99XWatch.org

Open Thread: Your thoughts

According to Radio + TV Talk:

99X will continue on as an online venture at 99x.com and as an HD2 option. Many other stations that have left the AM/FM dial have gone this route too. How much money or effort Cumulus will place on this online version of 99X is unknown at this point.

Still, until technology changes, and internet streams and HD radio become common, it won't be the same.  Please share your thoughts on 99X. 

Am I Biased?

An observant reader emails:

I'm a bit puzzled by your recent entry concerning the ratings book on the new morning x show.  You give it one hell of a disclaimer (that it isn't completely indicative, etc) but yet when the first one came out regarding Toucher and Rich, you do not make the same qualification.  Am I misrepresenting your comments, not understanding the ratings book(s) or is it a matter of your own bias? [Link added.]

I think Chase brings up a few of interesting questions.  First, why did I put a disclaimer in front of this particular ratings post and not others?  In the past I haven't written about Arbitrends, since the Arbitron Book is the industry standard for ratings success or failure.  Another reason for this is simply logistical:  most of the ratings data I get is from Radio Talk and Rodney Ho doesn't write about trends.  In this case I got the ratings from a source inside 99X.  Now, when presented with these numbers, I'm faced with three choices:  I can write about them, not write about them, or present them with a disclaimer that while I'm writing about them they don't carry the same weight as a book. I chose the disclaimer route.

Second, am I biased against 99X?  Not at all. I want to see 99X thrive.  That's why I wanted to get the ratings out there.  Yet, as someone who aspires to be fair, it simply wouldn't have been good journalism to put an Arbitrend out there without putting it in context.  I think that my readers appreciate a perspective that is more nuanced than simply that of a cheerleader for 99X, even when they may disagree with me.

Finally, am I biased in favor of people who are no longer at 99X?  Not really, but the fact is that this is 99XWatch, not WBCN Watch.  A former 99Xer has to do something pretty obnoxious, for me to criticize him.  Right now, I'm enjoying being a fan of WBCN and not a critic.

Thanksgiving Comes Early for 99X

From Radio and Records:

At 9 a.m. ET Friday Nov. 17), Clear Channel classic rock WKLS (96 Rock) became “Project 9-6-1.” And what’s making the scenario even more interesting is that former sister alternative WBZY (The Buzz 105.3) is simulcasting Project 9-6-1.

At the stroke of 9 a.m., WKLS faded out The Who’s "Baba O’Riley" and immediately went into a countdown to the new format with a “new attitude” and “new energy” featuring artists such as Metallica, AC/DC and Disturbed, signaling a shift to active rock. The station is currently jockless.

The Project 9-6-1 Web site (www.project961.com) is now live with this message: Welcome to Atlanta’s newest radio station, Project 9–6-1. Finally bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Pearl Jam, RHCP, Led Zeppelin, Sound Garden, Pink Floyd, Green Day, Ozzy, Nirvana, and Korn, are together for the first time on one Atlanta radio station.

So what does this mean for 99X?  One might say that Project 9-6-1 is "straddling the fence, trying to keep one toe in the alternative-rock world while not letting go of those aging out " to The River.   What makes this quote interesting is that it was said by Chris Williams, program director of Project 9–6-1 in his former capacity as Buzz PD, referring to not to Project 9-6-1, but to 99X, not to The River, but to dave fm.   

What made The Buzz appealling is that it was not your older brother's radio station.  Now it's trying to be your father's music station.  Do Buzz listeners really want to listen to both Buck Cherry and Ozzy Osbourne?  For that matter, do 96Rock listeners want to listen to either? 

Clear Channel sent a substantial number of 96Rock listeners searching for a new station when they fired the Regular Guys.   They're now sending the remaining 96Rock listeners as well a substantial number of The Buzz listeners looking for a new station.   In a moment of clarity John Dickey, Cumlus V.P. of Programming, told AJC Reporter Rodney Ho:  "I'm surprised they dropped the name 96rock ... It's like blowing up the Varsity and renaming it Project Fast Food." 

There is precisely one rock brand left in Atlanta. For the time being, there is only one big budget morning show targeting a rock demographic.  Clear Channel has set the table for 99X.  Now it's time for 99X to step up to it.

Signs

OK...here's some wild speculation:  Toucher and Rich may be syndicating into Atlanta in the next couple of weeks.

Rodney Ho writes on Radio Talk:

Out of the blue this weekend, former 99Xer Crash Clark emailed me, apologizing for yelling at me in fairly blue terms a few weeks back for disclosing his precarious financial situation.

Crash is a big hearted guy and I had little doubt that he would cool down and mend fences with Rodney.  What is interesting to me is the timing.  Why, all of a sudden, would Crash write a letter of apology to Rodney Ho?  Consider the following:

• Toucher's last day at 99X was March 17, 2006.  While I don't know when the non-compete became effective, but six months from Toucher's last day is September 17, 2006.
• Tomorrow, September 18, 2006 dave  fm will announce its "fall lineup", on the heels of Barnes' recent departure.
• Toucher and Crash have a built in fan base in Atlanta. 
• WBCN, Toucher and Rich's current station, is owned by the same parent as dave fm -- CBS Radio.  It's one of the pioneers of major market drive time syndication.

It should be noted that this contradicts much of what was said to Rodney Ho by dave fm PD Michelle Engel.  Ho paraphrases Engel by writing that part of the rational behind Steve Barne's departure from dave was that "[Barnes is] a personality-based morning host who likes to gab and Dave is now opting for less talk, more music."

Update September 18, 2006 1:03 PM
I added the "same parent" company bullet point.  Sometimes I forget that not everyone follows these things as closely as I do.  I also added "on the heels of Barnes' recent depature."

One radio insider suggests that it wouldn't make much sense for dave to bring on Toucher and Rich unless they wanted to alter their target demo, which tends to be female and on the older end of the 18-34 market.  Point well taken. I guess it remains to be seen how deep Monday's changes go.

Update September 18, 2006 7:39 PM
Crash assures me that while he'd love to have the show syndicated in Atlanta, he doesn't have any knowledge of plans to do so.  He felt he owed Rodney an apology, and the timing is a conincidence.

9/11/2006

Rodney Ho blogged that the Regular Guys will be replaying their 9/11/2001 broadcast today, in observance of the five year anniversary of the tragedy.  One radio station that will not be replaying their 9/11 broadcast will be 99X, as most of the personalities on the air that day are no longer with the station.

I can recall driving home from my company's offices that day, thinking it strange to hear Jimmy Baron's voice on the air in the afternoon.  It took me a few minutes to realize that Jimmy and minister John Beyers were on the air talking to people, who like me, had turned to 99X for some sort of reference point in an experience that was difficult to comprehend.

One thing that makes Jimmy a great broadcaster is his courage in sharing himself.  That day Jimmy shared his fear, his disbelief, and in short, most of the emotions that we were all experiencing.  I would later learn that Jimmy spent most of the day sitting in with other personalities helping them limp through their shows.  Fred Toucher said that he might not have made it through his show if it weren't for Jimmy.

I suspect that a lot of people will always have a bond with Jimmy that was forged that day.  It's a shame that five years later he isn't on the air to commerate the day with us.

The 99XWatch.org Index

Apologies to Harpers.

Number of page views 99XWatch.org has received since February 8, 2005:  204,173
Number of page views SaveCrash.org got in its first 12 hours:  20,426
Number of page views my first blog got in its entire existance:  389
Number of posts on 99XWatch.org:  179
Number of posts critical of Toucher:  34
Projected number of blogs abandoned after one day:  1.09 Million (via the Freakonomics Blog)
Number of people at Jimmy's Late Night Lounge* claiming to have received a call from Elvis: 2
Number of people at Jimmy's Late Night Lounge actually having received a call from Elvis:  1

*I really enjoyed the Late Night Lounge.  Jimmy had a great rapport with all the guests, and kept the audiences attention despite the fact that the show was not typical comedy club fare. 

Vote Republican

That's not a typo.  Georgia has this nifty open primary system, which allows you to vote in whichever party's primary you wish.  I  encourage you to vote in tomorrow's Republican primary and to vote for Casey Cagle for Lt. Governor.  Why?  Because he's running against Ralph Reed. 

I think that Garrison Keillor sums Ralph Reed up well:

The facts are fairly simple. Mr. Reed left the Christian Coalition in 1997 as it was sinking, and he was paid by Jack Abramoff to organize opposition to a gambling bill in the Texas Legislature, which would have opened the door to competition for Mr. Abramoff's client casinos in Louisiana. So Reed got the good Christians of Texas ("We have over 50 pastors mobilized, with a total membership in those churches of over 40,000 -- that includes Second Baptist, which has 12,000 members," he reported breathlessly) to bombard the Legislature with phone calls and letters denouncing gambling, for which Mr. Reed was paid millions of dollars in gambling money, by way of Abramoff's bagman, Grover Norquist.

Reed also helped defeat a state lottery and video poker in Alabama, in behalf of casinos in Mississippi. In Alabama, he told Abramoff, he had "over 3,000 pastors and 90,000 religious conservative households." He enlisted these Baptists in a fight against one saloon while he was on the payroll of another.

Imagine if Ralph Nader had solicited money from Ford and Chrysler when he went after General Motors' Corvair. Or the Southern Baptists raising money from Sony and Universal to condemn movies by MGM.

Another radio guy, Fred Toucher put it a bit more succinctly:  "Ralph Reed ... is a devil."  He's also criticized Reed on the TJ&L Show.

In the interest of balance, Jimmy Baron suggests ten reasons to vote for Ralph Reed.  Here are his top five:

5. Great hair and boyish good looks would totally frustrate gay community.
4. Would be the first non-hillbilly ever elected to Statewide office in Georgia.
3. Will keep the evil Mike Luckovich too busy to make fun of great American G-d fearing Confederate flag lobbyists.
2. Media was more fair to OJ Simpson
1. Voting for Reed helps creates jobs...namely my [Jimmy's] wife's.

I Want My Free FM!

Local activist Joey Mills is leading a grass roots effort to persuade CBS Radio to bring its Free FM format to Atlanta.  Presumably, a Free FM station in Atlanta is one step closer to the Toucher and Rich Show simulcasting in Atlanta.  It would also provide a perfect local venue to get Jimmy Baron back on the air.  The website is  www.FreeFMATL.org. 

Take Him At His Word

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey, in an interview with Billboard Radio Monitor, referring to recent layoffs, stated: "There were virtually no changes in sales and programming unless they were upgrades..."  While Jimmy Baron has done a fine job of arguing that Lew Dickey is, again, lying,  I would like to take a different approach:  take Lew Dickey at his word.  I would suggest that if Lew Dickey is lying, then he's a CEO cynically spinning a round of layoffs, i.e. par for the course.  If Dickey believes what he's saying, then he's just incompetent.

Lew Dickey and John Dickey, his brother in charge of programming at Cumulus,  believe that the current  99X Morning Show is an "upgrade." Just to be clear--Lew and John Dickey believe that "Everything Alternative Morning Show with Axel and Leslie (and Mitch)" is a better show than "Toucher, Jimmy, and Leslie (with Crash, Wally, and FatKid.)"  The decision to let Toucher and Crash go to Boston, the decision to let Jimmy's contract expire, the decision to take Wally off the air, and the decision to lay off Fat Kid had nothing to do with saving money.  The changes were made because, in the opinion of the Dickeys, they were an upgrade. 

I'm sure that AT&T management considered razing the Fox Theater to build the Southern Bell headquarters to be an upgrade as well.  The ultimate test of the quality of the Dickeys' "upgrade" will be the Spring Book.  So we wait until July 26, 2006, the date for the Atlanta Spring Quarterly Arbitrends.

Requiem Part I: Seinfeld

Of course everyone watched Seinfeld from the beginning.  Right?  Wrong.  It seems that most people are only dimly aware that Seinfeld failed to crack the top 20 during its first four seasons.  In fact, such groundbreaking comedies like America’s Funniest People, Love and War, and The Jackie Thomas Show, all surpassed Seinfeld during this time.  I suspect that most programmers imagine that they would be a Warren Littlefield, fighting for Seinfeld, knowing in his heart that if it can only find its audience it will succeed.  Bullshit. Most programmers are the guy who green lighted Madman of the People under the condition that the writers make Dabney Coleman more likable.

Cumulus has developed a successful business model by buying small to medium sized stations and cutting costs.  While that model has worked for them in the past, one doesn’t need a Harvard MBA to know that a company can’t cut costs for perpetuity.  Eventually, they will have to deliver a better product than their competition.

I’m not certain what the programmers at Cumulus perceive constitutes good radio.  Perhaps they say, “If we could only get someone like Steve McCoy, we’d be golden.”  My guess is, however, that they imagine themselves to be searching for a Seinfeld of the airwaves whom they can syndicate to all of their Radio stations.  Sadly, their predecessors let Jerry Seinfeld go 3 years ago, and Larry David is out the door by October.  Thursday night is coming.  Just not for Atlanta.