As new details of the ratings cheating scandal emerge, WPRO/ Providence and morning host John DePetro are enduring an onslaught of negative publicity.
In addition to the Providence Journal coverage mentioned previously, today's Boston Herald and WLNE-TV 6 are pounding on DePetro and station management, where so far there is an official wall of silence.
ABC 6 actually went to DePetro's house, but nobody answered the door. See the video here.
At the Herald, Jessica Heslam reminds us of DePetro's past:
Bill George, the program director at Clear Channel’s WHJJ-AM (920) - where DePetro once worked - was alarmed when he saw the ratings. “We never expected that something like this would come out,” George saidDePetro didn’t return calls to MediaBiz yesterday. Neither did WPRO program director Paul Giammarco and Barbara Haynes, the general manager of Citadel.
Whether DePetro played a role in the cheating scandal is unclear. But it casts a shadow over his already controversial career.
DePetro went to WPRO - which began simulcasting on WEAN-FM (99.7) in March - in early 2007 after a turbulent run at Boston’s WRKO-AM (680), where he was fired for calling gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a “fat lesbian” on the air.
Brian Maloney, author of the Radio Equalizer blog, said this will hit WPRO hard. “This is a serious cheating scandal,” said Maloney. “Someone deliberately tried to rig the ratings. This was brazen.”
The Arbitron diary system is an archaic one that’s about to undergo an overhaul.
Currently, the company contacts people by phone and asks them to keep a diary for a week. The participants fill out the diaries and return them to Arbitron.
The ratings systems goes electronic in eight markets in September. Boston is set for March 2009.
From here, one can only wonder what consequences might be awaiting DePetro and local Citadel management. Will heads roll?
(DePetro image: unknown)
