wfan rocked

[alocispepraluger102]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/arts/tel...agewanted=print

April 14, 2007

Post-Imus, WFAN Opts for More Sports, for Now

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Whenever Don Imus left for vacation, traveled west to his cattle ranch for children with cancer in New Mexico or was hospitalized for his various ailments, there was never a doubt that he would return to the WFAN radio studio in Astoria, Queens, or, in later years, to the MSNBC studio in Secaucus, N.J.

But Mr. Imus was fired on Thursday by CBS Radio, which owns WFAN and operates Westwood One, which syndicated “Imus in the Morning” to 60 stations, for calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”

Earlier in the week MSNBC dropped the show, which it had simulcast on cable television for more than 10 years.

Yesterday there was clearly no succession plan in place for Mr. Imus, but for the next two weeks, Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo, who are the co-hosts of the afternoon “Mike and Mad Dog” show on WFAN, will fill in, working from 6 to 10 a.m., tweaking their two-man act to have a slightly more national flavor. After the midday hosts, Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, expand their show to 2 p.m., Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo will return to the air for the afternoon drive shift, from 2 to 6, which will be cut temporarily from their usual 1 to 6:30 p.m. slot.

Mr. Russo also said the program would be heard on all the stations that received “Imus in the Morning,” except those in Boston and Washington. A Westwood spokeswoman said she could not verify that.

Mike Barnicle, a frequent guest of Mr. Imus and the host of a talk show in Boston, was considered as an interim replacement, “but it didn’t work out,” said Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio.

Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo were first teamed at WFAN in 1989, two years after it pioneered the sports-radio format. Mr. Imus was never a sports aficionado, but sports were frequently discussed on his program.

He often tapped Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo — whom he dubbed “Fatso and Fruit Loops” — for their sports knowledge. Ultimately, it was Mr. Imus’s toxic mix of sports and a racist comment that led to his stunningly abrupt fall.

“This place is reeling,” Mr. Russo said by telephone yesterday during a break in their program. Mr. Francesa, also during a break for commercials, added: “He was the rock upon which WFAN’s success and ‘Mike and the Mad Dog’s’ success were built. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Mr. Francesa said the plans for the morning show were confined to a period of two weeks, “so they can get their ducks in a row.”

“The station needs to gain a little equilibrium, and this was the easiest thing for them to do,” he added. “We didn’t want to leave the afternoon open, so this made sense.”

Mr. Russo said the station didn’t have a staff personality who could be a permanent replacement in the morning for Mr. Imus. “The company made a huge decision,” he said. “It’s a Friday. This place needed to be stabilized. They would have split us up, with one of us doing the morning, one doing the afternoon, but then you weaken the afternoon.”

Their temporary morning assignment might serve as a test for whether WFAN can survive with a sports-talk format in the lucrative morning-drive period, as ESPN Radio does, or will need to look for a new host with a political or comedic background.

Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers, a trade magazine, speculated that “behind closed doors,” station executives were debating: “ ‘Do we go all sports, or bring in an Imus-type who is compatible with sports?’ ”

He suggested that Erich Muller, a 40-year-old Chicago-based syndicated morning radio host who is known as Mancow, is the sort of young, outspoken personality who “would be perfect for WFAN.”

Mr. Harrison added that when WFAN began, management believed a high-profile, nonsports voice like Mr. Imus was needed “because it was a leap of faith that sports talk could be a whole day’s format.”

On their show yesterday Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo lauded Mr. Imus’s career, excoriated CBS Radio for firing him with a day left in the station’s annual charity radiothon — in which Mr. Imus was customarily a central figure — and attacked those who had benefited from Mr. Imus’s praise, salesmanship and backing but had failed to defend him publicly.

Their targets included Tim Russert, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press”; Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who announced his presidential campaign on the Imus show; and Harold E. Ford Jr., the former Democratic congressman from Tennessee.

“Shame on MSNBC,” Mr. Russo said. “They fired Imus, pulled the rug out from under him. Same with CBS.”

Mr. Francesa added: “CBS did worse. Worse! At least NBC had the good graces to fire him before the radiothon started. CBS fired him in the middle of it.”

He continued: “Our parent company is CBS, and they didn’t stand up to the pressure. They hid under their desk when the storm came.”

Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo said they had not been told by WFAN or CBS to temper or cease their criticism. “If they were worried,” Mr. Russo said, “they wouldn’t have put us on in the morning.”

For at least two weeks starting Monday, the Francesa-Russo team will match their show against ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” which has as its hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. In the most recent Arbitron ratings for men 25 to 54, the 3.7 share for “Imus in the Morning” was 76 percent better than that for “Mike & Mike,” while Mr. Francesa and Mr. Russo’s afternoon share was a 6.6. Among listeners 18 to 34, a demographic sought by ESPN, the Greenberg-Golic show’s share was a shade better than Mr. Imus’s.

Tim McCarthy, the general manager of 1050 ESPN Radio in New York, declined to speculate about the competition that would be created were WFAN to replace Mr. Imus permanently with a sports show. But he said it would be a mistake to shift Mr. Russo and Mr. Francesa into that slot.

“They’re sitting with big ratings in the afternoon,” he said. “It’s a slippery slope to move a show that drives a lot of revenue to a different time.”

Edited April 14, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[catesta]

I don't listen to the station so I couldn't care less who they put in to take the place of Imus, but if the go the Mancow route that station is only going to sink even more. Talk about a no talent.

[alocispepraluger102]

I don't listen to the station so I couldn't care less who they put in to take the place of Imus, but if the go the Mancow route that station is only going to sink even more. Talk about a no talent.

thanks. i do occasionally listen and will take note.

[T.D.]

I haven't listened to WFAN for a few years (moved away from NYC area), but the Imus departure has got to hurt the station big time. It seemed pretty clear that Imus attracted the lion's share of advertising dollars...in fact, his 10AM signoff used to be an extended put-down of the remaining 20 hours of WFAN programming, in terms of both profitability and content.

I know nothing about Mancow, but doubt that a new personality could be successful without NYC roots. Imus went way back as a NYC DJ (WNBC? I remember weird chemically-induced rantings in the early 1980s. He went to Cleveland for a while, but was regarded as a NY figure).

Edited April 14, 2007 by T.D.

[alocispepraluger102]

I haven't listened to WFAN for a few years (moved away from NYC area), but the Imus departure has got to hurt the station big time. It seemed pretty clear that Imus attracted the lion's share of advertising dollars...in fact, his 10AM signoff used to be an extended put-down of the remaining 20 hours of WFAN programming, in terms of both profitability and content.

I know nothing about Mancow, but doubt that a new personality could be successful without NYC roots. Imus went way back as a NYC DJ (WNBC? I remember weird chemically-induced rantings in the early 1980s. He went to Cleveland for a while, but was regarded as a NY figure).

well said. wfan rode him for 20 years and cbs hung him out to dry.

they're on the web now with one of the more accessible web signals.