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Friday, June 13, 2008
6/13: “Top Chef” ratings, Shelley Wynter goes to the Web, AM/1340 changing formats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bravo’s “Top Chef,” in which Atlantan Richard Blais just fell short of winning, had its most successful season ever, finishing with 3.5 million viewers Wednesday night and averaging 2.5 million overall. That’s up from 2.2 million a year ago. That 3.5 million is the second best individual episode ever for “Top Chef.” The second season finale in January 2007 ended at 3.9 million. Season three’s finale finished at about 3 million.
Shelley Wynter, recently fired from 1080/WAOK-AM, has joined an Internet-only radio network called www.ustalknetwork.com. It’s a startup by a man named Lee Michaels, who used to work at Radio One (which operates Grown Folks Radio 102.5 in Atlanta). Wynter, known to be more of a moderate than many black talk show hosts, is set to start sometime next week.
“Terrestrial radio is choking,” Michaels said.
Michaels said Internet radio is the future and he is piggybacking with www.1club.fm, a radio portal to draw listeners. “I’ll be able to say what I want to say,” Wynter said. He said since his base is in Atlanta, he will talk some local issues as well as national ones.
“We believe in him,” Michaels said of Wynter. “We think he’s talented. He’s provocative and well read. You either like him or you don’t.”
-Scotty O’Brien, part of the Leap Day purge Feb. 29 when Eagle went away and Kicks was reconfigured, is back on the station, heared nightly from 10 to midnight.
-Dickey Broadcasting president David Dickey said 1340/WALR-AM is picking up Fox Sports Network, for a third sports talk station dubbed “The Fan 2.” That syndicated network includes Jim Rome from noon to 3 p.m. Launch is later this month. The station has a relatively weak signal and rarely appears in the ratings. Radio-info estimates about 580,000 people can hear the station vs. 2.8 million for 680/The fan. 1230/WFOM-AM (heard mostly in Cobb County) will continue with CNN Headline News, Bill O’Reilly, Phil Valentine and Dennis Miller during the day and simulcast 680/The Fan at night.
