Rover, taking a beating in Chicago...

[nate]

From the Chicago Sun Times Robert Feder:

When a poor, pathetic animal is suffering and its condition appears to be hopeless, the only humane thing to do is to put it down.

It's time, Rover.

For the second month in a row, Howard Stern's replacement on WCKG-FM (105.9) -- Cleveland import Shane "Rover" French -- brought up the rear in Arbitrends ratings released Monday.

Figures extrapolated for February show the CBS Radio "Free FM" talk station stuck in 32nd place in mornings with a 0.5 percent share of all listeners -- up negligibly from a 0.4 in January.

Among listeners between the ages of 25 and 54, "Rover's Morning Glory" registered a 0.5 share (up from a 0.2 in January but down from Stern's 4.6 in December). In the 18-to-34 age group, French had a 0.8 (up from a 0.3 in January but down from Stern's 2.5 in December).

CBS Radio bosses, facing similar troubles with their Stern replacements in New York and Los Angeles, claim they fully expected the ratings to drop, and blame the press for overstating the problem.

"[Stern] created a situation that led to a tremendous amount of work for us, and no matter what we do, everyone's going to carp about it," Rob Barnett, programming chief for CBS Radio, told Radio & Records. "We all knew that this is exactly what was going to happen. For some reason it seems to have freaked a lot of people out."

Barring a miracle, WCKG stands to lose millions of dollars in advertising revenue this year, thanks to the collapse of its morning ratings and its otherwise dismal showing outside of Steve Dahl's afternoon show.

Last year, the station billed $17 million, according to figures compiled by Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co.

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

Let the record show that NOBODY here is "freaked out" by this news. We all predicted this.

CBS Radio blaming the press for bad programming decisions? Come on.

Now, Chicago was never a big Stern market to begin with--he was never #1 in the Windy City, even in demo--but this is disgraceful. Especially with news that 70% of Stern's audience has remained with terrestrial radio.

This means that in Chicago, New York, and LA, as well as other places not yet rated, they're NOT tuning to CBS's Stern replacements, but are changing channels. THAT is the disaster.

This is what happens when you have a TV man running radio.

 

[network]

> Now, Chicago was never a big Stern market to begin with--he
> was never #1 in the Windy City, even in demo--but this is
> disgraceful. Especially with news that 70% of Stern's
> audience has remained with terrestrial radio.
>
> This means that in Chicago, New York, and LA, as well as
> other places not yet rated, they're NOT tuning to CBS's
> Stern replacements, but are changing channels. THAT is the
> disaster.

What will be interesting to see is how much CBS Radio loses each quarter because of poor performances in morning drive from Stern's replacements in ALL markets.

 

[adz]

The other question is--when does CBS admit defeat in NYC, L-A, Chicago and other markets--and what do they do to stop the bleeding..can they really afford to wait until July or August when the Spring books come out? If there is a plan B--what is it?..and when do you pull the plug on a series of failing experiments?

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

> > Now, Chicago was never a big Stern market to begin
> with--he
> > was never #1 in the Windy City, even in demo--but this is
> > disgraceful. Especially with news that 70% of Stern's
> > audience has remained with terrestrial radio.
> >
> > This means that in Chicago, New York, and LA, as well as
> > other places not yet rated, they're NOT tuning to CBS's
> > Stern replacements, but are changing channels. THAT is
> the
> > disaster.
>
> What will be interesting to see is how much CBS Radio loses
> each quarter because of poor performances in morning drive
> from Stern's replacements in ALL markets.

Indeed. Do I feel sorry? Hell no. This is what happens when a radio company builds its entire programming philosophy and business model around one host.

And maybe they'll have to sell off stations. I'd frickin' love that.
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Johnny Morgan on 03/28/06 10:26 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

> The other question is--when does CBS admit defeat in NYC,
> L-A, Chicago and other markets--and what do they do to stop
> the bleeding..can they really afford to wait until July or
> August when the Spring books come out? If there is a plan
> B--what is it?..and when do you pull the plug on a series of
> failing experiments?

Their NYC problems run deep--it's not just the loss of Stern, but their change to Jack-FM on WCBS-FM isn't drawing as much revenue (let alone ratings) as the oldies format was drawing...even when the oldies revenue (and ratings) were diminishing almost a year ago.

 

[tightandbright]

Re: WNCX and no Howard

Anyone hear anything about WNCX's performance without Howard?


> > The other question is--when does CBS admit defeat in NYC,
> > L-A, Chicago and other markets--and what do they do to
> stop
> > the bleeding..can they really afford to wait until July or
>
> > August when the Spring books come out? If there is a plan
>
> > B--what is it?..and when do you pull the plug on a series
> of
> > failing experiments?
>
> Their NYC problems run deep--it's not just the loss of
> Stern, but their change to Jack-FM on WCBS-FM isn't drawing
> as much revenue (let alone ratings) as the oldies format was
> drawing...even when the oldies revenue (and ratings) were
> diminishing almost a year ago.
>

 

[ajhenderson]

> Now, Chicago was never a big Stern market to begin with--he
> was never #1 in the Windy City, even in demo--but this is
> disgraceful. Especially with news that 70% of Stern's
> audience has remained with terrestrial radio.

So bad news for CBS, thanks to their own ignorance; that can be turned around. What is misplaced are all the people crying the demise of radio because Stern left. All he did was further fragment his radio listeners between a string of less-known morning shows, his replacements, and himself. Who cares if CBS wants to ruin their own stations as long as people find somewhere else to go and keep radio viable?

 

[pizzacutter]

I have the rather unique perspective of being a Cleveland transplant on temporary long-term assignment in Chicago. CBS has run nothing short of an advertising blitz for Rover. He's on every fourth bus, and there are entire El trains that have him painted on the side of each car. They do half and full-page ads in the free tabloid "dumbed down news coverage, 250 words or less or it's free" papers that the Tribune and Sun-Times both put out that are all ads anyway. So, not only is CBS losing all that ad revenue, but they're spending a pretty penny in trying to prop up Rover.

In the distance, I'm starting to hear something about "good money after bad..."

peace, love, happiness, banana pudding,
The Pizza Cutter

> The other question is--when does CBS admit defeat in NYC,
> L-A, Chicago and other markets--and what do they do to stop
> the bleeding..can they really afford to wait until July or
> August when the Spring books come out? If there is a plan
> B--what is it?..and when do you pull the plug on a series of
> failing experiments?
>

 

[cdemarco]

A History Lesson

All of the ratings for the Stern replacements are being way overblown. Any experienced media pro will tell you the same thing: it will take AT LEAST a year for things to shake out.

Case in point: When Rover came to WXTM, he replaced a show (Pete Sheeke(sp?))that was doing poorly to say the least. After Rover debuted, XTM sank even lower! It took almost a year for the show to recover the audience lost when a switch was made from a horrible show, so imagine how much tougher a job it is to recover that from one of the most successful radio shows ever (Stern)!

After that year Rover's ratings continued to rise, and eventually eclipsed Stern's in the target demo of the show (Persons 18-34). Stern had a 10-year head start at WNCX, and I'm sure when Rover's show debuted at XTM NO ONE thought he would be #1, even beating Stern in his last book on radio, when the King's media exposure was through the roof.

Bottom-line: Don't believe the media stories of today. Those in the know realize it's a long-term project for all of the new hosts, as it is for any new show. Will they all succeed? I highly doubt it. But we won't have a true picture of what's going on for quite some time.

 

[dogman]

Re: WNCX and no Howard

And then there's the "See what sticks to the wall" theory. Knowing that they'd get hammered after Howard left, CBS puts on a bunch of shows. After a year, highest rated one gets ALL the stations. And if they're smart, they have someone else (like O & A, not saying it's them, but somebody not already on one of their stations) waiting in the wings if NONE of the replacements shows any signs of life.

 

[XAnchor]

Hey Rover, Welcome to the Major Leagues, rookie! You weren't anything special to begin with.


> From the Chicago Sun Times Robert Feder:
>
> When a poor, pathetic animal is suffering and its condition
> appears to be hopeless, the only humane thing to do is to
> put it down.
>
> It's time, Rover.
>
> For the second month in a row, Howard Stern's replacement on
> WCKG-FM (105.9) -- Cleveland import Shane "Rover" French --
> brought up the rear in Arbitrends ratings released Monday.
>
> Figures extrapolated for February show the CBS Radio "Free
> FM" talk station stuck in 32nd place in mornings with a 0.5
> percent share of all listeners -- up negligibly from a 0.4
> in January.
>
> Among listeners between the ages of 25 and 54, "Rover's
> Morning Glory" registered a 0.5 share (up from a 0.2 in
> January but down from Stern's 4.6 in December). In the
> 18-to-34 age group, French had a 0.8 (up from a 0.3 in
> January but down from Stern's 2.5 in December).
>
> CBS Radio bosses, facing similar troubles with their Stern
> replacements in New York and Los Angeles, claim they fully
> expected the ratings to drop, and blame the press for
> overstating the problem.
>
> "[Stern] created a situation that led to a tremendous amount
> of work for us, and no matter what we do, everyone's going
> to carp about it," Rob Barnett, programming chief for CBS
> Radio, told Radio & Records. "We all knew that this is
> exactly what was going to happen. For some reason it seems
> to have freaked a lot of people out."
>
> Barring a miracle, WCKG stands to lose millions of dollars
> in advertising revenue this year, thanks to the collapse of
> its morning ratings and its otherwise dismal showing outside
> of Steve Dahl's afternoon show.
>
> Last year, the station billed $17 million, according to
> figures compiled by Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co.
>

 

[JohnnyMorganWXJX]

Re: A History Lesson

> All of the ratings for the Stern replacements are being way
> overblown. Any experienced media pro will tell you the same
> thing: it will take AT LEAST a year for things to shake out.

All of us agree, no doubt.

But radio companies nowadays don't give you a year. You're lucky if you get 6 months. Especially if the revenue hit predicted in Chicago is system-wide.