Oregon Media Insiders

I have watched with interest this thread and the KINK/Rebecca W. story. While I am sorry for anybody who loses their job and all the security etc.that comes with that, Rebecca's story with KINK is a lot different from the impression given above. It's a story of patronage, corporate b/s, radio b/s, diva-dom, intolerance and tolerance as I shall tell........

Back in the day when KINK already had Sheila as Morning co host/News Director, Rebecca came off the beach to then KINK GM Stan Mak asking for a job, after having left the station once before. Stan said fine I will bend the arm of KINK PD Dennis to see what I can do for you. The "obvious" thing was to break up the Sheila/Les show and rejoin Les with Rebecca. Of course that mean't the KINK payroll went up by an extra head (ie Rebecca's which wasn't cheap) and Sheila had to start a whole new show with Dave Scottin the afternoon.

Rebecca decided that she didnt't really want to do real news collation, tape editing, show prep or get in at 3 a.m. so she insisted that the time served, existing morning show producer (Peggy) come in at 3 am (instead of 6 am) to cut and paste Oregonian news articles, use KGW tape from the night before and scavenge any other tape so that Rebecca could come in at 5.20 a.m. and be ready for a 5.30 am round up of the news that "I've been working on". Peggy did that for two months before deciding to spend more time with her family.

The new KINK Morning show producer (Chris) put up with the 3 a.m routine because after Colin Cowherd moved from KFXX to find fame and fortune at ESPN, Chris needed the work. However it became clear to some at KINK that Rebecca was a bit of a diva and sometimes very difficult to work with. There were tantrums, shouting matches and disagreements and a couple of those instances gave KINK PD Dennis quite good cause to consider inviting Rebecca to give in her security pass.

Chris finally said enough of the 3 am routine and the stress of "working in the KINK news room with Rebecca" and managed to convince KINK management to consider hiring a number of interns and insomniacs to do the news cut and paste routine for Rebecca's "just in time" arrival in the "buzzing" KINK news room.

In the meantime longstanding,revered and expensive midday KINK host Inessa found difficulty getting her KINK contract renewed. Failing to agree on a contract, Inessa's KINK midday slot was allocated to part timer (and much, much cheaper) Steve. Inessa then found herself looking for work and rather remarkably was given the job replacing expensive,long time morning show producer Chris. You can imagine the $$$ savings on those swaps.

Added to all of this intrigue, was the firing of KINK Stan Mak back at the end of 2007. Once he was fired, Rebecca no longer had Mak as her "patron", KINK PD Dennis could easily off load a perennial pain, along with a high salary, and voila...pff goes Rebecca to "college". The KINK morning news is currently being read by the guy who used to get up at 2 am to cut and paste for Rebecca, at minimum wage, and there you have CBS radio 2008 !

Les is just crawling towards his "retirement" finish line and will basically do anything management wants him to do, hence that embarrassing "Rebecca goes to college" spin job he did the other morning on KINK. I suspect Les doesn't give a "s**t" one way or the other. As Rasheed once so eloquently said "who's cuttin the check ?"

So raise your glasses ..to KINK, CBS and $$$$$$ !