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Monday, December 8, 2008
12/8: Clark Howard gets his own Headline News show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s the story that’s running in the print edition Monday
Just a few days after announcing he wasn’t going to run for Atlanta mayor, syndicated radio host Clark Howard has set his sights on a new venue: national TV.
Howard, who self-effacingly calls himself Atlanta’s biggest cheapskate, will host a new weekend Headline News show under his own name starting January 3. It will three times a day on Saturdays and Sundays at 6 a.m., noon and 4 p.m.
The hour-long program will feature clips from his radio show, which is syndicated to 235 stations natonwide. There will also be segments specially made for TV, including a “money coach” series in which he follows families over a long period of time to see if they heed his penny-pinching pointers.
“It’s perfect for our times,” said Ken Jautz, executive vice president of CNN Worldwide, who runs Headlines News. “People are looking for and needing financial advice.”
Headline News will air 16 daily one-minute bits by Howard starting today. He will provide tips on how to stretch the holday dollar such as setting a specific budget for Christmas shopping and resisting spending on yourself.
“All I have to sell is that I am who I am,” Howard said. “I have this whiny nasally voice. I’m certainly not one of the pretty boys.”
He added that people who only know him on the radio often think he’s short, fat and bald. “I’m graded on a curve,” he said. “They often say, ‘Wow! You look okay!’ “
Howard, 53, has been on local radio since the late 1980s, first on 640/WGST-AM, then 750/WSB-AM. He went into syndication in the late 1990s and has owned his show himself since 2002.
His radio program draws more than 3.25 million listeners a week, according to Talkers magazine, ranking him 15th nationwide. Headline News on a typical weekend draws 250,000 to 400,000 viewers during the day.
Howard is no stranger to TV as a regular contributor to WSB-TV’s news operations. But this will be a new test of his national appeal.
“It’s an ego thing,” he admitted. “If I can teach more people, for me, that’s the deal.”
Howard hopes his gig on the weekends will be successful enough to parlay into a weekday show. He noted that fellow radio host Glenn Beck’s pay day went sky high once he got a TV gig, first with Headline News and next month, Fox News.
During a rehearsal last week for one of his promos, Howard took out a dollar bill and pulled at it. “Was that too Crazy Eddie?” he asked producer Scott Tufts, referencing a wacky sales guy for a now defunct electronics chain.
“It’s just Crazy Eddie enough!” Tufts parried back.
CNN retrofitted the WSB Radio studio with a faux brick backdrop and three cameras. Through the fake window is a photoshopped fictional midsized city Howard dubs “Clarkville” and includes a couple of recognizable local landmarks such as the Bank of America tower. That’s ironic since Howard has battled Bank of America over their treatment of customers.
“I’m going to get ribbed for that!” he said.
-And condolences to the family of Mike Kavanagh of the WSB-AM. Kavanagh, a long-time afternoon news host and most recently the host of “Money Matters” on weekends on the station, passed away suddenly on Saturday. Funeral arrangements are forthcoming. He is also the founder of a great WSB radio history site, www.wsbhistory.com
