Herald: Barnicle fill in is WTKK only (Mike & Mad Dog elsewhere)

[raccoonradio]

Article in today's Herald says that only WTKK will have Mike Barnicle filling in for what had been Imus.
For other stations, Westwood One offers WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog

"Westwood One, which syndicated the Imus show, has axed plans to offer radio affiliates WTKK’s Mike Barnicle, who was set to fill in for Imus during his initial two-week suspension. The Herald reported earlier this week that Barnicle was forced to apologize in 2004 for referring to an interracial couple as “mandingo” on his show.
Westwood said in a memo obtained by the Herald that it will instead offer the New York sports radio show “Mike and the Mad Dog” next week. Barnicle will, however, fill in on WTKK."

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=194727

Maybe this is a tryout for Mike And Mad Dog to go national? Someone would eventually get the slot
of W1's morning show...

 

[TSBench]

Maybe this is a tryout for Mike And Mad Dog to go national? Someone would eventually get the slot of W1's morning show...

Could be, but WTKK would have to be crazy to carry it. Running the New York-centric Mike and the Mad Dog against D&C for the next two weeks would give WTKK the distinction of having the only major market AMD program ever to have no listeners. I have a feeling that M&MD are going to have trouble getting cleared on a lot of former Imus stations.

I don't see where Graham would have much appeal to the Imus crowd, and WTKK probably wouldn't see much business sense in moving their big gun, Severin, into the slot and forfeiting the PMD talk audience to arch rival Carr.

Barnicle would appear to give WTKK at least a fighting chance of retaining some of the Imus audience, while not killing them down the rest of the schedule. Barnicle wasn't a frequent quest because Imus thought he would drive away audience. I would think that a case could easily be made that Barnicle would be acceptable to a large chunk of former Imus listeners. The 'mandingo' and plagarism raps only have legs with people who didn't like Barnicle in the first place and never listened anyway.

Apropro of wild speculation, I wouldn't be surprized to see Imus back in his radio slot. He was still making big money for WFAN and W1, the backlash against Sharpton and Jackson has been taking shape, the basketball players have accepted his apology, and the real impetus behind him being let go came from the TV side of the house, not the radio. A week of mea culpas, the charitable work, and a stretch on the beach could be all the political cover needed for a 'he's suffered enough, and learned his lesson'' rationale. Most of the advertisers would probably come back, or be replaced, since I doubt the NYSE, Amex, Staples, or Lumber Liquidators are doing much targeting of folks who take their marching orders from Al Sharpton, and a lot of advertisers would really like those Imus demos, especially if they became a lot less expensive. On the plus side for WFAN and W1, the ten million a year package would be history, most, if not all, of the audience would return, and he'd probably be a lot more manageable internally. Also, and it's a big Also, there is nobody anywhere on the horizon who can take his place.

I'd bet that his first week back would turn audience numbers that would curl your toes.

Speculation off.

Regards,
TSB