Group heads bristle at Stern flacking Sirius

A day after announcing that he would move from terrestrial radio to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006, Howard Stern irritated his current affiliates by spending much of yesterday's show on what was essentially an infomercial for Sirius. That did not go unnoticed in the group head session at the NAB Radio Show in San Diego. With three Stern affiliates, Citadel is one of the largest affiliate groups outside Infinity. Citadel COO Judy Ellis was clearly irked by Sterns actions and said she was evaluating how much time Stern spent flacking for Sirius outside his show's allotted spot load. "I'm gonna charge them," she insisted. Entercom CEO David Field, who owns one Stern affiliate, didn't say what action he might take, but he noted that Entercom has a company policy against accepting any advertising from either Sirius or XM Satellite Radio.

"We got a kick in the shin yesterday," Field said of Stern's bombshell announcement that he was defecting to satellite radio. But the Entercom CEO said Stern's importance to the radio industry has been over-exaggerated. He insisted that this is an opportunity for Infinity COO Joel Hollander and his team to find and launch a great new talent. "It's time for the new Jay Leno," Field said, after noting that NBC's "Tonight" show didn't disintegrate, as many had predicted, after Johnny Carson left.

Panelist Mark Mays, President of Clear Channel, got accolades from his fellow group heads for Clear Channel's "Less is More" initiative to reduce ad inventory and clutter. "I think this is one of the more positive things that's occurred in our industry in a while," said Ellis, who said that the rest of the industry needs to support the Clear Channel effort. "We fully support what Clear Channel is doing and we applaude them doing it," said Field. He added that Entercom is getting into 30 second inventory, which is a major focus of the Clear Channel initiative.

But speaking from the audience, WBEB-FM Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee questioned whether enough research has been done into whether :30s are effective for advertisers. Mays insisted that no such research is needed, noting that :30s are already the standard in much of the world. He said if you want to know whether :30s will work, just listen to radio in London, which he says is far more creative than the ads heard here in the US. "It has been tested. The creative will work," Mays said.