Q&A Weekend: - Will Things Really Not Change?

Toby asked:

Mack... you said in a post that you don't expect things to change as long as current ownership remains the same. Do you really mean that?

Oh yeah...

I was a General Manager from 1982-2001, and I worked for some crazy, independent, families.

Among them... Hearst Broadcasting, TK Communications, NBC Radio, and Metromedia.

Okay, NBC wasn't a family organization, but, back in those days, it was run like one. I was General Sales Manager for WRC-AM, in Washington, D.C., in 1972, and the President of NBC Radio came to town and told me "I don't know much about radio...". That was a little hard to take as a 24-year old first time manager.

Look, every manager has that golden period when they can make any decision they want. In broadcasting, it tends to be for one survey period, around 90 days. In baseball, you get a season or two.

You don't produce a winner after signing the likes of Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, and Paul Lo Duca... well, you get the picture.

The new General Manager and field manager will both have the 2011 season to tinker. Produce a playoff team, you get 2012. Fail to miss it again, steak knives.

With all the respect in the world to the Wilpons, they are what they are.  Bill Parcells said, at a NY Giant luncheon I attended back in the day when I was with WNEW, "people don't change...". He was dead on then and it stands the same today.

The Wilpons may turn their collective head during the 2011 season, but, trust me, they will  meddle again.  And, I say that with total respect. Those of you that knew me when I was an owner of radio stations know I was a meddler. We don't change. In fact, people don't change. Wimps are always wimps. And, meddlers meddle.