Carlos Monarrez

Detroit Free Press

Update: Detroit 105.1 changes format from sports talk to old school hip-hop

Tom Mazawey and Sean Baligian, two show hosts at Detroit Sports 105.1 (WMGC-FM), explained Thursday some of the mistakes and failures that led to the station discontinuing its sports-talk format Wednesday after a 34-month run.

Questionable programming decisions, failing to provide a Detroit-centric morning show and the handling of the station’s key personality, Drew Lane, were among the key problems.

But the biggest nail in the coffin came last fall, according to Mazawey. That’s when WMGC, owned by Greater Media, lost a bid for the Detroit Tigers' radio broadcast rights to The Ticket on 97.1 FM.

Mazawey said it wasn’t a fair negotiation after two Tigers executives broke a promise to make it a sealed-bid offer and tipped off The Ticket executives about the offer from Greater Media and WMGC, although a source close to the negotiations on the team's side told the Free Press late Thursday that there was never a sealed-bid offer as part of the process but declined further comment. Neither Mazawey nor the Tigers source were present at the negotiations.

“It was supposed to be a (sealed bid) when the Tigers and Red Wings were up for bid,” Mazawey said earlier Thursday. “We bid $9 million more than CBS — $9 million. It was supposed to be a (sealed) ballot. They open up the ballot and it was supposed to be this is who gets it: CBS or Greater Media.

“Instead of doing that — they had a handshake deal as well with our guys — they broke their promise and they showed CBS. And (WXYT market manager) Debbie Kenyon matched it and CBS went through and said, ‘You can keep Tigers and Red Wings or you can keep Lions.’ She said, ‘We’ll take Tigers and Red Wings.’ So they broke their promise with us.

“That was the start, really. We needed them. If we got them, we were on the map.”

In February, Baligian began hosting the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. show with Mazawey and Marc Fellhauer. But for the first 30 months of its existence, WMGC, an ESPN affiliate, carried ESPN’s syndicated show “Mike and Mike.” Baligian said that didn’t cut it in a town crazy about its Detroit teams.

“At the very least, go from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with just Detroit sports talk,” he said. “That was something that, for whatever reason, the management at the station didn’t want to commit to early on. And I think put them behind the 8-ball very early.

“My goodness, when you think about it, for the 34 months that the station existed, 30 of those months had a national show, quite frankly, a New York-based show. I just don’t think that’s a good business model at all. I think by the time they learned that, I guess in retrospect, it was probably too late.

“Detroiters want Detroit, and I don’t think the station did a real good job of giving them Detroit from 6 to 6 and certainly not on the weekend.”

Another problem was trying to make Lane, a longtime Detroit radio personality known for his general banter, take a more sports-centric tack. Lane’s contract was not renewed in October.

“Drew Lane was our linchpin,” Mazawey said. “We built the station around him, and then they go and tell him, ‘Well, you know what? We want you to change your show after 30 years in the business,’ or whatever he’s been at it.

“And we were fourth in (the ratings among 25- to 54-year-olds) at that point with Drew as our lead. He brought in, I think, a quarter million dollars the first five months, I think. People loved him. (Advertisers) were lining up to sign up with him. Once they pulled him, that was the last straw. No Tigers, no Red Wings and then no Drew. There’s the mistake.”

Free Press columnist Drew Sharp and Matt Dery were given an afternoon drive-time show in late October after Lane was off the air. Sharp and Dery lasted until March.

Mazawey and Baligian both said WMGC’s sports-talk format could have succeeded if it had been given more time and continued to work on its shortcomings. Mazawey said WMGC’s sister station in Philadelphia, 97.5 The Fanatic, is beating its CBS rival in Philly, WIP 94.1-FM, after five years.

“They left it alone after three years and it grew,” he said. “And now it’s flourishing. It’s beating WIP now. We would’ve eventually — not caught up (to The Ticket), but we would’ve taken a portion of the audience, no doubt.”

Baligian said growing an audience, as he has seen in the difficult radio business, comes slowly.

“You have to understand that it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. “People are habitual and I think the people who really attached to (WDFN) it took a long time for (The Ticket) to kind of take some of those people way.

“I think the same thing happened the opposite way; 97.1 has been ruling the roost gosh since really 2007 I’d say. And really it was the only option out there for six, seven years. I think it takes certain amount of time to change people’s hearts and minds, if you will, to get people out of that habitual nature. And I think you need to have that mindset.”

Mazawey said he heard rumblings Tuesday about an imminent change. At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the station’s full-time staff gathered for the formal announcement from WMGC vice president and market manager Steve Chessare.

“He felt bad. He honestly felt bad,” Mazawey said. “And they just told us that (Greater Media) pulled the plug on us maybe five days ago and he was trying to fight for us, but couldn’t talk them into it to save us. Said we lost some $2 million, I think he said, the first couple years. This year, I don’t know.

“We were showing some growth. We really were and you could tell. I’ve been in the radio business 20 years. You can tell between the texts and the tweets and the phone calls, people listened, people were talking about the shows. There’s always the combustible few haters that are out there, but you can’t pay any attention to them. I can’t tell you how many hundreds — hundreds — of e-mails and texts and stuff I’ve gotten. I can’t even keep up with people wishing us well.”

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.