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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
8/12: Olympics ratings huge locally and nationally, Isaac Hayes memories, Star 94 PD Dan Bowen out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Beijing Olympics are pulling in some of the best non-U.S.-based Olympics ratings ever.
Opening ceremonies averaged about 34.2 million viewers last Friday, comparable to early “American Idol” audition ratings or the Academy Awards. About one-third of homes with TVs on caught the show. Locally, Atlanta was about average, ranking 35th out of 54 large cities, with 34 percent of homes watching the ceremonies. That’s more than 650,000 people. This is significantly higher than Athens in 2004.
On Saturday night, another 500,000 Atlantans caught the games, followed by 670,000 people on Sunday. Nationally, the numbers were about 24 million, then 32 million, respectively.
-Jay Dixon, the program director for Kiss 104.1, has held warm on-air remembrances for the late great Isaac Hayes. He was the morning producer for Hayes in the late 1990s in New York’s Kiss station. Here’s an email he sent about Hayes:
He brought me to a studio with him when he was working on a project for Alicia Keys. It was exciting to watch him arrange strings on one of her songs. But my “fondest” isn’t musically related:
One day we were in a studio talking about “relationships.” He knew my wife as well - and told me I had a good thing - and how important family is. When my daughter was born in 1996 - he made the announcement on the air. It was a special thing to him watching a young family grow together. He was always happy to see me with my family - and even did a special “50th birthday shout out CD” for my wife’s Uncle Sylvester who was also from Memphis (and passed away last week). He never complained about the work he was asked to do - and the staff at Kiss in New York loved being around him.
Isaac came by the station here in Atlanta in 2006 to do an interview for his cook book. We were happy to see each other and talked a lot about the “New York Days.” It was like seeing an old friend. A very honest, warm and spiritual person. My prayers are with the family, friends and fans.
“It’s worth it if you can afford it,” says Wachs, who has attended several similar camps. “I’ve found them pretty well populated despite the prices. I’ve been to ones that are more expensive and they’re pretty full every time.”
Wachs is a drummer, and he’s most looking forward to hearing what fellow beat-keeper Chris Slade of AC/DC has to say.
“It’ll be fun to listen and hear why he chose certain things,” Wachs says. “When you talk to the guys about their music, they’re very specific as to why they designed the song a certain way and why it sounds better when they play it on the record than when people cover it, because they miss out on certain points.”
It’s not just a frivolous day of indulgence, Wachs asserts. Campers might actually learn some nonmusical lessons.
“A lot of amateur musicians, such as myself, we play at home in our basements and pretend there’s a crowd out there and you’re showing off,” he says. “You’re now, for real, in the spotlight, and if you’ve never experienced that, there’s no way all the pretending in the world can prepare you for that. So, it teaches you how to focus and relax and it carries over into other areas of life.”
-I did a piece on that “Seinfeld” bus coming to the Braves game and Criminal Records tomorrow. Details here. I’ll try to stop by later today and check it out. There are “Seinfeld” games and memorabilia such as the “bro” (or “manzier”) and the puffy shirt.
-“I’m too freakin’ dumb to run a radio show.” - Neal Boortz, syndicated talk show host on WSB-AM at 11:20 a.m. today, after he accidentally mistook Georgia, the state, with Georgia, the country. A caller had asked him if he had heard that Georgia might have nuclear weapons stored away. Boortz said he had never heard such a thing, but he knew that they were in Alberquerque. Producer Royal Marshall gently told him the caller probably meant the country. Then the ever-amusing Boortz began castigating himself. It was deeply amusing.
-Dan Bowen is out as program director of Star 94 just two weeks after his long-time boss Mark Kanov stepped down after 40 years at the station. Curious timing. Bowen was there for more than a decade, a long time for a program director. In fact, he had been by far the longest-running program director in Atlanta of any music station in town. (Program director jobs are notoriously unstable.)
John Dimick, vice president of programming for Star’s owner Lincoln Financial, will cover for Bowen until a new GM and PD are found. He said the station doesn’t comment on why they change personnel. “The guy was a class act from the beginning, the middle and the end. We needed to make a change in the direction of the station.”
Bowen, Dimick noted, was there when Star hit its ratings heights in 1998-2000.
When I asked about the future of the Morning Mess minus Bowen and Kanov, he chuckled and said he and the president Don Benson signed off on the Mess and support them.
