The Josh Innes Show - A Potential Red Flag With The 975 Job

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Kathy from the Preston and Steve show in Philly has been let go. Why does this matter? Well, Preston and Steve is the biggest show in town and Beasley, the company that owns the station, let a member of that show go. Beasley also owns 97.5 The Fanatic. Red Flag? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. So here's one for you to kind of go along with the theme of the 975 job quest, which again, I've told you I will not be getting that job. There's no way they would hire me for that job. Now I'm shocked they'll even hire anybody for the job. I was just reading this story from Crossing Broad in Philadelphia. Kathy Romano leaving Preston and Steve's show won't be replaced.

Now, if you listen in Houston or somewhere else, you don't know the Preston and Steve's show, but the Preston and Steve's show is, you know, the local talk-driven rock morning show that every city has that tends to be gigantic. It is the Rod Ryan show of Philadelphia, except it is a much larger thing than the Rod Ryan show is in Houston. Like radio is not a big deal in Houston. People don't give a shit about radio people in Houston. In Philadelphia, people give a shit about radio people and Preston and Steve have the biggest overall radio show in town. It

makes a ton of money. It's been around a long time. They seem like nice guys. They do great charity shit and their show is a behemoth. It is huge. It's on a station called WMMR, which is a legendary rock station there. It is owned by Beasley Broadcasting, which will be important in our discussion today. But let's do this. Let me just knock out some commercials. This is probably a relatively short segment of this, but I

do want to share this. Let me knock out a few commercials here out of the shoot right from the jump and then we will continue. All right, it's the playoffs basketball playoffs right now and there is no better way to try to make a couple of bucks by putting your knowledge of hoops to the test than using pick six from DraftKings. You can turn that hoops knowledge into real cash and it's better than prize picks flex plays bigger payouts than prize picks flex plays so why why not give it a shot? I use it.

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vary by jurisdiction. Pick 6 not available everywhere including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per customer. Bonus awarded is non-withdrawal pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days limited time offer terms at pick six draft kings.com slash promos. All right, so now that you know who Preston and Steve are to show it's got a bunch of people on it. It's a there's no music. I don't think it's just a full-on talk show that they do. You know, it's it's it's like Rod Ryan.

Rod will play a little bit of music, not much. It's different because theirs is more like the talk show formula of, like, hey, a comedian has come up today, or like, hey, this guy's playing the local improv, the funny bone or whatever, he'll come hang out with us. Kind of in the old school vein of like an Opie and Anthony or a Stern,

whereas Rod is very like rapid fire contest driven. Like I couldn't tell you I might be wrong. I don't know that guests, for instance, are ever on the Rod Ryan show. I don't know. That's not a knock on Rod. He's got a huge show in Houston, but this show is just a juggernaut. If you're in St. Louis, it's like there's a show called the Risotto Show. That the big morning show on the alt-rock station there. It's just every city seems to have that one big 25 to 54 persons morning show on the rock station in their respective towns. Everyone has one and that big one in Philadelphia is Preston and Steve and this gal Kathy Romano has been with them for a long time. Let me read her message.

This was the post. After 22 amazing years my time with Preston and Steve show on Kathy Romano has been with them for a long time. Let me read her message. This was the post. "'After 22 amazing years, my time with Preston and Steve's show on 93.3 WMMR has come to an end. This was in no way my choice or Preston and Steve's choice. We are devastated. It's been the ride of a lifetime sharing mornings with the best team and the most incredible listeners.

Thank you for welcoming me into your lives every day. This isn't goodbye, just turning the dial to what's next. Stay tuned." So I would assume then that she will no longer be associated with Beasley Broadcasting. Why does that matter? Beasley Broadcasting owns WMMR, which is the home of the Preston and Steve show. To give you a little background, if you're not in Philadelphia, that company, I forgot who owned WMMR most recently before Beasley. I believe it was Town Square Media, maybe? Town Square, it sounds about right. Whoever it was, they owned it. And then they sold it to Beasley. There was a big deal. Beasley is notorious for being a very poorly run company

for what it's worth. I don't know, I never worked for them so I couldn't tell you firsthand what the experience is like. I know people that have, they did not particularly enjoy it. Fine, which makes it ridiculous that I'm over here like, hey, I want to get a job with you guys. And most of my friends who I've said, hey, I'm going to try to get this job at

Fanatic. They've all said you're a fucking idiot. And they're probably right. And again, I'm not going to get the job anyway, so I can continue to talk about it because they're not going to hire me. But this would be my point. Now, about 10 years ago, I don't know what everybody's salaries were. But back when towns, I get it. Was it Town Square? I forgot exactly, I might not have been Town Square. Whoever it was that owned WMMR also owned WMGK which is the classic rock station. They own 975 The Fanatic. They own WXTU which is the country station

and do they own BEB? I forgot which other station they owned. It was like another like classic hitsy type station. I forget which one it was. Doesn't matter. But back about 10 years ago when I was still there, people were making legit cash. Like obviously Preston and Steve are very well compensated and I imagine the people on their show are fairly well compensated. They had a morning show on WMGK that was hosted by John DiBella who used to compete against Stern back in the day. I guarantee you he was making very solid cash.

Not what he was in 1984, but very solid cash. Their country station probably doesn't pay the people a ton, but it's a ratings getter and they do fine. And if you look at what they were doing at 97.5 in that era, you had Missanelli who had to have been making base four or 500,000 maybe, give or take5 in that era. You had Missinelli who had to have been making base four or 500,000 maybe, give or take somewhere in that neighborhood. He was doing well. They had the CUS who they had just brought over to do mornings who I'm assuming they paid fairly decent. And then I couldn't even tell you, I honestly, I don't remember who was doing mid days for them at

the time, but I'm sure they were okay, but they were paying people legit money. Fast forward to now, that company is not even paying a long-term two-plus decade member of the biggest show in town to stay. They are letting this person or not even letting them leave. This person is not leaving. They are firing them, it sounds like, from all accounts. I mean, if you post that this was not our decision, I don't know if she asked for more money, they said fuck off and she said I'm going to leave or they said, nope, we have to let you go because we

have to cost a cord cut somewhere or cost cut somewhere. But if that's the case, to me, like this sounds like a shit place to work. It's fine for I guess, I mean, let's think about this. I worked here in St. Louis and for all the issues I have with some of these people at the company I worked for in St. Louis, like I don't know that they were bad people or anything, it was a shitty, like it was just a bad spot and it was a mistake and whatever. But I look at these people and I know for a fact that they do everything they possibly can to protect the morning show on the Rock station in terms of keeping people happy money. They're doing everything they possibly can because that is the most

important entity they have. That is the most important thing they have on all of these radio stations in town is that show. It is the biggest show. So if it means cutting money somewhere else to make sure that show is okay, my guess is they will fucking do it. That's what makes it so wild that this morning show, which is a juggernaut, it is a machine. No one really competes. Like yes, if things are going really well at WIP, because sports is doing well in Philadelphia, maybe the morning show like Angelo will go tip

for tat and these new guys they have in there will go tit for tat. But big picture, none of them are what that show is. And the fact that Beasley, again, if this is what they did, if Beasley is saying, Sayonara, we got to let you go because we don't have the money for it. We got to we got to find places to save money somewhere. Mind you, in recent years, they have dumped almost anybody that has any sort of long standing there because the longer you've been somewhere,

the bigger name you have, that means you make money, right? I'm not assuming that this Kathy Romano makes huge money, but if you've been with this show for 22 years and it's the biggest show in town, you're probably doing pretty well. You're not making 30 grand doing this, so she's probably doing really well for herself. So particularly for someone who's like, you know, third, fourth person on a morning show, she's doing extremely well, if I had to guess, right?

Especially in this era of radio. But in recent years, they whacked the morning show on WMGK and replaced it with somebody, I think, who was already in the building. They have, I think they have fired multiple long time people that have been associated in the market, which means they were probably making money. If they had any market equity, that means they were making money

and they let them go for cost cutting measures. You see what they do at 97.5 the fanatic. I mean they had a cheap afternoon show that they've already fired. Miss Nellie ain't making the money he used to. I can guarantee you that. So it's a super cheap world. Now the radio world is cheap anyway. It is not an industry where people are getting paid huge sums of money anymore. Like if you're a big time or you're getting paid well, I guarantee you the guys over at the radio station here in St. Louis on the Big Rock Morning Show are getting paid well. I guarantee you Preston and Steve are very well compensated. I guarantee you, but I'll guarantee you this.

I guarantee you that the guys at WIP are not. I guarantee you, but I'll guarantee you this, I guarantee you that the guys at WIP are not. I guarantee you that. Like you would look at their numbers and you would go, holy shit, I bet these guys are raking in. They probably got a good live endorsements, appearances. Like their total package probably gets them to a good place. I'll tell you this, full disclosure, when I was doing afternoons there 10 years ago, when they hired me to do nights because it was a union place I made $75,000. I made $20,000 less than I was going to make working at 610 in Houston had I signed that contract. I took less money because I knew that it was a bigger situation and I was going to have an opportunity to eventually move up the ladder which I did rather quickly. But my situation was I was making 75. When they moved me to

afternoons, I think they gave me 115. Mind you, this is 115 and this is 2015 money. That's 11 or 10 years ago we're talking about here, okay? And then that's what I was making. I would imagine Tony was probably making something similar, I would assume. Maybe more. I would assume more, maybe less, I don't know. But that's what I was making when we were doing the afternoons, and that's what I made that entire time

I was doing afternoons. I think my base was 115,000. At 610 in Houston, my situation was going to, I think, be 95, 105, and 115 were going to be my three years of that contract there. Not that any of that matters, except for the point I'm trying to make about where the industry is. So John Marks left WIP a couple years ago.

I'm doubting it was totally over money. It sounds like he wanted to just do his own thing and be around his kids more. But keep in mind the people that they've hired recently and the people that have left. Angelo left recently. He was a million dollar guy. Okay, so they're boom, million dollars gone there. They fired Angelo's old producer who I guarantee was making good money. They let him go, see you later, bye bye.

There are no big names on that radio station anymore. Ike Reese is probably making decent money because he's been there the longest. I bet it ain't a huge sum. The guys in the morning who are pulling nice ratings, here's the thing about WIP. They don't have to pay anyone because they've proven that they can take cast-offs from 97.5 and just throw them on the radio and be fine. Look at what they've done recently. Their morning show is Joe DeCamere. Joe DeCamere used to work at 97.5. No one listened. He's at WIP. He's got huge fucking numbers. Look at when, and this is not a shot at John Marx, who's a nice guy,

but John Mar- and he's good at what he does. I'm not ripping him. But John Marx is over at 97.5, that station ain't doing shit. You put John Marx on the afternoon at WIP, it's killing. They know that they can put anyone on there as long as they can take some fucking phone calls. Look at Joe Giglio, very nice guy, works hard. Joe Giglio was writing weird little stories for the New Jersey newspaper and doing part-time shit and now he's got 20 shares in the mid days. And this is again, not a knock on him. But Joe Giglio is not the reason they got 20 shares in the mid

day there. Like if it were Hugh Douglas and take whomever, like this guy Brody or whoever that I see all these videos of the dude that was at 97.5 and now does stuff with WIP. If they took that same guy and put him in the mid days with Hugh Douglas, they do the same thing. It's just a rinse and repeat throw them through the wringer type of deal. That's what they do at WIP. It's not really like they're set now that the Eagles are so good. The ratings are so high you can

keep changing these shows that's why these guys are never going to make like the serious bank that dudes used to make radio is not doing well financially and you don't have to right you don't have to pay and where are they gonna go would be the other option like imagine you're like let's and I don't know what they're making but let's say that Joe DeCamere to do the mornings is making low six figures somewhere in the low hundreds or something like that. Could be higher because they knew what Angelo was making, but let's just say he's making somewhere in the

low 100s. The only way that you have any sort of advantage is if somebody else wants you, right? 97.5 is owned by Beasley Broadcasting who's firing this third or fourth person from the Preston and Steve show to save money. That's the biggest show in town. What kind of money are they going to offer the morning guy at WIP to go to 975, a station they don't care about? So really Odyssey's got a lot of these people over a barrel. It's just a good place to be in, like where else are you going to go? And that's in most cities. Like if you're in Houston, like I don't know what they're paying Seth, I don't

know what they're paying the afternoon dudes at 610 in Houston. 790 ain't going to pay those people. So they have nowhere else to go and they're not going to leave town. So you got like you give them a couple extra thousand dollars a year, maybe no raise at all and you're fine. So what does all this mean? All this means that in the quest to get to 97.5 that means that this job that they've got, I don't believe it's a union situation, so this job in the afternoons or middays or wherever it's going to be on 97.5 ain't going to

pay shit at all. And I know it's not going to pay shit but I'm going to keep trying to get the job just because I want them to tell me no. I want them to have to tell me no and tell me why they wouldn't hire me, why I'm not qualified for that job. Deep down I don't even know that I want the job. I don't have a job so I'd seriously consider the job but it's not like, oh God, I'm desperate for this job. I appreciate all the nice feedback from you guys but let's get real. It's not an ideal situation. This Kathy Romano has been on that show for 22 years. It's the biggest show in town and it sounds like they're saying, Sayonara, we just can't pay you. So what are they going to pay some slap dick on a sports station that they don't

give a shit about? They don't care about that station. If it makes a couple of bucks great, they don't care. So what are they going to pay? Not much because they're just going to try to make as much money as they possibly can by doing as little as possible. But I'm going to dip shit and I'll keep applying and keep trying to get a hold of them. But they, like honest to God, they'd have to kind of convince me like if they truly want to be, which they don't. So it doesn't matter. But if they were reaching out to me and they're like, hey, it turns out we do think you'd be an asset for us. I'd be like, well, do you guys want to do anything? You guys just fired somebody from one of the biggest rock morning shows, one of the biggest morning shows in the

country, and you just fired someone over, I would assume, salary, a salary dump because she didn't want to leave. It's kind of a fucked up situation, right? All right, anyway, more to come.