BRUCE WINTER, 64, MOVES ON TO “THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY” • iHEART ZOOMS UP PODTRAC PUBLISHER CHARTS

Bruce Winter

Bruce Winter, Program Director of News/Talk WUWM, Milwaukee died last Wednesday (11/14). 

The cause was cancer. 

Now tributes are rolling in about the amazing impact Winter had on WUWM, the people he worked with and the Milwaukee music scene.

Winter was a Pink Floyd fan. He would have loved a comment by Samuel Llana posted on Winter's Facebook page [link]:

He's earned a great seat at the great gig in the sky. His passion for music was contagious. Fan, student, teacher, champion and that voice !! We'll miss you.

Winter was a highly regarded programmer who was a pioneer of the public radio News/Talk format. Winter joined WUWM in 1978 when he was 17, starting as operations manager. He became Program Director in 1985. Winter worked with legendary researcher George Bailey, who was also WUWM’s GM during the station's early years.

In 1985 WUWM had a dual format of NPR News and Classical music. Bailey’s research indicated that if WUWM dropped Classical music and switched to a full-time News/Talk format WUWM would likely increase it’s listeners.

WUWM did made the change and it was very successful. Over time, WUWM’s format-focusing inspired many other station programmers to do the same.

Bruce Winter on-the-air during his early days at WUWM

Though he was a leader in News/Talk format circles, Winter’s personal passion was music, particularly homegrown talent. 

Winter promoted Milwaukee area musicians on WUWM@Nite, WUWM’s HD-2 channel and often on WUWM’s signature daily show talk show Lake Effect.

One of the people who knew Winter best was his boss, WUWM’s long-time GM Dave Edwards. Edwards and Winter knew each other since high school. Edwards released a statement on the day of Winter death. In part, Edwards said:

Dave Edwards

“While we have a very dedicated staff, there is no single person who was more instrumental in creating the WUWM sound than Bruce. He led by example and his voice is probably the most familiar to our listeners. Winter did so many of the program promos and other bits that air regularly on WUWM that he's "knitted into the fabric of the station.”

Edwards, who announced earlier this month that he's retiring from WUWM in May, 2019, said Winter set a high bar for his co-workers, and he will continue to be an example for others. Edwards said in his tribute:

"One of the [WUWM] producers once told me, 'My goal is to be as good as Bruce expected me to be.’”

Ever true to the music, two weeks before his death, Winter posted a video of Greg Allman singing Ain’t My Cross to Bear on his Facebook page along with this message:

"'I'll live on, and I'll be strong. Cuz it just ain't my cross to bear.' I miss Greg Allman. So glad there is so much of that music around."

iHEARTRADIO JUMPS UP PODTRAC’S TOP PUBLISHER RANKINGS AFTER BUYING HOWSTUFFWORKS

According to the October Podtrac publisher rankings, iHeartRadio zoomed up to number two, just behind NPR. iHeart’s Unique Monthly Audience grew 59% with the addition of the HowStuffWorks cluster of podcasts.

This was a neat trick given that iHeart now claims to be publishing 80% fewer active shows than they had in September. 

In September, Podtrac said that iHeart had 639 active shows and HowStuffWorks had 40. In other words, the two publishers combined claimed 679 active shows in September. 

In the October rankings Podtrac says the two publishers combined had 126 shows. What happened to the other podcasts? 

Velvet Beard at Podtrac sent this explanation:

"Most publishers on the ranking choose not to include all of the shows they produce in the rankings.  They start and stop shows all the time and smaller shows do not contribute meaningfully to the overall audience number.   We decided with iHeart that it made sense to not track all 639 shows for the ranking but to concentrate on those that have significant audiences.  This decreased their number of shows being tracked for the ranking from the 639. That change did not significantly affect their ranking as iHeart alone.

Another notable change in the top ten publishers list is the addition of Daily Wire at number nine.  

Daily Wire publishes The Ben Shapiro Show, an alt-right daily program that is similar to The Sean Hannity Show. 

Shapiro has parlayed the popularity of his podcast into a talk radio career.

Shapiro also owns the Daily Wire [link], a one-stop shop for alt-right talking points. Shapiro reportedly started Daily Wire with a $15 million investment by Ferris and Dan Wilks who are big players in the fossil fuel industry.