazine” hosts Joel McNally and Cassandra Cassandra were let go, replaced with syndicated talker Yolanda Adams from 5-9 a.m. The station also added Warren Ballentine, another syndicated talker, from 9-Noon, a spot recently filled by Tyrene “TJ” Jackson. Jackson remains with the station as the operations/programming manager. Earl Ingram’s 3-6 p.m. local program remains on the air at WMCS, but for how long is unknown.

The void left by McNally and Cassandra’s firing is a huge blow for the dissemination of information in the African-American community and removes an alternative to the shrill, angry right-wing talk that dominates Milwaukee’s AM dial. Perhaps a larger group of the minority community will have to work without a public forum or further venture into the territory of talk radio often dominated by suburban, white callers and hosts who air their opinions.

It’s sad to lose local forums of discussion. National syndicated programming is fine, but it doesn’t allow for important community issues to be discussed, dissected and solved. National programming is general and celebrity driven; local programming allows for ownership of the problems and joys in the neighborhood and encourages grassroots participation in the community. Local talk radio, in all its political permutations, is the equivalent of the Main Street diner, where people gather to share stories and discuss the problems facing the community; and in Milwaukee, we have enough conservative, white-dominated diner talk. We need to encourage and support the hidden treasures within minority communities to balance the story.  

“This is the loss of a forum and institution,” McNally said. “There is no monolithic African-American voice; our audience ranged from extreme religious conservatives to liberal left-wingers, like me.”

McNally added that the difference between “Morning Magazine” and talk radio hosted by “angry white guys” was that he and Cassandra were having conversations with all the sides and working to find solutions, as opposed to degrading opposing ideas and forwarding hosts opinion as fact.

Issues recently discussed on “Morning Magazine” include the mayoral takeover of MPS, the economy, black unemployment, crime and poverty. McNally said callers would share their personal stories of loss and hope, bringing a unique perspective to the show. He recalled when Cassandra’s son was murdered and the outpouring of sympathy and empathy from their audience.

Cassandra, who was surprised by the firing,  feels the loss of the program is a major blow to African-Americans and other people of color.

“So much needs to be talked about in the community. Our show offered an outlet to community agencies to get their message out, an opportunity to dissect political issues, the economy — it’s a heavy duty loss.”

She added that even though WMCS and the show were focused on the African-American community, listeners tuned in throughout the region and that helped everyone in greater Milwaukee to get to know one another’s ideas.

McNally and former WMCS host Eric Von both blame media economics for “Morning Magazine’s” demise. McNally saw it coming after years of revolving, inexperienced sales staff passing through the station and a lack of promotion of the program. He added that recent management changes, including owner Willie Davis’ reduced involvement, and a 50 percent ownership by Shamrock Communications of Scranton, PA, has changed the station’s focus from a local community station to a point on a balance sheet.

“B-93 and WLUM (owned by the same broadcasting group as WMCS) are on billboards, the sides of buses. We had nothing,” McNally said. “Instead, we were told that we had to make money to have them spend money.” McNally said he was disappointed that the station didn’t promote him more in Milwaukee’s white community, to broaden the station and program’s audience.

Von said the station’s inability to impress upon black business owners to spend advertising dollars on the station has led to the economic decisions to cut costs and look for less expensive alternatives. He added that the firings and loss of local programming is not racist, as some former listeners have suggested.

“The color involved here isn’t black, it’s green,” he said.

Station manager Bill Hurwitz confirmed that the decision to turn off McNally and Cassandra’s mics was economic, not personal or political. “Willie made a commitment to provide uplifting programming that serves the community, but operating costs were high and the African-American target audience isn’t large enough to support local programming.”

Von added that this presents a great opportunity for competing urban station, WNOV, 860-AM, which currently carries adult-contemporary music and limited community affairs programming. “This would be a great time for them to seize the moment and expand their talk programming,” Von said. “Somebody needs to establish an urban radio voice in the city.”

Until that possibility occurs, McNally is enjoying not having to wake up at 3:45 a.m. and continues his appearances on Milwaukee Public Television’s interCHANGE  and to writed his column for The Shepherd Express. Cassandra said she has no immediate plans, but she will continue to be involved in grassroots programming in her community and encourage neighbors to keep talking to each other.

I hope others will want to talk about this, too.