Posted by Bud on December 01, 2009 at 10:50:39:
In his media column today, Lewis Lazare talks more about Brandmeier's exit from The Loop, the reason for Byrd's promotion to mornings, and speaks with WLUP's Marv Nyren about losing advertisers from all these changes. Lewis also looks at the TV News ratings, which has NBC5 now falling all the way down to 3rd place.
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All talked out
It's Johnny B. Gone as WLUP distances station from talk, steers toward music
Jonathon Brandmeier is out at Emmis Communications' classic rock WLUP-FM (97.9). Instead, starting today, WLUP midday host John Kempf, who goes by the on-air moniker "Byrd," will become the station's new morning drive host, WLUP General Manager Marv Nyren said.
It's a move away from talk and toward more music.
"He has the rock sound we want," said Nyren. Kempf, who has been with WLUP for seven years, had been WLUP's morning drive host for 11 months before Brandmeier returned to the station from the West Coast in 2005.
Nyren said neither he nor Brandmeier could discuss anything about the morning drive host's exit because of a confidentiality agreement both had signed. Nyren said he did not believe Brandmeier's departure signaled the beginning of the end of high-profile, personality-driven music radio in Chicago.
"I just don't think we're going to have four hours of personality and 20 hours of music on a music station like ours every day," added Nyren, referring to the extremely big dollop of personality-driven shtick Brandmeier typically dished out on his morning drive show at WLUP.
"Byrd will be playing a lot of music," said Nyren.
Brandmeier's departure from WLUP is the latest in a yearlong series of upheavals in the Chicago radio industry that have resulted in the abrupt departures of many of the city's most highly paid on-air talent. Some of that talent, including Steve Dahl, Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon, were believed to be earning $1 million or more a year. Sources said the contract Brandmeier signed last winter included a base salary of between $500,000 and $600,000 a year, but clauses allowing him to do endorsements and read commercials were added to boost his total income at WLUP to close to $1 million a year.
Revenue streams at almost every station in the Chicago market have tumbled dramatically over the past year, forcing stations to take drastic and quick action to reduce overhead -- often by cutting the talent with the fattest paychecks.
Brandmeier still had about three months to go on a one-year contract he signed last winter, but Nyren apparently wanted to remove Brandmeier from the air as soon as possible because he also had a staff of four, including Kent Voss, Vince Argento, Esmeralda and Greg Bauer. Nyren said all of Brandmeier's staff, with the exception of audio producer Vince Argento, left the station along with the morning drive host.
Though Brandmeier was earning a significant amount of money, he wasn't delivering for WLUP in the ratings, which, no doubt, made it easier for Nyren to cut him. In the October Arbitron book, Brandmeier's morning drive show ranked only 21st in the key 25- to 54-year-old adult demo, down sharply from a tie for 13th place in the September Arbitron book. Sources say ratings that poor could not justify the kind of money Brandmeier was making at WLUP in this economic environment.
Interestingly, Brandmeier's departure from WLUP comes just a month after the station's parent, Emmis Communications, axed another well-known rock music jock, J.C. Corcoran, from its St. Louis classic rock station KIHT-FM (96.3), citing ratings.
Nyren said he expected the majority of advertisers who bought air time during the Brandmeier show to continue buying WLUP. Nyren said one of four advertisers for which Brandmeier did personal endorsements on his show had already indicated it would continue to make buys on the station, and the WLUP general manager was hopeful the other three would continue to buy the station.
Jump for Channel 2
The ratings for WBBM-Channel 2's 10 p.m. newscast jumped a whopping 40 percent from a year ago, to 5.8, according to the November Nielsen TV ratings book, which ended Wednesday. The showing was good enough for a solid No. 2 ranking, but still well behind leader WLS-Channel 7, which pulled a 9.7 rating for its 10 p.m. news in November, down a few notches from its 10.5 rating in November, 2008.
WMAQ-Channel's 10 p.m. newscast, with a 4.4 rating for the month, dropped to third from second. The dismal lead-ins provided by Jay Leno's new 9 p.m. talk fest certainly contributed to the decline.