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Post by WHDHWX on Feb 13, 2009 17:37:06 GMT -5
Kim is now on the banner with Frances on the WHDH web site. Oh no.
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Post by Brighton Boris on Feb 13, 2009 23:06:04 GMT -5
He was on with them at 8 this morning...He was on 5 or 6 different radio and TV outlets this week pitching his side of the story. The guy came across as very insecure and ego-driven by going on all the shows. Ok, you didn't retire. Ok, Randy we believe you. Now, take a seat, deep breaths and relax...
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Post by Jim on Feb 14, 2009 11:39:32 GMT -5
Readers Digest version:
He's not cheap, he's over 30, and he's male.
Thats NOT the new 7.
What part of this does anyone not understand??
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Post by BTVNadmin on Feb 14, 2009 16:14:27 GMT -5
Boris,
Here's the thing... even if you're right... and I can pretty much assure you that you're not, I would venture this:
It's exactly the RIGHT kind of insecurity driven by the RIGHT kind of ego.
He did the shows because he was ASKED, and if someone fired you and publicly lied about it, wouldn't you want to make it as broadly-known as possible, too?
He's keeping himself visible, which is something he badly needs to do right now in order to find new work. The media interest will die down, and outside BTVN, the public won't care that much until someone else picks him up, which you can be fairly sure they will, so he won't be everywhere. For once, this week, BTVN was at the center of the news universe (indeed WE broke the story itself) - our subject matter was arguably the biggest local story of the week, so that's why it seems like overkill.
Furthermore, I can tell you Randy is the very epitome of relaxed. You'll just have to trust me on that one.
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Post by Brighton Boris on Feb 14, 2009 20:07:58 GMT -5
Boris, Here's the thing... even if you're right... and I can pretty much assure you that you're not, I would venture this: It's exactly the RIGHT kind of insecurity driven by the RIGHT kind of ego. He did the shows because he was ASKED, and if someone fired you and publicly lied about it, wouldn't you want to make it as broadly-known as possible, too? He's keeping himself visible, which is something he badly needs to do right now in order to find new work. The media interest will die down, and outside BTVN, the public won't care that much until someone else picks him up, which you can be fairly sure they will, so he won't be everywhere. For once, this week, BTVN was at the center of the news universe (indeed WE broke the story itself) - our subject matter was arguably the biggest local story of the week, so that's why it seems like overkill. Furthermore, I can tell you Randy is the very epitome of relaxed. You'll just have to trust me on that one. I trust you and the public has already forgotten about him. Trust me on that one. With that said, he's still a diva and acted one all week long.
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Post by BTVNadmin on Feb 14, 2009 20:35:56 GMT -5
I guess I'll just have to content myself that some people will always be deluded. And if the HUNDREDS of e-mails that Randy and I have both received in the last week are any indication, you could not be more wrong about where he lies in the public's affections; even if I hated him with the burning passion of a thousand suns, I couldn't deny that.
I'll happily declare my biases on this one, and while I realize that not everyone is in my position, I think most people will take the word of someone who's known him for nearly six years and has spent hours talking to him over the past week over the word of someone who represents about 0.1% of the spectrum of overall opinion.
It's your opinion, and you have every right to it, but the homophobic overtones of the "diva" reference should be met with nothing but disdain. I don't know what proof you can claim to have that the public have already forgotten him - but my proof to the contrary is solid as a rock.
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Post by editmonkey on Feb 15, 2009 5:30:34 GMT -5
Shazam! The most impressive anchor I've run across in 30+ years in the biz now joins the ever growing ranks of former 'HDH employees. Welcome Randy, it's better out here although a bit colder. It is wonderful to hear his uncensored opinions in Max's interview. Good for you, Randy. Leap and the net will appear. Onward into the fog!
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Post by BigTime on Feb 15, 2009 8:52:19 GMT -5
Randy is kidding himself if he thinks another TV job is going to magically appear for him in Boston. Fox is in a hiring freeze, WBZ and WCVB are buying out and laying off (and there's more of that to come), and does he really want to follow in RD Sahl's footsteps (not that NECN would pay him anything close to what he would want)?
Call it ageism, but Randy is a. ) too old to build around and b.) too expensive for the current market conditions and c.) not a guarantee to swing the ratings (if he was, we wouldn't be having this discussion).
Randy may be right about what is happening to 7, but the bottom line is, this is not the time to walk away (or "mutually separate") from a job in the television industry.
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kvn
Full Member
Posts: 103
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Post by kvn on Feb 15, 2009 8:58:41 GMT -5
I guess I'll just have to content myself that some people will always be deluded. And if the HUNDREDS of e-mails that Randy and I have both received in the last week are any indication, you could not be more wrong about where he lies in the public's affections; even if I hated him with the burning passion of a thousand suns, I couldn't deny that. I'll happily declare my biases on this one, and while I realize that not everyone is in my position, I think most people will take the word of someone who's known him for nearly six years and has spent hours talking to him over the past week over the word of someone who represents about 0.1% of the spectrum of overall opinion. It's your opinion, and you have every right to it, but the homophobic overtones of the "diva" reference should be met with nothing but disdain. I don't know what proof you can claim to have that the public have already forgotten him - but my proof to the contrary is solid as a rock. Well I was waiting for the h word. That has nothing to do with it and you should not have brought it up. Sour Grapes is more like it. A change was made, others before him have been ousted.There is an attempt here to put someone on a pedestal. If you dont like it watch another station.....Charge on!1
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Post by BTVNadmin on Feb 15, 2009 10:01:01 GMT -5
Swing-and-a-miss on my point there. Am I suggesting that his ouster itself had anything to do with homophobia - hell to the no, and I know that Randy doesn't believe that either. What I was trying to say is that it is highly unlikely that one would ascribe the specific word "diva" to Jack Williams, Ed Harding, Mark Ockerbloom, R.D. Sahl, or any other male anchor in the market, even if they had a reputation for being difficult. It was there, its use was subtle, but its intent fairly transparent.
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Post by jIM on Feb 15, 2009 10:08:23 GMT -5
Lets try this one again and see if we can all understand it:
RANDY MADE TOO MUCH MONEY.
The TV Economy is in a deep depression and Ch. 7 is #3 at 11 PM.
If he was a Straight, 30 year old Pastor of the Church of Ansin---he would have been shown the door.
Its really that simple, folks.
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Post by Brighton Boris on Feb 17, 2009 6:45:11 GMT -5
Swing-and-a-miss on my point there. Am I suggesting that his ouster itself had anything to do with homophobia - hell to the no, and I know that Randy doesn't believe that either. What I was trying to say is that it is highly unlikely that one would ascribe the specific word "diva" to Jack Williams, Ed Harding, Mark Ockerbloom, R.D. Sahl, or any other male anchor in the market, even if they had a reputation for being difficult. It was there, its use was subtle, but its intent fairly transparent. The difference is these newspeople, and dozens of others who happened to be let go for money reasons like Randy, would never do a media tour to whine and moan how they were mistreated and misquoted. They were all professional about their exits. If you don't want me to use diva to describe his post-employment actions, I'll use crybaby instead. Randy had no problem being part of Ansin's machine for all these years. Now that his tenure there came to an abrupt end, he's crying to anyone who'd give him air time or print space. It makes for a juicy story for all of 15 minutes or 15 paragraphs. That's about it. As for you, a word of good advice from someone who actually studied(Master's degree) and worked in the biz. Stop being a personality worship binkie and get an objective grip on the reality of the media business. Then people willl take you and your website seriously.
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Post by BTVNadmin on Feb 17, 2009 11:09:57 GMT -5
Swing-and-a-miss on my point there. Am I suggesting that his ouster itself had anything to do with homophobia - hell to the no, and I know that Randy doesn't believe that either. What I was trying to say is that it is highly unlikely that one would ascribe the specific word "diva" to Jack Williams, Ed Harding, Mark Ockerbloom, R.D. Sahl, or any other male anchor in the market, even if they had a reputation for being difficult. It was there, its use was subtle, but its intent fairly transparent. The difference is these newspeople, and dozens of others who happened to be let go for money reasons like Randy, would never do a media tour to whine and moan how they were mistreated and misquoted. They were all professional about their exits. If you don't want me to use diva to describe his post-employment actions, I'll use crybaby instead. Randy had no problem being part of Ansin's machine for all these years. Now that his tenure there came to an abrupt end, he's crying to anyone who'd give him air time or print space. It makes for a juicy story for all of 15 minutes or 15 paragraphs. That's about it. As for you, a word of good advice from someone who actually studied(Master's degree) and worked in the biz. Stop being a personality worship binkie and get an objective grip on the reality of the media business. Then people willl take you and your website seriously. I think I'll take my advice from people whose actual identities I know, which would be dozens of anchors, reporters, producers and junior-level staffers, many of whom have sent messages and made phone calls of praise and encouragement in recent days and with whom, in some cases, I have personal friendships that extend back six years. You may indeed be as qualified as you say you are, but anyone who feels the need to quote credentials at me is either insecure, condescending or both. As for Randy's specific case... When they had the panel discussion on Emily Rooney's program the other night, Dan Kennedy spoke highly of Randy, but said he could easily be accused of being disingenuous ("It's almost as if he forgets he worked there for twelve years"), and why wasn't anyone querying this particular point? And you know something, HE WAS RIGHT! BUT... if the WGBH team had done their homework a little better, they would have found that (to my knowledge), I was the ONLY interviewer who said to Randy: "Hang on, you defended this crap once!" So here, I'm afraid, the "worship binkie" line isn't going to work, because as far as I'm concerned, I held his feet to the fire. Now, I will make no apologies for the fact that I have a longstanding personal friendship with Randy that extends beyond the world of BTVN, and that as such, this particular story has affected me on something of a more emotional level than usual, so when I defend him, I'm not doing it out of celebrity adoration and my desire to glom onto him, but because he is another human being with whom I have formed a bond and with whose situation I sympathize. I don't care if he's a news anchor or a janitor - we met through TV, but at this point, he's just another human being. Having spent extensive time talking to him off-the-record gives me more than enough confidence in my sense of perspective. I won't get into details there obviously, but as he's said on-air, he's angry that they deliberately lied to their viewers (and EVERY source I have confirms they did), but other than that, he's actually grateful for the opportunity to go and do something else. You're right in your basic point that he was costing them too much money, and it's TV so them's the breaks. But he was the one thing (with due respect to my other friends at 7) that gave the station any sort of old-school clout. People tuned in because they liked him and respected him, and now (whether it's here on BTVN, on Mike Page's site, or either of the two Boston papers) people are expressing their intention - in droves - to tune out of 7. Last week, a Globe poll placed him second (behind only Bob Lobel and ahead of Liz Walker and Natalie Jacobson) in a poll to find out which local TV personality viewers are missing most. I don't know where Channel 7 as a station goes from here but down. Randy may have been costly to them, but I'm fairly certain they could have found other ways around those budgetary problems if what little reputation they had left had meant anything to them. Say what you will about the number of his media appearances, but you can't argue with his basic points and it's clear to see why this has happened as it has. He has (with the exception of misguided senior management) the respect of every last individual in that newsroom so his ouster was nothing to do with him being "difficult" other than that he was arguing for a higher standard with which the bosses didn't agree. That's not being a crybaby - that's standing up for what is meant to be journalistically sound - and the reason he's putting himself out there is that he still believes it and is hopeful of finding a like-minded employer. WBZ (admittedly not his most realistic option) "went smart" and their numbers skyrocketed from having been nowhere, so perhaps there's still hope for him yet, if not for him, then at least for people who have a similar approach.
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andy
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Post by andy on Feb 17, 2009 13:30:04 GMT -5
Max has everything spot on, plus, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all these programs ask Randy to come and talk? I'm sure that he didn't contact all these different programs and say, "Hey I'm Randy Price and I want to talk about just getting fired from Channel 7." I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound like Randy at all, and I'm sure these programs wouldn't lay down and have Randy demand to be on their shows. He's done so many interviews because he was asked to! That just shows you how well respected and liked he is around the Boston area, not that he has a big ego and is acting like a crybaby. Also, he's being smart, trying to distance himself from 7, saying that he tried to speak up about the content but they didn't listen, that way a future employer, if they don't already know who he is, won't think that he's just another sensational news anchor that doesn't know squat.
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