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JP and Lana out at KTRH

Were their contracts up?

Here's the official press release from Clear Channel:

Big Changes at KTRH


Houston’s top rated news and talk radio station, AM 740 KTRH, is making big changes. Long time morning anchors Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard are leaving after 27 years together on the air.

Matt Patrick will take the reins as the host on a new morning show that will reflect a new direction for the heritage news station. Patrick has been splitting time between Indiana (95.3 MNC, Michiana) and Ohio (WTAM, Cleveland & WLW, Cincinnati) and will be moving to Houston, along with his wife and three children, to lead KTRH’s signature morning news. Joining Patrick to anchor the news will be Lois Melkonian, an award winning television and radio journalist who worked most recently at KOA in Denver.

“Houston’s Morning News with Matt Patrick” debuts Tuesday, July 5 from 5am to 9am. The move will reflect a new direction for the morning news, combining the informative news coverage KTRH listeners have grown accustomed to along with Patrick’s keen insight and commentary. Critical information and timely updates on traffic and weather will still be staples of the new show. The station lineup will remain the same after the morning show, with talk show hosts Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Berry, and Mark Levin, followed by the overnight Coast to Coast. KTRH will continue to serve as the flagship of the Houston Astros.

AM Operations Manager Bryan Erickson noted, "This is an exciting time for our station. Like other forms of media, we have to continue to adapt. We have to serve our listeners by being informative and entertaining. Lana & JP are an institution in Houston, they are true professionals, and we, along with our listeners, will miss hearing their comforting voices every morning. We know our new show has big shoes to fill."

KTRH is home to news, talk and the Astros.
 
For Erickson to turn around and say "We have to serve our listeners by being informative and entertaining," and "Lana & JP are an institution in Houston" back-to-back, is no bigger a slap in the face to Lana & JP, than it is for them to flush them out after over a quarter-century of service without even getting the chance to say goodbye (I'm assuming there will be some sub scrub tomorrow morning).
 
DToTheJ said:
For Erickson to turn around and say "We have to serve our listeners by being informative and entertaining," and "Lana & JP are an institution in Houston" back-to-back, is no bigger a slap in the face to Lana & JP, than it is for them to flush them out after over a quarter-century of service without even getting the chance to say goodbye (I'm assuming there will be some sub scrub tomorrow morning).
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Erickson (Opie Taylor) is as classless as they come, I fully expect him to be anchoring tomorrow morning. Cheap Channel has all but destroyed this station. The Houston market is ripe for a news-radio start-up from a company that knows news-radio...CBS.
 
If Matt Patrick is moving to Texas, perhaps he should take down the video on his web site which in which he says he is "messing with Texas". http://mattpatrickshows.com/
Based on the commentary in the video on his web site, I don't see this as being an objective new show but another way in which KTRH is continuing its hard right turn (along with Rush, Hannity, etc. ).
 
I also noticed one other big thing: KTRH is now "News/Talk 740 KTRH." So endth the misnomer that is "Newsradio," albeit not an uncommon one among most CC talkers around the country.

Matt's a very good guy: prior to his split-time gigs with WTRC/South Bend, WTAM and WLW, Matt had headlined "The Waking Crew" on longtime Adult Top 40/Hot AC WKDD/Akron for 31 years - in fact, he predated the station, joining it when it still was "mellow rock" WCUE-FM. (WKDD's signal easily boomed up into Cleveland throughout the 80s and 90s before CC turned its original signal into a Cleveland move-in via a complex station ownership/call letter swap in 2001, exiling WKDD to a smaller signal south of the market for several years.)

By 2005, Matt branched into talk radio, hosting a talk show on WKDD's cluster mate WHLO-AM, first in afternoon drive and eventually in late mornings (literally walking over from studio to studio at the 9am hour).

Yes, I know I'm speaking from a Northern Ohio perspective, but you guys are very lucky to get a guy like Matt.
 
Nathan Obral said:
I also noticed one other big thing: KTRH is now "News/Talk 740 KTRH." So endth the misnomer that is "Newsradio," albeit not an uncommon one among most CC talkers around the country.

Matt's a very good guy: prior to his split-time gigs with WTRC/South Bend, WTAM and WLW, Matt had headlined "The Waking Crew" on longtime Adult Top 40/Hot AC WKDD/Akron for 31 years - in fact, he predated the station, joining it when it still was "mellow rock" WCUE-FM. (WKDD's signal easily boomed up into Cleveland throughout the 80s and 90s before CC turned its original signal into a Cleveland move-in via a complex station ownership/call letter swap in 2001, exiling WKDD to a smaller signal south of the market for several years.)

By 2005, Matt branched into talk radio, hosting a talk show on WKDD's cluster mate WHLO-AM, first in afternoon drive and eventually in late mornings (literally walking over from studio to studio at the 9am hour).

Yes, I know I'm speaking from a Northern Ohio perspective, but you guys are very lucky to get a guy like Matt.
Click to expand...

The issue for most of us here is not about Matt or his professional abilities. I am sure he is more than qualified, in a technical sense, to anchor the morning news. The diatribe you will mostly likely hear among those of us in Houston is about how CC has slowly and methodically destroyed this radio station. It really is 'news' in name only (as you aptly point out) and is to the right of Pat Buchanan.
 
I just clicked on the link that HoustonListener posted. OMG! What an obnoxious guy! Just what radio needs, another right-wing zealot with an annoying voice. Talk radio desperately needs a breath of fresh air, instead of these cookie cutter know it alls that exist in every market, whether syndicated or local.
 
Drucifer said:
Nathan Obral said:
I also noticed one other big thing: KTRH is now "News/Talk 740 KTRH." So endth the misnomer that is "Newsradio," albeit not an uncommon one among most CC talkers around the country.

Matt's a very good guy: prior to his split-time gigs with WTRC/South Bend, WTAM and WLW, Matt had headlined "The Waking Crew" on longtime Adult Top 40/Hot AC WKDD/Akron for 31 years - in fact, he predated the station, joining it when it still was "mellow rock" WCUE-FM. (WKDD's signal easily boomed up into Cleveland throughout the 80s and 90s before CC turned its original signal into a Cleveland move-in via a complex station ownership/call letter swap in 2001, exiling WKDD to a smaller signal south of the market for several years.)

By 2005, Matt branched into talk radio, hosting a talk show on WKDD's cluster mate WHLO-AM, first in afternoon drive and eventually in late mornings (literally walking over from studio to studio at the 9am hour).

Yes, I know I'm speaking from a Northern Ohio perspective, but you guys are very lucky to get a guy like Matt.
Click to expand...

The issue for most of us here is not about Matt or his professional abilities. I am sure he is more than qualified, in a technical sense, to anchor the morning news. The diatribe you will mostly likely hear among those of us in Houston is about how CC has slowly and methodically destroyed this radio station. It really is 'news' in name only (as you aptly point out) and is to the right of Pat Buchanan.
Click to expand...

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but was KTRH ever an all-news station in the mold of the classic CBS Radio/Group W all-newsers, or was it more of an all-local talk station with heavy all-news blocks? It's odd that I don't see much information about the station's history out there... or I'm probably not looking in the right places. :p
 
Sorry for asking a dumb question, but was KTRH ever an all-news station in the mold of the classic CBS Radio/Group W all-newsers, or was it more of an all-local talk station with heavy all-news blocks? It's odd that I don't see much information about the station's history out there... or I'm probably not looking in the right places.

Not a dumb question, at all. KTRH was never a news-er in the sense of CBS. It was almost all local talk with significant news blocks as you suggest. CC has downsized the news department to almost nothing and hired 'lawyer turned talk show host Michael Berry' (translated, NO radio experience before KTRH) and promoted him to Program Director of the AM cluster. The Houston 'AM's' owned by CC have been in a steady decline for several years. Despite what you may hear, KTRH really has no competition, per se, in this market.
 
Drucifer said:
Sorry for asking a dumb question, but was KTRH ever an all-news station in the mold of the classic CBS Radio/Group W all-newsers, or was it more of an all-local talk station with heavy all-news blocks? It's odd that I don't see much information about the station's history out there... or I'm probably not looking in the right places.

Not a dumb question, at all. KTRH was never a news-er in the sense of CBS. It was almost all local talk with significant news blocks as you suggest. CC has downsized the news department to almost nothing and hired 'lawyer turned talk show host Michael Berry' (translated, NO radio experience before KTRH) and promoted him to Program Director of the AM cluster. The Houston 'AM's' owned by CC have been in a steady decline for several years. Despite what you may hear, KTRH really has no competition, per se, in this market.
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Gotcha. Here in the Cleveland market, we have WTAM and 3/4 of a station making up the talk environment (all-satellite Salem conservatalker WHK counts as 1/2 of a station, and urban talk/brokered WERE-AM - with an inner-city signal - counts as 1/4). Not to mention an also-ran sports station that has none of the professional sports teams PBP contracts, and a famed but greatly faded rock station running music-less hot talk in morning and afternoon drive. Oh, and one of our top-rated talk hosts in town is notorious for his dubious comprehension of the English language.

Only thing is, CC didn't emasculate WTAM's news department - it acts as a content hub for eight other markets instead.
 
The ultimate crap was when KTRH put Joe Pags on via satellite from San Antonio yet tried to pass him off a local. Clearly Pags had no grasp of local issues and his mispronunciations were note-worthy.
 
"Despite what you may hear, KTRH really has no competition, per se, in this market."


I beg to differ. KUHF's morning news consistently beats KTRH. The news department, from what I understand, is also much larger than KTRH and actually covers local news in the field (city hall, county commissioners ect.), not on a telephone. You can argue that KUHF is not a classic KNX/WBZ/1010 WINS-type newsradio station, but as for competing with KTRH, the station has been, and quite nicely, for quite a while. In fact, with the recent switch to all news and information, expect those numbers to get even better. Despite what Clear Channel and others think, I do believe there is still a demand for quality, real, local news here in Houston.
 
streetbeat said:
"Despite what you may hear, KTRH really has no competition, per se, in this market."


I beg to differ. KUHF's morning news consistently beats KTRH. The news department, from what I understand, is also much larger than KTRH and actually covers local news in the field (city hall, county commissioners ect.), not on a telephone. You can argue that KUHF is not a classic KNX/WBZ/1010 WINS-type newsradio station, but as for competing with KTRH, the station has been, and quite nicely, for quite a while. In fact, with the recent switch to all news and information, expect those numbers to get even better. Despite what Clear Channel and others think, I do believe there is still a demand for quality, real, local news here in Houston.
Click to expand...

Beg all you want.

KTRH-AM 3.5 573,600 3.6 656,000 3.4 662,900 Talk Clear Channel
KUHF-FM 2.4 371,700 2.3 364,000 2.7 359,000 News/Talk Houston Public Radio

That's not beating KTRH. While KUHF's ratings are noteworthy, they have been made possible by KTRH's demise as a news leader. Besides, you missed my point. KTRH has no competition PER SE, because they are a TALK station.
 
There's a special place in hell for Erickson and the other morons at Cheap Channel who have ruined what was once a great, well run news operation. During the next hurricane, KTRH's slogan can be "abandon all hope, all who listen here".

Best wishes to J. P. and Lana.
 
Lana & JP.... It is unbelievable that CC would bust up such a great team. Good luck to you both and hopefully a smart corporate radio mogul will quickly get you back on the air in Houston.... Oh wait... the smart corporate radio moguls went the way of the dinosaur. Alas... there are only corporate radio weasels!

poops
 
The wheels for this move were set in motion when Roger Hudson was brought in the be KTRH's news director. He was brought in to set the "magazine" type morning format in motion. He's not a bad guy, he's just doing what he was hired to do. Unfortunately, It has come at the expense of two of the most genuine and professional people this town has ever known. They were our 'rocks' in time of crisis. We came to depend on them for clarity through the storms, and they consistantly delivered. Lana & J.P., we will forever be grateful to you for the 27 years we counted on you. You both are two of the best people I have ever worked with, and I feel very fortunate to count you both as friends. All the best to you both.
 
Drucifer said:
Lana and J.P. are consummate professionals, some of the best, I wish them well. :'(
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That's a real shame. I always enjoyed listening to them in the morning. The way KTRH has been systematically dismantled these past several years is sickening.
 
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