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Take a Hikey, Mikey
Good morning. I really like your nickname by the way....lol...thats pretty funny. You make a very legitimate response with a lot of good points. But as you said, you can't get 94.9 where you are at so I am assuming you can only go by what you read here on these pages. There is a lot more to the story, like the things that Mikey has been going through the past few months. We dont even really know all of it, besides the fact that his son has autism, his mother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and he just had his gallbladder removed a couple of weeks ago (he frequently suffers from stomach ailments). We dont know if all of this has resulted in severe depression, which may have forced him to end his contract early, or if something else may have happened to him. Now this is all very much speculation...I am not inferring that I have any idea that this is true...but there are many different rumors floating around as to what may have happened, but nothing at all has been substantiated. He definitely has been talking about his "life falling apart" over the past few weeks, as well as saying he was going through the toughest time in his life. Those are in his blog for everyone to see. All I am saying is that we dont know for sure the he was fired for something that he said or did.— March 16, 2012 11:01 a.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
How Lunchbox, that is exactly what he said!! And I quote: "Also, regarding the R Factor, the thing was set up by brackets over several weeks, like March Madness. Anyway, you could vote once a week online per email address, but if you bothered to create 50 email addresses you could vote 50 times per week per person. And if you got the other four members of the team to do the same thing, you got yourself a nice pool of votes." So if he wasnt referring to the Mikey Show, what "team" is he referring to about creating email addresses and voting?— March 16, 2012 8:50 a.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
Angryintern, have you checked out 94.9 this week? They are back to playing some music in the mornings while talking in between...It is actually very good..I am enjoying it. Although I was a huge Mikey Show fan, and am still a big supporter of Mikey, I am really onboard with the new format they are pushing....you should check it out.— March 16, 2012 8:19 a.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
Lunchbox, everything that you said is fairly accurate. The only thing is that Mikey has admitted that he made some serious mistakes during that time. They had just recently fired their agent, so Mikey was negotiating on behalf of the entire team. He has admitted over and over again that his mistake was not talking to the team more, and keeping them appraised of the situation. He went to other stations, negotiated for the ENTIRE team, and then went back to 105.3 to give them a chance to counteroffer (which is normal practice in radio contract negotiation). What they told him was that the offer was NO LONGER on the table, he was NOT welcomed back, and that the rest of the team had already re-signed with Clear Channel. What came out after the fact, was the the rest of the team no longer wanted Mikey with them. They were tired of having to "play by his rules" and keep the show clean. It was the Mikey Show, so he was the final say in everything that happened, and the rest of the team was not willing to do that anymore. They wanted to take the show in a different direction, so they took the opportunity that the contract negotiation process offered for them, and they ran with it.— March 16, 2012 8:08 a.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
It's only fair that I give you props for the last 7 sentences that you wrote. It's good to see you finally say something nice about him. Would have been GREAT to have a balanced initial article and include some of this.— March 15, 2012 11:03 p.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
Ken, dude, I cant even believe I am responding again. But every post you make just gets me more and more worked up. 94.9 was tanking BEFORE they brought Mikey onboard. They are not tanking BECAUSE of him...they brought him on to try and raise their ratings. We can agree that it didnt work, and there are many reasons for that. And yes, in regards to the Capone situation, Mikey apologized on the air later in the day during the 28 hour show. He admitted that he initially over-reacted. Im not sure how anything he said is actionable in a court of law, but I wont outright disagree with you because I dont know enough about that (apparently you do). It seems that you are a big supporter of 94.9, and that is cool. I actually kind of like the new format that they had over the past week...I enjoyed listening to some of the music. I definitely miss Mikey of course, but I liked it. I wish the best for them and hope they do well...I will be continuing to listen....they have a really good following of listeners and Garrett the station manager seems like a really good guy. Not sure what you mean by "anonymous bloggers" taking shots at you...I told you who I am , and I even gave you my name when you asked it...not sure if you read all of my posts or not. When you write an article like the one that you wrote, you should expect a reaction. It was pretty f'd up of you to tell M1's to "get a life".....I got a great life dude. Not sure why I am giving you the time of day, but I felt it was necessary for some of us to stand up for Mikey. Maybe I dont know everything that he does day in and day out, or what he is like away from the airwaves, but all I know is the incredibly great impact he has had on many lives, which is more than I can say for you.— March 15, 2012 10:36 p.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
I have to say one more thing. You continue to say that because his contract was terminated, it must mean that he did something to get "fired". It is my understanding that a contract is an agreement between two parties, and if either party violates the agreements and terms laid out in the contract, that the contract can be terminated by the other party. Isnt it possible that Mikey had a clause in his contract that he would not play music during his show, and that 94.9 asked him to do it and he said no? Which then gave him the option to walk away? You state that you have inside information and that you know why the contract was terminated, but do you at least understand our frustation with what is being reported and what we are hearing from 94.9? You act like we have no right to be upset, and that you have all of this "inside knowledge" about what went down.— March 15, 2012 4:25 p.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
PART 2 - It really isnt gonna do me any good to continue to go back and forth with you about terminology used in your initial article (whether or not termination = fired). In your caption underneath Mikey's picture, you state that he was fired. I have spent a lot of time trying to explain to you that Mikey was not our "savior", but that we are more like a family and how we are very different than all other radio shows and listeners. You either arent reading my other posts or just ignoring what I am saying. I am not mad about you bringing up his on-air attacks, it is just another example of your jaded view of Mikey. As I said before, there is such a thing as "righteous anger", but again, I will admit it is all about your viewpoint. If you were a 91X fan, I could understand being angry about Mike's "rant". But keep in mind that he took that situation as a personal offense. He found out about it live on the air in the early hours of his 28 hour fundraiser, and that was his initial reaction. If you were right in the middle of trying to raise money for a cause that was very important to you, and found out that someone was advertising against it, you might be upset as well. As for Mikey not saying anything....I dont know. M1 Nation (what the Mikey Show fans are called) is really hoping he will say something soon. The bottom line is this. We just hope that everything works out for everyone. We hope that whatever is going on with Mikey gets worked out and that he is ok. We would love for him to get another show if that is what he wants. We hope that Woods, LOB, and Jay can go on to have successful careers, and we hope that 94.9 can work through this and continue to be able to stay on the air. But the hatred (and I continue to call it hatred because of your continued assaults against him, and the unfounded conclusions that you draw) that you continue to spew is based upon your own view's and opinions, and I felt the need to respond and share our views and opinions as fans and friends of his. I think I have shared just about everything that I can. I still invite you to consider writing a different type of article, one that shares all of the good things that Mikey did, and how he affected many, many lives for the better. For the few things about Mikey that you mention that people dont like, there is a whole other side to him that isnt being shared.— March 15, 2012 3:51 p.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
PART 1 - Mr. Leighton, there is no changing your mind, so I will not continue to trade posts with you and just continue to insult each other. I see how you work.....just like you knew nothing about Mikey and you slam him, you know nothing about me, and attempt to slam me as well. M1 is what the Mikey show fans refer to ourselves as. If you took the time to actually do some real research, you would know this. P1 was what we were referred to when he was at 105.3, but he went to 94.9, the lawyers told him that he could not continue to use P1 (which stands for Priority 1, meaning the listener is the first priority). We took the term M1 (for MikeyShow1). If you read my above posts, I told you my name is Mike Gage. While I was in the Navy, I was given the nickname "12Gage", but it never really had anything to do with guns. I have never touched one, besides training while in the Navy. It's just a nickname that my Chief gave me. So hence my M1 name, M1_12Gage. But nice attempt at a correlation there to Mikey being my savior and I somehow must like guns. The Gage in my 12Gage nickname isnt even spelled the same as a 12 gauge shotgun.— March 15, 2012 3:51 p.m.
Take a Hikey, Mikey
Mr. Leighton, would you mind sharing an email address that I could contact you at? I have a couple things I would like to discuss with you, and I would prefer not to do it here on these boards. You have my word that I will be completely respectful and professional with you. If I wanted to slam you, I would do it here in public.— March 15, 2012 3:06 p.m.