Die.
Die.
Die.
Roth to Exit CBS Morning Radio
NEW YORK -- In a sign of the struggles some broadcast-radio stations face in the absence of Howard Stern's popular morning show, Mr. Stern's successor in New York and other markets will leave CBS Corp.'s airwaves, to be replaced by the duo Opie & Anthony, according to people familiar with the matter.
The duo would replace David Lee Roth, the former rock star who has failed to attract a big audience in the months since Mr. Stern left CBS for Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. The multiyear deal for Opie & Anthony, still in final stages of negotiation, would be a coup for XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., which currently broadcasts the duo's show. Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia would continue to air on XM, and they would promote XM on air to CBS's listeners in cities where Mr. Roth's show airs.
Turns out it's David Lee Roth, telling a story about his father, the prison doctor, and how he was taken hostage by a man who snuck a gun into the prison. Well, the story went on waaaaaaaay too long. David was really liking the sound of his own voice. I had to swith away after about 10 minutes.
About a month later, I'm driving home and my radio station started playing some lousy song, so I hit "seek" and began jumping up the dial (so to speak). Bad song. Bad song. Bad song. Oh, it's David Lee Roth.
He's telling this story. Turns out his father was a prison doctor. Turns out he was once taken hostage. Turns out David likes to hear his own voice. Turns out David doesn't have a wide variety of stories to tell.
First, last, and always it is about ratings. Nobody cares if Roth can "play nice" with management as long as he pulls in ratings, which he is not.
Die.
Die.
Die.
Looks like Dave will have to go back to being a paramedic.
That's unheard of. Imagine being the guy who sells the airtime to advertisers through that format switch. It'd be like being a starter on the Yankees, and one day waking up to find out you're riding the bench in Kansas City.
Update from FMQB.com:
News reports are suggesting that a deal is being finalized for XM Satellite Radio's Opie & Anthony and the show's third star, Jim Norton, to replace David Lee Roth on CBS Radio's Free-FM outlets, posssibly within the next two weeks. A deal is supposedly being worked out by CBS's Joel Hollander and XM's Hugh Panero that would bring O&A to WFNY/New York, WYSP/Philadelphia and WBCN/Boston. All three markets are former O&A outlets. Roth was still on the air this morning.
Other Roth outlets include KLLI/Dallas, WNCX/Cleveland, WRKZ/Pittsburgh and WPBZ/West Palm Beach. It is unclear if O&A would appear in those markets.
O&A skirted the subject at the start of their program today and would not directly address the rumor, other than mocking Howard Stern's coverage of the news on his Sirius program earlier this morning.
The move by CBS Radio will surely annoy Stern, especially since The Wall Street Journal is reporting O&A "would promote XM on air to CBS's listeners." Stern is admittedly not a fan of Opie & Anthony and recently came clean regarding the long-rumored gag order he had Mel Karmazin place on the duo when both parties were employed by Infinity Broadcasting. Also, since arriving at Sirius Satellite Radio, Stern has stepped up his attack and on-air disparagement of the XM personalities compared to his days on terrestrial radio when he barely mentioned them and treated them as more of an after-thought.
O&A will continue to be heard on XM's High Voltage channel 202 from 7am - 11am, with a cleaned up version airing on CBS Radio. The duo's XM show, while sometimes crossing into FCC objectionable material, has generally been clean for terrestrial radio's airwaves, barring some curse words that will need to be edited out of the program.
Earlier this year, O&A held a "Super Ball" contest with three male contestants going through different forms of genital torture, including an "ultimate challenge" where a contraption filled with bees and wasps was connected to the contestants' scrotum. While one radio station recently copied the contest, this type of material might not fly in the new FCC-driven world of clean content on the nation's airwaves. O&A were last on terrestrial radio in a fulltime capacity before the Janet Jackson breast-baring incident.
A call to a CBS Radio spokesperson has gone unreturned at this time.
This may seem like a quick fix for CBS Radio, but will this reignite the Roman Catholic League candle of outrage and make this marriage more trouble than it's worth? Also, with already diminished ratings and less commercials than during the Howard Stern days, will Free-FM be one boycott away from an even worse position than it was with Roth?
Daivd Lee Roth AND talk radio...
I started listening to WYSP in Philly after Dave's show first aired. Yes, I am the one semi-recurring listener out there. I admit, I don't know a darn thing about what it takes to make a good talk radio show but I really don't get the appeal of shows like O&A or Kidd Chris, here in Philly.
Giving it half a thought, I’ll rag on Kidd’s show only because I find it at the same time unbearable and yet strangely interesting.
Kidd's show seems to be made up of a lot of unwarranted giggling, canned effects available at the push of a button, and mindless banter with side kicks and regular callers. I'm not being mean, that is just what I hear when I tune in. Come to think of it, Hannity, Imus, et al are not really all that different. Anyway, back to Kidd- sometimes he will have an interesting guest on for a few minutes, but then it is back to the usual stuff. Still, shows like Kidd's have a sense of direction, which is something that Dave’s show seems to lack. In all that muck, Kidd engages the audience and guides their interests in developing stories and upcoming events.
Dave's show never seems to fully compel people to be a part of the show nor attend an event sponsored by the show, much less tune in each day. It is hard to imagine that, early in the game, those involved in his show never gave any consideration to ideas for promoting the show through local, even national events.
Recently there was some evidence of life. That trip to Miami sounded interesting but was cut short. And Dave’s involvement with Songs of Love could have gone somewhere. This morning I heard him mention he was hired to perform one song tonight to benefit Songs of Love, but he only said the gig was somewhere in Manhattan. That sounds like a missed opportunity- though Dave may already know his show’s end is near, so why bother promoting a dead horse.
I'm just surprised that the brain trust at CBS didn't decide to replace Roth with Sammy Hagar.