I had no idea it was his last weekend. The Memphis area desperately needs black conservative voices, so this isn’t good news. Maybe he will reappear on one of the new conservative stations (98.9 or 990) ala Ben Ferguson.
Nothing in the Commercial Appeal.
Ya could just see it coming.
ping
WREC is a mess, as are half the stations in Clear Channel’s Memphis cluster. I grew up in the Mid-South and still know some folks in local broadcasting circles; a couple of years ago, they tell me, Clear Channel got 50 cents of every radio advertising dollar in the market; now, their share is closer to 40 cents on the dollar—and slipping. That’s a big reason that Tim Spencer got the boot as the Memphis group manager.
The biggest problem with WREC is that Clear Channel lived up to its reputation as “Cheap Channel.” Mike Fleming was deemed “too expensive,” so they jettisoned his contract in favor of the more affordable Ben Ferguson. A few months later Ben was gone, too. Now, with the departure of Andrew Clarksenior, there is no local talk in Memphis, just the obligatory morning news block, and the usual line-up of syndicated hosts.
Memphis is something of a tough market for conservative talk; minority listeners make up about 40% of the market and most of them aren’t tuning in to Rush or local hosts. Still, WREC was pulling a 4.0 rating (or better) just a couple of years ago and I believe it could again, under the guidance of a good market manager and program director, and with at least one talented, local conservative host.
However, I’m not sure that Clear Channel will try to fix its struggling Memphis stations. It has three FMs (urban and gospel-formatted) that are doing well; the remaining stations, WDIA-AM, WEGR-FM and WREC have been drifting for a couple of years. CC may elect to sell those properties and concentrate on the stations that are doing well.
Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that some of the prospective buyers would do any better running WREC. Citadel (which has four stations in the market) has just emerged from bankruptcy and is in the process of merging with Cumulus; Entercom has a history of mis-managing successful talk stations (WRKO in Boston is a case-in-point) and local broadcaster/physician/politician George Flinn wouldn’t invest any serious money in the station.
One indication about the future of WREC is how quickly Clear Channel names a new market manager. Spencer has been gone for about a month, and there are plenty of folks within the company who could be promoted to the post. Apparently, there’s no rush to fill the post, and the stations keep drifting. In fact, I’ve heard that WDIA is still broadcasting on low power because of issues associated with the spring flooding in Memphis. If that’s accurate, it would suggest that the long-time dominant urban station in the market is up for sale, along with WREC and WEGR.
And that’s too bad, because WREC could be fixed. I’d find a stronger crew for the morning news block, bring back Mike Fleming in the afternoons and simulcast talk programming on WEGR. As a format, classic rock is dying, and conservative talk is gravitating to FM, as evidenced by simulcasts of such stations as WSB in Atlanta and WBAP in Dallas. Memphis has a couple of FM talkers, but they’re struggling. Putting WREC’s programming on the FM band would save CC some money, and build a foundation for the future of conservative talk radio in Memphis.
I just called WREC and was told that Andrew had quit and walked out. That was all he was prepared to say, and it certainly isn’t the whole story.
BTW, Ben Ferguson still has a talk show on FM 98.9 on daily from, I believe, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. but I could have those hours wrong. http://newstalkfm989.com/
This morning I caught maybe two minutes of the morning show on 98.9. Either Andrew Clarksenior was being interviewed or he is now one of three hosts. I got the impression he was one of the hosts.
ANDREW IS NOW ON 6-9 AM on 98.9 FM! He’s not alone though, it’s still the same deal as the 600 morning show, with 2 men and a lady having discussions, the main difference I’ve noticed...they take calls! I experienced the same thing Sunday afternoon with hearing Rush and I was dumbfounded. 600 is messing up. They did make a good call getting rid of Ben, he’s shrill and obnoxious, and to me, doesn’t come across as genuine, just that he’s in it for money. And while I’m on Ben, he hasn’t any skills in just talking/presenting a case, he just depends on throwing out a topic, letting people call in, if he agrees he says “yep, thanks for the call”, if he disagrees you can hear it in his voice, he just wants to poke fun at them. I agree with him on most things, but I can’t stand listening to him. Hopefully he doesn’t pull 98.9 down.
Now, back to 600...all they have now though is Rush; Beck is depressing, Hannity is shrill and obnoxious to listen to most of the time, this Schnitt guy is a joke, and the Wall Street Journal show is just a one hour show that repeats for 3 hours. What a bad station they’ve become. It’s kind of like the choice between a local business/restaurant that provides better products/food/service, versus a big chain that may have better prices or is more well-known, but eventually you figure out they really suck. 600, you suck! I love listening to Laura Ingraham on 98.9 too!
I sent an email to andrew@600wrec.com and it bounced back.
That means they deleted his email account....
(I too want to find his new home )...