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Howie

B

beachguy3b

I lived in Connecticut for a while, and would listen to short spans of Howie Carr on occasion driving home. Since then, I've listened a good bit and I have been trying to figure out how this guy made it into the Hall of Fame. His skills as a broadcaster are horrendous, he often says things which are blatantly incorrect or only bad rumor (and keep in mind, I'm to the right of center, so it isn't about his politics when I say that), and clearly has no idea of what is going on when he is on- anything more than talking confuses him. Are his ratings so strong that the Entercom people didn't want him to leave even though he is always kicking them in the crotch on the air?

The only thing on his show that is consistently of interest is the opening sound bites out of the news. Even the chump line is stale and formulaic with the same people over and over.

I don't get it. Can someone tell me why he is such a big thing there? It's like listening to a 20 car pileup during drive time- you stare in amazement and wonder how anyone survived it.
 
I like Howie; agree with him on many issues, not on all. Entertaining sound clips and
features like chump line, non-political guests (mystery authors, Max Robins on TV,
interviews with the likes of Mike Love of the Beach Boys); his knowledge of state
and national government, the Mob, etc.

I don't think he says incorrect things. Matter of opinion I guess. And yes you do say you're
right of center, as I am (in most things) but I tend to believe him.

Are his ratings (and I would add earnings) so strong that Entercom didn't want him to leave?
Precisely. Otherwise you would have read a post here on radio-info: "RKO CUTS HOWIE CARR--Low ratings have doomed the afternoon drive host..." or "SPONSOR, LISTENER
BACKLASH RESULT IN HOWIE FIRING--Howie's recent comments have led listeners and sponsors to complain. Thus, Entercom has announced they are cutting ties with him
and replacing him with the syndicated Jerry Doyle show for now, until a permanent host
is found." (Jay S. did wind up enraging Greater enough to lead to his firing despite his
contract being in effect till '13--they finally had it. Entercom, short of a couple
suspensions for The Fried Clam Man, hasn't...the suspensions were due to him
criticizing the company etc)

Those stories didn't happen because Howie brings in the money. He could wind up at 96.9,
1200, or back at RKO, but he does connect and he does succeed. A few yrs ago he
actually was #1 in his time slot...I don't know how he does now, but you don't see
stories like "RKO moves Howie to a different time slot". Because he delivers.

I used to listen to Jerry in that slot and while I did like him, I found I liked Howie better.
I would tune in and hear "Good afternoon New England, this is Howie Carr of the Boston Herald filling in for the Dean today" and say to myself, "Yay!"

For now at least he's still got it. Otherwise by now you would be tuning in and hearing
Finneran In The Afternoon or something. And you do have alternatives, Severin and
Graham among others, if Howie doesn't quite do it for ya.
 
The rest of the bunch on WRKO don't impress me much. Keep in mind I am not in Boston, and am not a New Englander, so it could easily be that local angle. I do find him amusing at times (intentionally so- always gets a grin when he says "I did not come here to be made sport of.") But I get tired of "Entercom happens" and his endless confusion about anything on his computer. There are times he seems to have no idea of the mechanics of the business, even though he's been doing it a long time. And sometimes, I'll catch where he is completely clueless about something happening, as though he has been under sedation for hours. And last, some of the prejudices and unpleasant comments get on my nerves.

I don't enjoy much the Monday TV thing (but I think it's a good feature- just not my cup of tea) but since I moved from the San Francisco area to Dallas, I don't catch that while listening. I DO like the police blotter feature- those are always fun.

I tried to find anything which would give me a clue as to his numbers but couldn't. I did see RKO has abysmal numbers overall, so if he DOES draw a crowd, the rest of the station must REALLY be hurting. In fairness, it's hard to really get a feel from the little bit you can find about ratings, so the station could easily be doing better where they want to and just not showing up strong when the trash demos are included.

Please, don't scare by suggesting Finneran in the afternoon again. LOL
 
Howie in the radio hall of fame was a promotion. It was not a decision made on merit by people with knowledge and understanding of the industry.

So much for the radio hall of fame.
 
Howie's tired of Entercom happening too...
Radio hall of fame was indeed a promo, but he did get people to vote for him.

Mark of Boston Radio Watch tweeted that if Howie left RKO Ent. might as well sell BOTH AMs

He may make some money for the station but maybe the success of WEEI and WAAF help subsidize loss leader RKO
 
Howie made a remark about a "sad chapter of my career coming to an end soon" and look for something on one of his web sites last week while mentioning that his show would be pre-empted for the Red Sox. (The Sox were moved to 680 because of the Celtics playoff game.) I took it as something's up, beyond the usual "Entercom happens".
 
It was in July of 07 that Howie announced he was going to 96.9; by Sept of that year he was locked out (until mid Nov) and despite his legal struggles, he wound up back at Ent.
for 5 more years. I don't know when Howie's contract is officially up...Sept.? Does he have to basically not declare/negotiate until contract officially ends, then sign with someone else
once it's done?

In 07 he did what he thought was his "last show" around Sep 19. He did an interview with
Ch 4 saying he was excited to soon be doing morning drive at 96.9--to start Oct 1, although Fybush said he was to debut in Sept of 07 but it was called off.

http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2007/070924/nerw.html

>>9/24/07:
>>WRKO succeeded in barring Carr from his scheduled Thursday morning debut on WTKK, but for now that's the extent of the victory. Carr was already off the air at WRKO last week while the lawsuit was being heard, and he's not rushing back to the WRKO studios now, either,

WTKK redesigned its website but said nothing about Howie (supposedly there was a page
ready to go). Severin and Graham joked on air about their upcoming co-worker: "Shall we say, drive my Carr?" They gave Howie some "96.9 Carr (chocolate) bars" to give away, but once they found out he wasn't leaving he gave them away to people at his public appearances anyway. He wore a
96.9 FM Talk hat at such appearances, even after it became apparent it would be shot down.

Is it possible he may "bench himself", use up vacation and sick time, then start somewhere
else in a few months?

I was returning from vacation on 7/9/07 and the Howie jumping to TKK was big news.
The next day:
-----------------
7/10/07 Boston Herald
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1010440&format=text

>>A day after shaking up Boston’s talk radio scene with a bombshell announcement, WRKO talk meister Howie Carr has slapped the AM station with a lawsuit, accusing them of illegally trying to block his new deal with rival WTKK-FM.
The lawsuit, filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, accuses the Entercom-owned WRKO (680) of including illegal restrictions in Carr’s contract designed to prevent the witty Herald columnist from jumping ship.
------------------
Howie returns, the following Nov.
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/n...7/11/15/its-official-howie-carr-back-to-wrko/
11/15/07
>>Four months after he anounced plans to jump ship to WTKK (96.9 FM), Howie Carr is returning to his old afternoon drive show on WRKO-AM tomorrow, the station has anounced.
“We are thrilled that Howie is back on WRKO,” said Entercom New England Vice President and Market Manager Julie Kahn...
Carr’s new contract with WRKO runs through 2012.

(It also quotes Howie as saying he was thrilled to be back at RKO. Right.)
 
It would sound interesting if that were to happen but right now people are speculating CC could do AC, hot AC, Spanish, etc. To get the best return for the money would it be more
likely to do a music format?

It would be another revenue stream--that is, they could keep us old fogeys listening to
talk on AM, and launch a music FM. As we said before Ent. did shore up WEEI by moving it
to FM, but sacrificed a money stream with the loss of "Mike". Would CC be best to
simulcast 1200 on 101.7, or go for music?
 
I think Clear Channel will flip 101.7 to a Spanish-language music format targeting young Hispanic adults under 40.

But could Entercom "blow-up" the WAAF-107.3/WKAF-97.7 simulcast, flipping 107.3 to a simulcast of WEEI-93.7 (giving WEEI a strong FM presence in Metrowest and Central Massachusetts) and flipping 97.7 to a simulcast of WRKO (although it would greatly overlap 680)??
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
I think Clear Channel will flip 101.7 to a Spanish-language music format targeting young Hispanic adults under 40.

But could Entercom "blow-up" the WAAF-107.3/WKAF-97.7 simulcast, flipping 107.3 to a simulcast of WEEI-93.7 (giving WEEI a strong FM presence in Metrowest and Central Massachusetts) and flipping 97.7 to a simulcast of WRKO (although it would greatly overlap 680)??
Click to expand...

You were never right in your predictions before you left this site, and you won't be right this time either. The amount of overlap between 93.7 and 107.3 is WAY too much.
 
MCarney said:
Howie made a remark about a "sad chapter of my career coming to an end soon" and look for something on one of his web sites last week while mentioning that his show would be pre-empted for the Red Sox. (The Sox were moved to 680 because of the Celtics playoff game.) I took it as something's up, beyond the usual "Entercom happens".
Click to expand...

Making millions doing what you love. "A sad chapter of my career"
 
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