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Wednesday, December 26, 2007
12/27: Biggest Atlanta radio stories
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yes, it’s that time of year when I’m on vacation and a way to fill space is to review the biggest Atlanta radio stories of the year. (Yes, the biggest national radio story was Don Imus, we know that.) Tell me if I’ve forgotten any and I’ll add’em.
For the first time in recent memory, not a single major radio station in Atlanta has changed format this year.
But that surface stability masked plenty of turmoil. With radio revenues flat or down at many local stations, at least nine have added or swapped out talent this year in the mornings, a crucial time slot which often brings in the most listeners and commands the highest ad rates.
This also meant a few veteran jocks lost their jobs, including WGST’s Spiff Carner, formerly of the Randy & Spiff team, and Steve McCoy and Vikki Locke at Star 94. We recap some of this year’s biggest local radio stories:
Soccer moms mourn: Steve & Vikki, the corny yet consistently chipper pair who gave suburban families comfort and joy for 17 years as the morning team on Star 94, left on a bittersweet note in early November. While Locke cited health issues for her departure, McCoy didn’t want to leave. The station has brought in a younger, hipper trio from Indianapolis called the Morning Mess that seems to be gunning after Q100’s the Bert Show.
That Foxxy lady is back: Popular V-103 personality Porsche Foxx (AKA Stephanie Calhoun) lost her coveted afternoon job at No. 1 Atlanta station V-103 after a DUI arrest in 2004. She pled guilty and entered rehab. This past July, V-103 gave the sassy deejay a second chance, handing over the mid-day reins to her. Showing her clout, she quickly nabbed a highly publicized exclusive interview with Mike Vick two weeks after the government indicted him for dogfighting in July.
Not so bullish: Clear Channel’s new country station 94.9/the Bull in its first year has attempted to gore top rival Kicks 101.5 in the gut, but Kicks hasn’t bled much. The Bull’s ratings have been mediocre all year while Kicks has maintained a solid lead. But the station isn’t giving up: it went all-Christmas for a month and will be adding parody musician Cledus T. Judd to the morning mix Jan. 7.
The rock battle rages on: Since 96rock nixed the Regular Guys in the fall of 2006, younger men seeking personality radio have had a rough time finding it. The Morning X, still in training wheels with a new lineup, hasn’t gelled with listeners, if ratings are any reflection. And main man Sean Demery bowed out earlier this month for personal reasons. Meanwhile, rival Project 9-6-1 finally added a morning show in the fall with a pair of guy’s guys, Giant Brian and Shaffee. Further down the dial, adult rock station Dave FM is set to debut a jock from Chicago named Zakk Tyler who likes jokes and parody songs.
The Six Flags snafu: Q100’s altruistic efforts backfired in the spring when they opened Six Flags Over Georgia for free. Word got around and so many people showed up early, the park was shut down by 6 a.m., fueling an I-20 snarlup packed with thousands of angry commuters, parents and kids. (At least the Bert Show overcame logistical hurdles later that year to send Thanksgiving letters to every military personnel overseas, all 375,000 of them.)
Give it away: Radio stations generated millions of dollars in charity this year. Despite a slowing economy, both Star 94 and WSB-AM reached their $1.2 million fundraising goals for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and AFLAC Cancer Center, respectively. But others had a tougher time. Kicks only raised $735,000 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, down from $1.2 million each in 2005 and 2006. Dave FM’s Call to Auction for Habitat for Humanity fell $30,000 short of its $100,000 goal earlier this month.
WABE falls short: For the first time in several years, the news/classical public radio station 90.1/WABE-FM failed to reach its fundraising goals in the spring. But it managed to bounce back in the fall, hitting $1 million in pledges for the first time.
12/26: 96.7 now country
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Soft rock Lite 94.9 disappeared just over a year ago to make way for country station 94.9/The Bull. To mollify at least a handful of Lite fans on the South side, 96.7 became Lite FM for a year and played a wider variety of soft rock than the old Lite.
But as of midnight today, 96.7 is now the Legend, a country oldies station, focusing on the 60s through 80s. The station itself has such a limited signal, it has never generated much ratings or income for Clear Channel, which has tried at least a five formats on the signal this decade, including a Spanish simulcast, dance/R&B and alternative rock.
Clearly, by making it a country station, Clear Channel is taking a cue from Citadel (formerly ABC), which owns both Kicks and its slightly older-skewing flanker, Eagle 106.7. For years, those two stations scared away any other major country competitor until the Bull came along. Clear Channel now has two country stations, using Legend as an add-on component for its Bull sales staff.
Here’s the Legend’s home page..
According to yes.com, the station opened at midnight under its new format with Roseanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache.” Other artists the station has been playing include Johnny Paycheck, Tammy Wynette, Elvis Presley, Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Charley Pride and Willie Nelson.
Clay Hunnicutt, who engineered the move and specializes in country programming at Clear Channel, was at lunch with his kids when I called and asked me to contact him tomorrow when he’s back at work.
Victor Sansone, who runs Eagle 106.7 and Kicks 101.5, said he’s not concerned with Legend, given its weak signal. And he noted that the country oldies format wasn’t as viable as it used to be so over the past 18 months, Eagle has effectively phased country oldies out, moving more towards 80s, 90s and today, with a greater emphasis on the past 10 years. In fact, Eagle’s playlist is much closer to that of its sister station Kicks than it was a couple years ago.
“I don’t think there’s a market there” for Legend, Sansone said. “I don’t understand the plan, but it’s not mine to understand.”
But he’s said he’s sticking with Eagle as is. He has no plans to change it to soft rock, the most obvious hole in the market since 94/9 Lite FM left town, leaving the genre to B98.5.
12/26: TV stories of the year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… to fill space by doing a year in review. First off, we’ll do TV. Tomorrow, it’s radio.
Here are a few of the biggest local TV stories.
Tyler Perry, king of Atlanta media: Besides his films and plays, he is building a TV franchise as well. He broke all TV rules by financing 10 episodes of “House of Payne” in 2006 out of his own pocket, tested it in 10 markets and convinced TBS to shell out tens of millions for 100 episodes. This business model is one of a kind. Typically, TV shows have to air 100 episodes first on a broadcast network, then get pitched to syndication. But that pool is running dry. So far, “House of Payne” has become a big hit for TBS, averaging 3 to 4 million viewers a week. (That would ensure cancellation on ABC, for sure, but the metrix for cable are different.)
Alton Brown, king of the Food Network: Meanwhile, Atlanta’s food science guru Alton Brown has become the go-to guy at the Food Network, helming four shows this year, including his signature “Good Eats,” which is about to hit 200 episodes. He also hosts “Iron Chef America,” the “Next Iron Chef” and his own motorcycle road trip food show. Some weeks, Food Network aired 20 or more hours a week of Brown, more than Paula Deen, Emeril or Rachael Ray.
Welcome, Peachtree TV: Turner Broadcasting in October decided to dump its simulcast feed of national TBS on WTBS-TV and do its own programming for Atlanta. While this still means daily heapings of “King of Queens” and “Seinfeld,” as usual, it also means primetime movies and the launch of fresh local programming. Its first effort, “Dallas Austin’s Drumroll,” a look at a local high school marching band, was a big success this past month.
Is this better? WGCL-TV, whose news programs typically lag its rivals in most time periods, was doing so poorly a few years ago with its morning news, it simply gave up. Current general manager Andy Alford earlier this year decided to bring something different back, a program it dubbed “Better Mornings” from 5 to 7 a.m. While traffic and weather are regular features like any other morning news show, the hosts don’t gab about the most recent murder or apartment fire. Rather, it’s all about the hottest places to get a pedicure or the latest Britney Spears shenanigans. So far, it hasn’t had any impact on ratings, which remain dismal, but morning habits die hard and WSB-TV continues to dominate.
Mothersucka! Cari Champion, a weekend anchor on WGCL-TV, last month got into trouble for uttering a possible curse word that could be heard by listeners leading into a promo. She apologized to the station and said she actually said “mothersucka.” But the station let her go. She protested publicly, saying the punishment didn’t the crime. A month later, her bosses agreed: she got her job back and will be back on air January 7.
Is Foxworthy smarter than everybody else? Alpharetta’s Jeff Foxworthy has already been a standup star, a sitcom actor, a sketch comedian. Now he’s a game-show host, an amiable presence on Fox’s surprise hit game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” His success shows that Atlanta has a knack for hosts, following Ty Pennington’s work on “Extreme Makeover” and, of course, Ryan Seacrest on “American Idol.”
And here are some of the bigger national TV stories:
Write or wrong Hollywood writers struck on November 5, mostly over payment for shows airing on the Internet and other digital media. Talks between writers and producers broke down just before Christmas and the strike may be protracted. The short-term effect was plunging late-night talk shows into repeats. It appears all will be back by early January, though most without their writers. Among scripted shows, many have already run out of fresh episodes, including “Heroes” and “The Office.” But some mid-season shows will be back, including “Lost” — or at least eight episodes. “24,” however, has been placed on hold because Fox wants to air it in its completion and production stopped after eight episodes.
Cable’s hot summer: While broadcast TV failed to generate a single watercooler hit this fall, cable had a field day over the summer, churning out quality show after quality show while ABC gave us “National Bingo Night.” Among the notable newbies this past summer included Lifetime’s drama “Army Wives” (which featured several Atlanta actors in secondary roles), AMC’s “Mad Men,” USA’s delightful “Burn Notice” and even ESPN’s guilty pleasure miniseries “Bronx is Burning.” Then there was HBO’s goofy “Flight of the Conchords,” FX’s late-summer drama “Damages,” TNT’s Holly Hunter vehicle “Saving Grace “and TBS’s turn-back-the-clock sitcom “Bill Engvall Show.” Okay, VH1 introduced “Scott Baio is 45 and in Love” and “Rock of Love” (both coming back in 2008!) so cable is hardly guilt free of junk food, but is that any worse than Boy Shakira on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”?
Don’t stop believ…: The show that truly defined HBO, “The Sopranos,” which was a critical and mainstream hit, ended on such a jarring, cut-to-black note, millions thought their cable had gone dead at the most inopportune moment. Rather, it was a twisted farewell by mastermind David Chase, who refuses to explain the move, leaving it to the viewers to interpret as they may.
Disney domination: Disney has found the sweet spot for tweens with squeaky clean yet fun acts such as Hannah Montana and the entire cast of “High School Musical.” The sequel to that film generated more than 17.5 million viewers in August, the most at that time for a basic cable telecast. And Hannah Montana became the hottest concert ticket of the year, selling out the Gwinnett Arena in four minutes flat and causing parents to throw hundreds of dollars to scalpers to keep their kids happy.
Can’t stand the View? Blame — or credit — Rosie O’Donnell for turning this female talkfest into potential daily grist for the pop culture blogs and late-night talk hosts. One second she was badmouthing Donald Trump, the next, she was pouting anti-war views in the face of a slackjawed Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Then she was gone, replaced by Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd, who doesn’t care if the world is flat or not.
Lost and found One of nuttiest shows on TV “Lost” found its footing in the final few episodes this past spring, highlighted by its season three finale, “Through the Looking Glass” and threw viewers for a loop near the end as Charlie died and scenes featuring Jack were revealed to be “flashforwards,” not typical flashbacks.”
Britney gave us more and more and more The pop singer/train wreck kept “TMZ,” “Extra,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “Best Week Ever,” “Access Hollywood,” “The Soup” and hundreds of paparazzi in business. From her inexplicable hair shaving to her potty mouth to her custody battle to shoplifting to that infamous MTV Video Music Awards appearance, she somehow outshone Paris Hilton’s jail release and Lindsay Lohan’s rehab.
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