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Howard Stern to Clear Channel?

Stern has become a one man Lex & Terry. That's not saying much.

G
 
radioworld said:
Wow! Even Stern has standards...
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He's an extremely smart broadcaster, who understands how to create extraordinary compelling content and keep you glued across stopsets. We'd hear stories from listeners about they'd sit in their cars, engines running, waiting to shut down and go into the office, but they HAD to wait to hear what the conclusion of the bit was going to be....so they'd sit through 16 minutes of spots on our sister station, WJFK, to hear the end of the bit. WOW!

And, he's mostly bark on the air; little bite in real life--it's an act, and a good one. At one time Howard had close family living here in Atlanta; I knew them, and the inside skinny was in truth, he's a gentleman and a family man who becomes the character once on air.

Greaseman is exactly the same. I was his PD in Washington when his syndication ended and he moved there from L.A. -- a total pussycat, great guy, and clients LOVED him off the air--but, a lunatic when the mike went on. It was actually fun to watch! :)
 
I've always thought Greaseman was one of the most creative and talented broadcasters ever. Somehow the Atlanta version of his syndication wasn't successful. People I spoke with here just didn't seem to get him.
 
Even Howard Stern didn't get what Grease did. The whole act was beyond him, and yet they dealt with similar issues of teenaged male angst. Just in very different ways.

Greaseman was perhaps the last DJ to do theater of the mind, in the tradition of classic radio drama or even the Adventures of Chickenman. I don't know of anyone today who does what he did, with a story, music, and sound effects, built around a cast of characters ranging from Estelle to his boat to the police. ("Did you ever wonder what it would be like to put on a badge and strap on a gun and become a LAW MAN!?")

It's possible we may never hear this kind of production on radio again.Then again, as radio moves away from fragmented music formats towards original content that it owns, there MAY be a place for this kind of dramatic entertainment, which is neither music nor straight talk.
 
Vintage Grease - from the days of The Ape, was hilarious. But, the bits were longer than today's audience might like. Tracht was from the days of involvement with the audience.

"Grease gonna do a littlle offshore drillin' to-nite!"
 
What was most amazing watching Grease create was it truly was, literally, stream of consciousness/out of the blue. He used to do live, unscripted on air ads for a jeweler in DC named Ronnie Mervis, who's family came from Africa. He set it up, did all the voice work, sfx, etc. You can just imagine what those ads sounded like. Hysterical.

I actually think that the syndication hurt Grease, because in the "old days" i.e. on DC 101 in Washington, he combined the bits with localism/calls from listeners that he'd react to. That got lost in syndication, so the bits became predictable. Also, they tended to peter out, as opposed to having a laugh-out-loud punchline. Finally, Grease was sorta stuck (no pun intended) in the old days; the bits weren't updated at all. For example, Sgt. Fury was STILL in Vietnam in 1995...maybe he coulda updated him to be in Iraq during Desert Storm? But he didn't want to hear that feedback. The result was that the show felt older than it should.

All that being said, he was a great guy to work with, super nice and cooperative for the most part.
 
It takes time to build a fan base, and syndication almost requires instant popularity. Grease replaced Howard at DC 101 (something Howard didn't like), and it must have been tough to replace a legend and become a success. Ask all those who tried to replace Howard when he went to Sirius. But Grease did it, partly because radio was still in its heyday, partly because DC101 was still a popular music station, and partly because Grease put the time in to build a fan base with personal appearances. That's not done much today. At one time I thought Grease was a likely successor to Howard if he were to leave. Now I think the audience wouldn't accept a successor, regardless of who it is, as they did when Howard left DC. That was proven five years ago.
 
craig_ashwood said:
What was most amazing watching Grease create was it truly was, literally, stream of consciousness/out of the blue. He used to do live, unscripted on air ads for a jeweler in DC named Ronnie Mervis, who's family came from Africa. He set it up, did all the voice work, sfx, etc. You can just imagine what those ads sounded like. Hysterical.

I actually think that the syndication hurt Grease, because in the "old days" i.e. on DC 101 in Washington, he combined the bits with localism/calls from listeners that he'd react to. That got lost in syndication, so the bits became predictable. Also, they tended to peter out, as opposed to having a laugh-out-loud punchline. Finally, Grease was sorta stuck (no pun intended) in the old days; the bits weren't updated at all. For example, Sgt. Fury was STILL in Vietnam in 1995...maybe he coulda updated him to be in Iraq during Desert Storm? But he didn't want to hear that feedback. The result was that the show felt older than it should.

All that being said, he was a great guy to work with, super nice and cooperative for the most part.
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Thanks for the info Craig! Always like to read your posts.

I think you nailed it re: Grease. When Grease first came on Z93, he was different, hot, fresh. IIRC Rude had already moved on from 96Rock (or his show had jumped the shark), and a lot of people were at least familiar with Grease from all of his press in different markets, and were looking for the next big, edgy morning show. But, as you said, the bits became formulaic and the punchlines old. You can only listen to so many episodes of "getting a knock on the head", going out on the boat, telling the "Bingo" story, etc. before you start looking for something else.

I would have loved to hear Grease talk about (say) Monica Lewinsky, but he was gone by then.
 
Thanks Jabba...one other thing about Grease.

He liked having an in-studio, live audience. So, we modified the old news room in our Rockville Pike (suburban DC, CBS-owned rock station WARW) studios, knocked out the glass between on-air and news, and added some folding director's chairs--15 of them crammed into this little news room. I was the PD and also monitor of the show, as in the keeper of the dump button, so I had to be there at 5am. At 5:30, we opened the doors to the public. People could "reserve" seats and there was a waiting list.

The reaction people had to him when they saw him first thing in the morning was really amazing, especially among those who'd never seen him before...and especially the women! Doug is/was a big guy who lifted weights religiously...he looked like a roided out pro wrestler, especially because he always wore tight T shirts, even in the winter. Not the typical slovenly over-weight radio guy, for sure.

Anyhow, in the studio Grease made sure there was food for the public guests. He had a trade-for-mention deal with some local cafe. What was perfectly weird about it was, it wasn't typical breakfast food. Not bagels and donuts, as you'd expect at that hour of the day. Uh-uh. It was...are you ready...tuna pita sandwiches!. Nothing like Chicken of the Sea at 5am! Listeners could also help themselves to the coffee machine outside in the hall.

It was so much fun to stand in the studio with Grease, live, with the audience right there watching. They just loved him, and he fed off their energy. At the end of every show he'd spend as much time talking with them individually as they wanted, posing for photos and signing autographs. Then he'd hop into his old pickup and head home to Potomac, Maryland....
 
I watched Greaseman from his early days on WAXC in Rochester to WRC in Washington, etc. He reinvented himself a couple of times. At first, he portrayed himself as an old farmer. In the beginning, the stations would not reveal what he looked like, and listeners thought he was an old man. I read in John Long's bio (Oidar.com) that when at WAPE in Jacksonville, Grease hid from his fans at the front door by going out the back and then walking back in through the front. The fans he walked past in front had no idea he was Greaseman.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I thought Greaseman was at his very, very best at WAPE and DC101.
 
Roddy, you're right--for years he kept his identity hidden. I work for Cox now, and we own WAPE, and I've heard the stories.

When he returned to Washington from the L.A syndication, which would have been around 1995 or so, and I was programming CBS' WARW where Grease would do morning drive, we did a "Grease is Back!" party at a bar/restaurant on the Potomac on a Friday night. A bajillion people showed up...traffic jams, the whole bit. Grease arrived on the "Good Ship Grease", coming up the Potomac -- it was a 40 foot power boat -- docked -- and was mobbed. There were so many people there, we needed a full-bore security team for Grease. People were so happy to have him back.

The power of real personality radio.
 
Craig, I was really disappointed about how easily CBS folded under the pressure after Greaseman made his unfortunate "dragging" comment. I thought a warning and a month's suspension would have been appropriate.

The actual punishment far exceeded the crime, in my opinion. It kept one of the best talents in radio pretty much off the air for about 10 years.
 
Roddy, I was gone by then, but my understanding of that situation was that he made that comment, but the PD who succeeded me didn't want to do the early morning duty, so they assigned it to a receptionist with zero training in either what to do/what would be "acceptable".

So, the result was that he didn't get "edited" and the rest is history.

He got hung out to dry IMO--they were looking for a way to cut the cost of his salary, because the ratings weren't there, pure and simple. They didn't want to listen (CBS) to ways to make the show work, and in truth Grease didn't really want to hear things he should maybe think about to update the show to make it more relevant.

The bottom line for me is that one of radio's greatest talents was mis-handled. What's ironic now is that we're using him, on Cox, to handle afternoon drive on Rock 105 in Jacksonville--so, he's done a full circle to the market that really put him on the map. And he's SO talented....I listen on the podcast, and the stuff is funny and inventive. What an amazing talent.
 
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