from the Toronto Sun
May 30, 2002
CEARFOOD: Yes, class, I'm home. Stop e-mailing me about the spring radio ratings. Today, we consider the following questions:
* If CBC1 is having one of its strongest years ever, why are poobahs so intent on puttering with the programming? To break it and fix it again?
* If guys are half the population, how come the wild and woolly Radio for Guys has trouble grabbing two of them out of a hundred?
* How can a "national" newspaper forget to include the chart-dazzling ratings performance of coast-to-coast CBC radio? Is it not heard at Asper World Headquarters in Winnipeg? Somebody get Izzy an antenna.
The spring BBM radio ratings, with the usual cruel and snarky comment ...
* CHFI-FM/98.1: A 10.7% share of total audience. 1,053,000 total listeners. Firm grasp on listener numbers of last fall and spring. Why rock the boat? Keep on keepin' on.
* CHUM-FM/104.5: 9.3% share. 1,044,000 listeners. Share off from last fall and a year ago. Roger, Rick and Marilyn squeeze by Erin Davis as strongest dawn team in the market. Third spot's a tie between...
* CBC1: 7.4% share. 925,000 listeners. Strongest book in years, now let's change everything. Andy Barrie and network wake-up news packages beat the all-day average by more than two points.
* CFRB/1010: 7.4% share. 714,000 listeners. Like the CBC, 'RB holds on to news ears cocked by the events of Sept. 11. Up from a year ago. Ted Woloshyn ties with Andy Barrie for third most-listened-to morning slot.
* EZRock97: 6.7% share. 685,000 listeners. Up substantially from last fall and a year ago. Hey, hon, what's that lifestyle music doin' on my pre-set? Okay, okay! I didn't touch it!
* AM740: 5.4 share. 588,000 listeners. Off from last fall and a year ago. Can you ever get enough of the Ink Spots? Maybe. New Page Six game: Count the number of artists played in any hour who are still alive. Bet you don't use both hands. Maybe not even one.
* Q107: 5.3 share. 806,000 listeners. Up from 4.4 overall a year ago, despite the disappearance of you-know-who mornings. Howard Stern's last rating was 6%; Derringer clocks 5%. No more tears, King of All Radio club.
* Mix99.9: 4.7 share. 838,000 listeners. Better than fall, off from a year ago when they blew out the morning show to install Carla Collins.
* Classical96: 4.3 share. 422,000 listeners. Same share as a year ago, but 50,000 more listeners.
* 680News: 4.2 share. 725,000 listeners. Share up from a year ago. Off two points from the what-happens-next terrorist suspense last fall.
* Kiss92: 4.1 share. 795,000 listeners. Off substantially from a year ago. Hey, but I loved the transit campaign, Maddog & Billie. Honest. Wassup?
* Edge102: 3.5 share. 711,000 listeners. Share off from last fall and a year ago. Any music station's a slave to the flow of new and attractive earfood coming to market.
* Hits 103: 2.8 share. 532,000 listeners. Up from last year. Are some of Kiss' missing ears here? Broadcast sorts say so.
* Fan590: 2.3 share. 396,000 listeners. Up a tad from a year ago. But five times the share and four times the listeners of CHUM's fledgling sports rival. Not a horse race.
* CBC2: 2.1 share. 401,000 listeners. Share off from a year ago, with the same core audience. Endless repeats and tinkering burned off some.
* Flow93.5: 2.1 share. 315,000 listeners. Does urban earfood sound more accessible? Legendary overlord David Marsden is now the guy with the screwdriver.
* JazzFM91: 1.9 share. 289,000 listeners. Goodbye Ted O'Reilly and Garrison Keillor. Hello middle-of-the-road mellow and endless chick vocalists -- including Ms. Freeze-Face, who sings in TV car spots. Hip.
* Mojo640: 1.3 share. 369,000 listeners. Off from the fall, same as a year ago. Rowdy Guy Talk format costs Corus money, even with penny-pinching. Will they hang in? Still, 640's not 20th of 20 stations any more.
* Energy 95.3: A .5 share. 430,000 listeners. Add Energy and Mojo together, there's still not a two share. Hello?
* Team1050: A .4 share. 106,000 listeners. Under half a single ratings point! When CHUM folded golden oldies last spring, they had a 1.9 share and 277,000 listeners. Somewhere, Elvis is laughing. Thank you very mush.
MORNING SHOWS: Every morning show keeps different hours; we offer the 6-to-10 a.m. weekday share. CHUM-FM leads (10.7 share). Then comes CHFI-FM (10.5), CFRB and CBC1 (9.9), 680News (6.5), EZRock (5.7), Q-107 (5.0), Mix99 (4.1), AM740 (3.8), KISS (3.6), Edge102 (3.3), Classical 96 (2.8), FAN590 (2.4), Hits103 (2.2), Flow (1.5) Mojo (1.5).
from the National Post (Canada)
April 23, 2002
-snips--
Who's on top? According to the fall BBM ratings, CHFI leads the pack with an 8.8% audience share, followed by CHUM, with 7.2%; CBC Radio One, 5.3%; Kiss 92, 5.1%; Q107, 4.9%; Mixx 99.9, 4.3%; and Edge 102, 4%. --snips--
CLASSIC ROCK Q107
Hosted by John Gallagher, er, John Derringer, Q107's morning show got off to a rough start, replacing as it did The Howard Stern Show. "The first couple of weeks Stern freaks said I was the most useless piece of s--- on earth," says Derringer. By now, any "Stern freaks" who haven't converted to Derringer have probably switched to Blundell at The Edge, or at the very least narrowed their geographical reference to just North America.
It's the show that "doesn't worry about the 20-year-olds," says Derringer. "We don't do a dog and pony act. We just talk." And play a whole lot of AC/DC, The Guess Who, The Hip, Van Halen, Pearl Jam, Supertramp, Steve Miller, Zeppelin, The Stones, CCR, ...
What listeners tune in for (besides the music): "People don't give a s--- when we talk about humans, but dogs, they love it when we talk about animals," says Derringer, referring to a weepy story he read on the air called How Could You, written from a dog's perspective, that can be found on the Q107 Web site.
Funniest Moment: "When we went on about [actress] Camryn Manheim," says Derringer sidekick Craig "Lobster Boy" Venn. "Something about her weight and wearing bedsheets."
Most interesting fan interaction: Derringer receives up to 400 e-mails each day, many including nude photos of women. "Quite often it's women you don't want to see naked," he says.
Derringer's biggest blunder: "Taking that job at The Fan for five years."
Who Derringer imagines his listeners are: "Guys like me, 39 to 40 years old, who have probably listened on and off for 20 years, who like the same old classic rock s---."
Who Derringer's listeners are: See above.
Derringer on the competition: "I like what some of the other shows are doing out there." (Q107 has been known to play The Edge in the station's restrooms.)
--snips--
from the Q107 Web Site
December 28, 2001
When did you decide to get rid of Stern?
We are not "getting rid of" Stern. We are repositioning Q107 and returning the station to its classic rock roots. Stern's program is strictly talk, which does not fit Q's classic rock strategy. John Derringer is a perfect fit, so it follows that Stern's talk program does not fit with our repositioning strategy.
Did you dump Stern because his ratings have dropped?
Howard Stern's ratings have dipped somewhat in recent months, but that is not why we are discontinuing his program.
When was Stern informed of the decision?
Howard Stern and his agent in New York were informed immediately following his program on Wednesday, November 21.
Did you drop Stern because you had to monitor him and edit the show - did he become too high maintenance?
We were well aware of Howard Stern's style when we decided to add him to Q107's programming lineup. We monitored and edited the show to comply with CBSC Codes and CRTC regulations. It was just part of our day-to-day business.
Was Q107 pressured by the CRTC, the CBSC or your parent company, Corus Entertainment, to make this change?
This was strictly a programming decision, based on our return to a classic rock format. There was no pressure from anyone. It was a decision taken by Q107 management.
Do you expect any repercussions from Stern - either verbal assaults or legal challenges?
We can't predict how Howard Stern will react, but we don't anticipate any legal ramifications. As for verbal assaults, it doesn't concern us.
How do you think Q107's audience will react to Stern's departure?
Q's audience is drawn to our station for what we offer - great music - and we will not fail to provide that to our listeners.
Are you worried that Stern's audience will abandon Q107 entirely?
We believe that once Stern's audience hears the word about Derringer, they will continue to tune to Q107 as they do in groves in his afternoon show.
Would you ever consider having Stern back on Q107?
Not as long as we retain our classic rock format.
Why have you chosen Derringer over Stern?
It wasn't a case of choosing Derringer over Howard Stern. It was a programming decision, based on repositioning Q as a classic rock station. Derringer has a strong reputation in the classic rock world. Stern's program is strictly talk, which no longer fits Q's format.
Is this decision based on having a Canadian versus an American at the mike?
Q107 is proud to be Canadian and we have great hometown talent like Derringer, but this is not a case of Canadian versus American. Q is only interested in presenting the best classic rock on-air talent to its listeners and we have that in John Derringer.
Do you expect to attract more listeners to the morning show - the ones who couldn't stand Howard Stern - now that Derringer is at the helm?
Derringer has a large fan base and his listeners may be drawn to the morning show.
Did Derringer have a choice in the matter? Was he asked to take over the morning spot or was he told?
You can't tell John anything! We asked John to host the morning show - he was delighted to take on the challenge, and we are delighted that he accepted.
Stewart Meyers
Program Director, Classic Rock Q107
from the Toronto Star
November 25, 2001
|
| DETHRONED: Howard Stern, the self-crowned "King of All Media," will no longer be heard in Toronto on Q107. |
Howard Stern has always generated polarized descriptions. Fans adore, critics abhor.
But when the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" was unceremoniously dumped from Canadian airwaves on Friday, both sides found themselves wondering why.
How did Stern, arguably the most popular radio personality of his generation, fail in the competitive Toronto market? Why did the King lose his Canadian crown?
"What radio does best is react instantly to the needs and interests of the local community," says John P. Hayes, president of Corus Radio. "And the Stern morning show just wasn't able to do that."
Corus Radio is the parent company of 52 Canadian stations, including Q107, the station that bravely delivered Stern to Toronto listeners in 1997 and the one that had the audacity to take him away last week. To broadcast The Howard Stern Show, Q107 paid a licensing fee to the program's American syndicator. The fee, approximately $600,000 (U.S.) a year, permitted Q107 to air Stern in Toronto. He was under contract until 2003. But through a series of top-level discussions, which started months ago, station management decided to make the bold move and return Q107 to its classic-rock roots.
"I think it was a good decision by station management to come to that conclusion," says Hayes, who once fired Stern from New York's WNBC in 1985. "From a ratings standpoint, and from a local marketing standpoint, we believe we can do better by making the move now."
But to understand why Stern left the city, you have to understand why he came.
Five years ago, when he landed in Toronto, Q107 was in disarray. It was losing listeners and advertisers. In part, the classic-rock format was taking a beating from the onset of a pop renaissance, not to mention several post-grunge chart flashes.
JJ Johnston, general manager for the Corus Toronto stations, says Q107 was a "distressed property," meaning, like many floundering American stations, it needed a high-profile shot of adrenaline to stir dormant limbs. That shot came by way of the lanky, shaggy Stern. With his brash sensibility and take-no-prisoners approach, he introduced a tawdry wave of porn stars, lesbians and misfits to blushing Toronto listeners.
He asked celebrities rude, atypical questions. He publicly feuded with management and staff. He berated listeners. And he frequently sent shock waves throughout the entertainment industry for headline bouts with stars such as Rosie O'Donnell and Kathie Lee Gifford.
In the past two years, however, Stern's once dependable ability to shock started to wane. And his program, while still enormously compelling in ephemeral moments, more often came across as tedious and repetitive.
He still has millions of fiercely loyal listeners, thousands in Toronto alone. In fact, within hours after reading that Stern was being dropped, hundreds of local fans lit up the Q107 switchboard with bitter, profanity-laced complaints. Johnston answered many of their calls.
"I appreciate their passion for radio," he says, "but that's the way it goes. It was an extremely tough call for us. It was a major call. It involved some heated, passionate conversations. But at the end of the day, we all decided this was the right thing to do."
He's not alone in this assessment.
`What radio does best is react instantly to the needs and interests of the local community. And the Stern morning show just wasn't able to do that.'
|
Austin, Texas, Fresno, Calif., Bloomington, Ill., Panama City, Fla., Myrtle Beach, S.C., Phoenix, Ariz., and Denver, Colo., are just some of the other cities to drop Stern in the last few years. In his home New York market, the show has dropped to third place overall. And in Los Angeles, his audience eroded by 20 per cent over the past two years.
In Toronto, his audience share dropped by 50 per cent since his high-profile debut. But in certain key demographics, like adult male, he still remained a market leader. When asked about this, executives repeat that getting rid of a Stern was not an easy decision, but it made sense because Q107, as an overall rock station, suffered from Stern's sprawling, no-music format.
"Personally, I really like The Howard Stern Show," concedes Johnston. "I think he is incredibly smart, ballsy and insightful. But I also think he has been around for some time, and he is having some difficulties these days. There is some audience attrition, so the time is right for us to move along."
Another problem for Q107 was the ancillary costs attached to the Stern show - editors, technicians, even myriad legal costs surfaced over the five years. Johnston says it required "a small factory" of staff to censor Stern according to broadcast standards.
Another one of the problems for listeners was that the show, which featured an eight-minute time delay, often featured more than 12 minutes of commercials at a time.
Within the last year, however, Toronto listeners, especially the fanatical ones, had a new, tantalizing option. With a decent FM receiver, they could (and still can) tune in to Buffalo's WBUF (FM 92.9) to hear an unedited version of the show. (And, make no mistake, the fact Q107 was losing listeners to WBUF helped seal Stern's fate.)
Selling the program to skittish advertisers was also fraught with complications. "A lot of clients refused to have commercials inside Howard Stern," says Johnston. "It has been an exercise in expertly selling the show. There was huge amount of business that would not go anywhere near that show."
Since Q107 announced it would be dropping Stern, he adds, at least a half dozen advertisers have called to get on the new format. Only one existing advertiser has left.
Tomorrow, Q107 moves into the newly renovated Hard Rock Café across from the Eaton Centre. Several public functions are planned, including a street concert. And John Derringer, a fixture on Q107 and MOJO, will be the live, onsite DJ all day. He now faces the daunting challenge of replacing Stern.
Johnston says some in-house research conducted three months ago found that Derringer was actually "significantly more popular" than Stern with Q107 listeners.
But others have wondered if Stern was axed as a simple cost-saving measure. Just two weeks ago, 10 full-time staff members in the Toronto radio stable were fired. Corus Entertainment has been cutting costs for weeks.
"Corus has made some recent cuts across the board," Johnston says. "Are there some savings by getting rid of Stern? Yes, but they're not significant. It's not the reason we made this move."
At least not in the short term, since the station is still paying Stern until 2003, when its licence expires. By the end of last week, the station had received more than 500 calls from either angry or grateful listeners.
Johnston knows he has angered many hard-core fans, but he believes they will ultimately appreciate the new format.
"We will lose some of our listeners, absolutely," he says. "But we will also gain a bunch of people who didn't like Howard Stern and who now want classic rock in the morning."
from the Toronto Sun
November 24, 2001
I can't always be watching television, especially when I'm driving. Most mornings, I ride at least part of the way to work with Howard Stern and his goofball radio gang.
News that Q-107 has decided to dump Stern is a drag (see Jim Slotek's column), but not a catastrophe. Fortunately, Stern's show is still available at the other end of the dial, Buffalo's WBUF 92.9, and has been for nearly a year.
Having a choice was a big plus for Toronto listeners. Stern usually bunches his commercial breaks into numbing, 10 minute runs. Because Q-107 was on an eight-minute delay (a consequence of CRTC jitters over the content), you could always switch to one station or the other during the endless ad breaks.
Now we're stuck with the Buffalo feed, which is better than nothing. The fact that Buffalo also carries Stern in this market has to have stolen some listeners away from Q-107 -- a switch, not necessarily a drop, in listeners.
Still, there are some who charge that Stern is out of step with the times. That a nation at war (and the nation next to it) no longer cares about strippers and lesbians. That Stern, at 47, is too old to be leering at porn stars and goofing on dwarfs.
It's true that the show has lost some zip. There are too many mornings when Stern chews out his dysfunctional staff and rags on his harried producer, Gary Dell'Abate. Stern does seem to have lost some focus; you can hear it when high octane reruns from the old days are aired (as they were this week during the U.S. Thanksgiving festival).
But when Stern has a good guest on, he's still the fastest mind on radio. When Bill Maher was making his mea culpa after mouthing off about patriotism on Politically Incorrect, he made it on Stern's show (and then was savaged for it by the unforgiving host).
The radio show is a gold mine for TV columnists, with turfed Survivor contestants stopping by Stern before being shopped to us local scribes. Translation: I don't have to interview any of these publicity-seeking pinheads anymore.
Bottom line, it's still a show that breaks news, as well as wind.
Stern was live, on air during the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, and provided a surprising blend of street level news and immediate reaction for his listeners. More than that, he raised nearly US$4 million and counting for the families of the victims.
Beyond his born-again flag-waving zeal, Stern has the best B.S. detector in the business. The entertainment news segments with Robin Quivers are a publicist's nightmare and a cynic's dream. Stern has no time for those audio quote tapes from the stars hyping their latest movie on junkets. Stern cuts them all off in mid-sentence, bored even before engineer Fred Norris can hit the "blah'blah'blah'blah" button.
No more Jackie "The Joke man" Martling? Forget it. Artie Lang (Norm) is faster and funnier. And that guy they have on who imitates Letterman? He's so good it's scary. Dave should be that glib again.
Plus, who doesn't love playing the Mike Walker game (a spot the fake story quiz with the National Enquirer gossip columnist)?
Q-107 can do whatever they want. I'll stick with Stern.
from the Toronto Sun
November 24, 2001
The politics of radio have accomplished what broadcast watchdogs and the professionally-offended could not. Howard Stern is leaving town with a Derringer at his back.
Not that he was ever physically in town. Even when Q-107 launched the legendary shock jock in 1997, Stern's promotion for his debut consisted of a satellite press conference and an on-air reference to French-Canadians as "peckerheads."
Which goes a long way toward explaining why a ratings-healthy Q-107 pulled the plug on Stern's show yesterday, announcing that Monday's morning show would feature the a.m. debut of ex-drive-home guy John Derringer in a live broadcast from the Yonge St. Hard Rock Cafe.
The broadcast will be part of a daylong celebration of Q and the revamped Hard Rock, culminating in a street party on Yonge from Shuter to Dundas from 3-7 p.m., featuring Big Sugar and Geddy Lee.
The rub is that "Howard Stern is still number one in all our target demos," said J.J. Johnson, Radio GM for Q-107's owner Corus Communications. Indeed, Sun readers voted Stern their favourite morning man yet again in this year's reader's survey. "It's not about ratings," Johnson said.
Nor is it, in the short-term at least, about money, since Corus is paying off Stern's contract through the next few years to implement these changes to Q's morning show.
"Howard has done what he was hired for, and now it's time to move on. The reason Q-107 put Howard Stern on is the reason most people put Howard Stern on, because their station is a distressed property. So Howard Stern comes with a big pricetag and a promo machine. And when those stations get back on their feet, that's when a lot of them dump Howard."
It's been a bad few weeks on that front for Stern, who was also dumped in Phoenix this week and had his Saturday night TV show cancelled.
Key to Q's decision was the acquisition of Derringer 18 months ago from Montreal's CHOM, where he'd been since moving from the morning show at The Fan Toronto. His free-wheeling guy-talk "drive home" show (with his sidekick "Lobster Boy") quickly acquired Stern-like ratings, ranking #1 among males over 24. When the station decided to go "Classic Rock" 24-hours a day, and the time came to hand the morning show over again to homegrown talent, Derringer was an obvious choice.
"I don't know what it is, but it seems like I'm always taking over from somebody really popular," Derringer said yesterday. "I replaced (popular Montreal broadcaster) Terry DiMonte at CHOM and I replaced (original morning man) Bob McKeown at The FAN.
"There's nothing I can do about it. Stern fans are acting like I'm the one who made the decision to let him go. There's no question I'm going to be compared to Stern, and no question he's a trailblazer. My assignment here is to just be me.
"Basically my mandate is to do pretty much what I do in the afternoon ... There'll be no reinventing of my act."
After Monday, when he'll be broadcasting live from the Hard Rock from 5:30 a.m., Derringer will take his show back to the station's North York studios. Q will still broadcast daily from the Hard Rock from 3 p.m. to 7 with new drive-home guy Jeff Brown. In January, the station will open a new studio at Yonge/Dundas with its entire roster of talent.
"I just can't wait to move downtown from the corner of Yonge and Sudbury," Derringer said. "This is such a zero neighbourhood."
from the Toronto Star
November 24, 2001
"The King of All Media" is leaving the country, and his royal subjects are not amused.
"No, you're joking," said Neil Moreria, walking on Pape Ave. early yesterday. "This can't be right. I can't go on without Howard Stern."
"Why would they do this?" Moreria, 27, asked. "Why would they get rid of Howard Stern?"
Those two rhetorical questions ricocheted across the city yesterday as fans of the famously controversial radio host reacted to news that he would no longer be heard on Toronto airwaves. As reported in The Star yesterday, Q107, the station that carried Stern since 1997, confirmed it was dropping the New York shock jock. Stern's ratings had dropped by about half.
Though many of Stern's devoted listeners said they would try to listen to him on a Buffalo affiliate, they were outraged. By 5 p.m. yesterday, more than 400 had called Q107. E-mail flowed in throughout the day.
"I've learned some new words today," said JJ Johnston, general manager of Corus Radio Toronto. "I thought I had been called everything in the book, but there are some new, inventive words out there."
Mary Beth Denomy, 35, who works at Environics Communications, said, "This is a very sad day for Howard Stern fans; this is a sad day for me. Everybody has a different way to get up and get going in the morning. For a lot of people, it was Howard Stern."
"He was down to earth, he spoke the common man's talk," said loyal listener Tom Pandi, 34, owner of Ajax-based Credit Guardian Group. "Sure, it was a Neanderthal, knuckle-dragging kind of talk, but he got down to the bottom line."
Heidi Tsao, 28, said she'll find it harder to wake up in the morning. "He was very candid and uncensored. It just seemed like a bunch of guys goofing around on the radio."
Some fans even contacted the show's sponsors. Saul Korman, president of Korry's Clothiers To Gentlemen, said fans sent e-mails threatening a boycott if he kept advertising with the station, which he plans to do. "It bothers me, there's no question," said Korman, commenting on Stern's departure. "He was an entertainer. He brought a lot to this city."
from The Ottawa Citizen
November 24, 2001
TORONTO -- Corus Entertainment Inc. has suddenly dropped the syndicated Howard Stern program from its Q107 station in Toronto, but the company said yesterday the decision is not connected to the controversial content heard on his popular morning show.
"This is a long-term decision. But it was a move that had to be made now," said J.J. Johnston, general manager of Corus Radio's four Toronto radio stations.
"The move was made to get back to Q107's tradition as a classic rock station," said Mr. Johnston.
He denied Corus was dropping the show because of constant scrutiny by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. The industry watchdog has censured Q107 on two occasions because of content that was deemed to be offensive or degrading.
Mr. Stern has frequently spoken out on the air against Canadian broadcast regulators for their treatment of his program.
However, Corus dropped the Stern show during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday so its final Canadian broadcast was a re-run.
The cancellation means that Canadian fans of the self-proclaimed "king of all media" will no longer be able to tune in to him on radio or television. Mr. Stern's weekly late night television program, which was made up of taped highlights from the radio show, was cancelled recently in the U.S.
Last year, Q107 renewed its agreement to carry the Stern radio show until June 2003 and Mr. Johnson admitted there is a significant cost to dropping it nearly two years before the end of the contract. He would not comment about suggestions that Corus may be required to pay out several hundred thousand dollars.
Don Buchwald, Mr. Stern's longtime agent, was unavailable for comment yesterday because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
However, in 1998, when Montreal radio station CHOM cancelled Mr. Stern's program less than a year into a five-year deal estimated at $200,000 US per year, Mr. Buchwald suggested their financial penalty would be steep.
"I have been in this business a long time. I am not going to be economically disadvantaged because of six men on a broadcast standards council," said Mr. Buchwald.
The ratings for Stern's radio show had slipped in Toronto recently. But it was still rated in the top third among morning shows in the country's most competitive radio market.
As well, Mr. Stern had the No. 1 rated show in Toronto in the key demographic of men aged 25 to 54.
Mr. Johnston also denied yesterday that the cancellation was tied to the recent appointment of John P. Hayes as president of Corus Radio.
Mr. Hayes, a longtime radio executive in the U.S., fired Mr. Stern from a New York station in 1985.
In his autobiography Private Parts, Mr. Stern was scathing in his criticism of Mr. Hayes and has frequently referred to him as "the incubus."
from a Canadian Newswire Press Release
November 23, 2001
Q107 has been a Toronto tradition since 1977. In recent months, the station has been focused on returning to its classic rock roots with programming changes and a return to the streets of Toronto with the recent announcement of the new Q107 Hard Rock Café studio location at Yonge and Dundas Square.
A 20-year radio veteran and Toronto native, John Derringer first joined Q107 in 1984 and left a decade later. He spent five years in morning radio at a sports station, but left because he missed classic rock music. Known and loved by fans for his caustic sense of humour and wild style, Derringer was voted Radio Personality of the Year for seven consecutive years by Canadian Music Week.
"Derringer is an original and a fixture in the classic rock world," said JJ Johnston, General Manager of Corus Radio Toronto. "John's move to the morning show is the final shoe drop of the repositioning of Q107 as a 24-7 Classic Rock station. The station that everyone grew up with in Toronto is now totally back!"
"Hey, what can I say? The Mighty Q is cool," said Derringer. "They let me get away with all kinds of stuff and they pay me for it!"
Derringer's move to mornings on Q107 replaces The Howard Stern Show, which has aired for the past four years. "Stern's show has had a great run and we are appreciative, but it was time for a change," said Johnston. "Derringer is a legend in his own right - he has an established history with Q's listeners and he's hometown Toronto. He can't wait to get back in there yukking it up and playing classic rock in the morning."
Listeners are invited to join Derringer at his inaugural show this Monday at the historic opening of the Hard Rock Café at Yonge and Dundas Square. Derringer will be in the DJ seat at the Hard Rock for the entire day on Monday, broadcasting live and welcoming fans to Toronto's newest radio hot spot.
Derringer will continue to host Definitely Derringer on MOJO Radio now on weekday mornings at 9 a.m.
Corus Entertainment is one of Canada's leading entertainment companies with 52 radio stations (pending CRTC approval), specialty, pay, conventional and digital television services, and Nelvana Limited, an international producer and distributor of children's programming and products. Corus is also prominent in the digital music market and various advertising service companies. A publicly traded company, Corus is listed on the Toronto (CJR.B) and New York (CJR) Exchanges.
--snips--
Thanks to RobK for sending this in (and these comments): this paper...unlike the anti-stern paper THE STAR is credible. The info here, is NOT an anonymous source quoting low ratings, the info here is ACTUALLY the MANAGER of the station group and HE SAYS Stern was still solid in the key demographics...the STAR sucks!
from the Canadian Press
November 23, 2001
TORONTO (CP) -- A couple of jewels have fallen off the crown of the self-proclaimed King of All Media.
New York-based radio shock jock Howard Stern has lost his toehold on the Canadian airwaves with the decision by Toronto FM station Q107, owned by Corus Entertainment, to drop Stern's weekday morning program.
Friday's show was to be his last in Canada. CHOM-FM in Montreal dropped Stern in 1998.
The move comes just days after U.S. TV producer King World announced it would no longer be syndicating Stern's weekly TV show. The final instalment aired last weekend.
But Jim Johnson, general manager of Corus's Toronto radio outlets said it was a restructuring issue, not ratings.
"It's true Howard Stern's numbers are down significantly from when he first started, but the fact is Howard Stern is still very solid in the target demographics of Q107."
Johnson said Stern was dropped because the station is moving to a full classic rock format with a focus strictly on Toronto. And he insists it was a local, not a head office decision. In other words, there was no personal vendetta involved.
John Hayes is the radio executive who fired Stern from New York's WNBC-AM in 1985. Now he's president of the Corus system of Canadian radio stations, including Q107 and MOJO, the all-guy AM radio format in Toronto.
Hayes was not portrayed kindly in Stern's biography Private Parts, and the film based on it. But Johnson takes full responsibility for the decision.
There had been speculation Corus might move Stern to MOJO where it would be a more comfortable fit with the station's testosterone-driven style. But Johnson said Stern's contract was for FM stations alone.
Johnson also dismissed thoughts that any sea change in the public's attitude toward entertainment of questionable taste was a factor in dropping Stern.
"It's fair to say the public's tastes have changed, Sept. 11 has changed us in a lot of ways, but that's not why this decision was made," he said. "We've made the move now for the long-term gain."
He conceded, too, that the Stern program was expensive, from satellite costs to the impact of an unfavourable exchange rate. The station also had to hire "a little entourage" to edit and produce the show.
In 1997, Q107, responding to a wrist-slapping from the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, instituted a time delay on the incoming Stern signal, allowing local technicians to bleep particularly offensive segments.
After his firing at WNBC, Stern moved to WKRK-FM in Manhattan, where he soon built a nationally syndicated network and a loyal following for his crass, often sex-driven, on-air dialogues.
The TV series, basically a televised copy of portions of Stern's radio show, occasionally beat out NBC's Saturday Night Live in the ratings since its 1998 debut, but there are reports the numbers have been dropping.
Johnson said Stern was acquired at a time when Q107 was "in deep trouble" and he helped put the station back on the map, for which they were very grateful.
"But here we are five years later, things have changed, the lustre is off him somewhat -- although he's still strong -- but it's time for us to move on."
When CHUM-owned CHOM dropped the Stern show in Quebec, Stern lashed out on the air, implying the French have a reputation for wartime cowardice and that the whole fuss is why he loves the United States.
"At least the people can hear what they want to hear."
This week, however, Stern has been in re-runs for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and had no on-air comment.
from the Toronto Star
November 23, 2001
The Howard Stern Show — known for its scatological humour and pandering obsession with lesbians, porn stars, and bodily functions — will have its final Toronto broadcast this morning.
The self-proclaimed "King of All Media" was dumped after a steady drop in local ratings, sources tell The Star. Since his high-profile debut on Toronto's Q107 rock station in 1997, Stern's Toronto audience has fallen by a staggering 50 per cent.
In 1998, Stern's show was dropped by CHOM-FM in Montreal, making Toronto the only Canadian market to air the program. It still airs in more than 40 North American markets, including nearby Buffalo.
Executives at Q107 and the station's corporate parent, Corus Radio, declined to comment. However, sources say, the announcement will come today. Q107 decided to buy out Stern, even though he was under contract until 2003.
In an intriguing twist of fate, John P. Hayes — the man who famously fired Stern from New York's WNBC in 1985 — played a key role in ending Stern's raunchy Canadian odyssey. Hayes took over as president of Corus Radio in July, assuming the reins of 52 Canadian stations, including Toronto's Q107, Edge 102, and MOJO (AM 640).
Veteran radio personality John Derringer, who currently has afternoon shows on both Q107 and MOJO, will replace Stern, sources say. Derringer did not return calls from The Star.
Industry sources say the Stern show increasingly presented a programming conundrum for Q107, which is a classic rock station. Toronto listeners had to deal with extended commercial breaks, an editing delay, and were never sure when the Stern program would end and the music would begin.
In Private Parts, Stern's best-selling biography, the acerbic jock excoriates Hayes with an unflattering account of their tumultuous relationship. Even before Hayes arrived in New York as general manager, Stern writes that he called his office in San Francisco to taunt his future boss and "lay down ground rules."
After months of heated exchanges, in which Stern routinely disparaged Hayes as incompetent and "born with a silver spoon in his mouth," the two actually had an on-air fight. Stern was soon fired; management cited "conceptual differences."
Ever since, he's referred to Hayes as "the Incubus."
A few weeks after he was fired, Stern landed at New York's K-Rock station, where he has remained. The show is syndicated by Infinity Broadcasting Corp., a Viacom-owned company.
Today's move to dump Stern, 47, from Q107 comes as the station prepares to move from its North York office to the downtown core. Starting Monday, the station will begin live broadcasting from the renovated Hard Rock Café on Yonge St. and Dundas.
For the past few weeks, Corus executives have been looking for cost efficiencies as they prepare to house Q107, MOJO and Edge 102 in the same headquarters early next year.
While Stern, who reportedly earns more than $25 million a year, remains North America's most recognizable radio personality, his show has suffered several setbacks in recent months.
In March, Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling — a popular stand-up comedian and lead writer — left the show after a protracted contract dispute. Many longtime listeners have complained Stern seems in a state of perpetual distraction since his divorce last year, which ended his 22-year marriage to wife Alison.
And in September, Henry Nasiff, known to regular Stern listeners as "Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf," was found dead in his apartment. Nasiff died of natural causes.
This month, The Howard Stern Radio Show — a weekly, late-night television program based on highlights from the daily radio show — was cancelled by its syndication company. Like Stern's radio program, the television show suffered a drop in ratings over its three years.
Stern's on-air antics also generated endless complaints from various special interest groups, which railed against the off-colour content.
Stern has frequently attracted the ire of broadcast watchdogs, as well.
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has imposed fines exceeding millions of dollars for breaching regulations. The show, which airs live in other markets in the eastern time zone, featured an eight-minute delay in Canada, so Q107 staffes could censor offending material.
In August, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, rapped Stern on his knuckles for "extremely demeaning and degrading sexist comments" he made in 1998, after he asked a Playboy Playmate to strip down, sniff underwear, and eat food out of a dog dish.
In September, Stern dropped from number one to number three in the crucial New York market. And in Los Angeles, another key market, the show has lost 20 per cent of its listeners over the past two years.
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