Weekly Rant: 2/10/2010: Danny Havel we hardly knew ya?

[jiggyjaguar]

This past week we saw lots of news and notes come out of Salina Kansas with the “apparent” suspension of myself from Access TV. Same story different verse, guess what Jiggy Jag TV will continue under Larry D Trent. Sample Text will continue under Mr. D Trent as well, it's not a big deal and guess what we keep it going. However the big news came on Thursday with Danny Havel my former boss at Rocking M Radio being shown the door.


I will not speculate in this week's column on what may or may not have happened. This week's column will be focused on looking back at Havel and what he did and may not have did for RMR. One person I have to feel sorry for here is the Asst. PD and guy who many believe was going to eventually take my job at RMR and that is James Westling. Mr. Westling is always the odd man out, look at the way he has dealt the last few years. Havel and him were running the show at Steckline's Garden City's stations. Then Havel left to come to RMR and James was a man without a country or a man without a mentor. Eventually James came to RMR and then now Havel gets dumped by the folks at RMR and now James is once again a lone man in the “yard” if you will...

I look back at Danny's reign at RMR with some cool thoughts and some are just unsettling. 1st off look at what he did while he was here, he axed Brother Ken from the RMR family. He saw the top sales guy Pat Foster leave. Eventually Havel had 1-2 sales people and 2 on air people. They have virtually no advertisers and the ratings have gone from having the #1 rock station and #1 station in Salina and 2 in the market to being on the bottom of the heap. I think CB channel #8 beat Rocking M in the ratings. Now the folks online have bashed Danny and blamed him for these mistakes and missteps by RMR. Ken did not want to play ball with Havel after they dumped 92.7 The Zoo and eventually The Millers dumped Ken they just used Danny has the hatchet man. Pat leaving was a feud he had with the Millers eventually coming to a head. Danny I believe was a good guy in a bad situation, 1st off he gets a cluster that was top of the pops and kicking ass all over Salina Media group and making ground to Eagle's dominance. However when he got it, they were already dismantling the train and Danny was there to wear the “Boss” t-shirt.

Danny did some cool things while he was here in Kansas, Danny did something I thought no one had balls to do and that was to go out and get a corporate account. He went and brokered a deal with Carlos O' Kellys and got major money. Most sales people are happy with the mom and pop CD store or the local Apple bee's, not going out and getting the head of the company to spend money. I know for a fact that when he had his strings cut on somethings, he was working on major car buyers and company's to bring in some more money to the struggling Titanic that was RMR. Danny did a few things that was pretty good, he had some major guests on his sports show{with my help and without my help} that most National shows do not get and he made a local sports show look like and sound like something like “Jim Rome” or others. Danny went after other markets advertisers and did not get backed down when it came to a holes in the other company's in radio in Kansas. Danny did a lot with a little, like Pat Foster did at the end of his time in RMR.

Some odd things that Danny did that I was not sure about, one taking
me off the morning show when the pressure from firing Brother Ken reached a boiling point. He let that back down his morning show and prevented him from making money with advertisers and getting a community base and grip in morning drive. Danny did not handle the UN happy employee's well and let some good people get talked into leaving or letting people who he should have went out and got go. However for the most part he handled it well.

The Brother Ken debacle was something that I personally working with him daily, it took a toll on him. Danny did not want to or could have known the whole scene it was when he axed Ken. Danny did his best to stomp out all the negative hate for seeing Ken gone. Danny did his best and in some instances it just was not enough for the community. I believe that if Danny was given as much power as Pat Foster had been given, he could have made some waves. However with Danny being axed, we will never know what he could have done?

My view on Danny is that he saw in me at one time something that other radio people did not want to or did not see. Danny saw that I could be given some great responsibility and rise to it. Danny saw that I could be creative and could become a great team player in radio. He did what he could help me when Ken wanted to just sack the morning show and make it all about him. Ken and Danny had great big ego's and both guys could not be part of RMR. Plus RMR saw that if they could dump Ken they would and it took it's toll on RMR. However Danny did kept his head up and kept steam rolling. I had 2 interactions with Danny after I left the company, 1 being a strange phone call that I got in the late summer/early fall after I posted a comment about RMR not doing severe weather on the Gateway City Radio Message board. We had a great talk and I always regretted I did not talk to him before I quit RMR in the Spring of 2009. The second and last time I talked to Danny was when he was doing a live broadcast. I sat in and observed it, then I talked to him for about 5 minutes. He seemed nerved, I believe it was just taking it's toll on him working for the RMR folks.

Finally I do not want to throw stones at the House of Havel, I hate to admit that he stormed into the Central Kansas radio world. Did some “damage” and blew out as quick as he came in, I hated to see the reign of Danny end the way that it did. Looks like Danny is just another victim of RMR being the kid in the sandbox who is taking it's ball and going home. RMR had an army when it started and now it looks like it only has the underwear and the shoe bomber working for them. I feel for James and Erb{even if we did not get along at the end of things}they better be sending out the resume's and looking to make a move, because if Danny is gone, they are not safe either. Danny will land on his feet because he has been in radio for awhile. Danny will be back on the air, he does have talent on air and off the air. It's a shame, that we will not hear from Havel again but maybe he will resurface. I have and continue to have the utmost respect for Mr. Havel and wish him the best in the future.

However till Rocking M Radio either see's the error of their ways or they finally give up and get out of the business. A very wise radio sales man told me one time, “We can not succeed till they fail”.

Jiggy Jaguar
http://www.jiggyjaguar.com