WMAL Cuts Chris Core
By Greg L | 1 March 2008 | Uncategorized | 48 Comments
This has got to be the one of the most bone-headed business decisions ever made. Citadel, the parent company that owns WMAL decided to fire Chris Core after about 20 years on the air. No announcement, they just scrubbed every reference to Chris from their website, and made him disappear. Chris Core represented a fairly moderate viewpoint and had a loyal audience of listeners, and without a doubt was one of the most popular and listened to radio talk show hosts in the DC area.
WMAL might be able to retain their listeners by giving Chris Plante his time slot, but Core brought a lot of good perspectives to this station’s line-up, as well as being a great host. There’s little doubt Core will be able to find work elsewhere, but this is a pretty huge self-inflicted loss. I can’t imagine what Citadel was thinking.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed.
48 Comments
Views: 3275
Loading ...
Yes, quite gutless about the way handled the firing of Chris Core. Why, oh, why do you treat a DC radio legend that way?? “Business is Business,” so be it… but don’t you scum bags have any decency and give Chris, who can give his listeners, some notice so he can go out with class?
Paul
omg, what a loss!! Chris Core was absolutely KEY to WMAL….I love Chris Plante too, but there was something about Chris Core that I think just about everyone…except for the illegal aliens and Hillary Clinton fans loved.
Just a couple years ago, they dumped another GREAT WMAL morning talk show host…Michael _______…can’t remember his last name at the moment, but he was great too. They dumped him as a result of pressure from the Muslim lobby….:(
[Ed note: you refer to Michael Graham, I believe]
Hopefully they’ll get another local guy to fill the spot rather than a syndicated guy. The population of local talk show hosts in this area has been shrinking for a long time. It’s a shame.
Cash strapped Citadel was looking for ways to cut cost and had a blood bath yesterday around the country at many of their major market stations, cutting big name on-air personalities, changing formats and firing everyone in one fell swoop. Core is the highest paid employee at WMAL, I’d say about $250K/yr. so he was a big target. The way they did it was gutless, but I predict Core will quickly land elsewhere on the dial.
Is there any correlation in timing with the announcement that a syndicated Lou Dobbs on the radio program will be starting on Monday? We’ll find out as WMAL has not indicated who/what is filling that slot left by Core.
Re my earlier post, Michael GRAHAM, it was….
They need to get rid of Fred Grandy.
A liberal who talks way too much over Andy Parks.
Grandy and Andy are great.
This is making way for the format change - all Hispanic talk radio.
Core was a wimp. He talked tough on immigration until he got sued. Then he hardly ever discussed it again.
Che’ , getting sued has a way of doing that to you. That was probably the intent of the lawsuit.
——————————————————————————-
Mr. Dolph sure isn’t going to like hearing this about Chris Core.
Here’s my prediction.
The Morning Show has maybe 3 months left at the most. Citadel syndicates Don Imus and Imus is AM radio material, so putting him on the new oldies station wouldn’t make sense.
Chris Plante might survive as the token local host but, for the most part, local non-syndicated talk radio is pretty much dead in Washington, D.C.
I hate to see Chris go….but his views have become way too conservative over recent years and when he and a caller started making fun of hillary yesterday.asying she is old for 60…for a woman….and her legs and wt. and coe was laughing along….that was sickening…and i am no hillary fan…..the best thing i like about her s all the hate groups that go after her because she is a woman!!
HEARTBLEED,
That was probably right before the same caller made fun of John McCain because of his legs, age, and gender and Obama because of his legs, gender and race? Didn’t think so.
I find it totally unacceptable, and yet amazing, that people still feel that kind of talk appropriate. Disagree with her politics. fine. But cut that sexist crap out of the public mainstream. That caller should have been treated like Imus was treated….and for the same reasons.
Thanks HEARTBLEED for bringing this to my attention. Mr. Dolph will get no sympathy from me over the loss of Chris Core.
I for one will not miss Chris Core. I was a semi-loyal listener for a time, and greatly admired the stand he took on illegal immigration (if I recall, he challenged a well-connected landscaping company manager to prove he had not hired illegals). However, I noticed that recently 3 out of 5 times I tuned into his show, he was talking about racism or race-related issues. Not to say that racism is not an issue, but the problem I had was Chris would accept the most egregiously non-sensical views from Jesse Jackson types without challenging them. Eventually, many of Chris’ shows devolved into him providing apologia for straw man conservative views to the local liberal callers. In essence, he would provide a caricature of a conservative view as a discussion topic, and then not defend it. He was a “conservative” who wanted to be loved by liberals. I don’t think he fit in well with the rest of the lineup on WMAL, considering the afternoon lineup includes Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Is there another radio station that carries Rush and Sean? Time to dump WMAL and boycott their advertisers.
He was the weakest link on WMAL. Hope they get a real red meat conservative to fill the spot.
Is there a real red meat conservative willing to work for a buck and a half? Citadel might hire him. Otherwise, forget it. WMAL figures to soon be all-syndie talk, if it doesn’t get sold off to Dan Snyder first.
I love Chris Plante and would love to hear him every day and not have to turn to another station when Chris Core came on. I think Core was too wishy washy for me anyway and tried to be too much “middle of the road”. Please put Chris Plant on. Another idea would be Glenn Beck,because he is really great too. Terry Wickham P.S. If either one of these two hosts are on,then I would have WMAL on all day. You should get rid of Brian Neihman,and that would be a great thing to do!!!!!!!!
Regarding the person who said Chris Plante would be the “token local host”, I think that Plante may be in the process of being groomed for a national show one day. He’s filled in for Mark Levin on numerous occasions, thus he has national talk show experience, and his show is primarily about national issues despite being a local show. It would be a shame to see it happen, because I consider Plante more obnoxious than the other nationally syndicated talkers, but that’s where I think they’re going with Plante.
I wish Chris the best. He was a lion on immigration, but I could only listen to his monlogue for 5 minutes most days before dialing down to Laura Ingrham on 570. I hope Plante gets his slot, or put Mark Levin in the morning - HE is awesome.
What WMAL management ought to be getting rid of on that station is the paid programing (info-mercials) that is hawking colon cleansing washes, super rub-in pain killers and snake oil on Saturday and Sunday early morning. What a waste of air-time. I guess as long as the advertisers are paying for the air-time, WMAL could care less if anyone is listening. It was a bit different for Core. And by the way, the gentleman named Graham that was fired for refusing to appologize for his statements against radical Islam is one of the top talk-show hosts in the Boston area.
Robert T. Molleur said on 1 Mar 2008 at 8:47 am:
They need to get rid of Fred Grandy.
A liberal who talks way too much over Andy Parks.
I can take Fred but his wife has got to go! Boring!
Get rid of Sean Hannity (Mr. ego….ain’t I great?) Another waste along with flicker.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the Stevens and Core show. Core teamed up with a young woman who went by the name of Brooke Stevens. She just past away a couple of weeks ago.
I remember the Stevens and Core show very well. I used to listen to it every night on my ride home from DC to Woodbridge. It was a great show. Lots of politics from all sides. I was very sorry to read of her passing.
Must say though, that I am not sorry to see Chris Core go. I’m not sure what happened to him. He used to be a very balance guy who offered great insight. Now he just rants like an idiot. Stopped listening to him a while back, and not at all sorry to see him go.
I would love to hear Jerry Klein on that spot…..he is on with chris plante on sundays from 2-3 and they are outstanding….Kleien wins all the battles cuz he’s on the right side of the issues and just plain smarter than Chris…..great call-in program….jerry is on by himself feom 3-4
I listened to Chris Core back in the Trumbull and Core days and definitely saw the evolution of Chris into a political animal with an occasional rant or two. I disagreed with Chris much of the time, but he was at least polite and not a self-aggrandizing loud mouth like the rest of the syndicated talking heads that WMAL depends on for listeners. Chris Core was the only show I listened to with any regularity. Andy and Grandy are handy for following the traffic and weather with WTOP alternatively. The rest? Sad commentaries on the hate that permeates the radio airwaves in America. I’ll be tuning into XM, NPR and CSPAN (Washington Journal from 7 to 10 a.m.) for my entertainment. Or maybe I’ll just plug in my ipod.
patryot said on 2 Mar 2008 at 1:03 pm:
I’ll be tuning into XM, NPR and CSPAN
Howard Stern sounds about right for your listening pleasure.
Laura Ingraham should move over to Chris’s spot. I can’t pick up 570 very well. Its a lousy low wattage station.
Glen Beck already moved over to 107.7.
Good luck Chris. I wish you well; too bad you wimped out on the immigration issue.
chris core has always been a weenie, thanks WMAL .
chris go have a nice cry!!!!
WMAL started sliding when they lost Andy, Harden and Weaver and Trumble. The old format with dedicated guys sometimes out at the antenna was Washington. They were as well known as Sonny. Now, corporations use the latest income figures as ratings and do nothing to motivate the staff to be part of the community. The idiots running national chains think they are NBC.
I used to listen to WMAL all the time when Hardin and Weaver and Trumble and Core were on. I even listened when Stevens and Core was on. (Sorry to hear about Brooke). Lately, however, when Hannity took over part of Chris’ time slot and moved Chris later in the evening I stopped listening and went to WTOP.
There is one thing that I will miss about Chris Core but I have to admit I do not want the circumstances in which he excels. That circumstance is when current events shove a disaster at us. Chris was really great in his comentary on 9-11 and other major stories. He kept us informed without going overboard. The news was always up to date without “beating a dead horse to death”. In other words, he kept us informed without being dull or simply repeating the same thing over and over.
I did not always agree with him but he did allow all sides of issues to be discussed.
Good Luck Chris. Maybe the Nationals need another announcer. Your dream job.
I found the Chris Core Show to be so interesting that I listened to it whenever I could and sometimes when I had other things I should have been doing. Now, I won’t even turn the radio on to WMAL during the hours of 9-5, since I have other business to attend to anyway.
What’s with these idiots who want someone “right on the issues.” Define “right on the issues.” You mean someone who agrees with you all the time? That’s probably it. Otherwise, that person would be “wrong on the issues.”
When you’ve been working somewhere for 30+ years and they tell you that you’re not coming back AFTER your shift has ended, something is definitely wrong. You wouldn’t appreciate your employer doing this to you. An employer shouldn’t do this if a person worked with it for even a year…but 30+ years? That is amazing. No time to say goodbye or even time to look for another job. I should boycott Citadel for even having this kind of an attitude towards anyone…whether I like that person or not.
Whether I agreed with Core is irrelevant. He was always interesting, his voice wasn’t annoying (unlike the nasally voice of some people), and he wasn’t an obnoxious ratings-driven host. Because he had been there for so long, I think he probably felt comfortable enough to be himself and not be hysterical or tabloid-ish.
If he’s moving to another station, I am going with him. Chris Plante is somewhat tolerable, but I only say this because I can’t stand the rest of the WMAL cast (Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin - Can you believe Limbaugh is actually the most tolerable of these three?).
Citadel did this out of desperation in hopes of getting more listeners but they lost yet another listener! Remarkable thinking…
As for the immigration thing, I listen to Core on a regular basis, and in his last week, he was still hard on illegal immigration. But even if a lawsuit silenced him, so? How is that uncommon, and are you seriously trying to tell yourself that the nightmares protracted lawsuits bring wouldn’t affect you? Give draining your bank account a try, having to show up to court, and not knowing what will happen. See if you’re still the tough man-of-principles you claim you are. Lawsuits, by anyone’s standards, are psychologically demanding and anyone can cave in.
Glad to see Core go. He was a whinny lib mosty of the time I heard him. Since he is gone I may have to start listening to WMAL again in the mornings. Chris Plante is a big improvement in that time slot.
Kermit
Frank you are dead on with your comments. A lot of listeners have migrated to this area and are not familiar with the roots that Mr. Core has established here. His charities that he supports such as the one at Childrens Hospital have flurished with his contributions. This is not a left or right, conservative or liberial. 30 years of a mans lively hood just was destroyed. How would you feel if that was you! Heartless Bastards!! I’m ashamed to be a conservative. The venom that we sprew to get a point acorss is disgusting. We even disengage ourselve from our own kind.
Mr. Core will be back on his feet a lot sooner than the conservative right.
While I always enjoyed Chris, because he would at least listen without being obnoxious, he is by voting against his own interests learning what others have already learned. Deregulation of radio and TV that permits virtually unlimited ownership by media giants, has benefited no one but huge corporations. Local programming? forget it, like they give a damn about local programming. As it says, you reap what you sow. Chris Core and every other employee mean nothing to Citadel. While many of you “conservathugs” seem to be happy that Chris was treated like dirt, remember this you could be next! You think your job is all secure? Chris did. You think you won’t be fired? Chris did. You think your employer will treat you with respect and a degree of dignity? Chris did. You think it’s their own fault when people lose their jobs? Chris did. If you think the same can’t happen to you. Like Chris, you had better guess again. You are little more than a speck on the window, or so much trash to your globalized corporation. The arrogant ass Sean Hannity, nor the nicotine and other drug addicted Russ Limbaugh, nor the illogical ranter Chris Plante, nor any of the right wing hate meisters will help or give a damn about you. You are like a John to a whore, or a customer to a stripper nothing more than a chump. For your money they feed you a vision of an America that does not exist, and never will. They make you think that building a wall on our southern border at who knows, maybe 10 million dollars a mile, or more (we are slated to pay almost 100 million for a mere 28 miles) will how do they say it? Close the border? Of course in building this so-called wall we inevitably cede an untold amount of acreage to Mexico. Fences are built on your property remember? I call the border fence, the coyote full employment act! Then they tell you let’s increase the size of the border so wean find arrest and deport the 1 to 14 million remaning. By the time they finish the Border Patrol will be larger than the Army, or the State Secret Police in the old East Germany. So there goes several billion more dollars to that effort. Next they tell you we all need a biometric ID card that can’t be forged. Of course carrying an ID card is useless unless you can be required to produce it on request of any law enforcement officer. There goes billions more for the ID card. For the first time in history, the federal government would have the final say so in all hiring decisions. Here I thought conservathugs wanted government out of our life, I guess I was wrong. Would they be done with the ID card? Of course not! All governments no matter the form have an insatiable urge for more and more power. Here are like sheep willing to give it to them without so much as a baa-baa. The final stage would be a DNA data base of every American, plus a chip inserted at birth that’s has all the pertinent info on it. Welcome to modern democracy, and all this to stop the 40% who arrive illegally across the Southern boder. As one who spent a great deal of his life patrolling a hostile border with extensive border fencing along with a 5KM exclusionary zone, I can tell you it wasn’t the fences, the anti-vehicular ditches, or the guard towers that prevented people from breaching the barriers. Simply put, it was guns, landmines, electrified fences, automatic firing guns along the fence lines, plus an order to border guards, and this was key, shoot on sight and shoot to kill. Unless you are proposing the same thing, people wanting to get into the country will find a way! Now we spent billions and billions trying to do the impossible. But wait, consider the following 90 trains a day legally cross the border at El Paso alone. Other terminals are being built. One will move 100K containers annually, that just one! There are over 28 Million legal border crossings annually between us and Mexico. All of these numbers will only increase. The 60% of illegals get here that way by crossing at a legal border points, airports, sea ports, etc. Btw if crossing our borders illegally is such a crime why is the penalty less than even a jay walking citation! As far as I can tell it’s only an administration violation! If it doesn’t start in Mexico and not at the border, border security and all this talk of fences is nothing but hot air. As long as the income disparity between us and Mexico is the greatest of any 2 countries located adjacent to ea other, they will keep coming, fence or no fence! Consequently any proposal to seal the border with fences, etc. is just a lot of hot air, and easy money for government contractors. With the billions we are about to spend we could just pay Mexicans to stay at home, and come out way ahead financially in the long run. But, if we ran the illegals out, who would build the mansions of the Limbaughs, and take care of Hannity’s lawns. Btw why do Cuban immigrants with the wet foot, dry foot policy get a pass on coming here illegally? OK enough said. Again sorry to see Core go. WMAL just returned all sorts of hours to me. My radio has been off since they fired him and will stay off that station, no reason to listen at all, except maybe one hour on Sundays. Chris will now find out what happens to people who lose good jobs. Oh sure another station will probably pick him up, but at no where near his previous salary. He will become the equivalent of a fast food talk show host, which is essentially the same fate that befalls others who lose a good paying job because it’s out sourced. Hopefully Chris will finally see the light.
Screw WMAL
Core was a main stay for my drive time when he was on in the afternoon and when he then go the AM spot. Liked and dislike him some time but he , like all the rest, had some opinions that I disagreed wtih but still listened.
It appears that Citadel is cleaning their slate of conservative host, they did it to a great one from CA. I am sure they start soon on the 6-9 AM slot. They will find some way to get rid of Andy and when that time comes the station might as well go dark for my opinion.
Semper Fi
I am contacting all of the businesses who advertise on the Chris Plante show and tell them that I, for one, will not use their products and I will encourage everyone that I know to do the same. Chris Core was balanced. Even if you agreed or disagreed with his positions on some subjects, he was real. Chris Plante is a disgrace and takes down every conservative with his hate radio.
Chris is the only radio talk show host I can even tolerate anymore. He is human and easy to talk to. He listens, clarifies, understands and admits when he’s wrong or when he appreciates a different point of view. I will miss him and will definately not be listening to WMAL anymore at all!!! What happened to him really is a shame and I wish him the best. He is in a union so I’m sure he walked away with a severance package that will keep him going until another station picks him up.
I like the Chris Plant show and believe he is a much better fit for the WMAL morning slot leading up to the great Rush Limbaugh. I even like his voice!
As the shades of extremism start to rap themselves tightly around this once pround country,we will see even more voices like that of Chris Core silienced. This sort of thing happened in another country,…..not so vey long ago
gatlingunn, great point about the ID cards that “conservatives” propose. It’s truly remarkable that the liberals, in this case, are the ones fighting government’s invasion of our lives! When did politics twist like this? It’s funny how, at one given time period, the liberals are conservative, and at other periods in time, the conservatives are liberal! At other times, they are the same. Yikes…this sounds like something out of Animal Farm (Orwell).
Lou, I support your decision. Chris Plante was mildly tolerable. If it weren’t for his attempts at using witty lines, cracking (lame) jokes, and sometimes being rude to callers, I would actually listen to him. The cool thing about Core is that he would never do this. He’d talk to you as if you were chatting with him in his living room. You know? Just a down-to-Earth type of guy, while all the others seem hell bent at furthering their ratings.
Core’s leaving gave me an excuse to abandon WMAL altogether (with the exception of the few minutes I listen to Hannity whine and Limbaugh bark), especially Plante’s show. I am trying to find a new radio station that can fill this time slot. In the mean time, I’ll likely be listening to NPR or something, but I’d prefer something with local stories/news.
I don’t listen to WMAL now. Chris Core was almost always right on! I disagreed with him at times, but at least he always listened to callers and was polite.
Maggi
Jerry Klein is pathetic and seems to take the opposite side and stupid side of everything just to be annoying. Mark Levin is the best on WMAL, and should get a 3 hour show. Rush Limbaugh, and the Sean Hannity are also great. Chris Core was OK, but his pregnant pauses were annoying. Chris Plante is great, but should move back to nights after my man, Mark Levin. I think Laura Ingraham or Glen Beck, or Neal Boortz would be great replacements for Chris Core in the morning. By the way, Good Luck Chris Core, wherever you land.
Short and sweet…we love Chris Plante. Used to love when he filled in for Chris Core, and now listen to the morning slot more regularly. Core was too “wishy-washy” for us.
I wish Chris Plante was back in his old time slot after Mark Levine. I’m a Laura Ingraham fan, I’ll listen to Plante when Laura is on vacation. Chris Core was a nice man, but too wishy-washy for my taste.
Having listened to Chris core for all of the years at wmal, I was appalled to hear of this wanton lack of tack and common sense that Citadel committed. So much of the move toward all talk radio eliminated some great talents who provided educational musical understand to the Washington area. Now even balanced, civil, views on talk are outmoded as well. Culturally you have to wonder where we are headed. Thank you Chris Core for your human approach to your work and the public that listened to you.
Ever since WMAL let go of Michael Graham, the morning show hasn’t been the same for me. Some day, i just tuned away from Chris Core because i just got so tired of his stance on issues. I agree with Sean H. but his show is so boring. Levin is great but i just wish he allows the Liberals to express their views more and then try to explain to them why their views are wrong; this would be a little more entertaining than just yelling. I don’t get to listen to Rush for I work during the day and I cant concentrate on my work with the radio on. Most of all, I just miss Michael in the morning and his positions on the terrorists.