Twin Cities Radio: The Ticket Drops Local Content

Mike Morris

“I hate ’em. I hate Cumulus a lot,” former WGVX 105.1 FM  /The Ticket afternoon show host Mike Morris told the Mineapolis Star-Tribune.

Morris and Bob Sansevere recently got dumped by ­Cumulus Media in a weekday purge of all local sports programming.

Morris said it was a horrible place to work. “I wouldn’t say it’s the worst, but I don’t know anybody worse than them,” he said.

Sansevere told the Pioneer Press that ratings for local programming were not good. He told me he’s going to do a podcast on the Tom Barnard Network. Barnard works for KQ92, a Cumulus station, on a long-running morning show and he also has started a podcasting business. For 25 years, Sansevere was a Barnard sidekick on KQ92 until that ended a few months ago.

The Ticket, which changed formats in 2013 in an attempt to challenge the already-established KFAN 100.3 FM /  1500-AM, dropped all local weekday shows last week.

Scott Jameson, the operations manager at the station, told the Star-Tribune the weekday format will be exclusively CBS Sports Network national content, including shows from Jim Rome and Doug Gottlieb.

In describing the move, Jameson said the goal is now to “provide an alternative to the other two local stations” and "focus on the network product and provide it to people who prefer that."

Jameson said the station intends to keep some weekend local programming, including broadcasts of high school sports.