Radio listeners rally for displaced deejay
The Herald-Palladium, 1/14/2010
Radio listeners rally for displaced deejay
Group wants Jason Lee back on air; WIRX sites budget cuts for decision
By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO
H-P Features Writer
ST. JOSEPH – Jason Lee knew his morning radio show on WIRX-FM (107.1) was doomed eight weeks before he got the official word.
“When we received the shipment of 2010 station calendars, the Jason Lee Show logo was no where on there,” Lee says from his home in St. Joseph. “When our logo didn’t make the calendar we knew we were going to get booted. We just sat around for eight Fridays waiting to get called into the office.”
The call came on Nov. 20. That’s when Lee was told that his show was the latest victim of budget cuts at Benton Harbor’s WSJM, Inc., which operates the five Southwest Michigan radio stations owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting.
Since Lee’s last broadcast nearly two months ago, a growing number of local supporters has been pressuring the company to put the deejay back on the air. The group, which has nearly 1,300 members, started a letter-writing campaign and a Facebook petition, organized a picket line in front of at least one WIRX advertiser, and are planning a benefit concert featuring Morgan Ingle, The Last Mangos, The Michigan City Vandals and Mike Struwin on Feb. 6 at Czar’s 505 in St. Joseph. Proceeds from the concert will be used for signs, bumper stickers and T-shirts to continue a campaign to get Lee back on the air.
“He’s one of us,” says 33-year-old Jeff Kasun of Benton Harbor, one of Lee’s supporters. “Jason lives here, his kids go to our local schools, he goes to church in St. Joe. He always supported local charities, local bands, local politicians and let them speak on his show so that we would have a chance to be a part of making Berrien County a better place. What we want is simple. We want the Jason Lee Show back on the air weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m. on WIRX.”
While the request may be simple, the logistics are not. Gayle Olson, president of WSJM, Inc., which operates WIRX, WSJM-AM (1400) and FM (94.9), WYTZ-FM (97.5), WCSY-FM (103.7) and WCXT-FM (98.3), says the decision to supplant the Jason Lee Show with the Free Beer and Hot Wings show, a syndicated program originating from Grand Rapids, was simply the latest in a series of cost-cutting measures by the company.
“It was 100 percent a budget decision,” Olson says. “… (Pulling the Jason Lee Show) was probably 18 to 24 months into a review of all facets of the company. We had five local morning shows at the beginning of 2009 and now we have two. … Clearly there’s a large group of people who were disappointed with the decision and we feel badly about that. … We’re sensitive to it, but like any other business we’ve had to make some tough decisions.”
That argument, however, hasn’t satisfied angry listeners.
“Mid-West Family tells everyone how important it is to support our local economy and workers, yet syndicates a show from Grand Rapids that no one wants,” Kasun says. “That money is now going outside our community to be spent in Grand Rapids and a local man is left jobless. It is the height of hypocrisy.”
Kasun and other Lee supporters say they are now targeting WIRX advertisers to get their message across. A planned picket line in front of the Pizza Hut at 2053 Niles Road in St. Joseph was quelled Sunday when Michigan Pizza Hut, Inc., chief operating officer John C. Brinker announced he was suspending advertising from Mid-West Family Broadcasting until the issue was resolved.
“I personally now know people on both sides of this disagreement,” Brinker says via e-mail, “and I believe that if they would just agree to meet and open a fair and balanced dialogue then progress would be made for an amicable resolution.”
Tom Jennings, who owns Czar’s 505, says in addition to hosting the benefit show that he’s also considering pulling advertising from Mid-West Family Broadcasting to protest the decision.
“I haven’t done it yet but I’m considering it if that’s what it takes,” Jennings says. “I want to see local radio back on the air. I think the show really took off and you can tell there’s been this groundswell of support for it. I’m also willing to step up to the plate to be one of the sponsors for the show if it comes back on the air.”
For Lee, who worked at WGLO-FM and WWCT-FM in Peoria, Ill., before moving to St. Joseph nearly four years ago, the response has been a bit humbling.
“Being in this business I thought I was completely incapable of being surprised,” he says. “This stuff doesn’t usually happen. Usually you’re forgotten pretty quickly. Everybody wants to feel wanted or at least liked. To have that sort of groundswell and all the e-mails that I get, it’s just really cool. I’ve got radio friends all over the country watching this go on that are scratching their heads saying ‘What kind of show are you doing? You must have really connected to people for this to be going on for this long.’”
Lee says his formula for success was simple.
“We were just regular guys,” he says. “Regular guys and regular stuff. Wives. Kids. Pets. It’s that common thread that all of us we have. We all went through the same phases. Most people try to hide that, but I’m the first guy to raise my hand to say I had the worst mullet ever. That’s how you connect with people because we all went through that kind of thing. We’re all raising kids, we’re all dragging 45 pounds of gear to the beach in July and we’re all out shoveling snow on days like today.”
Olson says he thinks Lee could find success in any market and agreed that the show “did very well” in the ratings. The expenses of running the show, however, made it a liability. The Free Beer and Hot Wings show, Olson says, “costs a lot less to operate.”
Although Lee says he’s received at least one inquiry from an out-of-state radio station, he and his wife Jennifer have decided to remain in town.
“It came down to: do we choose between my love of radio or the love of where we live now, the love of community?” Lee says. “And it took about two minutes before we said, ‘You know what, we’re not leaving here. We’re here.’ I just have to find a Plan B.”’
His supporters, however, still have their sites set on Plan A, even though WIRX says that’s just not possible. When asked what it would take to bring the Jason Lee Show back, Olson says, “This could only be solved by a substantial improvement in the economy. I would hope someday that there will be another great, local morning show on WIRX, but I have no idea when that will be and I don’t see how anything could be changed in the short term because it all comes down to budget considerations.”
That argument has yet to sway listeners like Kasun.
“Contracts get cancelled or bought out all the time,” Kasun says. “It may cost the station a little money, but a syndication contract can be cancelled. Then we can all go back to the way it was, and hopefully the station will be smarter in the end.”
In the meantime, Lee has purchased the Web site domain name www.thejasonleeshow.com where he’s posted highlights of some of his past segments. If he isn’t hired back by WIRX or another radio station, Lee says, he may plan to use the site to broadcast a live show.
“No matter what happens, something is going to happen,” Lee says. “Because of all these people taking all this time and putting all this passion and effort into this, at this point I feel it’s an obligation on our part to do something. Right now I’m not sure what that is.”