Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 17, 2009 at 12:48:00:
WGN takes steps to angle for young, male listeners
RADIO | Williams moves to midmorning as Jarrett takes his morning drive slot
June 17, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE | Sun-Times Media & Marketing columnist
The increasingly frantic makeover of news/talk WGN-AM (720) continued apace with another complete revamp this week of the station's morning lineup.
WGN Program Director Kevin Metheny and General Manager Tom Langmyer, it appears, want to have what they hope is a workable lineup of talent in place at the station well before the Chicago Cubs complete their season in September or October, and WGN quickly loses the tens of thousands of young male listeners who routinely tune in to the ballgames and inflate the station's ratings. With an edgier, fresher sound, WGN is aiming to hang on to more of the younger males who have typically avoided the station.
On Monday, WGN shifted John Williams from the morning drive slot to midmorning and said it would import Greg Jarrett, 56, an out-of-work (since February) former host at news/talk KGO-AM (810) in San Francisco, to take over the morning drive job, starting June 22. Coincidentally, KGO's parent is Citadel Broadcasting, which also owns and operates news/talk WLS-AM (890), a staunch competitor of WGN's in the Chicago market. Williams lasted only six months in morning drive at WGN, but his quick reassignment to midmorning does not surprise those who know Williams, who was put in morning drive before Metheny had arrived as WGN's program director.
Though he readily accepted the promotion, Williams was, by all accounts, not a good fit with the morning drive format, which requires a host to make a big impact with short bits delivered in two or three-minute sound bites. Williams' strength has always been the long-form interview and storytelling -- something he will be more readily able to do in the time slot formally filled by "The Kathy O'Malley and Judy Markey Show," which was dumped last month.
Williams also wasn't moving the needle fast enough in the ratings in his morning drive slot. In the most recent April book, WGN pulled a 2.6 rating among adults 25 to 54 during the 6 to 10 a.m. time period, which included a large chunk of the Williams show. That was good enough for a tie for a disappointing 17th in the market. Williams' numbers also paled in comparison to the 4.7 rating WLS scored for a large chunk of the "Don Wade and Roma" show, which put the husband-and-wife duo third in the same time period in April.
But what of Jarrett, on whose shoulders now rests the fate of WGN's morning drive show? Sources say Jarrett gets high marks for being a competent, professional broadcaster, who was for four years a correspondent on the ABC's "World News with Peter Jennings." But experienced newsman that he is, Jarrett still has two potentially big strikes against him -- he doesn't know Chicago, and he is a complete unknown to Chicago radio listeners, who will have to warm up to him in a hurry if WGN is to get the ratings boost it wants.
"I'm going to give it my best shot," said Jarrett, who also hopes his long experience as a newsman with ABC's radio and television units will help, especially if there's a breaking news event.
Indeed, some observers think WGN may have tapped Jarrett, with his strong news background, to help siphon off a few listeners from all news WBBM-AM (780), which has been another strong performer in recent ratings books.