| Radio station withdrawals |
Q107 (CILQ, 107.1 FM), Toronto, Canada, November 23, 2001
KEDJ-FM (106.3) and KDDJ-FM (100.3), Phoenix, AZ: The Edge, October 31, 2001
WYAV, Myrtle Beach, SC, September 24, 2001
WXBE, Hazleton, PA September 21, 2001
WXAR, Olyphant, PA, September 21, 2001
WYYX, Panama City, FL, September 6, 2001
KFRR, Fresno, CA, April 24, 2001
WXRC, Charlotte, NC, April 30, 2001
KRZQ, Reno, NV, March 16, 2001
WIHN, Bloomington/Normal, IL (October 13, 2000)|
WKSO, Peoria, IL , October 13, 2000
KJFK, Austin, TX, September 11, 2000
KXPK, Denver, CO, September 6, 2000
WNAP, Indianapolis, IN, March 25, 2000
KORB, Quad Cities, IA, February 16, 2000
WRCQ, Fayetteville, NC, January 18, 2000
WBUZ, Toledo, OH, January 3, 2000
KKND, New Orleans, LA, December 17, 1999
WRQC, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, April 11, 1999 |
| King World puts kibosh on Stern show |
| Shock Jock Howard Stern's weekend, late night syndicated show from King World (inherited from CBS' Eyemark) will end its run this Saturday. (This article written November 14, 2001)
Although the show, based on his radio show for co-owned Infinity, was cleared on a number of CBS O&O's, it had never been a ratings powerhouse.
King World is reportedly looking to develop a new, late night weekend series to replace it.
E! continues to run two episodes of its half-hour episodes of its own late night video version of Stern's drive-time radio show at 11-12 p.m.
The Howard Stern Radio Show launched on CBS O&O's and a handful of other stations in August 1998, with most stations carrying it on Saturday nights at 11:30 to try and eat into the audience of NBC's Saturday Night Live franchise.
A handful of stations dropped the show soon after, citing content concerns.
But even those conceded that the show had brought new viewers to the timeslot and improved on the ratings performance of the shows, mostly syndicated reruns, that had previously occupied the time period.
Stern had trumpeted the CBS show the previous April, saying it would contain the same scatological humor as his radio show.
When asked by reporters whether such a show could air on the Tiffany network (though technically it was not on the network, but syndicated by it), Stern replied: 'Tiffany is a stripper's name.'
Stern also had a syndicated TV show, The Howard Stern Show , on WWOR-TV (distributed by All American Television) that ran from 1991 to 1993. -- Joe Schlosser and John Eggerton
Broadcasting and Cable
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Stern's syndicated TV show goes off air
By Melissa Grego, Reuters, 11/15/2001
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) |
| HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Bad news for lesbian strippers and the viewers who love them.
Howard Stern's weekly syndicated latenight series will end its three-year run on Saturday, a possible victim of falling ratings and racy content.
The decision to terminate ''The Howard Stern Radio Show'' was the shock jock's, said a spokeswoman for syndicator King World. However, insiders said other factors may have come into play.
Among the reasons: King World chairman Roger King has been very vocal about favoring high-quality, family-friendly content, and ''Stern'' does not fit that bill; in addition, ''Stern's'' ratings have suffered since its August 1998 debut.
''Stern,'' which has been in repeats since August this year, debuted on stations representing coverage of 70% of the country in 1998, and the clearance level has dipped since then. In many markets, the show airs on CBS-owned stations. CBS and King World are owned by Viacom Inc.
Since King World does not subscribe to a national ratings service for that show, there is no rating available. However, in the 28 metered markets where the show airs, it has averaged a 1.7 rating so far this season, down 15% compared with this time last year.
King World is among several syndicators looking to develop a new weekly latenight project that would have the potential to occupy the time slot.
E! Entertainment Television's Stern series, ''The Howard Stern Show,'' continues to be a staple nightly on the cable channel, which airs its show at 11. The program, like the syndicated version, features footage from Stern's radio show.
Reuters/Variety
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| WBZ- (CBS) - drops Stern's Saturday night TV show |
| Late-night television lost some of its local charm during the weekend when Saturday's Howard Stern show, the one-hour video version of the syndicated shock jock's radio show, jumped to midnight on WSBK-TV (Ch. 38) after years on sister station WBZ-TV (Ch. 4) at 11:35 p.m.
Watching a succession of WBZ newsies finish each Saturday newscast by announcing, with thinly veiled contempt, that Stern's show followed often was more entertaining than that week's ``Saturday Night Live.'' Not anymore. WBZ has now opted for ``Hot Ticket'' and then ``The Outer Limits'' instead.
Sources at WBZ said the station was never comfortable airing Stern's show and was forced to do so by parent company CBS/Infinity, which also syndicates Stern's show. A station spokesperson said Stern's show was more appropriate for WSBK and its young male audience.
Boston Herald , September 25, 2001
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| WYAV, Myrtle Beach, SC drops Stern's daily radio show bringing total to 17 radio station withdrawals since July 1999. |
HAZLETON, PA NEWSPAPER REPORTS
STATIONS DROP STERN
STANDARD-SPEAKER |
" ... Stern's show cost Citadel between $250,000 and $300,000 per year,
over a five-year deal. While most radio talk shows are available on a
"barter basis" (that is, the station gets the show free but has to run
national commercials), some major shows - Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus - charge a substantial franchise fee. In light of the cost, the Stern show
has been something of a ratings disappointment. ...
http://www.standardspeaker.com/pages/home1.html |
| 97X says 'adios' to Stern |
STEVE ZIMMERMAN
The News Herald - Panama City
http://www.newsherald.com/articles/2001/09/06/bu090601a.htm
Dropping ratings, high costs and lack of advertising revenue have prompted the FM radio station WYYX-97X to pull the plug on shock-jock Howard Stern.
Stern, who made his Bay County debut five years ago, was dropped last Thursday.
"It was not financially feasible to continue to pay the fee for the show," NextMedia Operations Manager Fred Nagle said. "When you are paying in excess of $100,000 and are not seeing anywhere near that in advertising revenue, you have to make the decision when to cut your losses. It was a five-year investment on our part, so the decision was not taken lightly."
Ratings for Stern, the self-proclaimed "King of All Media," have dropped the last two years. He threatened to stop doing his morning program - which features such characters as Stuttering John and Beetlejuice - before signing a new contract last year.
One of the show's most popular characters, Hank the angry drunken dwarf, died last weekend. Stern's television show is seen nightly on E! Entertainment Television.
WYYX will begin broadcasting the Lex and Terry Show at 5 a.m. Friday. Lex and Terry, based in Jacksonville, are heard only in Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola. The show will give local listeners and management at 97X more input into the programming.
"Both Lex and Terry have told me they will come to Panama City to do appearances," Nagle said. "Plus, if we are getting calls from listeners about the morning show, I can pick up the phone and call Lex or Terry. With Howard, well, he was Howard Stern."
Since Stern's cancellation, the station has been playing music interspersed with comedy segments from the Lex and Terry Show. The show will air from 5 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday.
The writer can be contacted at mfaruqui@pcnh.com
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| Charlotte, NC drops Howard Stern radio show cites reluctance of advertisers |
" He's been good for us, and we certainly made money, but it's not the most advertiser-friendly show," Lingafelt (WXRC owner) said. "There's no question that the reluctance of advertisers to come on board was a factor in our decision."
More>>> |
| Charlotte, NC, WXRC-FM DROPS STERN RADIO SHOW |
.. . "Howard is polarizing," says Tom Taylor, editor at industry newsletter The M Street Journal. "That means advertisers embrace him or they don't. That's always an issue." ...Despite strong ratings at WXRC, Stern has made few inroads with advertisers. ...
More>>> |
| Fresno, CA station becomes twelfth station in recent months to drop Stern radio show |
KFRR, FM 104.1, will drop Howard Stern from its morning time slot after Tuesday's show. The local radio station's contract with the syndicated shock jock expires that day. The Stern show will be replaced by the Kevin and Bean show, which is based in Pasadena. ...
According to the fall 2000 Arbitron ratings, Stern's listenership here had dropped to a 4.2 rating from a summer number of 5.3. ..
Fresnobee.com, April 19, 2001 |
| Howard Stern show costly - hard to fill advertiser slots |
| (Charlotte Observer)... "I'd be very surprised if he got picked up anywhere else because of the advertising baggage that goes along with the show," said Dave Lingafelt, owner of WXRC, who paid nearly $500,000 annually for the Stern show but had difficulty finding sponsors. .... More>>> |
| Stern bites the dust at KRZQ |
On Friday, Reno alternative radio station KRZQ (100.9 FM) announced it had terminated Stern's contract, effective immediately.
Reno Gazette-Journal |
| September 12, 2000, KJFK, AUSTIN, TX JOINS GROWING LIST OF STATIONS DROPPING STERN Austin American-Statesman, September 12, 2000 |
| KJFK (98.9 FM) was abruptly replaced Monday morning (9/11/00) by new station KHHL, "The Hill," which will air "rock without the hard edge." The format change came at 10 a.m., in the middle of Howard Stern's broadcast, silencing the infamous shock-jock in Austin and putting an end to the city's only all-talk FM station. ... |
September 6, 2000, Denver Post KXPK, DENVER DROPS STERN RADIO
"That advertisers are notoriously resistant was 'certainly a factor.'" |
The Denver Post reported today (9/6/00) that THE PEAK dropped Stern.
Quoting "According to Joe Schwartz, general manager of KXPK, after much research, "We found a tremendous opportunity to go back to this arena that's been abandoned by a number of stations, including The Peak."
Stern, he said, was judged "incompatible." Schwartz said the shock jock "just didn't fit the format."
That advertisers are notoriously resistant was "certainly a factor." |
| Wednesday, April 5, 2000 , Indianapolis Star |
| . .. Stern was difficult to sell to advertisers, who were pressured to pull their commercials by people who thought his show was vulgar. It takes guts for an advertiser to stand up to public pressure, and most businesses want to avoid any controversy.
So let's add it up: Stern's ratings weren't great. The station couldn't make enough money selling ads to pay for the show, which costs $750,000 or more a year. The number of people listening to rock radio had been declining.
I hate the result, too, but it's hard to argue with from a business standpoint. And radio is nothing if not a business. ...
But general manager Dwight Barnette said that although he has been getting hundreds of calls a day, Stern isn't in his plans.
"I'll answer that in two ways," Barnette said. "One: EXPLETIVE , he's expensive. Two: He was in the marketplace for two years. His numbers really never took off. When you're spending that much money to have a personality like that, you need to see a return on that investment. . . .
"For me to add $70,000-$80,000 a month to my budget would be suicide at this point in our growth. ...
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| Indianapolis, WNAP, drops Howard Stern |
| As for Stern, who never did as well in Indianapolis as WNAP had hoped, it's unlikely his syndicated radio show will be picked up soon. His program might be too ribald for other stations, and his ratings -- 10th among all morning shows in Indianapolis in the most recent Arbitron survey -- are not strong enough to draw advertisers to cover the cost of his program. Indianapolis Star |
| Quad Cities radio station takes Stern off air - By Thomas Geyer, QUAD-CITY TIMES -- February 16, 2000 -- He's rude, he's crude, and he's gone, at least from Quad-City radio . |
| "We feel that the station and the program content should have strong local ties to what's going on in the community," he said. "We want to have a relationship with this community," said Mark Hanson, market manager who represents Cumulus Broadcasting Co , which is in the process of buying Connoisseur Communications of Greenwich, Conn., the parent company of KORB-FM and several other Quad-City radio stations. |
NEWS AND OBSERVER , RALEIGH, NC -- JANUARY 18, 2000 EDITION
RE: DROPPING STERN FROM THE AIR ON WRCQ, FAYETTEVILLE:
Paul Michels, WRCQ operations manager says the ratings for the show had declined a bit, but the larger point is that Stern's show is expensive and that the advertising dollars earned didn't justify the expense. .... |
Howard Stern has been silenced. Well, at least in the Triangle. Fayetteville station WRCQ (103.5 FM) -- whose signal is strong enough to reach Stern fans here -- dropped the syndicated show last month and is trying to replace it with a local live show. According to operations manager Paul Michels, the decision came down to economics.
"We got new ownership in September, and the first thing they did was research," he says. "They determined it would make better business sense to drop the show." The station had aired the Stern show since February 1997.
Michels says the ratings for the show had declined a bit, but the larger point is that Stern's show is expensive and that the advertising dollars earned didn't justify the expense.
Stern, who puts raunch in radio, is a tough sell in any market. In smaller and midsize markets the degree of difficulty multiplies. (Fayetteville ranks 125th among radio markets; Raleigh-Durham is 48th.) Corporations, particularly if they are publicly traded, won't touch the shock jock, leaving radio salespeople to get advertising dollars from local accounts with fewer image concerns.
But while in, say, Boston, a car dealership may be a million-dollar business, that's not always true in smaller cities. So salespeople have to find a lot of little accounts to counter Stern's big cost. In a market the size of Fayetteville, radio people estimate, the show costs $80,000 to $125,000 a year, while advertising may sell for as little as $50 a spot.
On the other hand, "The Howard Stern Show" can catapult a struggling station to the No. 1 spot and can be very effective for the ads it does attract, particularly if Stern himself plugs a product.
Fayetteville doesn't have another rock station, so WRCQ needn't fear a competitor taking a chance and adding the show. Now the only place in the state you can hear Stern's antics is in Charlotte. That may be why devotees of the king of all media are pointing his flock to another North Carolina radio market: Raleigh-Durham.
On the Howard Stern Superfan Site, minions can click and instantly e-mail WBBB (96.1), the local rock station run by Curtis Media. What are the chances of the outrageous show landing a spot on 96Rock? Owner Don Curtis didn't return phone calls seeking the answer to that question, but we know Curtis to be a prominent businessman with strong community ties. Holding your breath isn't advised. NEWS OBSEVER - RALEIGH NC - 1/18/00 |
WRCQ, FAYETTEVILLE DROPS STERN - CITES REVENUE
SHORTAGE - STERN DOESN'T DELIVER THE ADVERTISING DOLLARS -- Fayetteville Online, January 9, 2000 |
| ''It was like anything else,'' said the station's Harry James. ''You've got 50 percent of the people who hate it; 50 percent of the people who love it. It's just one of those things that weren't making the revenue.'' ... The familiar story. Stern's team sells the gullible station into believing that STERN'S program is a financial windfall but the harsh reality sets in over the months of shortfall.
WRCQ first picked up Stern in March 1997. Howard Johnson was the station's general manager at the time, and he predicted that the show would pay big dividends for WRCQ.
''It'll be a home run in a couple of (ratings) books.'' ''It happens in every other market. He's like an atom bomb. When he goes off, the reality of the situation is like it levels the playing field. He dominates.''
Never happened here. ....
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| HOW DO YOU PAY FOR HOWARD STERN? |
| "How do you pay for Howard Stern when you can't get your advertisers to pay for him?" asked Ellen Fruchtman of Fruchtman Marketing, which buys advertising time in Toledo. "WBUZ) could never generate the kind of revenue it takes to pay for what he charges to carry his show. Morning personalities don't get paid that kind of money in Toledo, and even if Stern were No. 1, [considering what advertising costs] it still wouldn't make financial sense to carry the show." ... |
NEWS FLASH!!
Fayetteville, NC, WRCQ, 103.5 FM no longer airs the Howard Stern radio show. Monitoring/letter writing results for Fayetteville are below: |
| We have monitored WRCQ, Fayetteville, NC since November 5, 1997. Since that time we wrote to 324 advertisers. 289 advertisers (89%) fled from sponsoring Howard Stern. |
I have not seen Stern do all that well nationally. '... And I doubt we can do a thing for the community when we are carrying Howard Stern."
Tim Roberts, Toledo operations manager for Cumulus Media, which runs WBUZ. |
WBUZ: TOLEDO. TOLEDO BLADE, January 3, 2000
WBUZ DROPS STERN; CITES RATINGS, EXPENSE.
Howard Stern came into Toledo like a shock-jock lion. But he left like a lamb.
Quietly with the holiday bustle in full swing, WBUZ-FM (106.7) dropped the Howard Stern Show from its schedule, abruptly ending the New York City radio superstar's rocky three-year Toledo stay. ...
What remains unclear is if Cumulus Media bought out the rest of its contract with Stern, or how the radio group managed to drop Stern. Roberts said he hasn't heard a peep of protest from Stern's camp.
"... It greatly limits your ability to interact with the audience - the content of Stern's program doesn't relate to the community. He's in New York." (Tim Roberts, Toledo operations manager for Cumulus Media, which runs WBUZ).
Roberts suggested that ... the deceision to drop the expensive show - which previous WBUZ management paid about $200,000 a year to carry - had more to do with ratings, which started strong, then dipped significantly and never recovered.
"How do you pay for Howard Stern when you can't get your advertisers to pay for him?" asked Ellen Fruchtman of Fruchtman Marketing, which buys advertising time in Toledo." (WBUZ) could never generate the kind of revenue it takes to pay for what he charges to carry his show. Morning personalities don't get paid that kind of money in Toledo, and even if Stern were No. 1, [considering what advertising costs] it still wouldn't make financial sense to carry the show." ...
"If you look at the story of WBUZ," Roberts said,"it was a contender in the ratings when it was a music station [in the morning]. We just feel we can take it to another level playing a lot of music. I have not seen Stern do all that well nationally. '... And I doubt we can do a thing for the community when are carrying Howard Stern." |
"I think it's significant to Stern if local stations are becoming unhappy with the results they're getting from him."
Don Cooper, Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Broadcasters Association |
KKND-FM/106.87, NEW ORLEANS, December 17, 1999 --
New Orleans City Business -- by Peter Reichard (staff writer)
KKND-FM/106.7, came to an end of its own Dec. 17 after the station declined to renew his show's contract. Earnest James, New Orleans market director for KKND parent company Clear Channel Communications Inc., says he decided to bid the show farewell for financial reasons. The show is expensive, James says, and the contract renewal provided an opportunity to try something new and more profitable. ...
Reed (Debbie Reed, owner of local buying firm DRI media) doesn't expect Stern's departure to change the market much, because "oftentimes, advertisers don't even want to be on the show, so it doesn't enter into a lot of my client decisions. "Don Cooper, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Broadcasters Association, agrees. "I don't think it's of major significance to the local market," he says. ... |
"New Orleans is a unique radio market," James added. "We felt we could build a morning show that was locally produced and focused on New Orleans that would give us better economic results than continuing another contract with Howard Stern.
Ernest James, market director of the seven New Orleans stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. RADIODIGEST.COM |
``But the thing with Stern `is that the show is so expensive and so controversial, with so many advertisers refusing to be a part of it, you can't afford for it to be just a well-rated show. It has to be kick-a--.
Ed Levine, a man who has both programmed and programmed against Stern, and is now president of the Radio Group, a collection of nine stations in upstate New York. |
Minneapolis/St.Paul) , April 11, 1999: WRQC (ROCK 100)
This week, Stern wraps two years in the Twin Cities market. His audience share is decreasing steadily. He has another year left on his contract with Rock 100 (owned by giant, Texas-based Chancellor Broadcasting). ...
``But the thing with Stern,'' Ed Levine says, ``is that the show is so expensive and so controversial, with so many advertisers refusing to be a part of it, you can't afford for it to be just a well-rated show. It has to be kick-a--. ..
``Howard is still a brilliant satirist when he's talking about his family or his own experiences,'' Levine says. ``But if I hear one more stripper, or one more woman with three breasts, or one more lesbian, I'm going to scream.
``The thing is, Howard is now 45 and he's worth tens of millions of dollars, and that changes a person. It really does, and we all know it. He can be brilliant, like I say. But his experiences these days don't have much in common
with his audience.
``At times, he sounds like a caricature of himself. Too many of the things he talks about used to be real to him. Now he's pretending this is his life.'' |
Mr. Frawley says that despite the fall ratings, KEGL is more financially sound now than when it carried the Stern show, which radio insiders say costs stations who carry it anywhere from $750,000 to $1.5 million annually.
Dallas Morning News |
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DALLAS, TEXAS, KEGL
From The Dallas Morning News
... On July 28, (1997) the company dropped Howard Stern's morning show from KEGL's lineup, claiming it was too hard to sell to advertisers. Loyal Stern fans, incensed and powerless, took out their frustrations on KEGL with angry phone calls and protests. The station aired only music in morning drive for the next three months. ...
Mr. Frawley says that despite the fall ratings, KEGL is more financially sound now than when it carried the Stern show, which radio insiders say costs stations who carry it anywhere from $750,000 to $1.5 million annually.
" `More money with smaller ratings' - it does tend to fly in the face of common sense," Mr. Frawley says. "But there is an element of truth there. And I think the fact that he (Mr. Stern) didn't end up somewhere else in the market kind of lends credibility to the business end of it." ... |
WBDC (Washington DC) dumps Howard Stern. (February '99) |
Washington's WB affiliate station has decided it won't renew its pact to air the
"Howard Stern Radio Show," currently on Saturdays at midnight. WBDC will continue to
air the shock jock's television show until its contract is up, in August.
The reason: The station can't sell ads in the show and is losing money on the deal.
"We've opted not to pick it up," said station President and General Manager Michael
Nurse. "We are not pleased with the economic performance of the show."
Nurse said, "It's been a disappointment in terms of its programming quality and it's
extremely difficult to sell -- a lot of advertisers don't want to be associated with the
controversy." ... And WBDC has a lot of ad time to sell in the show -- 12 minutes' worth each week. CBS, which distributes the show through its Eyemark Entertainment division, retained
just two minutes of ad time to sell itself -- that's called a barter arrangement. Usually
when a company sells a weekend program to a TV station it keeps half of the ad time
to sell itself. But in exchange for the additional ad time, WBDC agreed to pay CBS $4,500 each week for Stern's show. So the station not only has more than the usual amount of ad
time, which it can't sell, it's also paying for the program.
WBDC's Nurse said he would air the show through August "should it continue." Asked
if the show was going to be pulled by Eyemark before then, he said, "It's a possibility; I
think this show has not performed as well as expected around the country."
That rumor gained steam yesterday when the New York Post reported that Bob
Cook, executive vice president of the Eyemark distribution division, said, "The show is
not making a lot of money and if it doesn't continue to grow in the ratings, it won't exist."
An Eyemark spokeswoman said Cook was quoted incorrectly.
"Bob was speaking hypothetically," she said. ...
[Washington Post, February 4, 1999] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/tv/features/daily/feb99/stern4.htm
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