NOLA Radio: John McConnell, 3 Others OUT At WWWL-AM

John McConnell

John "Spud" McConnell, who spent years as a talk-show host on WWL 870 AM radio and was moved in 2013 to Sports WWWL 1350 AM within the same Entercom family, has been laid off. Both McConnell and Entercom confirmed the news on Monday, according to Nola.com.

For the past 15 months, McConnell has hosted "The Spud Show" on 3WL. He moved to 3 after Entercom hired former WWL-TV news anchor Angela Hill to fill his 1 to 4 p.m. slot on WWL radio. On Monday, he learned he was one of three staffers cut by management.

"It's true," was all he would say in a text exchange. Chris Claus, vice president and general manager for Entercom, also confirmed the move while praising the longtime New Orleans entertainer's body of work.

"As it turns out, the company has made some select reductions in staff, (including) two others who have left as of last week or today," Claus said. "And, if I could be candid, I love Spud. He's a great entertainer, he's a great host, he's a great actor, he's great in theater, he's great in TV, and he's great in the movies. But, unfortunately, we had a position to eliminate and his was the one."

Claus went on to say that McConnell's 3 to 6 p.m slot will be filled by expanding the syndicated content from NBC Sports Radio, which already is broadcast for 12 hours a day. 3WL will keep its radio programs for sports personality T-Bob Hebert and restaurant writer Tom Fitzmorris.

Overall, Claus said, the other station's weaker signal (5 Kw vs. WWL's 50 Kw) has been a hindrance to making it the kind of success the company had hoped for when they made the rebranding switch. "We tried to expand programming with sports, food and Spud. It didn't really work well, frankly," Claus said.