Sun column ping
The following is from Scott Fybush—North East Radio Watch. Note that he says Howie isn’t on Boston Herald Radio but I said he does do one hour with Joe Battenfeld, High Noon Wed. at noon. Also 1200 could be poss for Howie but they (Clear Channel) lease the station to Bloomberg for business news and they might not want that (WXKS does run college sports but that’s on weekends)
Back then, of course, Carr was all but publicly proclaiming that he was on his way from WRKO over to the FM dial, where he’d become the star talker at Greater Media’s FM outlet, WTKK (96.9). And if WTKK and Greater Media didn’t want to meet his terms, Clear Channel’s WXKS (1200) at least offered another negotiating partner. Alas for Carr, those doors are now firmly shut: WTKK, of course, ditched talk at the end of 2012 for “Hot” rhythmic top 40 as WBQT, pulling away the best card he had in his deck. WXKS is gone, too: not only did Clear Channel lease the station out to Bloomberg, it’s taking a company-wide swing away from the sort of political talk radio Carr’s been doing for decades. (Just this past week, it handed off Rush Limbaugh to a Cumulus station in San Francisco and killed off the last station still branded with the “Rush Radio” tag that WXKS once used.)
So what’s a talk host to do? Carr is already covering his bets: he’s signed on with a new syndicator, Global Media Services, to try once again to expand his network reach beyond the handful of New England outlets that carry his show. That deal appears to apply no matter where Carr is headquartered in Boston, so he can keep doing the show for syndication even if he leaves WRKO.
But if his long-held wish to break free from WRKO comes true, then what? One clue may have emerged this week, when the heretofore web-only Boston Herald Radio announced a deal to put the 9-10 AM hour of its “Morning Meeting” show on upstart talker WUFC (1510 Boston). When the Herald started the radio service last year, it was widely suspected that it was designed to provide a fallback position for the paper’s star columnist if the need arose. For now, Carr still isn’t a part of the webcast, nor will he be heard on the Herald Radio simulcast over WUFC. And it’s awfully hard, of course, to argue that any combination of a Herald webcast and WUFC’s painfully limited visibility will equal the reach Carr enjoys now at WRKO, reduced even as that has been by the slump of the talk format.
Could Carr’s best remaining move be the one he’s fought for so long – remaining in place at WRKO? As we’ve chronicled in NERW, the talk station’s glory years are pretty clearly behind it; the lineup of Jeff Kuhner’s sharply political morning show, Barry Armstrong’s money talk, Limbaugh’s declining influence in middays and then Carr at night doesn’t come close to the ratings or influence the station once enjoyed. In his afternoon slot, Carr would continue to have the same gripes he’s always had about the AM directional pattern once winter’s early sunsets hit. But if the best plan B for Carr is a webcast with a 1510 simulcast, does WRKO look as bad all of a sudden?
There’s every reason, meanwhile, to expect that Entercom would gladly re-up with Carr. Even as it’s gone through management changes at its Boston cluster, the company has tried to stick with what’s already working, as witness the recent renewals for the morning team of Dennis and Callahan down the hall at WEEI-FM (93.7). There’s no local bench at all on which WRKO could draw to replace Carr, which means his departure would likely lead to more syndication in afternoon drive, in a market that’s never warmed to syndicated talk.
After so many years of badmouthing WRKO, could Carr’s ego handle a renewal (especially at what’s likely to be a lower salary)? Or would a new slot at 1510 be an even bigger blow? We’ll be watching with interest to see how this chapter plays out.
(end)
The following is from Scott Fybush—North East Radio Watch. Note that he says Howie isn’t on Boston Herald Radio but I said he does do one hour with Joe Battenfeld, High Noon Wed. at noon. Also 1200 could be poss for Howie but they (Clear Channel) lease the station to Bloomberg for business news and they might not want that (WXKS does run college sports but that’s on weekends)
Back then, of course, Carr was all but publicly proclaiming that he was on his way from WRKO over to the FM dial, where he’d become the star talker at Greater Media’s FM outlet, WTKK (96.9). And if WTKK and Greater Media didn’t want to meet his terms, Clear Channel’s WXKS (1200) at least offered another negotiating partner. Alas for Carr, those doors are now firmly shut: WTKK, of course, ditched talk at the end of 2012 for “Hot” rhythmic top 40 as WBQT, pulling away the best card he had in his deck. WXKS is gone, too: not only did Clear Channel lease the station out to Bloomberg, it’s taking a company-wide swing away from the sort of political talk radio Carr’s been doing for decades. (Just this past week, it handed off Rush Limbaugh to a Cumulus station in San Francisco and killed off the last station still branded with the “Rush Radio” tag that WXKS once used.)
So what’s a talk host to do? Carr is already covering his bets: he’s signed on with a new syndicator, Global Media Services, to try once again to expand his network reach beyond the handful of New England outlets that carry his show. That deal appears to apply no matter where Carr is headquartered in Boston, so he can keep doing the show for syndication even if he leaves WRKO.
But if his long-held wish to break free from WRKO comes true, then what? One clue may have emerged this week, when the heretofore web-only Boston Herald Radio announced a deal to put the 9-10 AM hour of its “Morning Meeting” show on upstart talker WUFC (1510 Boston). When the Herald started the radio service last year, it was widely suspected that it was designed to provide a fallback position for the paper’s star columnist if the need arose. For now, Carr still isn’t a part of the webcast, nor will he be heard on the Herald Radio simulcast over WUFC. And it’s awfully hard, of course, to argue that any combination of a Herald webcast and WUFC’s painfully limited visibility will equal the reach Carr enjoys now at WRKO, reduced even as that has been by the slump of the talk format.
Could Carr’s best remaining move be the one he’s fought for so long – remaining in place at WRKO? As we’ve chronicled in NERW, the talk station’s glory years are pretty clearly behind it; the lineup of Jeff Kuhner’s sharply political morning show, Barry Armstrong’s money talk, Limbaugh’s declining influence in middays and then Carr at night doesn’t come close to the ratings or influence the station once enjoyed. In his afternoon slot, Carr would continue to have the same gripes he’s always had about the AM directional pattern once winter’s early sunsets hit. But if the best plan B for Carr is a webcast with a 1510 simulcast, does WRKO look as bad all of a sudden?
There’s every reason, meanwhile, to expect that Entercom would gladly re-up with Carr. Even as it’s gone through management changes at its Boston cluster, the company has tried to stick with what’s already working, as witness the recent renewals for the morning team of Dennis and Callahan down the hall at WEEI-FM (93.7). There’s no local bench at all on which WRKO could draw to replace Carr, which means his departure would likely lead to more syndication in afternoon drive, in a market that’s never warmed to syndicated talk.
After so many years of badmouthing WRKO, could Carr’s ego handle a renewal (especially at what’s likely to be a lower salary)? Or would a new slot at 1510 be an even bigger blow? We’ll be watching with interest to see how this chapter plays out.
(end)