Report: Roy Wood Jr. Show “Canceled” In Birmingham

UPDATE:  The door has opened for a return.  (See Tom's Take below original posting.  I still smell a ratings stunt...CYA: both sides are looking for save face).

al.com is reporting Friday evening that Wood released a "statement" Friday confirming what he says is  the cancellation of his morning radio show.

 "I will comply with management's decision to end the Roy Wood Jr. Morning Show," he said "I hope I have entertained you. I hope I educated you. I hope I brought us all closer, because that is the true purpose of all media. It was a pleasure!"

Kori White, operations manager for Cox Media Group in Birmingham, says not so fast.

The show has not been cancelled, according to White.

 "We hope that we're able to get Roy Wood Jr. back in Birmingham to do his show on 95.7 Jamz," he said.

Wood's morning show on FM-95.7 JAMZ ended abruptly Thursday after a disagreement between his co-hosts and Cox Media Group over an email saying the organization may take the show in a different direction.

A few supporters gathered outside of 3000 Bar in Five Points South Friday at a rally to save the show. The bar is owned by co-host Brian Hedrick, known as B. Money (Tom: Now isn't that a coincidence!).

Stay tuned....


Original posting Friday morning....

95.7 Jamz morning radio show cancellation reportedly blind sides hosts

FOX6 News in Birmingham is reporting the Roy Wood, Jr. Show on WBHJ / 95.7 Jamz has been canceled by Cox Media.

Thursday, the hosts of the radio show told  FOX6 News that they didn't know they'd been let go until they checked Facebook and Twitter.

Wood spoke with Fox6 News via Skype from L.A. The new of the cancellation came as a shock to him. He wasn't on his show Thursday morning and woke up to phone calls and tweets about what had happened.

According to Fox, Wood started on 95.7 Jamz co-hosting another morning show in 2001 and in 2010 he took over as the host. He says the ratings have been good and he can only speculate on the reason for the cancellation.

"I suspect with the station being up for sale maybe they're doing this to cut salary and make it more lucrative to a potential buyer," Wood told Fox6 News.

His morning show co-hosts Nu York and B-Money are just as surprised. B-Money says he accidentally found out about the news through an email from management that he wasn't supposed to receive.

B-Money says listeners flooded the phone lines Thursday morning, upset about the news. Listeners have started a "Save the Jamz Morning Show" Facebook page and Twitter is abuzz with opinions.

Tom’s Take: I smell a  stunt here. Talent notified via a “leaked” eMail and via FB and Twitter would be a first.  Also, it’s interesting to note the show is still listed on the station’s website (how often does that happened) and the FB Save page has none of the usual nasty comments from digruntled listeners. And by the way, Thursday just happened to be  the first day of the Fall Survey.  You decide.  

But more importantly, will Jamz listeners (and Fox6 News) feel used if this turns out to really be nothing more than a “bit”.