Some media news here before we get it back to the Eagles:

Johnson’s name might be familiar to some of our readers since he was program director at 97.5 the Fanatic from 2017 to 2020. He took over at WPEN after Matt Nahigian was let go. Nahigian is now out in San Francisco, running their Audacy station.

Anyway, Johnson had rejoined Beasley after departing 97.5 back in the day, so this would mark the second time he’s been let go by the same company. That’s how brutal and unforgiving the radio industry is. And you’ll recall that Beasley recently laid off Andre Gardner after more than 20 years on the air, so WMGK has been stripped almost entirely. The station now has Matt Cord as the only full-time host, I think, and apparently they voice track rest of the programming, which I’ll try to triple check and confirm at some point today.* Voice tracking is when you record ins and outs to make it sound like there’s a DJ, when a robot is actually running most of the show.

It sucks, but it’s the reality of terrestrial music radio in a Spotify and YouTube world. Everyone’s been tinkering with automation because you don’t need a DJ to play AC/DC these days, or, in the Philadelphia region, Pearl Jam for the four millionth time. Enough with the fucking Pearl Jam already. There are other bands besides Pearl Jam. And if you’re gonna play Jane’s Addiction or Rush, those bands have other songs besides “Been Caught Stealing” and “Tom Sawyer.” Let me hear “Just Because” or “Subdivisions” on the radio just once before I die. Christ almighty. Good morning.

*Okay I was able to gather some information on this. WMGK does have someone local voice tracking afternoons now. Eric Johnson mentioned in his Facebook post that he was midday host at a Boston station, so he was voice tracking that show from Philadelphia. They’re also having one of the Detroit hosts voice track the WMGK evening show, so basically what you’re listening to is a stripped down set of stations that are functioning like a cluster. You’ll hear the same hosts in Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, etc, as they voice track shows in the other markets.