North Shore 104.9 DJ's Were Fired Without Warning

BEVERLY, MA -- Last week started like most others over the past four years for Dana Hersey and Kevin "Mugs" McGonagle. North Shore 104.9, the Beverly-based radio station where they have co-hosted the morning drive program since 2014, had ordered a new batch of coffee mugs featuring caricatures of the two long-time New England broadcast personalities. After Monday morning's show a manager emailed to say that day's show had "sounded great."

But something changed over the next 72 hours, and neither Hersey or McGonagle know what happened. After Thursday morning's show they met with station management and were told it would be their last day at North Shore 104.9. When they pressed for a reason, managers told the two that they had decided to "move in a different creative direction."

"I had a lot of fun. I loved working with Mugs," Hersey said Monday. "It's rare when you get that kind of chemistry between two people. We were best part of what going on with station."

North Shore 104.9 is owned by Westport Communications. The company's president, Todd Tanger, reiterated the comments he made to the hosts on Thursday in an email to Patch Monday.

"North Shore 104.9 FM has proven time and time again that we are committed to delivering local content to our listening area so that we can best serve our listeners and advertisers. We don’t make any programming decision without careful consideration of what is in the best interest of serving our community of potential listeners and advertisers," Tanger said. "The morning and afternoon drive shows have been and will continue to be locally produced and broadcasted from our North Shore Studios."

Tanger went on to say an announcement naming its new morning hosts was "coming soon" and that, in the interim, the station would produce "a live morning show with various local professional announcers that the station has existing relationships.

"A new external marketing campaign will accompany the announcement of the new show," he said. "Our commitment to be local has never changed and we’ve been adding more and more local elements daily.”

On Monday, Westport posted help wanted ads in a radio trade publication to start the search for new morning show hosts. The 6-9 am time slot included some nationally-syndicated content on Monday. In addition to firing its morning hosts, Westport fired the station's promotions manager and demoted its sales manager in recent weeks.

Neither Hersey or McGonagle had a contract with the station and were at-will employees. But McGonagle said they wished they had been given more notice and an opportunity to say good bye to their listeners -- especially given the outpouring of support they have received from listeners since Patch first reported their firing on Friday.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity we had to work together, and I truly wish we had a chance to say good bye. I would have given a two weeks notice and we would have done it right," McGonagle said Monday. "Selling air is a tough thing to do, but I really believe we connected with the audience."

North Shore 104.9 does not subscribe to ratings services but has a strong local following, based on advertiser testimonials. In late December the station announced it was switching formats to adult contemporary from Oldies and unveiled a "Keep it Local" branding campaign. McGonagle said in addition to changes in the music they played, there had been directives from station managers to change their show: they were told to back off on a long-running segment of discussing celebrity birthdays and the station ended in-studio interviews with local guests.

At the time of the format switch, Tanger said the Oldies format's audience was "aging out" and that the addition of contemporary music, such as Adele and Bruno Mars, would help it connect with a younger audience. Hersey said he and McGonagle may have been victims of their own success.

"Once Todd made the commitment to adult contemporary, a lot of people were angry the station was leaving the classic hits. They kind of linked us to that -- people were saying they would listen to us but then they were switching off the station," Hersey said. "He mentioned that quite a few times -- he'd say it's like we have two different radio stations."

Hersey said there was a push to shed the baby boomers that had made up the core of the station's listenership.

"A major-market radio station can make radical changes and just turn on the lights and play music and they'll get the big advertisers like McDonald's. But that's not happening with us -- if you listen to our station you hear advertisements from mom-and-pops and local small businesses," Hersey said. "Those are the people that target Baby Boomers. If you snuff out the Baby Boomers, who do you have left?"

McGonagle said he believes he and Hersey were able to maintain their core audience, even if some of those audience members were turned off by the change in music.

"I did all of our remotes -- I was out in the community," he said. "I was meeting people and I know we were connecting with people. I know we had a loyal following."

Listeners have been contacting the two departed DJ's and posting on social media with their disappointment at the station for the unceremonious end to the show.

"Live and local?! They’re kidding, right? What was more live and local than Dana and Mugs doing remotes around the North Shore" listener Sarah Horman wrote on Facebook Friday "The format change was bad enough but without D & M I can just delete it from my saved stations. It’s too bad, really."

Both McGonagle and Hersey said they want to work together again and have already fielded some inquiries.

"We've had some inquiries already, but who knows if it will work out. It would have to be the right situation for me, and for Mugs," Hersey said. "I had a ball with it while going on, but if this is end, this is end."

See more of what North Shore 104.9 listeners had to say about the firing of Dana and Mugs:

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).