No one should have been shocked with the news that the days of 'Drew and Mike' on WRIF are now over with the official exit of Drew Lane. He'd been the primary voice of the show until last September when he took what was called an unlimited leave of absence to help care for his ailing girlfriend. Only thing was, her recovery apparently has been completed for several months and yet Lane hadn't returned.
Rumors again became reality when it was revealed that the primary reason for Lane calling it quits was because he had grown tired of doing the early morning thing. The delay on the announcement was because he had hoped to get the program moved to a different time slot - something that didn't work out for whatever reason (and there will be lots of theories...).
Now an ugly breakup is underway with the two sides drawing different pictures of what happened over the past few months. Lane says everyone inside the show knew that he was fatigued from getting up so early every day and just wanted to spend more time with his family. Clark and crew claim to be out of the loop and surprised by the revelations first revealed by the Detroit Free Press yesterday.
Because these guys were so hugely successful, it's really not surprising to me that the egos have taken over and the breakup of what probably was Detroit's most popular morning show ever has become a battle of words in the paper and over the air. All of us on the sideline really won't ever know the whole story -- each person telling his version will be clouded by their own interpretations of what happened.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens next as WRIF's morning show has unquestionably been weakened with Lane's departure. For the immediate future, Clark and crew have no real competition and will probably do fine. But now that Lane is available and with Deminski and Doyle being allowed to return in just about 7 months... will someone else take a chance on an FM talk format?
If I were Clear Channel, I'd seriously look at figuring out a way to take 106.7 in that direction if they could figure out a strong morning show to anchor a lineup with D&D and Drew Lane in it. Maybe move some of the sports programming currently on WDFN to 106.7 and then take 1130 in a more mainstream-type (yes, syndicated) talk direction.
The Drew Lane/WRIF saga has been the most frequently asked question I've had since last fall. Although it's ugly, I'm glad at least now we know what the ending of this story is.
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