December 2004 News Archive
December 30, 2004
Lex & Terry are moving to a new station in the Tallahassee market, jumping from Triad Broadcasting's classic rock WUTL to Clear Channel's modern rock WXSR. According to All Access, the show debuts on WXSR on January 4, 2005. Starting it on a Tuesday versus a Monday seems odd, but that's what is being reported.
Also, I'm hearing word out of Pittsburgh that WRRK may retain Bob & Tom when it finishes stunting on January 5, 2005. Word on the street is that the station will adopt a classic hits format. Bob & Tom are on a number of stations with that format across the country, so it is plausable that they could be retained.
December 29, 2004
Here's hoping that all of you had a great Christmas. I'm back from my vacation in Nashville, and while I've been gone not much has changed.
It may be the end for Bob & Tom in Pittsburgh, as WRRK is stunting. The station's website promises that the "new" WRRK is coming on January 5. Knowing how stunts go, I'm leaving them listed as a B&T affiliate for the moment, but it doesn't look good. Bob & Tom don't have a good track record in the northeast or in large markets, though in this case they had less than one year there so it's not like they had a chance to firmly establish themselves, especially with Infinity debuting a K-Rock station midway through the year.
As they promised in interviews preceding their debut on XM, Opie & Anthony are going to try syndicated an edited version of their XM radio show. Citing the success of HBO shows in sanitized form airing on regular cable stations (such as Sex & The City on TBS), O&A are pitching the idea to stations, and Citadel is giving them a chance to show how it might work. On December 20, WAQX (Syracuse's 95X) pre-empted their normal morning programming of Howard Stern, who is on Christmas vacation, and instead have been running the edited version of O&A on a two week trial basis (on a one-day delay). The grand irony there is that there has been a long-running feud between Stern and O&A, and surely Stern will have something to say on the topic when he returns on January 3, 2005.
In York, PA, Citadel has moved night jock Nipsey to mornings on WQXA-FM for the two week break. If Nipsey's move to mornings is temporary, you wouldn't know it by looking at the station's website, 1057.com, which lists Nipsey as the morning host. It even lists the Stern board op (Young Will) as filling the 7 PM-midnight slot. I suppose on Monday we'll see if this was temporary or a final switch for things in these two markets.
December 16, 2004
In a rather interesting move, Citadel has sold Howard Stern affiliates WAKX and WKKB to Davidson Media Group for $7.5 million. Citadel retained WAKX simulcast partner WKKX (which covers much more of the Providence market than WAKX); recently Citadel had been imaging the station as "Hot 106", dropping the 102.7 references. In hindsight it makes sense why that happened.
There's no word (at least yet) on what Davidson plans to do with WAKX and WKKB. The two signals overlap enough where a simulcast situation wouldn't seem to make much sense. If that means that WAKX will be changing formats and dropping Stern (which seems possible), then that would mean that people in the Wakefield, RI and Peacedale, RI area that currently can hear Stern on WAKX will be out of luck once the deal closes.
December 15, 2004
The FCC has denied a petition by Saul Levine which called for the FCC to include an indecency provision in the rules that govern satellite radio. The FCC noted that the fact that satellite radio is a subscription service invalidated Levine's argument that XM and Sirius should face the same restrictions as terrestrial radio.
The decision is not a surprise, but it is important for both satellite companies as they look to grow and add on more hot talk programming that terrestrial stations are afraid to air due to fears of FCC reprisal.
December 13, 2004
According to MediaPost, Howard Stern will air live on Monday-Thursday once he debuts on Sirius, with every Friday consisting of a "Best Of" show. At this point Stern's debut date remains set for 2006, though Sirius is making some very public overtures about wanting to land Stern sooner. Also, for what it's worth, Stern ended his show right at 10 AM today.
December 7, 2004
Infinity President/COO Joel Hollander made some interesting comments today at the UBS Conference in New York City. He said that the company is "feverishly looking" to hire a replacement for Howard Stern. Hollander said that he expects Stern to honor the remainder of his contract (which expires at the end of 2005), but his comments regarding Stern's future at Infinity were rather cryptic. He said that "we" (Infinity) would deal with Stern's status "when we are ready to deal with it." Read what you will into that, but the choice of words used there seems rather curious to me. Stern has criticized Hollander on his radio show in recent weeks, and clearly Infinity will need to get a plan in place at some point for what they will do to replace Stern.
December 6, 2004
A second audio disclaimer from Syracuse's 95X regarding the Howard Stern show aired today, and we have it (and a transcript) available here. I feel bad for the 95X DJs who must have fielded some pretty rough calls from the fallout over the Stern/Citadel situation.
December 5, 2004
I've obtained the audio of the 95X (WAQX) general manager's on-air message regarding Howard Stern. Click here to listen to the message and read the transcript.
December 2, 2004
There's nothing major to report on the Howard Stern vs. Citadel situation, other than reports out of Syracuse of the station dumping out from any references to "satellite radio" or "Sirius". Also, I've been talking with radio pros during the day about whether to count Fall River, MA as its own market. A close look reveals that it actually seems more likely that Citadel put Stern on WKKB in March 2003 so that it could fill in a bit more of the gap left from the simulcast of WWKX and WAKX in the Providence market. That is to say, while WKKB covers Fall River, it also gives major coverage to south Providence. The west side of the Providence market still is underserved, but for a patchwork setup of Class A stations, three is better than two, even when it involves through a rock station into the mix. So when Stern says "Citadel has me on in four markets," I take it that he considers WWKX, WAKX and WKKB as all covering the Providence market. And from that perspective, Citadel has never added Stern to a new market (with the argument being that in this case, the company merely expanded his presence in Providence).
Semantics aside, this is a relationship that is deteoriating rapidly, and I don't predict a happy ending there. The potential backlash against WAQX in Syracuse could in particular be huge (and if you think backlash isn't a potential problem, look at what happened to Clear Channel stations that used to carry Stern and Bubba The Love Sponge where the audience became irate when those shows were pulled abruptly). Stern is playing this brilliantly in my opinion; a huge backlash in this situation could keep other non-Infinity stations (i.e. Emmis' KPNT in St. Louis) from "turning" on him.
December 1, 2004
Citadel and Howard Stern are at odds, as Citadel has decided (effective this past Monday, 11/29) to begin cutting off Stern's show promptly at 10 AM on its six stations (in five markets) that carry the program: Syracuse's WAQX (95X); Providence's simulcast WWKX and WAKX (Hot 106 & 102-7); York's WQXA-FM (105.7 the X); Fall River (MA) rock station WKKB; and Grand Rapids AM sports outlet WBBL.
Grand Rapids actually was the source of friction between Stern and Citadel dating back to December 2002. Stern had aired on WKLQ (then on the 94.5 frequency in the market) since April 30, 1996. Citadel decided to go in another direction with WKLQ's morning show and jettisoned Stern to the AM dial (and the much weaker signal of WBBL). That lasted from December 30, 2002 until January 10, 2003, when the Stern camp balked at the move (at the time the only market that Stern had on the AM dial was Baltimore, where his show had been on 1300 WJFK since 1991). Eventually a deal was reached and Citadel returned Stern to WBBL, where he remains to this day. However, in the two years since that incident, Citadel has put Stern on in only one new market, Fall River, MA (on WKKB on March 3, 2003).
Moreover, a close look reveals that of the other four remaining Citadel markets where the company carries Stern, all of those stations had the show prior to Citadel owning the station. The purchase times are relative estimates, as purchases of stations take time for FCC approval, changeover, etc. to officially take place.
Providence (Market #34)
Stern debuted: March 16, 1998
Citadel bought his affiliate: January 2003
Grand Rapids (Market #66)
Stern debuted: April 30, 1996
Citadel bought his affiliate: January 2000
Syracuse (Market #80)
Stern debuted: June 17, 1996
Citadel bought his affiliate: February 2000
York (Market #105)
Stern debuted: February 19, 1996
Citadel bought his affiliate: November 1998
What does all of this mean? To me it means that Citadel is prepping for a split from Stern. Much like how many of the Clear Channel Stern affiliates were obtained via purchases after the stations already had Stern (and were having too much success with him for CC to justify dropping his show), Citadel on a corporate level has never made a major effort to add Stern in markets where he could've been expanded (everywhere from Nashville to New Orleans).
Note that as of this writing, WKKB, WQXA-FM and WAQX have removed all references to Stern from their respective websites. WWKX/WAKX's website still lists Stern for mornings (with a hyperlink to his show), while WBBL simply lists Stern in the program lineup without any fanfare (though that's been the case there all along). Even Ryno (the midday jock on WAQX) has had his now-infamous diatribe against Stern erased from his bio page.
One last note: remember that in October, Citadel COO Judy Ellis threatened to charge Stern for discussing Sirius satellite radio on his show. That never materialized, but it certainly hinted at the troubles to come between the two sides, troubles which are now quite evident.
Full News Archive
November 2004 News/January 2005 News
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