On lying and hypocrisy - and maybe a change at WZBH?

Monday morning marked the last day of The Matt and Crank Program.  Monday night marked the true colors surrounding Matt’s sudden announcement that he wouldn’t be returning to the show.

In case you missed the drama, on Monday night, Matt announced on the Matt and Crank FaceBook page that he was leaving WZBH for a better job opportunity, an opportunity he couldn’t disclose at the time, but would be coming in the near future.  He also stated that he wanted to do a couple of more shows to say goodbye to his fans, but “that wasn’t allowed.”

The five of us at the Critics Page fully understands the meaning behind these code words, known to most of us as lies.  Matt was fired and he had no job to report to the next day.  After months of listening to Matt preach about the loss of moral values and everyone is out to deceive if it makes them look better, he decided to take the low road in announcing his departure from WZBH as if it were his decision because of a job offer he didn’t have yet.

The most telling sign that he lied to us is the fact that most public figures are given the opportunity to announce their departure and where they will be going.  Innae Park, the anchorwoman from WMDT, who did the eight o’clock news for the show, left for a new opportunity in New York.  Chris Steele left to pursue his career in the medical field.  Matt and Crank talked about Innae’s departure.  JJ and Doug McKenzie talked about Chris’ departure.  No one talked about Matt’s departure.

The next day, Tuesday, Crank flopped around on his show, but made no mention of Matt.  Sarah, Doug, nor JJ made mention of Matt’s departure.  Programming on Tuesday was as if Matt never existed.

On Tuesday night, Matt posted on his FaceBook page that he was taking a two-week hiatus.  Between him and his fiancé, they built the illusion that some big announcement of Matt’s future was forthcoming, but, apparently, in two weeks.

On Wednesday, Crank flopped around a lot less, but, to our dismay, tried to carry on topics that were Matt in style.  At the Critics Page, we always thought Crank was the intelligent one and hoped he would stand out of Matt’s shadow.  In our reviews, we pointed out that Crank was a “good puppy dog” or “Matt’s boy”.  We said those things because we wanted Crank to stand out on his own, but he never did.  Two days after Matt’s firing, Crank looked destined to try to follow the path that led to Matt’s demise.

On Wednesday night, Matt came out of his two-week hiatus thirteen days sooner to announce his new job.  Matt’s fans came out in droves, all twenty of them, to congratulate him.  They announced they were replacing WZBH on their preset dial with the new station Matt signed onto.  Fortunately for Matt, who most likely saw his termination coming and had his résumés out weeks, or even months, prior in anticipation of his inevitable future, an opportunity availed itself only two days after his firing from WZBH.

When Matt’s fiancé, Alissa, asked some of the fans congratulating Matt on his new gig how Crank was doing, her question drove home what really happened on Monday night.  When one is fired from a job, you don’t go back to find out how they’re doing, but curiosity is going to have you asking.

At this point, we felt really bad for Crank.  All twenty fans trashed Crank as being nothing and not worth tuning in to anymore.  Ahh, the fickleness of fans, even if it is only twenty of them.

Thursday rolled around and nothing to note except for the clear confidence Crank found in himself.  We’re not sure all of what he talked about, but we did sense a more confident Crank. 

Friday morning, this morning, Crank finally mentioned Matt’s name.  He announced the Matt and Crank Show officially ended on Monday, but new, and better, things were coming for the new morning show.  He qualified his announcement with “I don’t want to say anything bad about Matt”.  Well, Crank, you might not want to, but we will – and, as you know, we have.

We’ve already stated Matt was fired.  Let’s say, for a moment, he wasn’t fired.  What sort of douche bag walks into work, puts in his hours, and then goes to his boss and says, “I quit”? 

No, the “sudden announcement” by Matt of his departure was a lie because he wasn’t man enough and honest enough to admit to his fans he was fired.  It’s a classic stunt that, if any other public figure had done, Matt would be sure to point out what a lying creep that person is.

But, as we pointed out, what can you expect from someone who is taught the valuable lesson of do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do?  That appears to be the only logical explanation of why Matt didn’t have the balls to tell his fans he was fired.

So where did Matt go?  To a much smaller audience of like-minded bigots.  Explaining exactly where would take another page and a half of writing that we may undertake later.  Suffice it to say that while WZBH covers all of Delmarva and part of southern New Jersey, Matt’s new station doesn’t cover our listening area anywhere on Delmarva that all five of us go to on a daily basis.  Depending on where we are, we either get ESPN out of DC or some other talk radio out of Virginia.  One of us at the Critics page can get Matt’s new station at home if the weather is just right.

A big, mainstream rock station fired Matt.  Some rinky-dink, conservative Christian talk station picked him up.  Conservative Christians are on their way out and Matt’s future doesn’t look too bright.  But we’ll have more on that later, maybe.

We do anticipate one more review, so to speak.  We’ll call it a wrap up review.  After this week, we’re fairly confident that WZBH and Great Scott Broadcasting are making positive changes that are more reflective of their diverse listeners.  We do not take the credit – nor blame – for the firing of Matt and the changes coming to WZBH.  For all we know, the changes were in the making before we started the Critics Page.  All we can say is we’re optimistic of the new programming and, yes, we’re rooting for Crank to shine as the star we always thought he could be if given the chance to step out of a dark shadow.