The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz used its local hour portion of their podcast to discuss the folding of Miami’s 790 the Ticket. A large portion of the show staff previously worked at The Ticket and had many memories and thoughts on the end of an era for the brand.
Le Batard began by saying that it feels like they’ve grieved four different things in relation to the station, but it still stirred something when the news became official. Le Batard asked Stugotz, one of the founders of the station, what he felt when the switch happened.
“I wasn’t as sad as I thought I would be for a couple of reasons,” Stugotz said. “One: super proud of what we accomplished and built there. Secondly, and I’m serious about this, it probably lasted 17 years longer than what I thought it was going to last and for that I am thankful.”
The show went on to talk about one of the last pillars of the station, Jonathan Zaslow, being let go recently and how it was the final connective tissue that many had to the station where they began.
“My connection point (to 790 the Ticket) was the people there,” began Mike Ryan Ruiz. “The final nail in the coffin was when they let (Jonathan) Zaslow go, who was one of the original 790 hires. They did so in a crude fashion, I felt but…”
“Oh it was crude. It was crude,” Le Batard jumped in. “And that is what got stirred for me. That’s what got stirred for me when, it seemed 790 was dead to me because of some of the stuff that happened with the Local Hour at the end that I found disrespectful. But what they did to Zas was horrifying. What they did to Zaslow after 18 years of service, calling him in and not giving him any explanation, awful. The awful part of this awful radio business.”
Ruiz said that Zaslow should have been given an explanation and it wouldn’t have taken much.
“In fact, the explanation Zaslow should have gotten was ‘we’re consolidating both stations and don’t worry, we’ll tell the Miami Heat for you,’. Should have been a nice little human touch in regards to the Zaslow thing.”
