Hunley: Hoping O'Meara finds a good gig

Usually when I put words together in this space, it’s my policy to behave as if we’re living in a vacuum.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find mention of any other media — especially if the organization is local.

That may sound silly, but I got it honest.

In college, the underground newspaper frequently would take shots at us members of the legit student paper. When I was a freshman, I asked our editor why we didn’t hammer back.

“If we did,” he said, “then we’d have to acknowledge their existence.”

It was the smartest thing I ever heard that guy say, and I’ve remembered it ever since.

So now, I figure, you’re busy; you may not even have time to read this newspaper. Why should I point you toward any other medium?

However, I offer all that bluster as a preface to breaking my own rule — because I just can’t get over radio station WJFK changing its format.

The station, at 106.7 FM, flipped from guy talk to sports talk this morning at 6 (or, will change, if you’re reading this before 6).

Why do I care so much? Or, better yet, why should you (since most of your free time should be spent with the News & Messenger and insidenova.com anyhow)?

Well, though marketed as a Washington station, WJFK is officially licensed to Manassas in the FCC fine print. And the changeover left one of D.C.’s most famous disc jockeys without a job.

That’s Mike O’Meara, who lives in Manassas and who used to operate the restaurant and bar O’Meara’s on Center Street.

I never went to O’Meara’s. It opened after I left the Potomac News, one of this paper’s forebears, and closed before I came back.

But I’ve listened to O’Meara, for most of his career half of the famed “Don and Mike Show,” off and on since I moved here in 1997.

So it was sad to listen to a farewell segment from him broadcast Friday afternoon.

It was more than 20 minutes long, and for the most part upbeat. But O’Meara did note the recession, which has meant pink slips for folks in his business and in others.

In fact, he said, a common refrain he’s heard is: “The same thing happened to me.”

The economic reality aside, it stinks that CBS Radio, which owns WJFK, couldn’t find a place for O’Meara, who said he and his showmates are working “behind the scenes” to find a new home.

JFK’s new lineup should be successful: It’s got the Sports Junkies, my favorite radio personalities, continuing in morning drive; the intelligent and affable Mike Wise at midday; and the great Chad Dukes paired with LaVar Arrington, one of my favorite ex-Redskins, in afternoon drive.

But the Junkies followed by the “Big O and Dukes Show,” with Dukes and Oscar Santana, formed a combination that was perfect for a radio listener.

The Junkies are just a bit older than I and O and Dukes just a bit younger, so tuning into them was like hearing you and your friends on the radio. Really.

The audience was predominately male, yes, but not completely. And I know of at least one diehard female listener who will turn the dial away from the Junkies if they’re mandated to cover only sports.

Why the change, then? I called CBS for comment but didn’t get a response in time. However, you can guess the driving force: money. Ratings probably could’ve been better, and the execs think they can sell more advertising with the sports format, which will compete with the stations owned by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

So what can we do? Money makes the world go ’round.

It would be fun for me to organize some kind of boycott — and it would get me some manner of publicity, too — but it would result in no more good than what I found when I complained that Snyder didn’t re-sign Arrington years ago.

So I’ll listen to the new “Sportsradio 106.7 The Fan,” and just hope that O’Meara and Santana find good gigs, just as I’ve hoped the same for newspaper friends who have been laid off.

You should do the same, too. Just as soon as you finish reading this newspaper.