Stern reaction muted in San Diego
It was the big "gee whiz" topic in the halls of the NAB Radio Show in San Diego - - "did you hear about Howard Stern?" But despite the interest from a gossip point of view, there appeared to be little concern that Stern's defection to satellite radio will have any big impact on the terrestrial radio industry. That may be because so many of the stations which carry Stern are owned by Infinity which, with parent company Viacom, is not a member of the NAB.
For the few CEOs on hand who have Stern affiliates, we found shock, but no immediate indication of how their stations will handle life without Stern. "It's too early for us to react to that. We just found out about it today," said Entercom CEO David Field, who has Stern on one station. Appearing at the programming executive super session later in the day, Entercom's programming chief was confident about dealing with the Stern defection "The NBA did fine after Michael Jordan quit," Pat Paxton noted.
Emmis also has only one Stern affiliate. "This is all new. I just don't know yet," said Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan when we asked if his station would continue to promote the Stern show, knowing that he's moving to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006.
Stern was also much discussed at a session on setting on-air guidelines for indecency. WFBQ-FM Indianapolis GM Chris Wheat, whose station is the flagship for "Bob & Tom," and WFYV-FM Jacksonville, FL GM David Moore, whose station originates "Lex & Terry," said their talents see an opportunity - - since dozens of major market radio stations are facing the prospect of losing their morning show. They and WKQX-FM Chicago GM Chuck DuCoty, whose station is home base for Mancow Muller, said their talents, who have built their audiences by being edgy, have been able to adapt to the FCC's indecency crackdown and focus on programming elements that stay away from sexual topics. In fact, they've even found one advantage from the tighter enforcement - - being able to pitch the highly rated shows to big advertisers who had been kept away by the racy content. "We've had a lot of success in the last six months opening that show up to some big advertisers," said DuCoty.
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
