Drayer out at KOMO for no good reason
I’d really been hoping that at some point we’d see an announcement that Shannon Drayer and KIRO had worked out a new deal for next season. Drayer’s really been one of the best people covering the team, most willing to confront, say, Betancourt on his defensive lapses, and it would have been sad to see her leave for next year.
But this? To fire her because the station didn’t win the next contract, and so degrading their coverage for the rest of the year? What reason do we have to pay attention to KOMO’s Mariner work at all now?
Lame. Hey Shannon, USSM’s hiring — but they won’t give us press credentials so I’m not sure we’re a good fit. And the pay is terrible. But that’s okay, because the hours suck too. Let us know.
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You’ve been denied press credentials?
I wouldn’t mind seeing Shannon Drayer at KIRO. But as long as she’s a free agent, she may be put to better use elsewhere. Such as the #5 pitcher in the Mariners rotation.
Seriously, though, she’s awesome. I listen to KOMO all the time and appreciate her professionalism. And she’s the rare attractive young woman who not only has the respect of the clubhouse but the neanderthals in the press box. I’ve watched her in action before — she just does the job, well, and doesn’t trade on her looks to do it.
Funny, I was thinking about this earlier today.
Some folks in baseball are described as being “class acts.” Raul Ibanez, it would be fair to say, is a class act. Bavasi was incompetent, but in may ways, he too was a class act when he was here. Didn’t dump on players in public, helped useless pieces find new jobs, and otherwise went out of his way when he didn’t have to.
KOMO is not a class act.
It’s such a shame the way Shannon got railroaded by KOMO — especially considering that she was the only bright spot on that otherwise dismal post-game show.
I hope KIRO has the good sense to hire her for next season. If not, I know with her hard work and professionalism that she will land on her feet somewhere in the sports world.
I listen to KOMO for M’s games and traffic reports (first on the 4s). Now it’ll be just M’s games when I’m on the road. Everybody does traffic.
Drayer deserves better.
And really they’ve denied USSM press credentials. Maybe if Dave asked KJR to write a letter of recommendation…….
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I’m pretty sure the hours and pay at KOMO sucked, too, FWIW. Maybe not such a deterrent to the excellent Drayer!
Also, “railroading” is pretty common in radio, isn’t it? I understand it’s a pretty ruthless business.
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You guys can’t get press credentials? Well, isn’t that a pile of crap. Are they issued by the team or by MLB? I’m trying to figure out what criteria you wouldn’t meet.
It might be less insulting if I hadn’t seen some of the people that they do feel merit press credentials.
I listened to Drayer specifically to get reports on the vibe from the clubhouse after losses and on the pre-game for any line-up changes or announcements. I have listened to other clubs pre and post shows, and she stood above the crowd, figuratively of course.
She was literally the ONLY thing thing that kept me listening to KOMO’s hours of commercials intermittently broken up by 2 minutes of baseball talk.
It is my understanding that it was a cost-cutting measure by KOMO, it was a little surprising that they didn’t let her finish out the season, but that’s KOMO for you. She has been working without a contract all year. I am certain that KIRO will pick her up as #2 noted, KIRO is a class act and is a much better station.
Yeah. Vague insinuations aren’t cool.
The other thing is adverisers bought a package that included Drayer. The are under contract to fill their obligations. KOMO??? Well let’s just say it was CHEAP!!
I think they should change their call letters to KOMA. Their management appears to be brain-dead over there, anyway, so it might be appropriate.
This is a bush league move by KOMO. Drayer was the main reason I would sit in my driveway and listen to the pre-game show after my commute. NO MORE!
I’ve emailed my disdain to every email I could find that looked relevant on the komonewsradio site. I doubt it will help.
Just in case their management reads here, I’m done with KOMO. I’ll listen to road games on XM when I can’t watch games on TV. I’ll be taking KOMO off my car radio presets. I can get my news, traffic, and weather from KIRO and other stations, and can get my sports news from KJR, etc…
I don’t want to distract from the Drayer firing and our best wishes for her — the M’s and their press credentials maybe should be discussed some other time.
Was she fired by KOMO or merely reassigned elsewhere within the station? The first reports I read implied the latter.
Program Directors usually take listner feedback and suggestions pretty seriously. So when you have a minute shoot Rod Arquette (Kiro’s PD) an email rarquette@710kiro.com. Several of you can just copy and paste your post here into an email.
In a year of sabermetric discovery for me, I found myself hating more and more of the Mariner’s “analyst” and reporters, but not Drayer. This is really a shame, she deserves better. I hope she finds a job with KIRO.
Best Wishes Drayer.
Best of luck to Drayer.
This could be a blessing in disguise for her. Personally, I’ve always thought KOMO is a silly, overly provincial cornball homer station and always has been. Agreed with the poster that thinks they should change their name to KOMA….they are snooze inducing for sure.
I think KOMO should be given a “Schrammie” for this decision.
Plenty of TV and radio folks have changed from one Seattle station to another. They usually have a six-month period until they can get on the air with the new station – a non-compete. Now that usually applies when the person quits one job for another, but I just happened to think – six months from early August is early February, just before spring training starts.
Probably means nothing, but FWIW.
Perhaps this is a good opportunity for a non-M’s-broadcast station to pick up more legitimate coverage. I generally like the Mariners coverage on KJR, but I did think they need better the locker room/field coverage.
I think #24 hit the nail on the head… it’s a shame in the meantime, but that is the most logical scenario.
Does anyone know what actually happened here? Has it been confirmed that it was a “cost-cutting measure”?
I suppose Drayer said that’s what they told her. I agree; she probably should have been kept on until the end of the year, but she never appeared on KOMO outside of the M’s broadcasts. I think that’s why they probably have kept Tom Huytler, Matt Pittman, etc. around, as they do sports reports and community appearances.
The email address listed in comment 20 is definately the one to email. Drayer gave me his email address directly and said she’d be interviewing with him, and that she’d appreciate people putting in a good word for her.
IIRC, she was on a year to year contract, so no ‘no compete’– they eliminated the position, so it prob. doesn’t officially count as a firing…
Wow, it’s good thing that I hadn’t written to the PD in #20 yet. At first glance, I was thinking that was the PD who fired her, and that was the person to complain to.
I remember Shannon all the way back to the time she was on KJR 950 as a reporter on various sports. One of the most curious things to me was that they did not have a photo of her on the station site, while they had pics of the other reporters and anchors. They do have her picture – I mean, had her picture – on the KOMO 100 radio site.
Has she ever been on KOMO TV? It is under the same ownershipo as KOMO radio, isn’ it?
The only time I can think of seeing her on TV, at least recently, was on FSN and not intentionally; just off to the side during player interviews or whatever.
Not knowing her actual salary, I would guess the $16 – 30K that KOMO saved will be lost in goodwill and advertisers cancelling their contracts. T & E would be the biggest other expense, but if they are going to have a show someone will still have to travel with the team.
As someone mentioned above, some advertisers would have wanted placement in and around her comments. Now they can’t have that and may cancel. Not to mention people that choose not to advertise on that station in other dayparts.
Shannon has a good chance to be back with KIRO… I’d also like to see Glasgow return, he’s an honest journalist, and a great guy. Cara Capuano is now available as well, who was released by FSN a couple days ago. (Which, by the way, I’d love to see a thread on here about that, which I think was worse than the Drayer firing for a couple reasons…)
Regardless of who the post-game staff is, it’s going to depend largely on the direction KIRO chooses to take, as to what kind of coverage we get. Honest coverage, or more of a “partnership” with the Mariners.
This is a great shame, unless it’s a non-compete deal (although the year-to-year contract does seem to make that unlikely).
Ms. Drayer is a fine baseball reporter who will doubtless land on her feet. Worst case scenario, maybe MegaTurbo can put a word in for her in New York..
I have a reservation about Shannon Drayer.
The other night I heard her say, “Statistics aren’t everything. You have to look into their eyes.”
I’d ask her to explain the meaning of this old-time scout saying before I advocated her being hired by KIRO.
#36
I don’t see a problem with what she said.
Re: Bryan’s response (# 36)to # 35:
(I don’t see a problem with what she said.
Then you must know what it means. I don’t.
It’s probably not to be taken literally, but it does smack of clairvoyance.
#8 – You are correct, having been in radio for the past 13 years (and now changing careers)railroading, backstabbing and the like are common in radio.
Period. When I was trained in my first studio, the guys first words of advice were “Watch your back”.
‘Nuff said.