WKLH posts morning show job opening to replace Caine

“Are you an entertainer with the chops to share the stage with a proven, polished morning veteran in Milwaukee and hold your ground? Do funny, warm, witty, and edgy describe your on air persona?”

Then WKLH-FM wants you.

To replace Carole Caine, the 29 year morning show co-host whose contract was not renewed.

The former Classic now Hometown Rock station has posted an opening for her job on the website of Milwaukee Radio Group, owned by Saga Communications. (See the ad below).

Saga chairman Ed Christian recently confirmed the station is looking for someone to replace Caine as partner to Dave Luczak, the station’s talented morning show announcer.

The new hire could also be backup quarterback to hand the show off to if Luczak ever retires. He joined the station in 1983. Finding anyone to fit naturally into his distinctive rhythms and personality will be difficult.

Caine’s departure was a botched part of a larger “strategic” shift in the station’s programing, said Christian. Expect whoever they hire to reflect that shift.

Caine, who read the stations newscasts and joined the morning show levity, left the station on June 29, after being told her contract, which expired in September, would not be renewed. The station says she rejected the chance to work until then and say goodbye to listeners.

WKLH added Dorene Michaels as the morning show newscaster the following week.

Caine’s departure however caused an outcry among many, often female, listeners.

Later this week the first ratings since Caine’s departure will be released. The station’s ratings have climbed slightly since switching to Hometown Rock.

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Tags: Carole Caine, Dave Luczak, Milwaukee Radio Group, Saga, WKLH Posted by Duane Dudek
  • Ray Dustin

    No offense to Dave, but I haven’t listened since Carole’s departure. I’m enjoying a vairety ~ often with classic rock (mixed with some other questionable music ~ JK) on 95.7 with Murphy & Meg. I also peruse the supposed country (more pop in my opinion) on 106.1 with the wonderful Karen along with Scott and Radar. Milwaukee has many older listeners who are loyal but we don’t like it when a station shifts just for the heck of it. The small ratings increase doesn’t translate into larger ad dollars. What a shame they went the route they did.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_404 Bob McBride

    Interesting that, supposedly, dismissing Carole Caine was “all about money”. Are they hoping to find a spark plug out there that can breathe some life back into the show on the cheap?

    • Amy Jablonski

      I haven’t read any statement suggesting it was “all about money.” And as a 25 year listener I hate to admit it, but the morning program is better without Carole.

      • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_404 Bob McBride

        A while back, shortly after this all occurred, a gentleman who implied knowledge of the details of her dismissal (based on his years of work in the industry and familiarity with all the parties involved) claimed in another thread here that it was all about money and absolutely nothing else.

        I’ve listened to the show for a number of years, as has my wife. Neither of us are of the opinion the show is any better since her departure – in fact, quite the opposite. Opinions are bound to vary in that regard with none being definitive in nature.

        That aside, the manner in which the dismissal was handled was ridiculous and unnecessarily counterproductive in terms of being a part of the implementation of the “Hometown Rock” promotional effort. Unless the objective was to create drama in hopes that it might cause people to tune in on an interim basis in order to try to suss out the “real reason” for her dismissal, it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. It smacks of the typical, amateurish handling of a touchy personnel situation that’s likely to occur when such is tasked to a relatively inexperienced management employee whose main concern is moving up the ranks of the organization as quickly as possible – something hardly unheard of in the industry.

        Obviously, it (the shift in focus or whatever you wish to call it) was driven by a desire to gain a certain, more youthful demographic considered attractive to advertisers – one that, frankly, is less and less likely to look to broadcast radio to fill its entertainment or information needs. In the process of chasing that shrinking portion of the overall radio audience, KLH risks losing at least some of its significant base of loyal, reliable and relatively affluent listeners who have historically supported and continue to support the medium as a whole. Handling the situation with Carole Caine as they did only served to maximize the potential size of that loss.

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