SYRACUSE – Just a few days after 93Q (WNTQ) spent a week celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Ted & Amy in the Morning,” the station has taken longtime midday jock Big Jim Donovan off the air. Management hopes it’s a “temporary situation.” UPDATE 11/19 – Big Jim doesn’t seem to think it’s temporary.
In a rare move for the broadcasting business, Citadel Syracuse Operations Manager Tom Mitchell has posted a notice on 93Q’s website, announcing Dononvan’s layoff, and attributing the decision to a “business slowdown.”
Here’s the complete text (and a screeenshot) of the notice posted on 93Q’s website (in case it is later removed):
Dear 93Q Listener,
Unfortunately we’ve had to take Big Jim off the 10am-2pm show due to a big business slowdown. We hope that this is only a temporary situation.
Jim has been great for 16 years on the air here in Syracuse, and we’ll be working to keep him involved with 93Q as much as possible in the meantime.
We know how important Big Jim is to 93Q, as well as to his listeners and fans, and we hope to get him back as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
Tom Mitchell
Operations Manager
Citadel – Syracuse
With Donovan’s departure, it appears Mitchell himself is voicetracking 10am to Noon, while 93Q’s afternoon and evening jocks slide their shifts down a few hours. Rick Roberts is now on-air from noon to 5pm (starting 2 hours earlier, ending 1 hour earlier), and Mike Cauchon goes from 5pm to 11pm (starting an hour earlier, but ending at his usual time).
New 11/19: Even though Citadel says they hope it’s a “temporary situation,” a posting on AllAccess.com’s Net News infers Dononvan is a free agent. The AllAccess article mentions a website called bigjim.com — Dononvan’s blog, where he flat-out says “I lost my job at 93Q,” and continues on to say “I truly don’t know what is next.” Still, he acknowledges that his exit was “one of those corporate mandates,” not something anyone locally wanted to happen.
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