WRKO Legal Moves Silence Carr (Not Howie Carr live thread week of Sep. 24, 2007)

North East Radio Watch ^ | 9/24/07 | Scott Fybush/raccoonradio

[raccoonradio]

(Scott Fybush): *A MASSACHUSETTS judge barred WRKO (680 Boston) Howie Carr from jumping ship to rival talker WTKK (96.9 Boston) last week, but the decision didn't make the host's future much clearer.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Allan van Gessel ruled Wednesday, just hours before Carr was to have started his WTKK morning shift, that while WRKO owner Entercom couldn't enforce the non-compete clause in Carr's contract, it could enforce a clause that allowed WRKO to match any competing offer for Carr's services.

What does "match" mean? There's the seven-million-dollar question as the legal battle keeps plodding along: would merely matching WTKK's paycheck be enough to force Carr to stay with WRKO, or are there other factors at play, too, such as the Red Sox preemptions that have annoyed Carr all summer, not to mention WTKK's FM signal and the conspicuous absence of Carr's nemesis Tom Finneran over at the Greater Media talker.

In any case, WRKO succeeded in barring Carr from his scheduled Thursday morning debut on WTKK, but for now that's the extent of the victory. Carr was already off the air at WRKO last week while the lawsuit was being heard, and he's not rushing back to the WRKO studios now, either, which leaves substitute hosts filling the afternoon slot both there and on the remaining affiliates of Carr's syndicated show.

Over at WTKK, the picture's only marginally brighter. While the station issued a statement saying "we are disappointed that Howie will not be on WTKK tomorrow, but we are hopeful that he will be a part of the Greater Media family in the very near future," there's every reason to expect Entercom to drag the legal wrangling out as long as possible, which leaves WTKK filling its morning drive slot with substitute hosts as well. That's Michael Graham, for the moment, with weekender Michelle McPhee handling Graham's usual 10-noon slot.

WTKK is moving forward in other ways - it has a new website in development, and it's started to use a new logo proclaiming the station as "Boston's Talk Evolution." (Given the political bent of most of the station's hosts, we'd think "Boston's Talk Creation" might be more in order, but we digress.)

[raccoonradio]

the Not Howie Carr show ping for Fri--you prob got a ping for the column already (which fortunately IS Howie). Have fun listening to Feinburg; I'm tuning in Hannity instead or something else.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28

1st Hour
Researchers with access to closely guarded college admissions data have found that, on the whole, about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards. Contrary to popular belief, it was not the black and Hispanic beneficiaries of affirmative action, but the rich white kids with cash and connections who elbowed most of the worthier applicants aside. Should their be tighter restrictions on college applicants in institutions who accept federal funds?
2nd Hour

3rd Hour

CHUMP LINE! Call 617-779-3469 and leave Howie Todd, Sandy or Happy a message about today\'s stories or anything else buzzing around your bonnet and we may play it back on the air!

4th Hour

[Calvin Locke]

...about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards.

Howie had that WSJ reporter, Dan Golden (as opposed to BU's Dan Goldin), on a while back, promoting his book "The Price of Admission...."

I remember he said "Hollywood" owns Brown, and elected officials are not above using our tax dollars to bribe so called "elite" schools to get their own flesh and blood accepted - then Sen. Bill Frist bribed Princeton with a grant, iirc.

Oh, and lastly, he said the best way to get into an "elite" school was to be very good at some secondary sport.

So the DBM is trying to counter criticism of AA based strictly on race/gender/skin color with "bribery" by cold, hard cash?

The least they could do is compare graduation rates of substandard "whites" with those of substandard AA beneficiaries.

I won't even get into the fields of study.

[warsaw44]

I have begun turning off WRKO at 3:00 PM. I listen to Rush, sometimes Savage and thats it.

[ForegoneAlternative]

New prediction:

WRKO will literally drive Howie out of Boston (he’s always talking about leaving the state anyway), Howie moves down to his Palm Beach condo full-time (or buys bigger, cashing in the Wellesley house, and a smidge of his wife’s $20mm? Imus settlement), and will have a national radio show within... hmmm... 6 months? a year?

You heard it here first.

[raccoonradio]

Same here. btw I know some folks here don’t like the Sox
and Howie himself wasn’t too pleased at being pre-empted by them but tonight the Sox won the AL East for the first time
since ‘95 but WRKO was running Savage instead. (WEEI
their sister station, thankfully, had it). Only a ballteam
whose games Entercom paid millions for, but no big deal.
Move along, nothing to see here. A Bronx cheer to WRKO!
(’RKO comes in better for me at work than WEEI)

[raccoonradio]

You’re probably right but he would have to lose the
local-isms like Menino. Still, he could do it. There
are hosts out there like Boortz (IIRC) who do a national
show for three hours and then there’s one hour for
the flagship station only with local issues. He could
still cover Boston stuff even if he moves down to Fla.
(read papers via Net)

[rockabyebaby]

OMG! Did you hear rko this morning? WTH???? Now they’ve cut an hour off of Moe, he used to run 6 - 10, now he’s down to 6-9, they put on some STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPID financial show, like we need to hear another one....9 to 10 is a financial show, 10 -11 is a health show then O’Brien til one and she does a crossover with MaryEllen for about an hour............at 4 it’s Bob Brinker with what? a financial show.............on Sunday we have a financial show from 8 -9, then another financial show from 9 - 10 and then from 4 - 7 what??? ANOTHER FINANCIAL SHOW with Brinker again,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,RKO is really making it difficult for listeners...................looks like I have to find another station.............

[maryz]

I heard that this morning -- the stupid financial show! You used to be able to listen to RKO on Saturday anyway (though not Sunday!). What's with all these financial shows? I don't have enough money to be interested, but I'll wager that people who do have money don't take their financial advice from the radio!

Are these money shows cheap by any chance -- syndicated? The little I heard of the one this a.m. was, well, the guy sounded so morose and robotic, how could anyone listen to him about anything?

[rockabyebaby]

MY head is spinning! It’s getting very diffucult to listen to RKO these days.....I don’t listen to tommy taxes....from 10 -12 these days is a stand in for todd, although I can say that Avi Nelson isn’t bad but I personally can’t stand Bob Hedlund, rush is a no no, he’s a water carrier so he’s out, 3-7 is Todd filling in for Howie, I can take Todd but not for four hours, five days a week, I like Savage but he’s usually pre-empted for freakin’ baseball......Saturday mornings used to be nice with Moe on for four hours, I like him, did you hear him this morning? His 28 y/o daughter has joined the Army, he’s very proud....I damn near fell off my chair when I heard the financial show come on, I turned it off till 11, I can take O’Brien in small doses but her combined with MaryEllen is just TOOOOOOOOOOO much for my ears and my head!! Sundays I give a listen to Whitley, get some tips on new restaurants, the rest of the day is a wash (usually baseball) until 7, I like the pundit review guys, always interesting guests and I especially like the “someone you should know” segment where they honor a soldier............

I do think these STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPID Saturday and Sunday morning shows are syndicated, from what I’ve read on other sites like radio info apparently they bring money into the station, BUT, they sure as hell don’t bring listeners in that’s FOR SURE!

I wish this thing with Howie would get settled soon,,,,,

[raccoonradio]

‘RKO is worthless exc. for the Sox and if I can find
another outlet for them, I’ll tune in there instead
(at work WRKO comes in really well but at home I
can get WBOQ)

>>I like Savage but he’s usually pre-empted for freakin’ baseball

well I’m a baseball and Sox fan; I do realize his show
got pushed back often to 10 or 11 pm due to Sox but that
will end in a few weeks. Meanwhile unless Sox fans
switched to WEEI, they couldn’t hear the post game
celebration, etc. on Friday night. A Bronx cheer for
‘RKO—sure, the Savage fans were happy to hear his
tape delayed show, but how often do the Sox win
the AL East?

1995 was the last time.

Financial show, etc. = money for ‘RKO not that
anyone listens. Who listens to The Drew Mortgage
Show on WCRN in Worcester?

[raccoonradio]

They were even running promos/ads for the Sat 10 am
show, something like aquatic fitness. Pretty soon
Howie will get his release and go to ‘TKK, I’d think,
and ‘RKO will run this crap in pm drive.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Are you still bothering to listen or is it a case of if Howie’s not there, I’m not there? Do you hit the button for WRKO or your Howie affiliate and once there’s no Howie to be heard, you then switch to Jay Severin, Hannity, The Big Show, or whatever?

I'm feeling very depressed these days. The toads sitting in under Howie's name make me ill. I'm going to see my doctor to check on me. I'm beginning to think the unthinkable. Maybe a good lawyer can help me with a class action lawsuit against WRKO and the criminal Massachusetts court system. I want my free press, not baseball and basketball. Anybody else feeling like me.