Monday, September 18, 2006

BREAKING DOG NEWS: Rover Out in Detroit

In what's really not likely to be a surprise to anyone...

CBS Radio talk WKRK/97.1 "Free FM" Detroit is replacing Cleveland-based syndicated morning doggie Shane "Rover" French and his "Rover's Morning Glory" with...drumroll, please!...CBS/XM's "Opie and Anthony".

The move was reported by AllAccess this afternoon, and is confirmed by the station's website - pictured at left here.

Again, no surprise.

O&A have basically been "warming up" as the morning team at sister CBS sports talk WXYT/1270 for the past few months. The placement of the duo on an AM sports talk station screamed of "we're putting them here till we decide if we're blowing out Rover on 97.1".

Cleveland's gift to the morning syndicated radio world could also face displacement in some of his other syndicated outposts, as CBS Radio is selling off stations in Rover markets like Rochester NY to other operators.

At last check, Rover and his crew don't do their show in Spanish...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't want to be the one who says it but I think Rover is being kicked off of stations because A) his show is from Cleveland and B) before his show moved to Chicago and back to Cleveland, he was pecrieved as being from Cleveland. I think those old jokes and negative sterotypes about Cleveland is alive and well and people in larger markets and in the US n general are not willing to forget about the past.

I also heard that CBS is considering on selling even more stations in addition to the ones that are already selling could Cleveland be in this round of selloffs?

Anonymous said...

Well I appreciate the point of view, but I think it's completely wrong.

Rover is losing markets b/c he's a decent local guy - cetainly not syndicated material. The higher ups were in full panic mode in finding replacements for Howard. Some execs thought they would catch lightening in a bottle, it didn't happen.

Rover's a talent guy - but the SHOW pales in comparison to O&A. Those guys have writers...they don't rely on rookies like Rover did. Dare Dieter is a neat little Cleveland bit, but nationally, that stuff doesn't fly - the audience demands so much more than that.

Duji is no Robin Quivers - I'm not just not sure how smart any of Shane's cast of characters are, and this ultimately is the downfall of his show. You have to surround yourself with talented, bright individuals - it's clear he hasn't done that on RMG.

Anonymous said...

You are right but many people in New York, LA, and Chicago look at Cleveland as some little hick town in Ohio and this is why we are not taken seriously. For me to type that was very painful and it really hurts but it is true. I personally get real affended when I hear any negative commects about Cleveland but ones perception of us will never change.

I think what CBS did in finding a quick fix to them losing "Howie" was one of the poorist case of judgement they have ever used. Rover is a pure home grown talent even if he is from Chicago orginally, but he had potiental if he was groomed and given a chance. CBS lost there number one star and did not know what to do so they thought by making the time slot regional they could find the next big star and to this point it is backfiring.

The probelem with Rover is he did not have the benefit of nationwide exposure like O&A and he felt that a Dare Dieter could appeal to yonng males across the country when in reality he is more of a Cleveland thing.

Anonymous said...

i know he is doing well in cleveland (20 share i believe) and mabye cloumbus and st. louis is a stretch.

Anonymous said...

what a great market cleveland is!

Anonymous said...

the show is just small market, the real reason it didn't fly in Chicago and probably in any other market. He was plastered all over Chicago on billboards, buses , subways etc. The bottom line is, it was a college radio morning show in the #3 market.

Anonymous said...

The reason the show is being dropped in all the cities is because it sucks. The show is unfunny. Rover has the talent but his co-host are horrible. I don't know why so many people like Dieter. I can't stand him. The show was 100 times better with just Rover, Duji and Lunchbox.

Anonymous said...

I've noticed Rover still referencing the ''Butterbean''/Dieter stuff which happened over a year ago..

Enough already..

Dieter bores me to death..I don't care about Mount Union Football, and the stunts are sophmoric at best..

Duji has been shunted to the background, and rarely has a chance to get a word in..

I think the only reason it still plays in St. Louis is primarily due to the ownership being too cheap to bring O&A to the market..time will tell..

Rover is now branching out into Mixed Martial Arts T-V..one more item to talk about for four hours every morning..

Anonymous said...

I want miss his show that much,but I think his show is better that O & A, and I am from Detroit.

Anonymous said...

From Detroit here. I thought Rover's show was great. I was angry when I started my half hour commute to school and Opie and Anthony were on.

I'm upset and I will not listen to 97.1 anymore. None of their shows.

Anonymous said...

I listened this morning to O & A and almost fell asleep at the wheel. It's just a bunch of mindless banter and audio samples.

Anonymous said...

I liked listening to Rover here in Detroit during my morning commute. Now we have O&A and so far I have to say they are not any better. Rover seemed like a nice guy. O&A appear to be mean spirtited. I for one will miss RMG.

Anonymous said...

Detroiter here
I loved rover, and howard before him..I've given O and A a week..
and really dislike them..
would much rather have rover back..
since he's gone though, I've switched the station I listen to all day to Wrif (101.1)
granted drew and mike aren't that great, they still are quite better than O&A, but still nowhere near Rover

Anonymous said...

from detroit. wow this show sucked bad. drew and mike are so much better. i couldn't even stand listening to this show and i didnt. so unfunny. evenutally rover will be cancelled entirely. 97.1 just got some of my morning listening in between drew and mike commercials. i think O & A are shit as well but still alot better than that douche rover

Anonymous said...

It took awile but, RMG defenitaly grew on me. Was a good show. These two new idiots really suc bad.97.1 just lost another listener.