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[TheRealOtherNeil]

It’s been wild ride in Atlanta Radio during 2008. As we take the final lap of I have to ask...what are/were the biggest stories in Atlanta radio. Why am I doing this? Intrepid AJC Radio Reporter Rodney Ho had a rough year. Let’s help him out by writing this story for him. I am sure he will credit all at Radio-Info for it.

I think the biggest story is the six new morning shows that started in 2008 with 33% of them already gone (Zakk and Cledus). Does anybody remember a time in any market when six new morning shows started in one year? The fact two were gone in less than seven months is also huge. Yes, the shows were DOA but it shows to go you that Atlanta is hyper-competitive. If a new morning show can’t pull numbers after two books, yer out. It also shows the bigger problem of not enough quality morning shows around the country. Do we blame Clear Channel for voice-tracking which meant 100’s of jocks who could have been developed into good talent were fired or de we blame syndication for the same thing? The number 8 market continues to hunt for talent in Indianapolis and we come up well short.

The second biggest story: The Demise of 99X. In the middle of his show, Steve Craig got the news that they were flipping formats and he was no longer welcome. Then they brought him back to finish out his contract on 99x.com. Meanwhile Leslie Fram, who built the station from the ground up, launched many bands, helped countless charities, put up with Stephen Duane Barnes for 10 years (I just got sued) and made millions of dollars for former owners Susquehanna, was shown the door by current owners Cumulus. Wheter the station should have been off’ed has been discussed; the manner in which Cumulus did it was unforgivable.

Discuss intelligently.

 

[jal41]

My top 3 are (in no particular order):

Q100 moves to 99.7, sending 99X to an HD2 subchannel with exactly 0 listeners. Rock 100.5 debuts, bringing back the Regular Guys and the AOR format to Atlanta radio.

Oldies returns to Atlanta on 106.7. Soft launch immediately following a NASCAR race (which was in Atlanta that day). The longest serving morning host in Atlanta, Warren "Rhubarb" Jones, is let go (but is now teaching at Kennesaw State University). Spiff Carner, after being forcabily seperated from his longtime partner Randy Cook at WGST, comes to afternoons and is teamed up with Freddie Brooks.

After being let go last Christmas, Steve and Vikki return to Atlanta radio via B98.5. The existing morning show, Kelly and Alpha, are let go. But in a rarity in corporate radio, Kelly and Alpha are allowed to stay on the air for several more months, are are allowed to say goodbye to their listeners.

Honorable mentions include:

The Morning Mess debuts on Star 94 to replace Steve and Vikki, and is declared a disaster from the start. This after a long mentioned sell of the station is called off due to the bad economy.

Q100 changes programming philosophies...from true top 40 to corporate researched methods (employeed by the Cox stations like B98.5, 97.1 The River, 95.5 The Beat, Kiss 104.1). The station began playing more recurrents, and beat Star 94 in the ratings for the first time.

For the first year in years, Clear Channel did not flip a single station, despite shoddy ratings and poor management. The company was taken private, but local management continues on its quest to make the cluster the poorest performing of any cluster owned by any company anywhere. The bright spot...96.7, a small station out in the middle of nowhere, finally gets a measurable rating playing classic country music.

Joe Weber, owner of mostly-bird-calls WMLB 1690, switches sister station WCFO 1160 AM to a talk format. There are five talk stations in Atlanta (WSB, WGST, WFOM, WCFO, WGKA), but there is only one that has any viable ratings (WSB).

The recession hits...

PPM launches...

2008 seemed mostly quiet. I am sure 2009 will be dominated by the effects of the economy. Only time will tell.

 

[Twitch]

Discuss intelligently.

That's asking a bit much, don't you think? ;D

 

[whit979]

The top 3 from someone who is not in Atlanta (I'm in 'Bama), in no particular order...

- Q100 moves to 99.7
- Steve and Vikki return
- Skip Caray passes / Pete Van Wieren retires (would this be considered Atlanta radio?)

 

[RTibbs]

Since we are helping Rodney write the story I think we need to tailor it to what he cares to write about:

#1. Jamie Massey Leaves Atlanta Radio to move to Phoenix to be with her boyfriend the dashing Air Force Pilot.
#2. Bert Weiss can finally say he has a Big Stick.
#3. The Regular Guys return and almost get suspended the first day when Eric defends the honor of Rodney Ho.

After that Nothing Else Matters.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I can't believe how far you guys are off on this one. My top stories are:

1. The Radio-Info party at Manuel's last February. Even Deadman made an appearance!

2. B98.5 must have lost an election somewhere along the way. The station was no longer "voted #1 for the most music while you work."

3. Neil Millman's leadership of 92.9, which propelled it to the top.

4. The bite-your-nails-tight competition between Jordan Graye and Kate McCarthy. It caused a lot of dissension at Cox Radio.

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

Since we are helping Rodney write the story I think we need to tailor it to what he cares to write about:

#1. Jamie Massey Leaves Atlanta Radio to move to Phoenix to be with her boyfriend the dashing Air Force Pilot.

You had to bring that up didn't you? I spent the entire night at Rodney's house trying to convince him that 'The Chad' was no match for a Long Island born and bred, GSU educated, tennis player who has a secret man-crush on Larry Wachs. Finally, at 6:00 am he fell asleep while watching a movie on Lifetime.

 

[JohnAllan]

Since we are helping Rodney write the story I think we need to tailor it to what he cares to write about:

#1. Jamie Massey Leaves Atlanta Radio to move to Phoenix to be with her boyfriend the dashing Air Force Pilot.

You had to bring that up didn't you? I spent the entire night at Rodney's house trying to convince him that 'The Chad' was no match for a Long Island born and bred, GSU educated, tennis player who has a secret man-crush on Larry Wachs. Finally, at 6:00 am he fell asleep while watching a movie on Lifetime.

Ok Neil, THAT was down right MEAN! Funny, but MEAN!

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

HOT 107.9
-VP Wayne Brown exits the Radio One Atlanta cluster
-A.TEAM Morning Show exits
-Maria More(middays), E4Real(afternoons), Griff(mornings) and Pezo(late nights) exits
-Syndicated Ricky Smiley Morning Show replaces local A-TEAM show
-Rashan Ali shifts to middays
-Emperor Sercy exits mornings, shifts back to afternoons
-Mizz Shyneka exits afternoons, shifts to late nights

V-103
-Porsche Fox exits middays for the 2nd time
-DJ Doc former HOT 107.9 jock joins V for mixshow duties.

95.5 THE BEAT
-Mami Chula former HOT 107.9 jock joins 95.5 for nights

PRAISE 97.5
-Sonja Hamm exits afternoons
-Frank Johnson exits the station manger post

KISS 104.1
-Marjorie Coley exits morning new post
-Stacy D exits nights

Some of the not metioned 2008 moves on the Urban radio side. HOT 107.9 had a bad year!

 

[Insideradio]

Nice call Shawty!

I also didn't notice anyone mention the house clearing at Kicks/Eagle and Cox Radio Atlanta. Lots of good people gone!

Yet...

Despite poor performances, Clay Hunnicutt and Mike Wheeler still collect big paychecks.


Terrestrial radio blows!

War Sirius/Xm!

 

[OutOfTheBiz]

Terrestrial radio blows!

War Sirius/Xm!

Since the merger - so does Sirius/XM. They have destroyed their music programming. No renewal for me when my year is up!

 

[TheMusicMan]

Q100 changes programming philosophies...from true top 40 to corporate researched methods (employeed by the Cox stations like B98.5, 97.1 The River, 95.5 The Beat, Kiss 104.1). The station began playing more recurrents, and beat Star 94 in the ratings for the first time.

As aggravated as I am by Q100's laughably conservative music selection, that wasn't new this year. It's essentially been the name of the game since Cumulus took over in May 2006. Star 94 was actually more dynamic musically this year, which is sad.

For me, the top story has to be 99X leaving the airwaves. That station was legendary and (up to a point) highly revered, not to mention a cornerstone of the Alternative format as a whole.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Yes, it was kind of anticlimactic by the time it happened, but 99X leaving the airwaves was probably the most significant change of the year.

Back in 1992, it surprised the industry when conservative Susquehanna put the new rock format on that signal. Of course, after reading Sean Demery's history article, we have an understanding of how that came about. Then in its first 10 or so years, 99X was probably the most watched alternative station in the U.S. among industry observers. It got the same kind of 12+ numbers that the leading mass-appeal stations got.

 

[jabba17]

Q100 changes programming philosophies...from true top 40 to corporate researched methods (employeed by the Cox stations like B98.5, 97.1 The River, 95.5 The Beat, Kiss 104.1). The station began playing more recurrents, and beat Star 94 in the ratings for the first time.

As aggravated as I am by Q100's laughably conservative music selection, that wasn't new this year. It's essentially been the name of the game since Cumulus took over in May 2006. Star 94 was actually more dynamic musically this year, which is sad.

For me, the top story has to be 99X leaving the airwaves. That station was legendary and (up to a point) highly revered, not to mention a cornerstone of the Alternative format as a whole.

When would you say that 99X "jumped the shark"? Or did it? Or did alt just run its course, with the audience fragmenting among active rock/new alt, AAA, and "classic alt"?

 

[troone]

You'll recall that 99x did a 12+ share of 5+ approx 2001-2002. I think that was the biggest overall number it ever got. IIRC, there was a change in the Arbitron formula around that time that overweighted urban/hispanic diaries even more than it had previously. It hurt 99x and a few other white stations. This is the period that Praise, Beat, Hot, etc really took off.

I never thought of Barnes as a unique talent, but I think you'd be deluding yourself if you didn't cite his departure in 2003 as the pivotal JTS moment. His strengths were more like that of the morning show producer who - through sheer force - wrangled his way onto the air and played the ringleader serviceably if not brilliantly. Very creative mind for a guy who probably didnt break 900 on his SAT. No question, the morning show was never the same, even if you could argue that Toucher was more talented.

As Derek St. Holmes said after Ted Nugent fired the band in the late 70s, "If you shuffle in new cards, you're not playing with the same hand anymore." ;D

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I don't know what you mean when you say Arbitron "overweighted urban/Hispanic diaries." Arbitron weights them up (or down) to equal the percentage of those groups in the population according to the U.S. Census.

 

[RTibbs]

You'll recall that 99x did a 12+ share of 5+ approx 2001-2002. I think that was the biggest overall number it ever got. IIRC, there was a change in the Arbitron formula around that time that overweighted urban/hispanic diaries even more than it had previously. It hurt 99x and a few other white stations. This is the period that Praise, Beat, Hot, etc really took off.

I never thought of Barnes as a unique talent, but I think you'd be deluding yourself if you didn't cite his departure in 2003 as the pivotal JTS moment. His strengths were more like that of the morning show producer who - through sheer force - wrangled his way onto the air and played the ringleader serviceably if not brilliantly. Very creative mind for a guy who probably didnt break 900 on his SAT. No question, the morning show was never the same, even if you could argue that Toucher was more talented.

As Derek St. Holmes said after Ted Nugent fired the band in the late 70s, "If you shuffle in new cards, you're not playing with the same hand anymore." ;D

I think 99x was on its way down before "not renewing" Barnes' contract. Partly due to alt having a downslide, partly due to more attention being paid to q100 and partly due to The Regular Guys who stole the Morning X's thunder. TRG became the hot morning show for many of their listeners. Barnes departure though began their precipitous fall into oblivion. After that the morning show became one f the most blatant examples of consultants running the show. How many name changes did the show have. Sometimes Leslie was in and sometimes she was out. It became ridiculous.

 

[troone]

I don't know what you mean when you say Arbitron "overweighted urban/Hispanic diaries." Arbitron weights them up (or down) to equal the percentage of those groups in the population according to the U.S. Census.

I've got a pretty good recollection that Arbitron decided to disproportionately weight minority groups around that time. There was an outcry, of course, but it paved the way for the rise of certain Atlanta signals that have clearly benefitted.

Maybe someone else can confirm or correct me, but I'm certainly not smart enough to have made that up.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I don't know what you mean when you say Arbitron "overweighted urban/Hispanic diaries." Arbitron weights them up (or down) to equal the percentage of those groups in the population according to the U.S. Census.

I've got a pretty good recollection that Arbitron decided to disproportionately weight minority groups around that time. There was an outcry, of course, but it paved the way for the rise of certain Atlanta signals that have clearly benefitted.

Maybe someone else can confirm or correct me, but I'm certainly not smart enough to have made that up.

Arbitron always weights demos--including race, age, gender--according to the population. In other words, if 51% of the population was female, all of the diaries from females would be weighted to equal 51% of the audience composition. If females returned 48% of the diaries, each female diary would be weighted up slightly.

Atlanta's black and Hispanic composition have been increasing, and Arbitron adjusts whenever new census figures are released.

Arbitron, with the diary methodology, issues many more diaries to minorities and young people than to others. This is because minorities return less filled-out diaries. When Arbitron doesn't get enough diaries back, they're forced to have each returned diary account for more than 1 diary, hurting the sample's reliability.

I've heard it said that Arbitron inflates urban station ratings by issuing more diaries to African-Americans. This is a misunderstood fact. If black people returned 35% of the diaries and African-Americans comprised 29% of the population, each returned diary would be weighted down to count for less than 1 diary. Having more diaries returned results in greater reliability and does not inflate the urban station numbers.

 

[troone]

You know what I think it was: the 2000 census reflected a much heavier minority population and those stations benefitted. You're right, Roddy -- it wasnt an Arbitron thing, though it's the same net-net. Black radio in Atlanta took off in the first part of this decade.