The Bernstein Brief: Those At The Game Deserved Better Ending
By Dan Bernstein-
(CBS) It was a poorly kept secret that the days were numbered for our friends/competitors at WGWG-FM.
A bad signal on the dial, haphazard management and inconsistent leadership conspired to doom the effort from the start, so we were already feeling for friends who had taken on professional and personal risk to be part of a start-up station in one of the country's most competitive radio markets.
But even if the data had been showing it was only a matter of time before The Game ended, the way it went down Thursday was bush league.
Gather the team together and tell them in person. Don't make them learn of their fate via Twitter, while on the air.
It's not the fault of the messenger, Robert Feder, as credible a reporter as we have left covering anything in Chicago. To blame him is wrong. He was doing his job to break news on his beat, and it's the responsibility of those running the station to be ahead of the story internally.
Look these people in the eye, and thank them for their dedication and hard work. To have them processing something so emotional in real time, exposed on the air, was cruel.
I am proud to have worked with Ben Finfer, Adam Hoge and Connor McKnight at WSCR and would be so again wherever our paths may lead. They and others deserved better.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.