Friday, June 23, 2006

Two Week Ending Items

ITEM 1: We're hearing rumblings, unconfirmed, that "The Iggy Show" is no longer heard nights on CBS Radio Cleveland alt-rocker WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock". Iggy's mug has been removed from the WXRK "Jox" page, and he's apparently returned the favor by removing station references on his MySpace account.

We don't know if it's permanent, but "The Bull Program" (that's "Bull", pictured at right) has been heard in 92.3's 7-midnight slot.

A birdie in the O&A thread above tells us that WXRK is up to 5th place afternoon drive in persons 18-34, but A) we do not have any idea which person posted that anonymously, so we can't verify that, and B) we don't know if that information covers O&A's first month back in afternoon drive on WXRK.

We're asking again for more detailed information, and please, identify yourselves to us so we have an idea of the accuracy of your information. OMW always respects the privacy of its sources, and we won't "give you up". E-Mail us via the "View my complete profile" link over to the left...

ITEM 2: Perhaps one of the most talented talk radio personalities in America will have his radio swan song tonight.

Premiere Radio host Phil Hendrie's last show will air tonight - locally he has been heard on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown. Hendrie has also aired on Clear Channel sports WSAI/1360 "Homer" in Cincinnati.

Much of Northeast Ohio is unfamiliar with Hendrie's radio work, as WKBN has been the only station that's ever carried his show here.

The brief version: Hendrie conducts on-air phone interviews with over-the-top "guests" with wild premises and beliefs..."guests" which solely exist in Hendrie's mind, and are voiced by the host himself.

The comedy comes from actual callers to the show, who take these people seriously and who are apparently not aware of the joke. As we've taken many, many calls from listeners to talk radio, we are not at all surprised that Hendrie's show has had "easy pickings" from people who take this stuff entirely too seriously.

Hendrie has dropped hints that he might end up on satellite radio at some point, but lately, it's been sounding more like he'll just not do radio altogether. His website will still be up, and listeners can sign up there for free E-Mail updates...so he might decide to do some more with that.

For those not within range of WKBN or WSAI, Hendrie also airs on XM Satellite Radio, and we wouldn't be surprised if the final show was made available for free at some point from his website. It offered Hendrie's retirement announcement as a free download.

(Note: How much of Hendrie's final show will actually be heard on WKBN tonight is up in the air. The regular time slot for his show has been 9-midnight, and tonight's Cleveland Indians game is likely to take at least the first hour and change of that slot...)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Month of May extrapolations, Persons 18-34... O&A had a 10.2 share. Behind MMS at 10.5, ZAK at 10.5 and ENZ at 13.3.

The 10.2 was an 85% increase over April' 5.5 share.

A very strong start for them.

Anonymous said...

Two things here:

1. OA, I think Hendrie was on WERE at some point in the past 10 years. I swear I heard him on a local channel in the 90s.

2. WZAK has a big 18-34 audience??? That's shocking--because the urban format there is aimed at the upper end of that demo, folks in their 30s.

3. I am marinating the crow, but will not yet eat it until we get a full book of O&A. Stay tunah-ed (as Murray Saul might say!)

Anonymous said...

Ok, THREE things. :-)

Anonymous said...

Bull did a good job filling in for Rachael Steele while she was on maternity leave. I hope Bull gets the 7-midnight shift.

Anonymous said...

The WZAK 18-34 month was a spike. The other 2 months in the extrap were down around a 5-6 share.

Anonymous said...

Phil nearly landed on "a talk station in Akron," according to him on-air, during his early years in Ventura. 1991 or so.

I presume it was WNIR he was taking about. Ironically, WNIR carried his arch-rival, Tom "Comb-Over Boy" Leykis, for a few months in 1999.

The PD convinced him to stay in Ventura, where he bounced to Minneapolis to Atlanta to Orlando to Miami to LA.

- Nathan Obral