March 2005 News Archive
March 31, 2005
With nine months remaining on his contract with Infinity, Howard Stern is predicting that he will be pulled off the air soon. However, WXRK General Manager Tom Chiusano told Stern on-air this morning that the station plans to keep him "through December 31." We'll see if it really plays out like that or not.
March 30, 2005
Bob & Tom are moving from one rimshot to another in the Columbus, GA market. Davis Broadcasting swapped 92.7 The River (WIOL) and K95.7 (WKZJ), which moves Bob & Tom from the southwest edge of the market to the northeast edge. The move will chain the new 95.7 The River (which has requested the WIOL calls from 92.7) with Clear Channel's 96 Rock, which has a signal that dies out right about the time that 95.7 kicks in just outside the Griffin/Peachtree City area.
The downside for Bob & Tom is that their new station is a weaker C3 signal (versus the relatively stronger C2 signal that gave city-grade coverage to Eufaula, AL and distant coverage into the college town of Auburn, AL). But that's how it goes in radio.
March 29, 2005
Lex & Terry have picked up a new affiliate: 970 WZAN in Portland, Maine. They'll run on tape-delay from 10 AM-2 PM EST, filling the midday slot between Don Imus and Don & Mike (who now air from 2-7 PM, with the 2-3 PM EST hour comprising of the final hour of the previous day's show). The move bumps Phil Hendrie from the 10 AM-2 PM replay spot, though he still runs in tape-delay from 10 PM-midnight.
March 28, 2005
It's unknown exactly when this will happen, but whenever Howard Stern finishes up with Infinity Broadcasting, he will embark on a nationwide bus tour. He's billing it (for now) as a "goodbye tour", though in reality it will in all likelihood play out as a Sirius Broadcasting promotional tour. The announcement of the plan has drawn quite a bit of media coverage, proving once again how good Stern is at gaining media attention.
Last week on Stern's show, Kidd Chris (who currently does mornings on KSRX in San Antonio) revealed that he was in the northeast to do a tryout for current Stern affiliate WYSP in Philadelphia. However, Kidd Chris indicated that he didn't want to replace Stern on that station, at least not right away.
March 24, 2005
According to dcrtv.com, the "f-word" accidentally aired on Monday's Don & Mike show. What is strange about that is that Don & Mike are on vacation and it was a "Best Of" program. How did that happen? According to dcrtv.com, a segment had a caller who used the word, which was dumped out of the initial broadcast. Unfortunately, the segment was apparently not re-edited, and the banned word made it out over the airwaves. It's unclear if it aired only on WJFK-FM (the show's flagship) or if the curse word made it to all of the affiliates. Three people from the show (a producer, phone screener and button dumper) have been placed on two-week suspension without pay, according to dcrtv.com. Don & Mike are scheduled to return from vacation a week from this Monday.
March 22, 2005
Rover has re-launched his official website, which is RoverRadio.com.
March 21, 2005
Bob & Tom are back in State College, PA. They lost former affiliate Revolution 101 (WGMR) when the station flipped to CHR in September 2004. But now they're back, this time on WQWK "QWK Rock 98.7".
March 17, 2005
Rover now has his own page on here, as his syndication begins on 3/21/2005 on WAZU, a rimshot into the Columbus, Ohio market. He is part of the plan being formulated by Infinity for replacing Howard Stern when Stern leaves Infinity (and all of terrestrial radio) for Sirius satellite radio at the end of 2005.
March 15, 2005
In what should be an interesting test, Clear Channel is bringing progressive talk to San Antonio on what is now Urban KHTY (Hot 92.5). The station will change its calls to KRPT and debut with the new format on Thursday, 3/17. What is interesting about the move is that it's the first time Clear Channel has tried this without using any programming from Air America Radio.
The move will give Phil Hendrie a clearance in the market (presumably 6-9 PM Central, since the station will also be carrying Lionel, which airs live from 9 PM-midnight Central). Also part of the lineup will be Jerry Springer and Ed Schultz.
March 14, 2005
WNFL Green Bay, WI has flipped from talk to sports, which knocks Don & Mike and Phil Hendrie out of the market.
March 11, 2005
Opie & Anthony are looking for new programs to add to their High Voltage channel on XM. Moreover, the team has announced that their show will now begin at 7 AM Eastern.
March 7, 2005
Renda's WKQL in the Jacksonville market flipped from Classic Hits to Oldies this morning at 6 AM Eastern. The move knocked Bob & Tom out of Jacksonville for the second time (the show once aired on the 105.3/105.5 frequencies in the market, but was dropped in mid-2001 when Bubba The Love Sponge began bringing in much of the male non-Lex & Terry listening audience). Additionally, I've removed WTPA (in the Harrisburg, PA market) as an affiliate, as that station dropped the Bob & Tom show on February 17 after only an eight month run.
I've been told that the replacement for Howard Stern on Orlando's WOCL (O-Rock 105.9) is going to be a local host with a long history in the market. It appears more and more likely that Infinity is going to replace Stern with several regional pieces (Rover, Don & Mike, whomever ends up on WXRK New York, whomever ends up on KLSX Los Angeles, etc.) versus one person grabbing the whole pie. Infinity has Stern on 27 of its stations, and the word I hear is that Mancow won't end up on any of them. However, he could snag some non-Infinity Stern affiliates, such as Emmis-owned KPNT in St. Louis.
March 4, 2005
Rover, who does mornings on Infinity-owned WXTM in Cleveland, has re-upped for three more years on the station. FMQB reports that the new deal involves syndication opportunities for Rover, with speculation that as many as five current Infinity-owned Howard Stern affiliates will pick up Rover's "Morning Glory" show. Stern airs on sister station WNCX in Cleveland; there's no word on who will be replacing Stern there when he leaves terrestrial radio for Sirius at the end of 2005.
According to the Lex & Terry affiliate list on their website, the show has landed a new affiliate, KXCS (103.9 The X) in Bryan/College Station, Texas. Since KXCS' website has only a "coming soon" graphic, I haven't been able to confirm this new information, but generally L&T are accurate with their new affiliate listings.
March 3, 2005
According to All Access, the FCC is looking into eight complaints against the Howard Stern show (on WQAM Miami and WRXK-FM in Ft. Myers). WQAM no longer carries the show, and during Stern's brief run on the station listeners called in from Miami constantly complaining about how the show was being chopped up by the station (which did so due to the complaints of an overzealous attorney who made it his mission to complain about Stern as much as possible).
I didn't hear this myself, but DCRTV reports that the reason that Don & Mike aired a "Best of" show on Tuesday was because co-host Don Geronimo accidentally ran over his dog Rudy earlier that day. Don rushed the dog to the vet... but Rudy passed away before he could make it there. Don was too distraught to do a show, and thus the rerun aired in place of the live program.
The Lex & Terry page has been updated to remove KFNK in the Tacoma, WA market as an affiliate.
March 2, 2005
Marty Bender, Executive Producer of the Bob & Tom show, was kind enough to send me an e-mail with some of his thoughts on the FCC situation. Click here to read his statement.
In a follow-up from yesterday, there are a few politicians who are talking about trying to put indecency rules on satellite and cable TV, but that is going to face all kinds of opposition. Consider this, from the Chicago Sun-Times:
"The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group, said people choose to pay for channels and, as part of their subscription, are able to block programming they don't want seen in their homes. Because of that, the group said, any legislation would face an uphill battle in court."
March 1, 2005
Alaska Republican Senator Dan Stevens told the NAB today that he plans to push for indecency rules to be applied to cable TV, satellite TV *and* satellite radio. He gave no reason for his plan, other than his belief that "[t]here has to be some standard of decency." That's despite the fact that satellite/cable TV and satellite radio is an opt-in, pay service. If legislation of that nature passed, it would be terrible for XM and Sirius, and in particular for shows like Opie & Anthony and Howard Stern.
Full News Archive
February 2005 News/April 2005 News
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