Rudy G Leaves CD101

I'm a little late to get on this. Blogs are great at reporting "NEW" news, except when they're not. Apparently Andyman over at CD101 fired Rudy Gerdeman right before Independent Playground was supposed to air, presumably leaving poor Tom to host the show himself.

According to Chris DeVille over at the Columbus Alive:

Gerdeman was unhappy with his job conditions at WWCD 101.1 FM, where he had worked for the past 13 years as a DJ and sound engineer.

"I haven’t got a raise in three years here. I’ve worked there for 13 years and I make $9.50 an hour," Gerdeman said in an interview Monday morning.

Gerdeman was also displeased with the promotion of Malloy, who he called a "meathead," to Vice President. Specifically, he was worried about Malloy's perceived negative attitude toward The Independent Playground, a twice-weekly late-night independent music showcase hosted by Gerdeman and Tom Butler.

So Gerdeman fished around for some other job opportunities, seeking to gain some leverage at CD101, and came up with an offer from WRWK in Toledo. But the plan backfired when CD101 didn't try to lure Gerdeman back. He said Davis asked him if he was sure he wanted to leave but never offered a raise or any other incentive to stay. So Gerdeman put in his two weeks' notice and got ready to move to Toledo.

"I was pissed off because they didn’t try to keep me here in Columbus," Gerdeman said.

To vent his frustration, Gerdeman logged into the MySpace account for his record label, She He It, and posted a bulletin that read "F--- off, CD101." Though Gerdeman removed the bulletin within 24 hours, someone printed out the message and showed it to Davis, who showed up at the station Sunday night and fired Gerdeman minutes before Independent Playground went on the air.

I'm pretty hesitant to REALLY criticize CD101 because, for one reason I only work/ed there like 20 hours a month and I don't know what really is going on there. To really illustrate how much of an outsider I am when it comes to their business doings, despite my ownership of no less than three!!!!! CD101 T-Shirts and the several lines on my résumé dedicated to CD101, I had no idea how little money the DJs actually made. I mean, I know that all of the people over there, with a few exceptions, have second jobs. But $9.50 an hour. That's not a whole lot more than I made there, and one could argue that Rudy's contributions over there (two-time award winning Independent Playground) made him valuable enough to try to keep around.

There is some big money floating around CD101, so I wonder what kind of overhead they have.

Of course, another reason is, as a commenter adroitly remarked on DeVille's blog post, I don't want to burn any bridges. I've probably peaked out in radio over there and who knows, I might want a reference or something someday.

I'm not going to rip into CD101 with any four letter expletives, but having at least somewhat of an insider's perspective, Rudy's side of the story (and his characterization of upper management) makes sense. He wasn't always super professional, but I'd think he's valuable enough to try to keep him around.

I think getting fired because of a Myspace bulletin to friends, a sort of hybrid of public and private communication, would certainly set an interesting legal precedent if ever brought to court (which I think Rudy could do if he cared enough.)

As much as it sucks, I know I probably self-censor a little bit because I am entering the job pool in Columbus media soon and don't want to end up on anyone's shit list. Yet another way the internet is weird.