FZ2878

Local radio is back in South Florida with Sofloradio.com. Led by Jorge Rodriguez, it is the creation of a group of “recessionist” entrepreneurs who watched themselves get squeezed out of their talk radio jobs by corporate media’s decision to save money, by broadcasting the same “national” radio shows in all markets, and in the process they tried to and almost killed grassroots, local talk radio in South Florida.

The communications conglomerates which control all of the major audio and video media providers have taken this more national approach to radio programming because of the enormous cost savings of having to pay one voice compared to paying local talent big bucks in hundreds of markets. The largest holdout for local talent is sports talk, which is relatively safe, especially in markets with one or more local major sports franchises.

Enter Sofloradio.com. Using the low cost bandwidth of the internet, Rodriguez and his group of local radio professionals have banded together to create a true grassroots, authentic radio media outlet to provide a voice for Joe Working Guy. It could be Jane Working Gal, or even Chuck Creative Guy, it doesn’t matter, Sofloradio.com by nature just somehow identifies with the world’s “Doers.”

Liberal Issues Examiner, William Skordelis, grassroots columnist and “radio interview virgin”, (giving or taking – an interview), braved the unknown and dove headfirst into the studio of a couple of Sofloradio.com founders, the on-air duo of the Jorge Rodriguez Show, Jorge Rodriguez and Boca Brian. Or is it on-line duo? The fact is sofloradio.com is so close to traditional radio, you forget your listening to a computer.

To read the rest of the story from William Skordelis on Examiner.com click here.

When we heard of the apparent over-sight in former talk-show host Neil Roger’s contract with 560 WQAM which allowed management to fire his longtime producer and side-kick Jorge Rodriguez, we should have known that even “Neil God” was vulnerable (“You are correct Sir!”). Well it happened, and Friday marked the end of an era in South Florida radio when Neil Rogers aired his last show after accepting WQAM’s offer to buy out the remaining time on his contract.

Despite Neil’s vow to work to the very end of his newly signed 5-year contract out of sheer spite to piss-off WQAM’s General Manager, Joe Bell, and anti-fart-sound-activist, Beasley Broadcast Group attorney Joyce Fitch (which rhymes with….well you know) apparently the Beasley’s (to coin a phrase from one of Neil’s favorite movies – in the voice of Marlon Brando as Godfather Vito Corleone) "made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

But what’s good for Neil is bad for South Florida, because we’ve lost a legend of the airwaves. The famously inconsolable Neil was often mixed with waves of static because of a weak signal, which maybe in some ways just made us listen closer. Obviously the Beasley’s know very little about the radio business even though they are up to their necks in it. How do you pay a man what has been reported on his previous contract to have been making $1.5 million per year and then transmit his show with a signal so weak, broadcasts from Cuba would often bleed over Neil’s famous tirades about the grim reality of life on this earth from A to Z?

Really though, Neil Rogers is just another Beasley Broadcast casualty as they commit radio Hari Kari and one by one fire all their big name talent. If I were “Mad Dog” Jim Mandich, who handles the 4 to 7 p.m. slot, or the “Big Dog” Joe Rose, who handles the morning drive slot, I’d be brushing up my resume and preparing for the axe to fall any day now. In all fairness though, both of them do have a couple things going for them that neither Jorge nor Neil had. They both have nicknames with “Dog” in them, and they’re both former Miami Dolphin football players. After all WQAM is the station “where football always matters.”

But it seems that being a jock or “sport-hole” isn’t enough to keep your job on WQAM. Sports gurus and gambling mavens, Ed Kaplan, and “The Hammer” Hank Goldberg couldn’t escape Joe Bell’s imitation of Jason, (the mad-slasher from Friday the 13th) and all they talked about was sports and sports betting. I guess it helps to work really cheap, though it’s been reported that Ed Kaplan offered to do the job for no pay from the Beasley’s if he could just keep his endorsements and commercial fees.

Maybe the key secret to keeping your job at WQAM is the cliché, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” In other words, “I’m yer frayend!” All of the big-name WQAM casualties at one time or another bitched or moaned about management, the studios, or “Jolly Joe Bell.” But none did it more often and more harshly than “Uncle” Neil. In one way, it’s amazing that he lasted as long as he did.

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It was a sad day for South Florida radio Thursday, when the listening community learned that the rumors had come to fruition, and Jorge Rodriguez, producer and longtime sidekick for the Neil Rogers Show had been “shmit” canned from 560 WQAM.

The subject of Jorge’s forced departure from the show had been surfacing so often that many listeners in the audience thought that it was some kind of shtick to fill airtime. What made it even harder to believe was Neil’s claim that “Norma Can’t”, his attorney and agent had written his contract to give Neil the right to choose his own producer. Apparently Norma lived up to his name, “You Fairy!” If anyone should be fired, it should be that “Ass-clown” Norma. Of course even that would be too late to help Jorge.

Aside from producing the show, Jorge had one of the toughest jobs in radio, filling in for Neil when he went on vacation or was sick from too much gut plunging at Woodbine. I remember the first time I heard Jorge filling in for Neil. I guess I had the same negative reaction many people seem to have, because I had turned in to hear Neil Rogers, not some Neil-Rogers-wannabee. But I quickly found, what I liked most about Jorge, was that he never tried to be anything at all like Neil, he was always true to himself. In fact, at least on the air, two people who worked so close together could not be more different.

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear both sides of FCC vs Fox Television Stations to decide whether the Federal Communications Commission has the right to levy substantial fines to television networks who broadcast anyone using a “fleeting expletive”, polite-speak for someone dropping an isolated F-bomb or any other so-called unscripted “indecent” language.

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Jorge was pissed today, and it was great. Normally, Jorge Rodriguez, perennial side-kick on the 560 WQAM, Neil Roger’s Show, doesn’t want to do “serious”, but today Jorge was focused and “all kinda pissed off”. But what was most amazing today, was that he was getting hot and bothered about politics. When the boss is there, Jorge is usually the mellow, “anti-political” side of the often politically charged commentary throughout the show.

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Originally posted June 25, 2008

Although he would probably say I’m cursed to live in such a cesspool such as South Florida, radio talk show host Neil Rogers is one of the reasons I’m glad I live here.

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