> Leykis will be cleared live on KTTH before the end of the
> year, probably by the week of December 12.
>
> Entercom wants to move Tom to another station, but has
> limited possibilites:
>
> KIRO Newsradio 710 AM
> KBSG 97.3 FM
> KMTT 103.7 FM, The Mountain
> KISW 99.9 FM
> KQBZ 100.7 FM, The Wolf
> KNDD 107.7 FM, The End
> KTTH 770 AM
>
> They're committed to some music on KISW, KNDD, and KMTT.
> Putting Tom on KBSG would cause widespread death. KQBZ is
> now an iPod filled with the twangiest songs around. KIRO
> needs a totally local show in drive time.
>
> With Rush moving to KIRO in January, that leaves only
> Medved's show on KTTH live. With KTTH getting virtually no
> numbers in the afternoons anyway, Leykis will clear live on
> KTTH as soon as next week. O'Reilly to 7pm, Savage moves to
> overnights, Laura Ingraham goes the way of Siegel.
I don't disagree that Entercom may be shuffling him elsewhere. I would simply say they are the biggest morons for the way they handled it. Earlier this year, KFI quietly slipped Phil Hendrie, along with his declining numbers, off to sister XTRA Sports. Unless you heard Leykis' show about it, you'd have thought Hendrie WANTED to move off the flame-throwing three-letter ratings monster. With Entercom, the strategy is make people mad, then fix the problem when someone can get around to it.
That being said, why they just don't blow the format up in large part is beyond me. There's enough talk in Seattle, and albeit boring at times, there is a local commitment that most cities do not have from their news/talk stations. Hooking a StarGuide up to a 50kW transmitter isn't benefitting anyone. Not to say there isn't some audience for what they're doing, but they haven't done things right at 770, either.
Rush, who has been rumored to 1) stay put, presumably due to Dave Ross moving back to midmornings 2) be given back to KVI, or 3) assume the vacant 9-noon shift on KIRO, is obviously the main draw for 770. Seems to me that as to KIRO if it ain't broke, don't fix it; Rush doesn't exactly jive with the styling of the Olbermannesque Dave Ross or Mike Webb, but you never know. The only other host worth saving would be Savage, but he's apparently not setting the world on fire. Medved can and will go to KOL, probably along with Ingraham (live). Bill O'Reilly is dropping markets nationally, and the fact that he has been moved to evenings after getting live clearances in the Pacific NW when he first started should tell you something. Lars Larson... even on his home turf, still a joke. You could keep the morning show, although I'd say it's a bit pedantic for the average Leykis fan. Face it: KTTH figured they could steal Rush, put up a bunch of unappealing window dressing the other 21 hours of the day and have a huge hit to knock KVI (and to some degree KOMO) down so KIRO could stay #1. Didn't work for very long, and it shouldn't take long to dismantle for the aforementioned reason.
The other stations: KNDD has an even more music-centric listenership than KISW, and 93.7 and 103.7 obviously don't fit. Unless you blow one of those up, which won't happen, although the End isn't exactly setting the market on fire. If they wanted to keep KTTH in place, they could trade an AM in another market with Salem for 1300... yes, that's my fantasyland plan. Other hair-brained schemes: blow up the dying KPLZ and its nationally dying format for Leykis. Or, Sandusky could have its best success ever by blowing out the $100/hr tarot card readers on 1150 and running with the hot talk format rumored for 770.
The bottom line AISI, though, is that throwing Leykis up amidst a bunch of right wing talkers is about as effective as hiring Mike Malloy to do evenings on KVI. They could keep their AMD duo and spice the show up a bit, pick up some nonsense for middays, Don and Mike at noon, Leykis afternoons. How much significance Leykis would lose, and in turn ratings, due to being on the decidely less "hip" AM band would remain to be seen. He did pull double-digit shares in his demos on a 5kW AM in Portland, so it might not be so bad. But the fact that Tom Leykis is slowly making his return to the part of the dial that "goes out under a bridge" may speak more about his future than anything else.
