By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, July 27, 2015
The Bert Show morning host Jeff Dauler is hitting the road on a tour for the first time as a stand-up comic.
Dauler, who is heard locally at his home base of Q100, said it happened organically. He first planned shows in Dallas, where he was making a market visit in September, and Charleston in October, where a friend's wedding is scheduled. He then decided to add dates in other Bert Show syndicated markets and suddenly he had a seven-city tour.
Besides Dallas and Charleston, the stops include Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, Nashville, Fort Wayne, Ind. and Indianapolis (a former Bert Show affiliate.) The tour dates are in September and October.
You can buy tickets at www.jeffdauler.com/1973tour . (That's the year he was born, a tongue-in-cheek take off on Taylor Swift's "1989.")
His two shows at 37 Main Johns Creek (9/23) and Village Theatre in Atlanta (9/24) sold out within hours after Dauler posted the news on social media Saturday. If you still want to see him in the near future, he will be doing a charity benefit for Children's Healthcare at Horizon Theatre August 11. (Tickets here.)
Dauler has only one year of stand-up under his belt, a relatively short time to be ready for a headlining show. He isn't planning to do a full hour like many headliners. He hopes to have 30 minutes of solid material and plenty of other comics to fill the bill, mostly from Atlanta. Among his support system: former Punchline owner Jamie Bendall, his mentor and radio friend from Rhode Island Stephen Donovan, Jarrod Harris, Lace Larrabee , Dan Mengini and "Last Comic Standing's Mia Jackson, who I just wrote about last week. (She should be on the show this Wednesday.)
He said his 20 years on radio may have helped give him a head start in developing his stand-up act relatively quickly.
"I do know what is funny. I have stage presence and confidence people who are just getting up there don't have. That helps," he said.
Bert Weiss, who Dauler has been working with for 14 years, is his best gauge for laughter. "If I get Bert to laugh hard, that gets written into my notepad to explore more later," he said. "He's a really good filter."
Kristin Klingshirn, the other co host, he said, is sillier while social media director Cassie is more intellectual. "If I can make any one of them laugh hard, it's a victory," he said.
He plans to hit as many open mic nights in the next few weeks as possible to prep for the tour. Expect him regularly at the Laughing Skull Lounge in Midtown on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
This has been an eventful time for Dauler since he just got engaged to his fiance Callie Riggs two weeks ago.
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
To provide a different perspective on June's Nielsen Audio radio ratings, I'm going to cluster the stations in radio groups. The top five radio owners in town represent more than three quarters of the radio listening in Atlanta.
Cox Media Group has been No. 1 by a wide margin for many years thanks to solid performances by all its primary stations.
What's interesting is the rise of IHeartMedia (which used to be known as Clear Channel.). That station group, since I began covering radio in 2001, has long been an unfettered mess, with regular management turnover and frequent format flips.
But over the past two years, IHeartMedia Atlanta has gotten its act together. Country station 94.9/the Bull now kicks former country leader Kicks 101.5 in the rear regularly. Top 40 station Power 96.1 is now generating its most powerful numbers since it debuted in 2012, soundly beating Q100 and Star 94. Alternative rock station Radio 105.7 has been a low-cost rock success, regularly outperforming comparable station Dave FM (2004-2012) when it was on a stronger signal.
On the other hand, Atlanta-based Cumulus Media is struggling. Q100 had its worst monthly ratings in many years last month, falling behind Star 94 for the first time in ages in overall ratings. It was also soundly beaten by both B98.5 and Power. (And since I have awkwardly paired this with Dauler above, I have to say the Bert Show is not the problem. It's been Q100's pillar since day one.)
Cumulus' Rock 100.5 is a perpetually struggling rock station, which pivoted eight months ago to classic rock from active rock to compete with Cox's 97.1/The River but has seen lower ratings as a result. Then there's Kicks 101.5, the once dominant country station, which has been losing to the Bull for nearly three years. And NewsTalk 106.7 has seen its ratings fall off this spring, its numbers well behind WSB. Its only bright spot is on a modest translator signal: OG 97.9, the new classic hip-hop station. Among the three stations in that format, OG has been the clear leader.
(Cumulus isn't doing particularly well in the ad market or on the stock market.)
Here are the breakdowns by commercial owner:
Cox Media Group: Kiss 104.1 (7.1), WSB (6.8), B98.5 (5.6), 97.1/The River (4.9), X107.1 (now Your Georgia Country simulcast (0.5), WNGC (0.5), Chuck 103.7 (0.4) Total: 25.8%
IHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel): 94.9/The Bull (5.3), Power 96.1 (5.2),Radio 105.7 (2.4), 105.3/El Patron (1.7), WGST (0.4), ESPN Radio Deporte (0.0) Total: 15%
Radio One: Praise 102.5 (4.3), Hot 107.9 (3.9), Magic 107.5/97.5 (3.7), Boom 102.9 (0.6) Total: 12.5%
Cumulus: Kicks 101.5 (3.8), Q100 (3.7), Rock 100.5 (1.7), NewsTalk 106.7 (1.4), OG 97.9 (1.3), NASH Icon (0.2) Total: 12.1%
CBS: V-103 (9.3), 92.9/The Game (1.3), WAOK (0.0) Total: 10.6%
Salem: Fish (5.9), WGKA (0.2) total: 6.1%
Lincoln Financial (now Entercom): Star 94 (3.8), The Zone (0.2) total: 4.0%
And here's yet another way to measure popularity: cumulative audience. These are folks who listen to the station at least a few minutes per week. It doesn't gauge depth of popularity. And it tends to favor stations that play popular songs frequently and those stations with really strong signals. Thus, four of the top six stations are pop stations and all six have 100,000 watt maximum power signals.
1. B98.5 1.415 million
2. Power 1.206 million
3. V-103 1.124 million
4. Q100 996,100
5. River 995,600
6. Star 94 993,900
7. Kiss 857,300
8. Hot 805,900
9. The Bull 731,000
10. WSB 714,300
11. Majic 708,200
12. Kicks 687,800
13. Fish 530,000
14. Rock 100.5 475,200
15. Radio 105.7 453,100
16. Praise 446,200
17. Streetz 407,100
18. OG97.9 324,800
19. WABE 313,300
20. NewsRadio 106.7 281,500
The Atlanta Journal Constitution and all the Cox stations referenced above are all under Cox Media Group, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises.
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