Four months ago, Eric Von Haessler was dumped from Rock 100.5's The Regular Guys show, a fruitful partnership he had for two decades.
He said he has since gone through the requisite phases of sadness, denial and anger. (I spoke with him extensively the day he was fired and he said at the time he felt no bitterness.) In the days after the news broke, he said he was heartened by 2,500 direct messages to him via email, Facebook and Twitter giving him kudos for his work over the years and expressing outrage over the move.
Von Haessler is now ready to move forward without Larry Wachs, "Southside" Steve Rickman and Tim Andrews.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
At lunch today, we talked about his plans for both an online radio network (Eric Von Radio) as well as a regular radio gig on the AM/FM dial. (UPDATE: You can listen to his podcasts here.)
At the time he was let go, I was not clear what his non-compete clause was but he had some good news: the six-month clock started ticking the minute he left the air in September, not when his contracted ended, which was this past Wednesday.
This means Von Haessler will be able to return to the AM/FM airwaves in Atlanta in March if a radio company is willing to hire him. He knows the days of half-million dollar salaries are behind him, but he still feels, at age 50, he has plenty more years to entertain fans with his laid-back, Libertarian philosophies and lighthearted sense of humor.
"I've been fielding calls since November" from potential employers, he said, though he wouldn't say who. "Interest is there. This doesn't mean I'll get a job, but I feel confident something will come along. I want to do a show that entertains people from my point of view, not a programmer's point of view or a consultant's point of view."
While he feels on-line shows are good for existing fans who go there as a destination, he still wants access to the free AM/FM world, where it's easier to find new listeners.
One thing's for sure: he won't be returning to Atlanta-based Cumulus, which owns Rock 100.5. He is not a fan of Cumulus programming chief John Dickey.
"He loves to be a God," Von Haessler said. "Every time I talked to him, he seemed to talk past me. He likes to be treated like a king."
Ultimately, Von Haessler said he's a capitalist at heart and the Dickeys can run their business any way they want. It's just not his taste. "You can run a good business and have a good bottom line and be human to your employees," he said.
Von Haessler plans to start his on-line show Feb. 3, a 90-minute show, which will include three others, none big names though you may recognize Decker, formerly from 99X. (I'll write more about the show once it starts.) Another is a stand-up comic and a third is a former intern for the Regular Guys and a female presence who can "shoot the s***" and not just be there because she's a woman.
"It will be in the style of morning radio," he said. "I'm not going to duplicate the Regular Guys but we'll go out on the street. We'll do our version of the news jog every day. I think 90 minutes it enough."
The network, he said, is modeled after the tech radio network created by Leo LaPorte.
He is seeking advertisers as well. And he hopes to have other shows as he scales up. He will involve himself in other shows, including an "ask Eric" show, a more traditional talk show, a show where he and friends will pick their favorite records and one where he interviews a big thinker.
Outside radio, he's trying to raise funds so he can widely distribute his Drivin' 'n Cryin' film. (He needs almost $100,000 to clear the music rights.) And he's writing a screenplay based on a 1960s variety show.
Doing some test shows on the Web in recent weeks, he said one thing he's had to re-learn is to finish a thought. He said in his final couple of years on the Regular Guys, he had a tough time getting a word in edgewise without Wachs interrupting.
About two years ago, he also stopped going to Regular Guys meetings because he became fed up with Wachs and felt like his ideas were not being considered. He effectively checked out to a degree.
He said Wachs' revised character of himself after he got a divorce around 2010 as some sort of ladies' man became tiresome. "I don't find him interesting enough to pull that off," he said. And Von Haessler always had a hard time telling where the real Wachs ended and the "on air" Wachs began.
"I could never figure it out if it was an act or not," he said.
In the earlier days, when it was just him and Wachs, he said there was always tension between the two of them but it worked on air. He also felt he was younger and more willing to be combative and fight for air time. In recent years, his patience waned.
Another juncture point was the second Regular Guys roast in October, 2012. "It was awful," he recalled. "We had people there roasting us who I think never heard the show. And there were like 40 age jokes. I sat there and thought, 'This is not me or my sensibility.' "
On his final day on the show, Von Haessler said he no clue what was about to go down. "Funny. I had a great show that day. I felt good about it," he said.
Later, he said, a fan noted a sarcastic comment Wachs said during the show that might have been a harbinger of Von Haessler's future. It was the day after the "Breaking Bad" finale and a fan on the phone was lamenting the show's departure. Von Haessler said something like, "The good news is we have plenty more shows to do."
Wachs apparently piped in, "He said ironically."
He theorized that Wachs' dislike of Von Haessler stemmed from Von Haessler's easy-going attitude on air. "He always felt like I wasn't working hard enough," he said. In the earlier days, he said Wachs was more easygoing but became more neurotic and overbearing over time.
Von Haessler said Wachs in recent years has tried to make it sound like the Regular Guys was his baby but Von Haessler begged to differ. "I co-created it," he said. "That show started as a series of phone calls in the early 1990s. That's the truth. We built it together. He wanted complete control. Now he's got it. Be careful what you wish."
[Wachs, on the day after Von Haessler's departure, became tearful on air in paying homage to his former colleague: "Who knew we'd be successful for 18 years," Wachs said. "It's an incredible run, a remarkable relationship we had. That's what made it work. We had vast differences but had a common kind of crazy."]
Von Haessler said the recent move to cut out the Regular Guys' 9 a.m. hour for music is not a good sign: "Losing that hour is bad news. You never want to give up valuable real estate." (Rock 100.5's program director Troy Hansen said he just wanted to get into music quicker and I'm told ratings often slipped off after 9 a.m. anyway. The show now starts 30 minutes earlier at 5:30 a.m.)
Ultimately, Von Haessler said, "we had a good show for a long time. That's something to be proud of."
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