For the second time in less than a year, 710 ESPN Seattle is going thru a lineup change. It was announced last week that Danny and Gallant were out and Mike Salk would return to morning drive.
On Monday, the station’s former afternoon host Jim Moore weighed in on the environment inside the Bonneville building in Seattle.
“I guess that was a cost-cutting and going-in-a-different-direction move, combined with the hope that the return of Mike Salk will spark 710’s sagging ratings,” Moore said in a column for the Tacoma News Tribune.
He candidly described having a tense relationship with Salk during Salk’s time as the station’s program director. Moore shared a story which began with him trying to offer Salk empathy and ended with Salk taking a shot at him.
When he returned from his rough stint in Boston, I went into his office and told him I felt bad for him and while fishing for words, I said that it probably wouldn’t have gone well for me in Boston, either.
“Let’s face it, Jim, you’d suck anywhere but Seattle,” Salk said.
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. It sounded like something you’d say behind someone’s back, not to his face, and in a weird way I kind of respected him for it.
All I could come up with was:
“That’s not very nice, Mike.”
And he said: “But it’s true, isn’t it?
Jim Moore, The News Tribune, September 6, 2021
Moore was laid off in November after ten years with 710 ESPN Seattle. So, while he recounts some of what he has heard is going on inside the station, it is important to note that he has not been with Bonneville Seattle in ten months.
Kyle Brown replaced Salk as the program director at 710 in 2019. At that time, Salk moved into a senior programming role overseeing all of Bonneville’s talk brands. He has since relinquished his management duties, but Moore still believes Salk had a say in ending Danny & Gallant.
I don’t buy that for a minute. Brown’s and Salk’s boss, Cathy Cangiano, deferred to Salk all the time when I was there, and I’m guessing he had a lot of input with the decision to pink slip O’Neil and Gallant.
Since he’s replacing them with the debut of ‘The Mike Salk Show’ on Tuesday, it wouldn’t look very good if he were even perceived as the least bit responsible for the firings.
jim moore, the news tribune, September 6, 2021
Another former employee of 710 ESPN Seattle weighed in as well. Former producer Jessamyn McIntyre shared a screenshot of Moore’s column on Twitter and used “#leadership” in her post. It would seem to indicate a dig at how Salk and/or Bonneville Seattle ran the station.
The Mike Salk Show is set to debut on Tuesday of this week. For all involved with the station and show, the sooner the better, as it’ll take the focus off the changes and put it on their actual content.
