Thanks to MinnPost's
David Brauer we find out why Tommy Mischke was fired from the man himself:
Q: What reason did management give you for firing you?
A: On the day I was fired, I was handed a transcript of a conversation I had with my producer two weeks earlier. I remembered the conversation. I had been curious to know where the jingle for [Hubbard-owned] Channel 45 had come from. It's the little sing-song way they say "45."
I wanted to know who came up with it, how many other ways they thought to sing it, what talent they hired to deliver the jingle and how many different takes there were. I suppose I just wanted to learn the backstory behind a modern corporate jingle.
I asked my producer to call them and ask them, knowing full well these are fellow Hubbard employees. My producer refused. I think he was just tired of me having him do various things while he was busy trying to answer the phone.
So I picked up the phone and called them myself, on the air. I phoned downstairs, a receptionist answered, and I asked to speak to someone at Channel 45. She said, “Just a minute” and put me on hold. I then put the entire call on hold and asked my producer if he'd now please speak to them off the air so as to get a sense of where that jingle came from.
That's what I was fired for. Making that call to the receptionist without getting her permission.
This doesn't exactly endear Hubbard Broadcasting to me. I understand the phone call was an FCC violation. I also understand Tommy made these kind of calls on the air all the freaking time on his show for seventeen years. Suddenly it's a "no warning" firing offense? No severence pay either? For a guy supporting his family? There's a basic level of decency and fairness missing here. Is it any wonder R. F. Moeller
pulled their advertising from the station in response?
And when it comes to their programming it's not like KSTP has great talent beating down their door to get in. They've never recovered from the day they let Jason Lewis get away. Losing Limbaugh wasn't their fault, but it certainly didn't help. And now they kick to the curb an on-air talent written about in glowing terms in the local and national press? Like they come across those all the time when they make a new hire?
I fully realize radio is a business, and they're in it to make money. I realize Mischke's show was always more of a critics choice than a ratings success. But it doesn't sound like any of that played a factor in his dismissal. So all one is left with is a baffling WTF moment from a floundering radio station who probably can't afford to lose more listeners.
More thoughts after the jump...
The silver lining here is that it sounds like Mischke will be back in some fashion soon. He's had two offers so far, and is apparently trying to find the right fit. He's too great a talent not to find a friendly microphone again.
And I realize I haven't done a very good job convincing some of you about his talent. It was not the kind of show you could just tune in to at a random moment and quite get the full feel. And yet sometimes it was and you could. I mean I've read so many accounts over the years of people discovering Mischke by tuning in randomly some night (and he was always best at night) and hearing something... different.
I was remembering this while reading David Hansen's
recent profile of Mischke for the City Pages. In it he talks about one of the most strikingly
different radio moments I've ever heard: the now legendary "Silent Night" broadcast.
The show began. The theme music ended. You expected to hear Mischke's voice any moment, but instead there was just silence. You waited a bit longer, sure the host was about to say something. But for the longest time just... nothing. And then...
And then, a sound. The phone board has been triggered. Here is the familiar sound of telephonic static and, after an interminable wait, a caller's timid voice—"Hello? Hello?!" Then the hard clack of the line being disengaged. After more dead air, another call gets punched in. Static. "Hello?" Click.
I remember listening at the time, thinking Mischke was just pulling a little gag. He was going to speak at any minute. Some caller would finally catch on and engage him in conversation about something. Obviously.
KSTP station manager Steve Konrad was listening to. According to Hansen:
Konrad is a veteran of this business, and, moreover, he knows his man. Konrad hired the S.O.B. himself. And now he stands dumbstruck in his kitchen. On his station, callers are being plucked from the ether. On his airwaves, they recite impromptu poems. They tune ukuleles and play harmonicas, train-wrecked with one another by a host gone mad at the switchboard. He isn't going to stop, Konrad realizes, and he's not going to talk. This is Mischke's show.
I completely remember that moment. I was driving in my car coming back from something or other downtown. I was crossing the bridge over the Mississippi on I-694 when it started dawning on me that he intended to keep this up. No WAY, I thought to myself. You CAN'T do a talk radio show without talking.
And yet by the time I got home I raced inside to turn on the radio to hear more. It was the strangest thing. It shouldn't have been compelling. But it was.
It was nothing I can adequately explain to anyone who didn't hear it. A mastery or improvisation, timing, and radio stage management. It was like a virtuoso on a high wire act who decided to not only work without a net, but also without a wire... and despite all expectations he didn't fall. The calls came in. He used them as his props to fill the air time, somehow wordlessly retaining control all the while. He kept it up for two solid hours. Reading that back to myself it doesn't sound remotely entertaining. The damnedest thing is that is was entertaining as hell.
It's a lazy overstatement in most cases to describe a radio host as "one of a kind" or "original." But in Mischke's case it's undeniably - and demonstrably - true. Wherever he gets another show, I'll be listening.
Related Posts (on one page):
- And On The Wireless Was Mischke
- Mischke, the Sequel
- Mischke Nixed!
