Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Crank is gone sans apology

For long time readers of this page, you know we started it shortly after August 19, 2010 - the day the morning show hosts, Matt and Crank, aired a particularly offensive four-hour show.  First, they attacked gays as mentally diseased perverts, then turned their venom towards Blacks and their welfare sucking habits that help support their crack habits, and finished up with a lesson to women that their place is in the kitchen cooking dinner for their men.

The next day, both defiantly stood by their show, refused to apologize for any of it, and proceeded to denigrate all those who spoke out against their comments.  We started this page to document their - and the station's, in general - bigoted programming.

Matt Walsh was fired within a year, give or take a couple of months, but Crank remained unscathed.  He voluntarily followed his buddy, Matt, over to WGMD, but scurried back to WZBH, tail between his legs, within a month shortly after Matt was fired from that station.

According to Crank's FaceBook page in response to a fan's question about what happened to the morning show, Crank claims he voluntarily left "for greener pastures" that he would announce soon.  The station didn't let him finish out the week that he put notice in for, something he should've known.  His exact words:

 
 
Our only regret with this announcement is Crank (nor Matt nor the station) ever did apologize for Aug 19, 2010.  While WZBH has come a long way in erasing the bigotry that was prevalent in their daily programming, the two biggest culprits in perpetuating negative stereotypes on a daily basis (particularly misogynistic and homophobic stereotypes) never did admit that maybe their carried their brand of "entertainment" a bit too far.

Over the last couple of years, we've seen real talent come and go - and, of course, Matt and now Crank.  While we were sad to see some leave, we'll have a keg party celebrating Crank's departure.  Here's a rundown on the talent that was (as well as Matt and Crank) and what they are all doing now, the best that we can find.

  • Crank: Unemployed at least until he makes his announcement of the greener pastures he's moving to.
  • Matt:  After being fired from two more radio stations in as many years, now writes exclusively for The Blaze.  His Radical Thoughts Tour failed after a couple of shows, but he still speaks at The Great Homeschool Convention and a couple of other far right, conservative Christian events.  Also trolls Twitter in hopes of gaining his fifteen minutes of fame.
  • JJ:  On air weekdays, 10 am - 3 pm at Ocean 98.1 WOCM in Ocean City.
  • Captain Blue and Doug McKenzie:  Together again at 103.5 and 106.1 The Vault in Pokomoke City.  They have their own morning show, weekdays 6 am - 10 am.  Their laid back, dry sense of humor will crack you up.
  • Ian McKay:  Unless he's Hitman McKay over there with Doug and Captain Blue, he's still MIA.
  • Sarah:  On air weekdays, 3 pm - 7 pm at 97.7 Eagle in Milford. 
  • Phoebus:  Left radio and is at the World Gym Milsboro.
  • Spera:  After a brief stint at AM 1470, WTTR in Westminster, he left radio and is with Country Meadows - Leader Heights, a retirement community in York, PA.
  • Tonya:  If anyone knows, please let us know.
  • Tyler:  We thought he left WZBH, but now we're not sure. 
With the departure of Crank, this post most likely concludes our broadcasting over here.  You can, however, catch us over at The Five Drunk Rednecks where we talk about a whole lot more than just WZBH.

Editor's Note:
3/26/15 - edited Sarah's current status that had incorrectly stated she worked for 97.5 Cat Country.  Cat Country was here previous position after leaving WZBH.

Related links:
Crank's final farewell

10 comments:

  1. Sarah is now doing afternoons on eagle 97.7

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  2. Thank you for the update. I don't care for country, but I reckon I'll take a listen this afternoon and edit the article tonight to reflect the accurate information.

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  3. Thank you, anonymous, for the accurate information. Unfortunately, she's mostly out of range for us so we won't get to hear her much. Wouldn't it be awesome if she returned to WZBH and did the morning show the right way?

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  4. 93.5 the Beach is, and has been, going down the tubes. Murph, Mickey and Cowboy were the last fun or likeable DJ's to even be on 93.5 in the mornings. The music has gone down hill as well as any other content. Once the passion is gone I'm not sure what is left. I don't even listen in the morning anymore. I find a morning program on my iHeart radio app in another state to listen to. That's pretty darn sad. I like Leah in the afternoons. Not just because she is awesome and likeable but because she is a personal friend of my family. Outside of that, bye-bye 93.5!

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  5. Twice, Leah dedicated two different songs one of us called in to honor Crank (No Leaf Clover by Metallica and Crying Like a Bitch by Godsmack) and ever since she has been growing on us. If we had to gripe, we wish she'd talk more about the music and the bands (103.5 and 106.1 The Vault, home for Doug McKenzie and Captain Blue - both ex WZBH DJs - do an awesome job at that) and cut down on her "dumbass stories" or at least talk about "dumbass stories" of a local flair. We're all big on keeping it local! We offer the suggestion because we've seen her talent grow over the last few months and maybe our suggestion will help her grow even more to fill the shoes in bigger markets down the road. Then again, we're just five drunk rednecks so what do we know?

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  6. There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism at all and I agree with you. But, since when has 93.5 listened to ANY constructive criticism? Fans have called in repeatedly to complain about the choice in music they were playing but were told if they didn't like it, don't listen to it. Not very productive or conducive to ratings. It's hard to say what Leah is being told to say or not say. BUT, the next time I see her, I will slip in that it would be nice to hear about the music/bands and local stories. It has become the trademark of 93.5 to share dumbass stories. That's been going on for a long while. It is half the problem with the station IMO.............

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  7. No one owes you an apology. And Matt Walsh wasn't fired from WZBH or WGMD. Yes, he was fired from the station in Lexington, but not for anything he said. He just didn't get the ratings they wanted.

    He's a douchebag, but he wasn't fired in Sussex County.

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  8. Thank you, anonymous, but apparently we left an incorrect impression. You are right. No one owes us an apology.

    Matt and Crank, however, does owe all of Delmarva an apology. The show they did on Aug 19, 2010 was a performance more worthy of a Storm Front audience than mainstream Delmarva audience. Of course, that is our opinion, but one we stick firmly by.

    Matt was fired from WZBH even if he wasn't kindly handed a pink slip. He came in Monday morning, did his show, and then told not to return on Tuesday or any day. Usually, when one comes in to work, does his job, and at the end of his shift is told "Don't bother coming in any more," that means he was fired. We would like to think Matt was fired for his particularly offensive show on Aug 19, 2010, but for all we know he could have been fired because the boss man didn't like his new tattoo. We don't know; we don't care, but saying he wasn't fired is a lie.

    While we said he was fired from WGMD, we did offer the caveat that there were major shakeups at the station and a lot of people were fired. All were still unceremoniously fired regardless of the station's reasons.

    Finally, at WLAP in KY, we said, yet again, Matt was fired and stated that the official word from the station manager was that the station decided not to renew his contract. The point we made was Matt did not voluntarily leave his stint at WLAP so, in effect, he was fired. The reasons could be lack of ratings, his inflammatory style, or his tattoos. But he was still fired.

    Ok, maybe we're splitting hairs on what "fired" means, but when I was laid off my job a few years ago, I was fired. I knew the layoff wasn't temporary in that the company would be calling me back at some point in the future. The layoff was permanent.

    Of course, in a few decades' worth of working, I've never been laid off three times in three years, either....

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  9. Neither of them owe anyone an apology. Grow up.

    Matt didn't get to do his final show because he was already leaving to go to WGMD. He left WGMD on his own accord after taking time off work to look for greener pastures. Dick move, but they didn't fire him by any definition of the word.

    I have no idea who you are, or why you are so obsessed with two nobody radio hosts (that don't even do radio anymore), but you need to just let it go. It's childish.

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  10. Mom, is that you? I hope you feel better now that you got all that off your chest.

    But you're still wrong and we're at least more right.

    We pretty much documented everything as it happened four years ago based on what was being said on air and social media chatter by the characters, themselves. Unlike you, we haven't come around four years later in an attempt to rewrite history.

    Yes, since we don't have an "inside track" nor did we ever claim to have one, you are more than welcomed to write about what happened four years ago. Please document your sources and any quotes you may use and be sure to mention the threatened lawsuits over the Matt and Crank show. See, as blog owners, we do know who were frequent visitors to our page (stats tell us who all of our visitors are).

    Oh, and Matt is doing radio - at least for this week as guest host on a San Diego radio station (KFMB http://www.760kfmb.com/). So, see...we don't just Google things and make up stories. We try to stay on top of the projects we started over four years ago.

    Anyway, if you take the time to write a professional article to set the facts - and us - straight, we'll have no problem posting it.

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