PhillyGossip

Posted: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 8:11 AM |

WDAS staffers concerned about its future after Unity Day cancelation

Dan Gross

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Some 105.3 WDAS-FM staffers are concerned for the future of the station and cite the recent cancellation of its annual Unity Day event as one sign of trouble.

"To get rid of Unity Day was stupid. How are you going to replace that revenue," one veteran 'DAS employee told us yesterday. "What's next, Powerhouse, the Q concerts?" wondered the staffer about whether Clear Channel Radio, which recently laid off thousands of staffers nationwide, would cancel Power 99 and Q102's annual signature events.

WDAS recently announced that "due to the difficult economic times," the station could not produce Unity Day this year. Last week Clear Channel announced that John Rohm, who manages its stations in Pittsburgh, would also be market manager of the Philadelphia cluster, which consists of WDAS, Power 99, Q102, Radio 104.5, Rumba 1480, and My106.1.

"WDAS is one of the top stations in the market and we're exactly where we want to be," spokeswoman Loraine Ballard Morrill said yesterday. "I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that there are no plans to make any changes to the station. The decision not to hold Unity Day this year was simply a reflection of these very challenging economic times," she continued.

Posted by Dan Gross @ 8:11 AM Permalink | 51 comments

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:57 AM, 06/18/2009

I heard it was cancelled due to a meatloaf dispute.

— mick314

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:53 AM, 06/18/2009

Some fear that the cancelling of Unity Day is going to cause a domino effect and may affect other events like Powerhouse and the Q concerts. Yeah, they are saying that like it's a bad thing. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

— Professor Smart E. Pants, PhD.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:00 AM, 06/18/2009

There's just something really sad and tragic about those concerts. Maybe it's the no-names and one-hit-wonders that typically headline them that depresses me.

— Professor Smart E. Pants, PhD.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:03 AM, 06/18/2009

To bad Queen Latifah was really looking forward to being the headline act singing her 1994 hit U.N.I.T.Y.

— Jack Daniels on the rocks

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