I Was Fired. No…You Weren’t

27

Typically radio companies do not comment on personnel issues. However, Waterloo Media in Austin, wasn’t going to allow former Afternoon Driver Dale Dudley get away with what they believed was fake news.

Dudley went on social media with a long post about how, just short of his 35th anniversary, he was fired from KLBJ-FM in Austin.

Waterloo Media sent this statement to KVUE-TV in response to that post: “Dale Dudley was on KLBJ-FM for just over 34 years and we greatly appreciate his years of entertaining generations of Austin audiences. Dale fearlessly talked about his personal life journeys with wit and passion. Dale was not fired – it’s just time for the station to try something a little different and Dale’s contract was not renewed. We hope listeners will tune into 93.7 in the coming weeks to see what develops.”

Here’s Dudley’s full Facebook post stating that he had a feeling he was about to be fired.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Dale Dudley was exactly that a major dud. He was an arrogant ass muncher, who dismissed his listeners all the time. I think he should’ve had this happen to him around the turn of the Millennium.

  2. All around poor management. Waterloo botched the situation, which included firing a prominent on-air personality rather than a plant services agreement. Dudley was living in denial if he didn’t plan ahead for the conclusion of his contract and push for whatever outcome he desired.

  3. What’s the issue? He should be grateful and appreciative that he was able to keep the same job at the same same station for 34 years. Few people are so lucky.
    Austin is not the same as it was even 10 years but all Dale wanted to talk about was himself.
    How many times have you listened to the story about his dad running a Dairy Queen?
    To Dale and Jeff Ward I say good riddance and goodbye.

    • I understand that he wasn’t for you. His honesty could be repetitive but a lot of people enjoyed it. I started listening to him in the late 80s and not every day. However, I liked the fact that I could always check in. Now, I just listen to podcasts and NPR. It’s the end of an era – now we can just listen to a computer playing music or switch to another medium.

  4. He was actually terminated because he had a family trauma in late August which led to a hospitalization and subsequent breakdown, and a a HUGE supporter of those with Mental Illness and being the most honest talk show host ever, he had issues with some meds that caused a huge fight on the show. No other personality (Sans Stern) would put that on the air. Dale did everything live. The new Owner Bob Sinclair is currently being sued by Deb O’keef (Jason and Deb 101x) for 1M and has stated many times his disdain for talking about mental illness. She called him on it. The guy literally breaks up great heritage morning shows and then tries to cut and paste shows he think will work. He’s a small market owner (V. Beach) who changed formats on a station 3 times in a year. Dudley wasn’t fired for numbers, it was the drama that had happened in his life in the fall. The kind that happens to us all, but DD was willing to show the listeners it happened to him also. There must have been a thousand posts on his pages from listeners who suffer mental illness.

  5. Everyone wants to get into the specifics of what? He was shown the dang door, had to empty out his belongings and that is not a firing? HELLO!? Only to be replaced by contrived, not-even-campy content, that is very male-based, not relatable and not funny. Please tell me what a firing looks like and then replace with HORRIBLE content. I’m not here to have a debate between the shades of firing and quitting. That is clear. The new content is subpar and I will not be a listener anymore. TTFN, Silicon Valley-based content for Karen.

  6. I used to work for KLBJ-AM, the news/talk sister station of KLBJ-FM. This is somewhat reminiscent of the way Jeff Ward, the #1 afternoon drive-time talk personality for over 20 years, also suddenly vanished without warning a few years ago. For whatever it’s worth, Jeff issued a short, classy statement thanking his listeners and then letting the issue rest without comment on his opinion of management’s decision.

    Technically, it’s correct that this was a contract, it wasn’t renewed, and so the relationship was ended. However, it’s also true that Dudley was a fixture in Austin radio for just shy of 35 years, and you’d think that might count for something. Personally, he wasn’t my cup of tea, but I respected his longevity and the loyal audience he built.

    This company (in its various incarnations under the Ladybird Johnson family, Emmis, or Waterloo) and particularly its GM Gilmore unfortunately has a history of these kind of abrupt ambush-style “non-renewals” or “new directions” with on-air talent and formats. A popular show or host you were listening to just yesterday suddenly turns up missing today, with hardly an explanation. And for guys like Dudley and Ward, you’re supposed to just shrug your shoulders and say “oh, well…maybe management is right — I guess it’s time for something new.”

    I call B.S. on that. Moves like this leave audiences perplexed and shell-shocked, especially with guys like this who dominated for years or decades. Radio is an intimate medium, and the personalities develop a bond with the audience. For management to crap all over that shows a fundamental disrespect to the audience, regardless of how “right” it may look from a business perspective. Extra insulting is that they did it to him just short of the 35 year mark. Is it too much to ask to let the poor SOB finish out strong and have a final celebratory send-off?

    No. Once again, this company prefers to whack its talent mafia-style and pretend that their disappearance is a “nothing to see here” moment. It may work for the corporate bean-counter weasels in the front office, but it fails to honor the listener base, without which the radio business wouldn’t exist. It has always irritated me that talentless corporate hacks like this GM get to make their living off of the actual talent of the on-air personalities who drive the product, and then kick them to the curb when they deem them no longer of service.

  7. A lot of spin from a lot of people here, but the bottom line is that the station chose to end his employment, and therefore, he was fired. The manner in which they ended his employment doesn’t matter.

    That said, if you know the end of your deal is coming up and you haven’t heard anything from the bosses, then you really can’t play ignorant when they tell you that they’re not giving you another contract. Yes, he was fired, but he should have known he was being fired.

  8. My brother had a similar situation. He started out as a cub reporter at a TV station in Fargo ND back in the 70’s. He became a photo-journalist…then assignment editor…then news director for more than two decades. He nurtured, coached and mentored many, many employees who went on to success in much larger market. And by the way, the TV newsroom and employees he both led and managed were the top-rated station in the market during all those years. Yet, when they couldn’t push him into retirement…they fired him…not WITH cause…WITHOUT cause. My brother’s fingerprints are still all over that TV newsroom even though he was unceremoniously kicked to the curb. It was an obvious case of Age Discrimination. Yet in a so-called “Right To Work State,” b.s. laws such as this hardly protects one’s “Right To Work.” The Broadcast industry after deregulation turned into a cesspool of unethical and unscrupulous mob lacking a moral compass. We can only hope there is karma at work in the universe for corporate ownerships and the suits who lack a soul.

  9. So using this logic when the lease runs out on my car, I’m firing it? Or when a client doesn’t renew their advertising they are firing us? The terms of the contract were assumably agreed to both both parties at the beginning. Both the start date and end date of the contract. So this was an agreed outcome and no new agreement was reached.

    There was another woman a few years ago who’s management contract was not renewed by her big broadcast employer. She’s turned it into a career about her “getting fired.” It’s pathetic. Move on.

    Becoming no longer valuable to a company is is bitter pill to swallow. Stay fresh, keep learning, and continue to provide value beyond your compensation and your contract renewal is in not danger.

    Happens in sports happens with any contract. They have end dates. Why do we have to vilify either party when the decision to not renew is made? That’s life, that’s business. Contracts are renewed when there is enough value to continue the relationship for both parties.

    Nothing to see here. I will say the company did itself a disservice by “defending” itself publicly. They gave the story legs. They should stick to their policy of not commenting on employment issues.

  10. Here’s a “first blush” response. 37 years in one market with one broadcast company is more than a “job”…it’s even more than a “career”. It’s a FAMILY RELATIONSHIP and a relationship to be honored by both parties. Dale wasn’t “fired”, I agree that his contract wasn’t renewed. But, when he says that he had a strange “feeling” while driving into work on that fateful day, I suspect there wasn’t a boat load of prior discussion about his pending demise. And therein lies the sad truth about broadcasting’s habit of handling these matters in secret. Likely, Dale’s life was influenced tremendously by this relationship. A sudden and unexpected “non-renewal of contract” may not officially be the same as being “fired”. But, if it was unexpected by Dale, it was cold, cruel, and out of line. Broadcasting and KLBJ could handled this a lot better than they did.

  11. I can’t stand this gentrification of Austin. Dale and every thing meaningful is gone and replaced by scumbags from out of state.
    You all suck. Keep your dam dog at home.
    Waterloo Media Can suck my Harry balls.

  12. Fired, let go, termination, contract not renewed, going in a different direction, no longer in need of your services. You are so talented someone will be glad to have you.
    $$$
    Stay with us. Don’t leave us when we’re down. Help us grow. You don’t wanna work there they’re not as fun as we are. We’re family.
    Each one of those still makes my brain hurt, my stomach ache, my wallet scream and my heart ache

  13. Poor management all around. Waterloo handled it poorly – it was the termination of a major on-air talent, not a plant services contract. And Dudley was in denial if he didn’t anticipate the end of his agreement and advocate for whatever he wanted to happen next.

    No one gets out of this one with clean boots…

  14. Being fired is being let go immediately with cause. Having your contract run out and not being offered a new one is not being fired. It may hurt your feelings, but in this case his last day was the last day of his contract. He obviously saw it coming if there were no negotiations in the final months. So it’s not the same as being fired.

  15. From my perspective as talent for many years and under performance contracts throughout, if the contract isn’t renewed, you’re fired. Period. As “Norbert” said, it’s semantics and amounts to the same thing as termination.
    Waterloo Media’s statement to KVUE-TV is corporate spin to avoid audience retaliation.
    If Waterloo Media wanted to do it the right way, six months before Dudley’s contract was ending they should spoken with him about retiring. The process could have built up to a celebration of Dave Dudley’s last day, all done with good vibes instead of the mess they’re in.

  16. A non-renewal is not a termination IF all compensation due was paid to the talent. You have a contract with terms, and if all terms were met then the contract was fully executed. Typically, there’s nothing in a contract that “promises” more employment. In reality, the talent should have taken advantage of an exclusive negotiation period (if he was smart enough to include one), and would obviously realize that another contract was unlikely if they (employer) did not come to the table.

  17. Not renewing a contract is, in fact, a nice way of telling someone that they don’t want you working for them anymore. Sounds like “fired” to me…

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