from Radio Ink
September 10, 2001
What is for now the fourth time, Lex & Terry will be replacing the Howard Stern Radio Network. The network expext to annouce more additions in the coming weeks.
from AllAccess.com
September 7, 2001
HOWARD STERN out, LEX AND TERRY in at Rock WYYX (97X)/PANAMA CITY, FL: the station pulls the plug on STERN after five years over weak advertising revenue and replaces it with the JACKSONVILLE-based syndicated LEX AND TERRY, effective today (9/7).
from the News Herald
September 6, 2001
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.
from the Panama City News Herald
September 5, 1998
A prominent pro-family group is outraged over CBS's new Howard Stern Show. Tim Wildmon, vice-president of the American Family Association (AFA), says, "CBS executives owe the American people a formal apology for embracing Stern's obsessions for strippers, prostitutes, genitalia, breasts and descriptions of bodily functions that are inappropriate for the public airwaves."
Even powerful secular voices have joined in the criticism. The Washington Post, stated, Stern's debut "made the bare buttocks of NYPD Blue look like child's play." The usually liberal New York Post quipped, "Someone help Howard Stern - the man is sick," adding, "his new program was appalling, pathetic, and represented the very worst of what he is." USA Today called the program "so contemptible and incompetent that it makes The Magic Hour look like the Masterpiece Theatre." After just two weeks on the air, it was canceled in Canada, attacked by parents' groups and slapped with a precedent-breaking TV-MA rating (for mature audiences), which obviously pleased Stern.
"CBS knew what it was getting into when it took on Stern's show," Wildmon said. The lnfinity Broadcasting Network - now owned by CBS - was fined $1.7 million by the FCC due to the vulgar material used on Stern's show. The AFA official added, "Stern's sewage is now pouring into our society on Saturday late-night television, and the brand name on the bilge pump is CBS. The American people should demand that the local stations and advertisers be morally responsible with the public awareness."
Disney-Miramax, Sony, Heineken, and Designer Imposter Body Spray were sponsors for the program's first episode, according to AFA. The last three are not too surprising, but Disney-Miramax? Walt Disney has probably turned over in his grave many times since Michael Eisner took over Disney Enterprises.
The area CBS affiliate, WTVY-TV of Dothan, did not air the new show, but chose a re-run of "Walker, Texas Ranger" instead. But the local Fox affiliate, WPGX, did run it. Are the bigwigs at CBS so obsessed with drawing viewers away from NBC's popular "Saturday Night Live" show that they would air such a sick form of psychological torture?
I did not watch Stern's show because I had listened to him in an interview on ABC's 20/20. My impression of the man was that he should not be allowed on TV or radio. The network had to continually "beep out" his vulgar language. Since his radio show was so popular, however, CBS was evidently willing to take the long-term risk of trading its reputation for ratings. I wonder how Walter Cronkite feels about this latest faux pas by the network which was once considered the most reliable on television?
Several years ago, Hugh Roche, manager at WMBB-TV, was criticized for not airing "NYPD Blue." He and his staff previewed several episodes and decided too much material would have to be edited out before the program could be shown. Even though the show was highly-rated and pressure from ABC intense, Hugh demonstrated courage not often seen in the mass media today. He refused to televise it. The show didn't measure up to standards of decency he felt viewers would expect from his station. His stand won the respect and admiration of even his severest critics.
This newspaper is not laced with profanity and vulgarity. Its owners would not allow it. Such language transcends the bounds of good taste and decency. Why do TV networks, especially cable networks feel they must include it? Of course, there are notable exceptions, like the Discovery, History, and Family Channels, among others. And the four major networks do try to air programs in prime time that are suitable for family viewing.
The situation is even worse in the movie industry. It is nearly impossible to see a movie nowadays that is not filled with gutter language, violence, and unbridled sex. Movie Rating Codes have been a farce. Parents quickly learned they were of little help in selecting movies suitable for their children.
The average American, as a whole, does not talk that way, is a law-abiding citizen, and believes strongly in the sanctity of the home. TV and film producers need to wake up to the fact that they are not giving an honest portrayal of the way we live. We should all be outraged over the moral climate in our country. But our apathy has allowed it to happen. We have been unwilling to take a stand on anything, so we've fallen for everything.
When will we rise up and say, "We're tired of the way things are going in this country and plan to put a stop to it!" I want to be around when it happens, don't you?
from the Panama City News Herald
August 15, 1998
If you thought TV had gone as low as it could go with prime time nudity in NYPD Blue, or ubiquitous coarse language and graphic violence, perhaps you haven't heard about CBS' new degradation of America, "The Howard Stern Show" that begins next Saturday night at11:30 p.m. (EDT)
"We'll have a lot of nudity and lesbians," Stern promised. "We plan to have a lot of drunken dwarfs on the show. ... Television is ready for someone like me. Standards have gone to an all-time low, and I'm here to represent the change."
Howard Stern has a daily five hour radio show aired in 49 markets in major cities, but also smaller places such as Fresno, Cal., York, Penn., and Panama City. Its crudity and coarseness is difficult to describe in a family newspaper in a column like this.
However, as James Madison wrote in "Federalist No. 55" "as there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence."
Before illustrating what we can expect to see on CBS, based on what has been on his radio show, I am pleased to report that the American Family Association has successfully persuaded 3,100 of Stern's 3,900 radio advertisers across the nation to cancel their ads!
The depravity of Howard Stern can be fought and defeated if the good people in this land express their outrage to local CBS affiliates and to the Stern sponsors.
Don Wildmon, president of the AFA, says that Stern "is to radio what Larry Flynt is to porn magazines. In all our years of monitoring entertainment programs, American Family Association has never encountered a more raunchy, despicable, degenerate entertainment than that of Howard Stern."
For example, in one show Stern describes a porno star with enlarged breasts due to implants, who strips in his radio studio and gives a nude massage to a female listener.
Another program featured a farting contest, with the prize going to the longest or loudest.
I heard a program in which a man who works in a mortuary called in to describe having sex with a corpse. "Did you kiss her? asked Stern. "Did you go to the funeral?"
This week there was a contest to see who had the largest male member. Another was a Frankenstein contest in which obese women stripped and described their bodies, in hopes that a plastic surgeon would do a make over with liposuction. Several retarded men served as judges as Stern made jokes about these sad creatures.
This kind of programming appeals to some men of all classes who find it amusing. Stern's ratings are often No. 1 in a local market. That makes it a magnet for advertisers of products men buy - beer, computers, cars.
AFA's surprisingly successful strategy to fight this trash is led by Bill Johnson, AFA's Michigan director. He buys tapes of Stern's show in 20 cities, and has them mailed daily for 12 part-time people to listen to and record the advertisers. Johnson sends a polite letter with brief descriptions of the shows, and asks advertisers to cease advertising on them. If monitoring does not reveal an advertiser has quit, Johnson sends a second or even third follow-up letter.
In Grand Rapids, where the campaign began, 374 advertisers out of 401 (93 percent) have yanked their ads. In Los Angeles and Philadelphia, three-fourths of advertisers have quit.
"Howard Stern worked for us in Minneapolis," Paris Burrell told me. His firm, Empire Glass, which replaces car windshields, got 30-40 more calls a week. "My job is to make those phones ring." But his boss, Richard Chance, a committed Christian, was convicted by the second letter. "He felt it was like God talking to him. We will never be on the Howard Stern show."
Among national advertisers who have ignored the pleas are Budweiser, Dunken Donuts, Aamco Transmissions, and Erols. But Coors Beer, RC Cola and America On Line did quit.
Radio stations typically sign two-year contracts with Stern. That means if nine of out 10 advertisers quit, they are losing money by bushel baskets.
Let's help CBS avoid such a problem. I urge readers to see if their CBS outlet plans to carry the shock jock. If so, form a committee to plead for decency with the station manager. And send a check to AFA, PO Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412.
Howard's been on in Panama City for a couple of years now, and here's the latest ratings info:
12+ - 8 share - (#4) 18-34 all - 14.8 share - (#2) 18-34 men - 25.5 share - (#2 - the country station has a 27 share for #1) 25-54 men - - (#1)Overall, Howard's in 4th place, with #1 being the local AC station, #2 is the country station and #3 is the news/talk station.
Back to ratings.
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