Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Problems at Tango Traffic

Sources say most of the on-air talent at Tango Traffic have been kicked to the curb in a financial reorganization. Tango Traffic debuted January 1, 2011 on WPHL-TV digital 2 to become the country's first 24/7 network devoted to traffic. Vittoria Woodill, former 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. anchor, confirms her layoff on her Facebook page as well as her "lifestyle confidence blog" polishedforpennies. An excerpt of her January 24 2013 writing: "I’m going to start this post with this… Business is Business. If you’ve learned this or not, unfortunately, business can be a bit heartless. Not at times the reflection of the company, but the current “times”. My dad told me that a long time ago, and for any GREAT BUSINESS to succeed it comes with making TOUGH decisions. Laying people off is a tough decision, but sometimes that’s what has to be done for the betterment of a product to succeed, to deal with economic changes, yada yada. You can agree with me on that or not, but that’s how I see it and how I feel. With that said there are NO hard feelings in this post… It’s just another chapter of the story." Others let go include Stephanie Humphrey, Woodill's former co-anchor. Humphrey freelanced at KYW "Eyewitness News" as back-up traffic anchor for Bob Kelly prior to joining Tango Traffic. Morning guy, Jason Lee, remains on board, I'm told. Going forward, the station plans to air with voiceovers till further notice.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guess I won't be watching Tango Traffic anymore. I can hear the traffic on my radio. I liked watching the on air personalities.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad they kept Dale Shaw, Jason Lee, Christie Bett, and Kristen Conners, but am sad to see Rhonda Fink Whitman, Robert Block, Stephanie Humphrey, and Kristen Celins go. I hope whatever they decide to do at Tango, they get (and keep) it together in the future. The channel has potential, but its lack of direction is both transparent and amateurish.

Anonymous said...

I'm actually not a fan of Dale Shaw. He has no idea what roads are which. And his co-anchor David Eitell talks WAY too fast to the point where I can't understand him. And whoever puts the accidents on the Tango Traffic facebook page needs to be more specific on where the accident is, how much traffic is being backed up, etc. And what happened to the Weather Forecasts and the traffic travel times crawl? I really liked that.

Anonymous said...

Not sure what is worse... the television station, the commercials or the sorry excuse for a phone app. What a piece of crap. Tango was somewhat tolerable when they had people on camera but it's garbage now. Amateur at best.

Anonymous said...

Dale Shaw is one of the few on Tango who knows his stuff. He not only knows the roads, but the direction the camera is facing. And the dude has a voice made for broadcasting! I'm glad they finally ditched that annoying and pointless traffic time crawl. I do wish they would bring back the weather at the bottom of the screen. But the whole operation has turned into a big joke. Sad.

Anonymous said...

My goodness Dale! I am so glad to see you posting about yourself again. You are not a great radio presence but you sure are a predictable creature!

Anonymous said...

I liked tango traffic. Watched it so I could see what was going on when I worked. Hope they put it on again