April 16, 2007

Don Imus' Very Bad Week

• MAINE
• NEW HAMPSHIRE
• MASSACHUSETTS
• VERMONT
• RHODE ISLAND
• CONNECTICUT
• NEW YORK
• NEW JERSEY
• PENNSYLVANIA
• CANADA
• CLASSIFIEDS
• FROM THE ARCHIVES
• OF "RADIO PEOPLE" AND STATION VALUES - NERW'S 2007 RANT, PART 3

*LAS VEGAS - As this year's NAB convention gets underway, there's one topic dominating conversation across the radio industry: the maelstrom of controversy, media self-absorption and deep-seated American cultural issues that all came together last week in a perfect storm that ended - at least for now - the long career of Don Imus.

When we sat down to write last week's column, we didn't even mention the remarks Imus had made the previous Thursday. At that point, it didn't look like a regional media story to us - just another set of media watchdogs trying to make political hay over what appeared then to be just another in Imus' long history of incendiary remarks.

So what happened? Television, for one thing: Imus' MSNBC simulcast provided video of the remark, which helped turn it into the lead story across the cable news channels (especially, interestingly enough, MSNBC itself) for several days running. It also provided a pressure point for the groups that quickly allied to try to get Imus off the air. By Monday night, MSNBC announced it would suspend Imus for two weeks, and his radio flagship WFAN (660) quickly followed suit. But the suspension wasn't slated to take effect until today, to allow Imus to take part in WFAN's annual radiothon on Thursday and Friday.

In a long list of bad decisions (beginning, of course, with Imus' initial remarks), that one may prove to have been the worst, since it kept Imus in the public eye just as the storm was building to its crescendo - the Tuesday news conference with the members of the Rutgers basketball team that put human faces and voices to the caricatures Imus had tried to draw with that "nappy-headed hoes" remark, making him look (if possible) even worse than he already did.

Imus' appearance on the radio show of Al Sharpton, one of his loudest (and most powerful) critics, proved to be another bad move, yielding more questionable remarks (most notably Imus attacking "you people") and still more video to fuel the cable-news inferno through another news cycle.

Another source of fuel for that fire turned out to be the considerable tension between Imus and the rest of the staff at MSNBC, which had been simulcasting Imus' radio show for a decade. In 2005, Imus began originating the show at MSNBC's Secaucus studios rather than in the cramped, TV-unfriendly basement studios of WFAN in Astoria, Queens, and the marriage was never a comfortable one, with reports of questionable behavior by Imus toward some MSNBC staffers and long-running animosity between several MSNBC hosts (most notably Keith Olbermann) and Imus.

On Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC announced that it was cancelling Imus' TV simulcast, effective immediately, with NBC News president Steve Capus blaming the action not only on Imus' comments the previous week but on concerns expressed by many of the network's employees about Imus' history of behavior there.

With a full slate of guests scheduled to travel to the Secaucus studios Thursday morning for the start of the radiothon, there was no way to move the show, which set the stage for an uncomfortable morning: Imus, off the TV airwaves, still broadcasting from the studio of the network that had just fired him - and that network devoting most of its airtime to the story, complete with live reports from outside its own building.

Strange as that was, it was about to get stranger: on Thursday afternoon, word began circulating that Imus would lose his radio gig after the Friday show. In fact, he didn't even get to do a last show, as CBS bowed to the pressure and pulled him off the air immediately, prompting an on-air protest from WFAN's afternoon hosts, Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, attacking their bosses for what they called an over-reaction. (Behind the scenes, we hear the staff at WFAN was stunned at how quickly matters were going downhill; Imus' show was responsible for something in the neighborhood of $15 million of the station's $60 million or so in annual revenue, and until the final moments, few inside WFAN thought CBS would pull the plug on that income stream.)

That evening, Imus met with the Rutgers team at the New Jersey governor's mansion, though without Governor Jon Corzine, whose vehicle was in an accident on the way to the meeting, leaving him hospitalized.

On Friday morning, the radiothon was once again broadcast from Secaucus, this time with Deirdre Imus at the helm, in what we hear was an even stranger atmosphere than Thursday's show.

We'll explore the issues behind the Imus incident in next week's NERW (and we welcome your comments as well); for now, though, the aftermath: Starting today, WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog" show will be working a double shift for the time being, filling both Imus' old morning shift and a shortened version of their own afternoon drive slot. Will Francesa and Russo eventually move to mornings? Or will CBS look elsewhere for an Imus replacement? (More, later in the column, on what happens with the Imus affiliate lineup.)

As for Imus, it's hard to believe he won't resurface somewhere - probably not on XM or Sirius, as they try to trim costs and avoid controversy while seeking government approval of their proposed merger, and probably not on rival talker WABC (770), which has little room in its lineup for Imus and little appetite for his big salary as the station changes hands to Citadel. Who's left? A lot of folks in New York note that WOR (710) opened its airwaves to Bob Grant after similar accusations of racism forced his show off WABC some years back. Could Imus land there, too?

And there's this side note from PENNSYLVANIA's Poconos region: on Tuesday morning, veteran WSBG (93.5 Stroudsburg) morning host Gary Smith decided to use "I'm a nappy-headed ho" as the morning's "phrase that pays," an ill-considered choice that led Nassau to fire him the next day, ending a 17-year run at the station. No replacement has been named yet, and there's a bit of irony here - across the hall, sister stations WVPO (840 Stroudsburg)/WILT (960 Mount Pocono) were Imus affiliates, and apparently intended to continue to carry the Imus show until it was cancelled by CBS.

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*If not for Don Imus' misadventures, our lead story this week would have been across the Hudson, out at the East Rutherford, NEW JERSEY transmitter site of WEPN (1050 New York).

With the huge new Xanadu retail-entertainment-hotel complex rising right next to the WEPN site, it's been no secret for a while now that the days were numbered for the 67-year-old transmitter building and towers, which we profiled on Tower Site of the Week in 2005 and featured just last month in the Tower Site Calendar.

A few years back, WEPN built an auxiliary transmitter facility at the Lodi, N.J. site of soon-to-be-ex-sister station WABC (770) to allow it to stay on the air during Xanadu construction. And now that all of Xanadu's steel is in the air just a few hundred yards from WEPN's northernmost tower, Disney is throwing in the towel and applying to the FCC to move the ESPN Radio flagship to a new tower site.

The application filed last week calls for three new 484-foot self-supporting towers to be built in what's now swampland just south of Routes 3/495 and east of the New Jersey Turnpike's exit 16E/18 toll plaza in Secaucus, a mile or so to the southeast of WEPN's existing site. With the same 50,000 watts day and night, and a nearly identical pattern to its current facility, there shouldn't be much change in WEPN's signal reach when the new site is built. (And we'll do our best to chronicle the construction of the new site as it gets underway, too.)

*The last New York radio station to do a big tower project was WOR (710), of course, and it will soon be looking for a new nighttime talk host. Lionel, who's been heard on WOR from 9-11 PM weekdays, is moving to Air America Radio's mid-morning slot in mid-May; no word on who'll replace him on WOR or the WOR Radio Network.

Congratulations to WFUV (90.7)'s John Platt, who marks his tenth anniversary at the station next Sunday (April 22) with a special edition of his "City Folk Sunday Breakfast" show, followed on June 10th by a live concert to celebrate.

Over at the city's biggest public radio station, WNYC, they're celebrating a $6 million grant from the Jerome L. Greene Foundation that will name the station's new street-level performance studio after the late real estate lawyer. The Greene donation pushes the total amount raised for WNYC's new Varick Street digs to just over $30 million; WNYC hopes to raise $57.5 million in its "Campaign for WNYC" to pay for the new studios and a $12.5 million fund for new programming on the WNYC stations.

Heading upstate, WHRL (103.1 Albany) APD/music director/midday jock Gabby "Double G" Wilimek is departing; she's headed to Astralwerks Records.

On the TV side in Albany, WXXA (Channel 23) is losing its VP/general manager, as Jeff Whitson heads to sister Clear Channel TV stations WTEV (Channel 47)/WAWS (Channel 30) in Jacksonville to manage that CBS/Fox duopoly.

In Glens Falls, they're mourning Don Metivier; the longtime writer for the Post-Star and former WWSC and WCKM personality died April 6.

Speaking of WWSC, it was one of a handful of remaining Imus affiliates in upstate New York. Many of the stations that were still listed on WFAN's affiliate page (until it disappeared from the station's website) had actually dropped Imus some time back; he was still being carried on WXUR/WNRS in Herkimer, as well as WWSC, and there's no word yet about what either of those stations will be doing now.

Bill Shallcross, former morning host at Albany's WROW (590), died April 6 at age 78. Shallcross also worked at Long Island's WALK, and at WABY in Albany.

An Ithaca jock is going national: Dan Henning is moving from afternoons at WYXL (97.3) to the syndicated Bill Press show in Washington, where he'll serve as the show's associate producer.

A few tidbits of Rochester radio sports news: the Rhinos (soccer) and Rattlers (outdoor lacrosse) have re-upped with WYSL (1040 Avon) for a two-year deal. Meanwhile, Entercom has moved Buffalo Sabres playoff action from the team's regular-season home on WROC (950) to WBZA (98.9), to make sure the whole market can hear the Sabres' bid for the Stanley Cup.

You read about it first here on NERW, and now we can add a price to the swap of WKPQ (105.3 Hornell) from Bilbat to Robert Pfuntner's Pembrook Pines group. Pfuntner will give Bilbat WABH (1380 Bath), plus $400,000 in cash and a promissory note, for WKPQ and two translator CPs in Wellsville (W294AV) and Dansville (W294AW)

*One more bit of NEW JERSEY news, with a western New York connection, before we move on: Randal Stanley, who served as WGRZ (Channel 2)'s news director before moving on to Cleveland (WKYC) and Washington (WUSA), has now departed the Gannett station in D.C. to become news director at News 12 New Jersey.

*Our MASSACHUSETTS news this week starts out on Cape Cod, where Sandab Communications is swapping calls and formats at two of the stations in its newly-expanded cluster.

On Tuesday, soft AC WOCN-FM (103.9 South Yarmouth) will move from its class A signal to the much more powerful class B signal of WKPE-FM (104.7 Orleans), with the "Rocket" classic rock format from 104.7 moving down to 103.9. Sandab already owns WQRC (99.9 Barnstable), and it's acquiring both WKPE-FM and WFCC (107.5 Chatham) from Charles River Broadcasting. (No changes to WFCC's classical format are expected.)

Meanwhile, the dormant WCDJ (102.3 Truro) is getting new calls - WGTX - as it changes hands from Karl Nurse to "Dunes 102 FM," a partnership that includes former Boston jock Ron Robin, who plans to launch an oldies format on the small Outer Cape signal.

And veteran New England broadcaster Vince Cremona is retiring May 1 from his most recent post as VP/market manager at Qantum Communications. Cremona, whose career included ownership (Connecticut's WEBE) and group management (at Cumulus, which bought WEBE), will be replaced by Allison Makkay Davis, daughter of Al Makkay, who sold the Cape stations to Qantum in 2003.

In Boston, the Imus mess almost gave WTKK (96.9)'s Mike Barnicle a national syndication platform. When Imus was put on suspension, Westwood One made plans to have Barnicle fill the void during the two-week hiatus. Before Barnicle could begin doing that show, of course, Imus' radio show was yanked - but he'll still get to do mornings locally on WTKK while the station figures out what it's going to do in the long term.

In other Boston news, WAAF's Mistress Carrie was honored last week with a Commander's Award for Public Service for her broadcasts from Baghdad last fall.

Over at "Boston's ESPN Radio" (WAMG 890 Dedham/WLLH 1400 Lowell), the Jim Rome show is history, with the schedule sliding to fill his former noon-2 PM slot: Colin Cowherd gets an extra hour (10 AM-1 PM), Dan Patrick moves from 2-4 PM to 1-3 PM, and Mike Felger moves from 4-7 PM to 3-6 PM.

Out in Springfield, Glenn Beck takes the 9-noon slot on WHYN (560 Springfield).

*In NEW HAMPSHIRE and VERMONT, Imus' affiliates (Clear Channel's WQSO 96.7 Rochester NH and WXZO 96.7 Willsboro NY/WEAV 960 Plattsburgh NY) and Nassau's WHDQ 106.1 Claremont NH, WNHW 93.3 Belmonth NH, WEXP 101.5 Brandon VT/WTHK 100.7 Wilmington VT, WSNO 1450 Barre) had initially planned to stick with the show - Clear Channel was even planning to bring Imus to Portsmouth for a live show sponsored by WQSO later in the spring - but the stance didn't last. After CBS pulled the plug on the radio show, Nassau issued a press release announcing that it, too, had "cancelled" the show; we'll keep you posted as we find out what's replacing Imus at each of these affiliates in what had been one of the strongest regions for his show.

One more Vermont note: WEQX (102.7 Manchester) music director/morning co-host Nikki Alexander is leaving the station, which is now searching for a replacement.

*In MAINE, Cumulus' Bangor-market WWMJ (95.7 Ellsworth) was one of the first stations to announce it was dropping the Imus show as the furor grew, while Saga's WZAN (970 Portland) was planning to stick with the show. (Before the show was completely cancelled, we hear WZAN was getting calls from the Bangor area asking if it could increase its power to serve listeners up there who still wanted Imus...)

One more Maine note: WEGP (1390 Presque Isle) has been granted a power increase that will take the station from 5 kW fulltime to 25 kW days/10 kW nights.

*The RHODE ISLAND Imus fallout includes not only Providence affiliate WHJJ (920) - which will be carrying Mike and the Mad Dog from WFAN for the time being - but also the city of Providence, which named an access road behind the Providence Civic Center (er, the Dunkin Donuts Center) for Imus back in 1996, when he came to the city for a broadcast. No signs mark "Don Imus Way," and it's not even clear that the name was ever made official, but that didn't stop the grandstanding, as local leaders logged some quality TV face time calling on the city to change the name.

On the FM dial, Heidi West is out in the midday slot at WWLI (105.1 Providence).

*In addition to the "mini-Imus" mess in the Poconos, there's additional fallout in PENNSYLVANIA. Beasley's WWDB (860 Philadelphia) had been carrying the show in recent years, and will take Mike and the Mad Dog for now, but we wouldn't be surprised to see mornings there go to leased time eventually. WMLP (1380 Milton) is still sorting out its morning-drive situation, with Sunbury Broadcasting president Roger Haddon Jr. telling the Daily Item there that he's relieved CBS cancelled the show and spared him the difficult decision he would have faced had he pulled the show on his own and still been obligated to pay for it. And in Pittsburgh, WURP (1550 Braddock) was just about to resume carrying Imus, and will now have to go in a different direction.

Philadelphia's WXPN (88.5) is shuffling its on-air lineup, as "World Cafe" host David Dye gives up his Monday-Thursday afternoon jock shift to concentrate on the national show. Jim McGuinn will add that airshift to his duties as PD of "Y-Rock on XPN," and Dye will still do afternoons on WXPN on Fridays.

In Erie, WRTS (103.7) APD/afternoon jock Dylan is out; no word yet on a replacement.

A few gleanings from the last few weeks of FCC filings: in suburban Philadelphia, WFYL (1180 King of Prussia) has been granted a power increase from 420 watts to 1000 watts, still daytime-only, of course. In Towanda, WTTC-FM (95.3) has been granted a move to a new tower site. It'll go from 5400 watts/125' at its old site on the WTTC (1550) tower, which suffered lightning damage last year, to 2950 w/331' on a cell tower outside town. And in Kane, WLMI (103.9) applies to go from its present 3 kW/289' to the WDDH (97.5 St. Mary's) tower, dropping power but raising height, becoming 840 w/733'.

*There was plenty of non-Imus news to be had in CANADA, beginning with the formal deal under which Astral Media will acquire 52 radio stations and two TV stations from Standard Radio Inc. (We covered the initial announcement of the deal in NERW back in February.)

Astral will pay the Slaight family C$880 million and 4.75 million shares of stock, which values the deal at C$1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, Rogers announced that it will pick up the "A-Channel" TV stations that CHUM Ltd. has to shed as part of its acquisition by CTV Globemedia. The C$137.5 million deal adds CKVR (Channel 3) Barrie/Toronto, CFPL-TV (Channel 10) London, CKNX-TV (Channel 8) Wingham, CHWI (Channels 16/60) Wheatley/Windsor and CHRO (Channels 5/43) Pembroke/Ottawa, as well as stations in British Columbia, to Rogers' TV holdings, which include CFMT (Channel 47) and CJMT (Channel 44) in Toronto.

On the radio side, CHHA (1610 Toronto) has applied to boost its day power from 1000 to 10,000 watts, in an effort to better reach the neighborhoods north and west of downtown that it was serving before being forced to move from its old site, near Dufferin and Lawrence, to the Port of Toronto. CKEY (101.1 Fort Erie) has dropped its application to move to the tower of sister station CFLZ (105.1 Niagara Falls), raising power to 50 kW DA/142 m.

And in Plaster Rock, NB, CJCJ-2 (990) has been granted a move to FM, where it will relay CIKX (93.5 Grand Falls) with 50 watts on 91.7.

*That's it from Las Vegas; we'll be back home in NERW-land next Monday with a full update. See you then!

*It's here! As seen in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, and soon on WCVB's "Chronicle," Tower Site Calendar 2007 is not only now shipping - it's close to a sellout! If you're waiting for the 2007 edition to go on clearance sale, don't keep waiting - the word from the shipping department is that fewer than 200 copies remain, and we expect to sell them all in the next month or two.

This year's edition features what we think are the finest tower images yet - from the cover image of WCCO Minneapolis all the way to the back-cover centerfold of WBZ in Boston, and from KGO San Francisco to KOIL Omaha to Philadelphia's famed Roxborough tower farm, captured in a dramatic dusk shot with the lights all aglow.

This sixth annual edition once again contains plenty of historic dates from radio and television history in the Northeast and beyond, and as always, it comes to you shrink-wrapped and shipped first class mail for safe arrival.

You can even get your 2007 calendar free with your new or renewal subscription to NERW at the $60 level.

Visit the Fybush.com Store and place your order today - and be among the first to get the Tower Site Calendar 2007!

NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous contributions of our regular readers. If you enjoy NERW, please click here to learn how you can help make continued publication possible. NERW is copyright 2007 by Scott Fybush.