“NEWS FATIGUE” WANES AS IMPEACHMENT PROCESS CONTINUES • NIELSEN PPM RATINGS • GREAT NEWS ABOUT ERIKA PULLEY-HAYES & JOHN HESS

There is no doubt about it, listening to news and talk radio is rising. NPR News/Talk stations, as well as commercial news and talk outlets continue see increased AQH shares. Given how close we are to 2020 election, expects this trend to accelerate. 

In 2016 and early 2017, increases in listening to radio news were called “the Trump bump.” As the impeachment process moves on, perhaps the next few months could be called the “Trump dump.”

Washington, DC is a good example. In the just released November PPM ratings, three of the top five stations in the November PPM ratings were airing news and talk programming. Of course DC is a company town, the impact of events in the Capitol are felt across the country.

The competition between NPR News/Talk WAMU and commercial News/Talk WTOP continues be tight. 

In the November ratings, both stations had significant gains in AQH listeners compared to October. Also showing big gains in November was conservative talk station WMAL. They increased their AQH share from 3.1 to 3.7.

Also in the November PPMs, Contemporary Christian WGTS and the K-Love repeater WLVW both lost ground.

We do have a question for the folks at WAMU: Why not do something more productive with your HD 2 channel. The District really, really needs a socially aware Adult Alternative noncom station.

WAMU HD2 has been around for over a decade. It has always been an expensive expense for WAMU. 

The bluegrass was good  but the plan to lease the channel to a bluegrass organization didn't work. Meanwhile the FM translator at 105.5 is now repeating Sputnik News Radio.

ERIKA PULLEY-HAYES SAILS INTO WMFE, ORLANDO

Erika Pulley-Hayes

Erika Pulley-Hayes is about to become the new president and CEO of NPR News/Talk WMFE and Classical WMFV in Orlando. She starts the new job on January 13, 2020.

Pulley-Hayes comes to WMFE/WMFV from CPB, where she was VP of Radio.  She is known in the public radio system as an enthusiastic supporter of public media.

She said in a press release:

“WMFE|WMFV provides an important service to Central Florida, and this is an incredible opportunity to build upon the quality journalism and programming this organization delivers to the community.”

Pulley-Hayes said in a press release. “I am very excited to join this team and continue working to enhance the local service that engages audiences across platforms.”

The previous CEO was LaFontaine Oliver, who moved to WYPR, Baltimore.

UPDATE 12/4 9:00am CT

WMFV began simulcasting WMFE's programming as of Labor Day 2019. 

Full-time Classical music is now only on WMFE HD 2. 

It did not show up in the November PPM data.

The Orlando area is filled with FM translators. Promo would also help. 

WUCF is perhaps the best-programmed Jazz music station in country. Station Director Kayonne Riley seems to have the secret sauce. Classic Jazz lives on WUCF HD2.

JOHN HESS FOLLOWS DAN EDWARDS AS GM AT WUWM, MILWAUKEE

John Hess

John Hess is the choice to be the new Director and General Manager of WUWM in Milwaukee. Hess currently is the Chief Operating Officer at Arizona Public Media in Tucson.

He replaces Dave Edwards who managed WUWM for over 30 years. When he got the job at WUWM he replaced George Bailey as GM. 

The relationship with Bailey meant Edwards had a front row seat in the use of research to guide programming decisions.

WUWM currently has annual revenue of more than $4.5 million.   

Approximately 80% of revenue comes from “listener-sensitive sources” – membership, underwriting, major donors and events.

WUWM is performing well in the ratings. 

They increased their AQH share by almost a point from October to November.

The only Classical station in the metro is a repeater of Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), located located near Racine. 

Most of the Classical music radio audience in the metro is there. WPR Classical is also heard on four other signals.

ONE OF MY HEROS PASSES ON: JOE SMITH

Reprinted from All Access on Tuesday:

JOE SMITH, a BOSTON radio disc jockey who rose to head the WARNER BROS., ELEKTRA /ASYLUM and CAPITOL RECORDS labels with a quick wit that led him to be the music industry’s designated “toastmaster,” has passed away at the age of 91.

Perhaps best known for his seats behind the basket as one of L.A.’s longest standing LAKER fans, SMITH has been a season ticket holder since arriving in town from BOSTON nearly 55 years ago. SMITH also headed the RECORDING ACADEMY and manned a fledgling WARNER launched sports network and, along the way, worked with such notable artists as GRATEFUL DEAD, VAN MORRISON, JIMI HENDRIX, FRANK SINATRA, JAMES TAYLOR, JACKSON BROWNE, LINDA RONSTADT, BONNIE RAITT and GARTH BROOKS. Born in CHELSEA, MA, SMITH graduated the local high school in 1945 as senior class president, serving time in the ARMY before attending YALE UNIVERSITY, graduating in 1950, where he was roommates with WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY and friends with GEORGE BUSH, SR. 

While at YALE, he worked at the college radio station and became a disc jockey at a country station in PETERSBURGH, VA, then BOSTON before moving to CALIFORNIA in 1961 as head of promotion at WARNER BROS. RECORDS, going from a diehard CELTICS fan into an early LAKER supporter. “When BILL RUSSELL retired, I realized I had invested a lot of money in the LAKERS, so I better start rooting for them,” the longest - continuous LAKER season - ticket holder once recalled.

While at WARNER BROS., working with MIKE MAITLAND and then his good friend MO OSTIN, SMITH saw the label go from its biggest acts being FRANK SINATRA, PETULA CLARK, PETER, PAUL & MARY and ALLEN SHERMAN to THE GRATEFUL DEAD, whose signing he famously executed while visiting the band in their home of SAN FRANCISCO. “The DEAD insisted I’d never understand their music until I dropped acid with them,” said SMITH “I wouldn’t drink or eat anything when I was near them.” SMITH was turned on to the DEAD by local S.F. disc jockey TOM DONOHUE. “My wife and I were having dinner at ERNIE’S, this expensive restaurant there,” he said. “I was in my BANK OF AMERICA suit and she was in her pearls. I said, ‘We’re dressed kind of funny,’ and he said, ‘No one will notice.’ He was at the AVALON BALLROOM and said the band wanted to meet me. It was like a FELLINI movie with the smell of pot wafting in the air. We made a deal about five days later.” SMITH went on to sign BLACK SABBATH “when I saw kids lined up to see them at the WHISKEY” and TINY TIM, hiring RICHARD PERRY to produce him. After WARNER BROS. SMITH was tapped by an outgoing DAVID GEFFEN, who left the music to go into the movie business in 1975, to replace JAC HOLZMAN and himself as head of the combined ELEKTRA/ASYLUM label. “It was between MO [OSTIN] and me, but I lived in BEVERLY HILLS, so I was closer,” he recalled about moving from WARNER BROS.’ BURBANK offices.

While at ELEKTRA/ASYLUM, he oversaw the label’s entrance into black music by signing DICK GRIFFEY’s SOLAR label, with artists like PATRICE RUSHEN, and helped guide the success of THE EAGLES, JACKSON BROWNE, LINDA RONSTADT and, later on, new wave stalwarts TELEVISION and THE CARS. In 1983, WARNER had him helm the fledgling, NEW YORK-based cable network HOME SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT – acquiring the PITTSBURGH PIRATES – before the ATARI crash forced them to sell it to FOX SPORTS. After a brief stint as head of THE RECORDING ACADEMY (“They were paying me $300,000 and I didn’t even have to be in the office!”), BHASKAR MENON offered him the Presidency at CAPITOL/EMI RECORDS in 1987, to try to rebuild the once storied label at the Tower, which had fallen into disrepair since the heyday of SINATRA, THE BEATLES and THE BEACH BOYS. Helping the turnaround, he signed BONNIE RAITT, with whom he’d worked at WARNER BROS. and won seven GRAMMYS for her 1989 album “ Nick Of Time,” and GARTH BROOKS. While still at CAPITOL, SMITH compiled a series of interviews he’d conducted into “Off The Record: An Oral History Of Popular Music,” in 1988, including conversations with a wide range of people he’d known through the years, from BOB DYLAN, ARTIE SHAW, BARBRA STREISAND and BO DIDDLEY to PAUL McCARTNEY, BILLY JOEL, MICK JAGGER, JAMES TAYLOR and ELLA FITZGERALD. He donated the original recordings to the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS for digitization, where they are now available for anyone to access. He retired from CAPITOL in MARCH, 1993, to spend more time with his wife, his wine collection and working on his golf game, largely staying away from the music business since booking talent for concerts surrounding the FIFA WORLD CUP in the U.S. in 1994.

A noted raconteur, SMITH was a regular toastmaster/MC at industry events who would make fun of himself as much as he did the other executives. One of his most famous lines about a fellow major label exec was “to the record business what surfers are to KANSAS,” and ended one B’NAI BRITH dinner honoring the infamous, mob connected ROULETTE RECORDS boss MORRIS LEVY by noting, “I just got word my wife and children have been released, so goodnight everybody.” SMITH received a star on the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME in AUGUST, 2015. He is survived by his longtime wife DONNIE, son JEFFREY, a wine expert, daughter JULIE KELLNER, grandson CHRISTOPHER and granddaughter LILA.