The Clear Channel Radio Shake Up!

On Tuesday, of this past week, Frank, Ed and Bill got an email asking us to be on a conference call with the RVP, Tom Thon, and the HR person from San Antonio. So on Thursday at 1:00 we log on and Tom Thon goes, "There will be no conference call today we'll be at your office in 5 minutes." So at that point they pretty much knew what was going to happen. He comes in kicks Ed and Bill out of Franks office, which is where they were all waiting for him, and tells them not to go far. He lets Frank go, then goes into Ed's office lets him go then comes into Bill's. He walks into Bill's office with the HR person, introduces himself and says we've made some changes. We've let Frank go, Ed and Bill. This is pertaining to some alleged inappropriate emails. They ask, which emails we're talking about? The lady from HR says we've pulled all your emails. They said that's fine, but exactly what email or emails are we referring to? They allegedly never told any of them. They handed their key cards and office key and the HR person walked out. Then they called Melanie, who was out on a sales call, and had her come back into the office, where they let her go.

Now here is the background info. They had a lady work there, Wanda Wendell, who us to work for CC, (Clear Channel) in Fredrick Maryland before she quit. Her Daughter passed away and it was very traumatic on her, which I can only imagine. However after a year or so she contacted Frank and wanted to come down here and work. This is person who sold over $300,000.00 worth of non traditional radio and would be an assets to their team. However when she came down here it was apparent she couldn't do this any longer. She often cried at her desk, walked around like she owned the place, and never took the time to meet any of them. The people working there were friends, not just coworkers.

That being said it was apparent to everyone including management that she just wasn't going to cut it so they let her work from her home (which basically meant she didn't do anything) for 3 months, all the while she continued to get paid. When that offer was almost up, it was at that point she contacted HR about some inappropriate emails. HR contacted Frank about this but never really asked about his side of things and was already very accusing. They also feel that there were 3 people in the office that conspired to bring them down.

Frank did run the office like a *MASH* unit and they didn't wear ties and goofed around like brothers and sisters but at the end of the day they got the job done. They all felt like the company they gave everything to turned their backs on them and let them go.

There was never any porn sent around or half naked people. Sure, they forwarded political satire, funny cartoons, and interesting stories, but no different than some of the stuff posted here on Salisbury News. Most of the time this stuff was only sent to certain people, people that we were friends with outside of the office. None of it was ever malicious or meant to be that way.

The part that really bothers everyone is that HR or Tom Thon never asked them anything. He just came in and let everyone go, no ability to even defend themselves.

They've done a lot in this community, Bill coached Pop Warner football for Delmar for 5 years. He spearheaded the Clear Channel involvement with Toys for Tots taking them from 3,000 toys and $500 to over 24,000 toys and thousands of dollars. They worked out the details with Pohanka when they raffled off the Mercedes McLaren earning Toys for Tots $60,000! They also started the Clear Channel internship program and volunteered all their time for it. Clear Channel didn't pay any extra for it and with their pay commission based if they weren't selling, they were actually losing money.

They saw it as a way to give back to the community and to the students of the area colleges. They interviewed all the interns and after the internship was over and helped them get jobs either at the station or where ever they wanted to go. I don't believe they're trying to brag about what they did, they're simply just trying to show everyone that they're not the type of people that would do what they are saying they did.

Clear Channel obviously took the word of one person and made some major changes without warning. This proves that you just never know what's going to be next Folks. I call it the Barrie Tilghman style of management. From everything I've gathered, sales were not way down but I do know that the Daily Times are dropping people like there's no tomorrow. WBOC just dumped $13,000,000.00 into their new facility and there's always a new fact on a regular basis at WMDT. It's no wonder Bill Baker the Rumpshaker dropped his gig there and went onto greener pastures before the hammer dropped.

We'll have to wait and see if any legal action is taken against Clear Channel Radio from any of these individuals because to me, from what I've learned so far, no one truly knows any details behind what happened. Time will tell.