Posts with the tag 'WRKO'
It’s no secret that Howie Carr’s career now depends on how fast he can successfully bolt WRKO’s sinking ship. With Rush Limbaugh now gone, Howie hosts the only remaining program of significance on the station, especially from a sales standpoint. When he departs, it’s officially over.
There are at least two scenarios (potentially more) that could have Carr out of WRKO sooner than anyone would expect:
— Contractual language that now allows him to leave: is Howie guaranteed a timeslot “adjacent to Rush Limbaugh”? That or any similar wording used as a safety measure to keep Entercom from banishing him to midnight could be key to a case for departure. This would be a good time to take a second look at the agreement (which I suspect he’s doing now).
— Entercom simply allows Howie to walk and folds up WRKO’s tent: it’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Without Rush, revenue opportunities are limited and the station may now be operating at a loss. We already know the far-left Field family dislikes talk radio very much (they’ve already run almost all of their talk stations into the ground). So there’s certainly no passion for the format that would overcome the bottom line.
For the sake of his future, I don’t think Howie can afford to wait for WRKO and Entercom to sink. He’s got to find a way out now and it may be easier to escape than is commonly believed.
Carr image: Boston Herald
Tags: Entercom, Howie Carr, rushradio1200, WRKO
March 9th, 2010
Thoughts on Day One of the big Boston talk radio switcheroo:
— WRKO/Entercom blew it on a number of fronts, but these three stand out the most:
1) Rather than point the finger at Clear Channel/Premiere for yanking away WRKO’s marquee talent, Entercom used local media to make it appear it was their own idea, all in the name of going “local”. But that’s clearly backfired as longtime WRKO fans vent their anger at station management.
2) Of course, because it was “their idea”, they had to have a new local host in place in time for Rush’s removal from WRKO, so they rushed into hiring a rank amateur who will quickly be in way over his head with 15 hours of programming to fill every week. A clear tip-off: loading today’s show with big guests (as a crutch) instead of allowing the new guy to show his stuff.
A better plan: try out a number of people in the slot to see how they’d fare against the Talk Titan.
3) If it had any class, Entercom would have acknowledged Limbaugh’s role in BUILDING WRKO over the years and thanked him for his enormous contribution. But this is Entercom, a bottom-feeding outfit.
— The new station is baffling for several reasons as well:
1) There’s almost no outside promotion. How are listeners supposed to find where Rush has gone?
2) “Rush Radio” clearly wasn’t ready to go, even to the point where the schedule isn’t settled.
3) The new station’s weak signal locks out a lot of Rush’s former WRKO coverage area. Forget the South Shore, it’s now up to outlying stations such as WXTK 95 FM on the Cape to fill the gaps.
4) Rush himself has said little (nothing?) about the move and it was only mentioned at his site late today.
It’s one bizarre situation all around, with talk fans left scratching their heads. It can’t be fun for Howie Carr.
Tags: Entercom, Howie Carr, rushradio1200, WRKO
March 8th, 2010
In a breathtaking display of corporate PR infused into local news coverage, Entercom has successfully been able to portray Rush Limbaugh’s move to a new Clear Channel-owned station as its own decision to cancel him.
But that’s a flat-out lie and everyone should know better. Clearly, local media outlets have allowed their dislike of Limbaugh to cloud good news judgment.
Lies! ALL LIES! Where is Frau when we need her?
Think about it this way: without the new station in town, which is owned by the parent company of Rush’s syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks, would WRKO willingly give up his show at any point during the next century? Of course not. This is a joke.
The Globies stand out with the worst coverage, claiming Limbaugh’s ratings are weak here. Did Entercom provide the paper with bona fide ratings data from the most recent reporting period (January 2010) to back up the assertion? Did the Globies independently confirm it?
Note the corporate spin here:
With Limbaugh leaving WRKO, the station will replace him with well-known Republican operative Charley Manning beginning Monday. “The Charley Manning Show’’ will air from noon to 3 weekdays on WRKO. Manning has served as an adviser to former Massachusetts governors William F. Weld and Mitt Romney.
“We think this is the best move for us,’’ said Jason Wolfe, New England vice president of AM programming at Entercom Communications Corp., which owns WRKO and WEEI. “Charley Manning brings top-notch insight and great credibility to us at a time when Boston politics are so intense and top of mind.’’
Obviously, we never expect honesty from The Globies on any subject, but using a well-known local advocate of liberal talk radio as some kind of an independent analyst on the subject of Rush Limbaugh is laughable:
“Charley Manning is very well connected locally,’’ said Donna Halper, a radio consultant and media professor at Lesley University. “He has a passion for politics. He has a tremendous amount of credibility. . . . There’s just so many stations that can air Rush Limbaugh.’’
Ask yourself why “conservative” Manning is praised by the left- what does that say about where his new show is headed?
Even funnier is the notion that a guy who briefly co-hosted a show 15 years ago is a threat to Limbaugh’s dominance.
And from the Patriot-Ledger, here’s another ominous sign on the Manning front:
Manning said he had heard “some complaints” that talk radio had focused too much on Scott Brown during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. He urged all campaigns to make their candidates available for talk shows.
“I’m just going to throw out the welcome mat to everyone,” he said.
Manning must know little about talk radio (and clearly doesn’t listen to Howie’s show) or he’d understand that stations are REQUIRED to invite all candidates. Coakley turned down repeated interview requests from Carr and many other area hosts.
Beyond that, talk radio’s demographic and Brown’s support base fit like a glove and the huge January ratings boost confirms that fact. Coakley appealed to the NPR / Globie crowd. Does he really not know the difference? Next time, Charley, think before you speak, if that is possible.
Ultimately, however, none of this changes the fact that WRKO is doomed without Rush. He’s been WRKO’s premium product for decades and provided Carr with a sizable lead-in audience. Manning will not.
Unfortunately, however, the new station appears slapped together and certainly won’t win these public PR battles until Clear Channel decides to get serious about creating a major market talk powerhouse. What we’ve seen so far is less than encouraging.
But Rush’s listeners will follow him anywhere and that won’t change no matter how inept the new operation might prove to be.
Tags: Entercom, Howie Carr, WRKO
March 3rd, 2010
Here’s how I expect the Boston talk radio landscape to look from here forward:
— WRKO: watch as it limps along without Rush Limbaugh and is put to sleep when Howie somehow manages to exit the building for good. Until then, expect a slow and painful demise. Given the troubles at both WEEI and WRKO, I’d hate to be a Entercom salesperson right now.
Hope Rush’s “replacement” enjoys the futility of competing against him for the next six months or so, until the show is inevitably cancelled and replaced with fee-free syndicated programming.
— Rush Radio 1200: Limbaugh himself can prop up this otherwise-weak station to a point, but ultimately it will require major-market management and a real commitment to programming.
So far, it appears to be run from Providence (by the same people who have failed to make an impact with WHJJ and resent any intrusion from Boston radio types into their market) and will be burdened with some of Premiere Radio’s unsuccessful syndicated shows. That’s not a recipe for ratings or revenue.
Beyond Rush, syndication has never fared well in New England and I doubt that will change now.
— WTKK: with WRKO and the new station struggling in the ratings, WTKK might appear to “win” on occasion (by ranking higher than either one), but I’m still not sure how it can afford a live-and-local lineup without a viable programming focus or successful air talent.
The bottom line: we’re entering a new era where no one station really dominates the market (even WBZ ain’t what it used to be) and the audience is carved four ways or more.
Tags: Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh, rushradio1200, WRKO, WTKK
March 2nd, 2010
Is Rush Limbaugh switching Boston stations much sooner than previously believed? During this morning’s Matty In The Morning Show on KISS 108 FM, host Matt Siegel (below image) indicated that Limbaugh would be moving to his sister station at 1200 AM in just a month.
Until now, it seemed shifting Limbaugh’s show away from his longtime home at WRKO would take some time as contractual issues needed to be resolved.
Click here for the audio, it’s about two minutes into the segment.
Tags: kiss fm, matty in the morning, Rush Limbaugh, rushradio1200, WRKO
March 1st, 2010
Based on what we know so far about the new Boston talk station run by Clear Channel, I’m convinced Rush Limbaugh is better off sticking with WRKO. The new outlet, WXKS 1200 AM, doesn’t look terribly promising. That would leave El Rushbo to prop up a weak lineup.
Key concerns:
— In a region known for hostility toward syndicated talk, WXKS will feature almost no local content. This alone makes it not much of a threat to established competition.
— Rather than build a line-up based on market demand, Clear Channel is using WXKS to dump Premiere Radio’s national shows, some of which have already failed here or have little chance of success in our area. If there is no budget for local talk, why run Jason Lewis (a Premiere host) at 6pm when Mark Levin (Citadel - ABC) is up for grabs?
— Instead of bringing major-market programming talent to the new outlet, Clear Channel appears to be recycling Providence management to save money. Yes, the Boston mafia was once run from the Ocean State, but the very folks who have done little with WHJJ-AM aren’t likely to succeed here. Boston is a top ten market, so the stakes are much higher.
If I were advising Limbaugh, I’d recommend he steer clear of 1200 until there’s a credible plan for success.
Tags: Boston Herald, Rush Limbaugh, WRKO
February 19th, 2010
Entercommies are buzzing about a previously-unexpected visit to Boston by the WRKO-WEEI owner’s CEO scheduled for Wednesday morning. Though David Field does occasionally stop by for rah-rah sessions to put a happy face on his debt-laden operation (repeat after me: “easy comps, easy comps, easy comps”), this one seems rushed and may have a more significant purpose.
Some staffers apparently believe Empress Julie Kahn may finally find her days numbered for a myriad of reasons, both personal and professional. Her replacement may already be in the building, but names will be omitted here as I don’t want to jinx anyone’s chances of being promoted, particularly since this person is said to be a pleasure with which to work.
After the overnight success of rival CBS’s WBZ-FM sports talker, Entercom is now so far behind the curve that the Boston operation may be beyond saving. And with Clear Channel’s new political talker set to arrive on scene shortly, WRKO could become as endangered as WEEI.
Good luck, guys, you’ll need it.
Tags: Entercom, wbz-fm, WEEI, WRKO
February 8th, 2010
Nearly three weeks after Scott Brown’s earth-shattering political triumph over the entrenched political establishment, it’s clear those on the losing end have barely begun to lick their wounds. They never saw this coming and were done in by extreme complacency.
Postmortems from the left have begun to focus on the role of talk radio in Brown’s victory, the importance of which can’t be understated. But in The Phoenix, Adam Reilly manages to omit entirely the key player- Howie Carr:
Talk radio was huge for Brown. Yes, the dearth of exit polling in the Brown-Martha Coakley contest makes it hard to quantify its exact impact. But if you listened to Boston talk radio during the race — commercial talk, as opposed to the sedate stylings of NPR affiliates WBUR and WGBH — you know that this segment of the airwaves was, overwhelmingly, Brown country: a source of hope and good cheer when things looked grim, and a high-volume ally as the Brown juggernaut headed down the home stretch.
Consider, for example, the love lavished on Brown by WEEI, the sports-radio powerhouse that doubles as a source of conservative commentary. On primary day, Gerry Callahan, half of the duo behind its morning drive-time Dennis & Callahan, tossed Brown this softball: “Does it make any sense to you that people follow this far-left agenda, and want another far-left loon like [Senator John] Kerry, like [Congressman Barney] Frank, like [Congressman Edward] Markey, like the rest of them?” And shortly before the election, Glenn Ordway, host of the afternoon drive-time Big Show, and three Big Show associates (Pete Sheppard and former New England Patriots Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie) appeared in a video in which they gushingly endorsed the Republican. (Brown “believes in a country that’s sovereign,” Smerlas explained, sort of.)
Yes, WEEI, WTKK-FM, WBZ, WXTK-FM on the Cape, WBSM in New Bedford, WCRN in Worcester and other stations all played a role, but I don’t think Scott would be where he is today without Carr, who is heard statewide on several of those stations.
Carr’s presence alone didn’t put Brown over the top, it was the longtime afternoon host’s change in strategy that made the difference. Until the primary election, Howie’s focus was on saving Scott from the embarrassment of likely defeat by insisting he was merely warming up for a later statewide campaign.
Something clicked, however, once the general election campaign was underway. Howie shed the defeatist attitude and learned to exercise some muscle for a change. The audience was more than receptive and got to work immediately. Once it became clear he truly believed Scott could win, it became a campaign worth an investment of time and money.
New England has always had the benefit of a great deal of local talk versus a national landscape cluttered with (largely unsuccessful) syndicated fare, but the US Senate campaign represented the first time in years hosts really stepped up to the plate and led the way.
From here, anything is possible. Let’s hope defeatism has been abolished for good.
Tags: Howie Carr, kennedy us senate appointment deval patrick, martha coakley, republicans, scott brown, scott brown martha coakley senate race, senate seat, WBZ, WEEI, WRKO, WTKK
February 6th, 2010
Does this mean we’re stuck with him on WRKO?
Felon Finneran’s stubborn bid to regain his ability to practice law has once and for all been snuffed out. The Dem-friendly Supreme Judicial Court didn’t side with one of its own this time, ruling the former House speaker should be permanently disbarred.
From the Boston Herald:
Finneran, who pled guilty in 2007 to obstruction of justice, had sought a lesser punishment of suspension, but the court sided with the Board of Bar Overseers. “(Finneran’s)” misconduct implicates both the integrity of the judicial system and the honesty of a member of the bar,” Justice Margot Botsford wrote for the court.
“We have no reason to disagree with the finding that (Finneran’s) conduct during the voting rights lawsuit represented an aberrant event in his long career of serving his constituency and the public with loyalty and distinction. But the respondent was convicted of a serious crime involving false testimony to a court under oath in a significant case about fundamental rights.”
The decision is retroactive to Jan. 23, 2007, the date when Finneran’s law license was temporarily suspended.
Finneran pled guilty in 2007 to making misleading statements under oath about a redistricting plan that was challenged by advocates for minorities. In arguing for suspension rather than disbarment, Finneran’s attorney said his 26-year career in public service, as well as testimony asserting that Finneran’s crime was “aberrant” from his normal conduct, should mitigate his punishment.
The big question: is he now locked in at WRKO? The program is as boring as ever, it’s astounding he’s still there after three long years. What motivates Entercom in their desire to keep him on their schedule?
The bottom line: it’s a great day to be Howie Carr.
Image: John Wilcox, Boston Herald
Tags: Howie Carr, massachusetts politics, Thomas Finneran, WRKO
January 11th, 2010
While WGBH was busy building a gleaming monument to itself in Brighton, the public broadcast outfit’s FM operation continued to languish. LEED certification (a fuzzy concept to say the least) was a priority, programming, not so much.
Now, in a tough climate where donations have declined, the public television giant is now forced to pay attention to previously-ignored aspects of its operation.
WGBH-FM certainly qualifies as neglected: thanks to Arbitron’s new electronic PPM ratings system, public radio stations are now included with their commercial counterparts. And while Boston University’s WBUR-FM has fared well so far, taking seventh overall in the most recent survey, WGBH is stuck in twenty-second place, just ahead of a distant Providence-based country outlet, WCTK-FM.
Public radio stations need ratings as well, otherwise, the potential donor base becomes too small to sustain the operation. In addition, businesses making grants in exchange for on-air plugs get little for their money.
With that bleak outlook, GBH suits have decided to revamp its programming, modeling it somewhat after WBZ-AM, with news and talk, while music is generally phased out (or moved to WCRB-FM). But where does a leftist outfit acquire talk shows in this climate of conservative “hate” that fills commercial airwaves?
From WGBH-2’s boring, pro-establishment public affairs programming, of course! Yes, let’s turn unwatched television into unheard radio! The result: radio talk shows hosted by Emily Rooney and Callie Crossley.
If you’ve got two short hours to sacrifice from your daily routine, Emily and Callie will be glad to fill you in on why Mayor-For-Life Menino is such a great guy, why Deval Patrick deserves a second term and how it doesn’t matter whether Martha Coakley campaigns on any actual issues, her partisan affiliation alone is enough.
Whether WBZ or anyone else is shaking in their boots over this move is questionable, but it is interesting that WGBH sees its future in news and talk, while Entercom has so much contempt for the format and Greater Media allows WTKK-FM to experience a slow and painful death.
Tags: WGBH, WRKO, WTKK
December 29th, 2009
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