April 2005 News Archive

April 1, 2005
Rover has landed his third station, and his first affiliate outside of Infinity. It's Clear Channel's WMAD (Mad Radio 96.3), located in the Madison, WI market. Interestingly, the move puts Rover head-to-head with Bob & Tom, which airs on CC's WIBA-FM Madison. On the surface that might seem odd, but when you look at the station breakdowns in Madison, you see that this gives Clear Channel two shows to use to potentially dominate the Madison male morning market (though 100.5 WTLX hopes that won't be the case). Howard Stern used to air in the market (on WTLX), and it will be interesting to see how the FM Talk-saturated market handles the change.

April 5, 2005
Howard Stern went on the air this morning and asked Viacom (Infinity Broadcasting) to let him out of his contract, which is due to expire at the end of 2005. The reason? U.S. House of Representatives member and House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) has put forth a proposal that those who are in flagant violation of FCC standards on indecent or profane broadcasts should be subject to criminal prosecution.

April 6, 2005
Howard Stern has opted not to renew his contract with his affiliate in Ft. Myers. WRXK-FM, better known as "96 K-Rock", had its contract with Stern expire at midnight last night. According to Stern on his show this morning, the station approached Stern's agent (Don Buchwald) about renewing their deal. At first Stern said okay, but then he realized that Beasley owns 96 K-Rock. That's the same company that owns WQAM in Miami, which carried Stern briefly in 2004-05 before dropping him due to indecency concerns. Stern claimed that he's still owed money from WQAM, so he opted not to renew in Ft. Myers.

I've seen a number of detailed ratings books from Ft. Myers (since Bubba The Love Sponge used to be on in that market as well), and Stern was a force in 25-54 (and I imagine he did great 18-34 and 18-49 as well once we were gone). The move could mean a nice boost in the Spring 2005 book for Bob & Tom (on WARO) and Lex & Terry (on WRQC, Bubba's former station in the market, which L&T landed when Bubba's show went on hiatus after Bubba was fired by Clear Channel). Both of those stations are owned by Meridian Broadcasting, so they look to gain from the move. The big losers in this are, of course, the Stern fans in the market and WRXK-FM, which appears to be posturing to add a local morning show beginning next week.

April 8, 2005
In a shocker, WRUF-FM "Rock 104" in Gainesville, FL has decided to quit airing the Friday editions of the Lex & Terry show due to the program's "Drunk Bitch Friday" segment. Rock 104 is the strongest L&T affiliate in the country, and the move could have negative effects for both Lex & Terry and WRUF-FM. For L&T, the show has faced complaints from MADD and women's groups for DBF, but this is the first time that a station has taken action because of the segment. For WRUF-FM, if this leads to a parting of ways with Lex & Terry, it is extremely difficult to believe that it will be able to find another morning show out there right now that will perform for them like L&T did.

WRUF-FM and Lex & Terry extended their contract in October 2004, and contractually it's unclear at this point what the Friday pre-emptions mean from a contractual standpoint.

For the full story from the Independent Florida Alligator, click here.

April 11, 2005
All Access reports that Houston's KIKK has flipped from Hot Talk to News, rebranding as "CNN 650". The daytime-only station was in a fix from the get-go, limited by a weak signal and its daytime-only hours.

The move jettisons Don & Mike from the Houston market, though Howard Stern will remain in morning drive through the duration of his contract, much like he is in other unusual situations like Fresno's Spanish KKDG and Austin's Urban KXBT.

April 12, 2005
The decision by Howard Stern to not renew his contract with WRXK-FM (96 K-Rock) in the Ft. Myers market has proven good for Phil Hendrie, who has gained a live clearance on the station as a result due to the lineup shift that happened there.

April 14, 2005
Bob & Tom are gone from WTBT in the Tampa market, as the station flipped formats to country at midnight. Now known as "U.S. 103-5", the station is taking on legacy country giant WQYK-FM and fired the first shot by stealing away WQYK-FM morning man Skip Mahaffey. The funny thing is that CC has billboards up in town still promoting Bob & Tom on Thunder 103.5, which should tell you everything you need to know about how fast the decision was made to flip. Actually, with the imaging sounding so fresh, it seems they've been planning the flip for some time, contingent on them landing Mahaffey.

April 17, 2005
Fans of Lex & Terry in Springfield, MO now have a new station to hear the show. It now airs on KQRA (Q102).

There are some new affiliates for Don & Mike -- WTOT in Dothan, AL and KKML in Colorado Springs, CO.

April 22, 2005
Maxed out! The Jack-FM "Variety Hits" format that is sweeping the country claims a Hot Talk victim in Portland, OR. Entercom flipped 97.1 KKSN to "97.1 Charlie FM" and moved the oldies format that had been there to 910 KOTK (and its simulcast partner, 1390 KSLM). That had been the home of "Max 910 AM", which aired Don & Mike, Tom Leykis and Phil Hendrie in Portland.

April 25, 2005
It appears things are near the breaking point between Gainesville's WRUF-FM (Rock 104) and the Lex & Terry show. The University of Florida, which owns Rock 104, has pre-empted Lex & Terry's Friday shows for the past few weeks due to the "Drunk Bitch Friday" feature that the show airs. Lex & Terry are now threatening to pull the show, citing breach of contract. Rock 104 re-signed the show last October to a 3-year extension.

I've finally updated the Greaseman page to reflect the loss of WKMZ (which covers the Martinsburg, WV market), which has flipped to Oldies. Greaseman, by my count, is down to just two stations carrying his show live in morning drive.

April 27, 2005
Mancow has made a major coup, landing a syndication pick-up in Los Angeles at KLAC "Xtra Sports 570". He'll start there on May 23 and air live from 4:30-9 AM Pacific time.

Infinity's 1550 KYCY in San Francisco, which carries Tom Leykis and (via tape delay) Don & Mike, is going to change formats next month to an experimental "all-podcasting" format. The non-conventional move will leave Leykis and Don & Mike looking for another outlet in the San Fran Bay Area. Here's the link to the story (thanks to DCRTV for the info and the link).

Congratulations to Bob & Tom, who have been nominated for the National Radio Hall of Fame in the "Network Or Syndicated - Active" category. Other nominees in that category are ABC News White House Correspondent Ann Compton, NPR's Marian McPartland (a noted jazz musician) and Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

However, all is not well for Bob & Tom. After losing Tampa earlier this month, they're about to lose their largest market at the end of the week. WKLS in Atlanta in dropping the show and returning The Regular Guys to morning drive on the station. The Regular Guys were fired from WKLS because of a production snafu where inappropriate material made air by accident in April 2004, which violated Clear Channel's "zero tolerance policy". The incident came soon after Clear Channel had fired Bubba The Love Sponge and dropped Howard Stern from all six of its stations which carried him. Clear Channel rehired The Regular Guys earlier this year, and they had been doing a midday show on WGST until now.

April 28, 2005
Seeing red: Lex & Terry have lost their only Louisiana affiliate, as Citadel's KOOJ (Rock 93.7) in Baton Rouge has flipped from active rock to classic hits as "Red 93.7", with new calls KRDJ. With the flip the station jettisoned the entire airstaff, including Lex & Terry. L&T had been on the station since only October 2004.

Full News Archive
March 2005 News/May 2005 News

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