Ahern makes staff pay for his birthday bash

[superbad 1]

Robert Feder: Remember the little item here Wednesday about Joe Ahern and the $5,000 lunch? Well, it gets even better. It turns out the event June 9 at Alex Dana's trendy Rosebud Prime in the Loop was a party to honor the president and general manager of CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 on his 63rd birthday.

 

http://www.suntimes.com/business/feder/index.html

 

SHOULD AHERN FINALLY BE FIRED?

YES

NO

[cbs2worksforyou 35]

This is a non-story. Feder is portraying this story like Ahern is a bad guy. He has done a good job the last 6 years. It's not an easy job trying to turn a last place station around, and many of the changes he has made during his time here have at least put channel 2 back on the map.

[A3N 996]

This is a non-story. Feder is portraying this story like Ahern is a bad guy. He has done a good job the last 6 years. It's not an easy job trying to turn a last place station around, and many of the changes he has made during his time here have at least put channel 2 back on the map.

 

I'm going to bring up several points here...

 

A.) Why should CBS be stuck with a $5000 bill for his party?

B.) Why should the employees be stuck with the bill? He wanted a party, he wanted guests, then he should pay.

C.) WBBM has been in last place and has barely moved a bleep ratings wise. I don't think that it makes him a good G.M.

D.) The changes he made were because of the CBS corp. layoffs and because some of the signings he made blew up in his face (i.e. Diann Burns).

E.) And finally Ahern has put CBS 2 on A map,

not THE map.

Big difference there. I'll give him credit though, the new digs are nice, but if there is no content then it's all looks and no substance.

[lazynetjunkie 34]

This is something commonly done at many companies (including other network stations) and it's not as a big deal as Feder is making out to be.. In the past, CBS has picked up the tab for these kind of things. As for the price of the tab, when you take the tab and divide it by the number of people at the party, it really isn't a bad deal..

 

 

People weren't "ordered" to hand checks over like he's saying too. I think there's just an unhappy employee that seems to like to feed Feder.

 

 

I really don't see what the big deal is either over the "marble shower".. It was just quality materials used in the an exec's office bathroom. This shower is also not one of those huge majestic marble showers that you would see on the MTV show Cribs.. It's just a little office bathroom shower no bigger than your own standard size tub/shower combo at home. Most buildings/businesses in Chicago use ALOT more marble than you'll find anywhere in WBBM's new home.

 

 

I really wouldn't be surprised if there's an article/column printed about Ahern's new mahogany desk..

 

 

It's already a known that Feder doesn't like Ahern or CBS 2.. I don't know if it has to do with him not getting a job at CBS 2 or from Ahern years ago or Ahern not being as open with Feder on various subjects or what. Just remember, Robert Feder is a columnist, not a reporter, so he'll show his bias on something.

[CircleSeven 1945]

E.) And finally Ahern has put CBS 2 on A map,

 

not THE map.

 

Now that was funny!!! You can dress up a pig with lipstick, a wig, a sweater and place a CBS eye on it. It is still a pig, no matter what. Their content wise haven't change, and if it has, they're still in the ratings basement, even after the layoffs. So I think this is time for the higher-ups at CBS to give him the boot, or not renew his contract next year. This is outrageous. If it was a surprise party that would've been a completely different story. But it wasn't. He made his own bed, he should lie on it and get comfortable.

 

Oh yeah, there's alot of steamy comments from Feder's readers this morning.

[Link 3]

The bottomline is WBBM has not had the recent successes in ratings that WCBS and KCBS have had. I think it is time to bring someone new in to run things in Chicago. Those promos for Diann Burns and Rob Johnson at 10pm were some of the stupidest I have ever seen for an anchor team in a major market.