Today, Pirates Extra Innings host Rocco DeMaro was fired from Clear Channel, the company that owns FM News Talk 104.7, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Brian from Raise the Jolly Roger! posted Roc's farewell post here for everyone to see because the asshats at Clear Channel removed everything associated with DeMaro from their website within minutes.
When the Pirates moved from KDKA to 104.7 I was more than pissed, mostly for selfish reasons. I don't live in the Pirates radio listening area but on clear nights I could pick up KDKA. I grew up listening to the Bucs on a little radio I kept in my room. To this day I still program 1020 AM in my car, although I rarely listen to it. The Internet has changed all that now because you can basically listen to any station online and through cell phones apps.
DeMaro was the voice of reason for Pirates fans. Roc points out in his farewell post that Extra Innings drew HIGHER ratings than the actual game. Think about that for a minute. The post game show got a higher rating. That's the kind of fan base 18 years of losing gets you. Fuck the game and listen to what Rocco has to say. Reading the Pittsburgh newspapers about the Pirates makes you want to jump off the Clemente Bridge but DeMaro gave us hope, every night no matter how bad the Bucs played.
Just like FSN cancelled SportsBeat, this is all about Clear Channels budget. Some dopehead made a decision to fire the one host Pirates fans liked. They say radio is all about ratings, something Clear Channel just doesn't get.
DeMaro probably won't be jobless for long. When you pull a higher rating than the actual game, someone will notice. Too bad the dipshits at Clear Channel didn't.
Resist.
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