musicradio77
10-27-2005, 01:08 AM
For those of you fans who loved Van Halen, this article is taken from the Daily News regarding that David Lee Roth is taking Stern's place:
Rocker shocker
Van Halen frontman Roth jumps to take over Stern's slot at WXRK
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
"Diamond" David Lee Roth, the rock 'n' roll motormouth best known for stage moves like pouring Jack Daniels down his spandex pants, will take Howard Stern's morning spot on New York's WXRK (92.3 FM) starting Jan. 3.
Yesterday's announcement by Infinity Radio, parent of WXRK, ends months of speculation on who will step into commercial morning radio's largest shoes.
Stern earns an estimated $100 million a year for Infinity. He is moving to Sirius Satellite Radio in January because he says the FCC's often vague indecency guidelines "make it impossible for me to do my show any longer on commercial radio."
While the 51-year-old Roth made his reputation as the frontman for the hard rock band Van Halen in the '80s, his arrival signals the end of the full-time rock music format on WXRK.
While rock will still be played on weekends, the weekday K-Rock will become a primarily talk format called "Free FM," which Infinity also is launching in several other major cities.
Roth's show, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., will be heard in seven cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, on stations that now carry Stern.
Other Stern stations will get different morning hosts, including Adam Carolla in Los Angeles and Star and Buc Wild, who are based at New York's WWPR (105.1 FM), on KXBT in Austin, Tex. Magician Penn Jillette will have a weekday one hour program on WXRK, and the radio giant is expected to announce even more brand-name broadcasts in the coming weeks.
Roth, who has never been a radio host, went on the air with Stern yesterday to talk about the new deal. He traded jokes with the shock jock and said he's ready to go.
The track record of famous entertainers as radio hosts has been mixed, with a few like Steve Harvey and Ted Nugent doing well while others like Danny Bonaduce have flopped.
"This is a bold move by Infinity" to hire big-name hosts from outside radio and put talk on so many FM stations that previously offered music, said Tom Taylor, editor of the newsletter Inside Radio.
"Now it's up to David Lee Roth," he said, "to hunker down and do it."
Infinity CEO Joel Hollander called yesterday's announcements "groundbreaking" and said he expects it will be "12-24 months" before the success of the new hosts and format is clear. He declined to project at what point the new programming could produce as much revenue as the departing Stern.
"Can this succeed? Absolutely," said Walter Sabo, a radio consultant who launched a similar weekday-talk format at WKXW in New Jersey 15 years ago. "As long as you put the right talent on the right stage."
Rocker shocker
Van Halen frontman Roth jumps to take over Stern's slot at WXRK
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
"Diamond" David Lee Roth, the rock 'n' roll motormouth best known for stage moves like pouring Jack Daniels down his spandex pants, will take Howard Stern's morning spot on New York's WXRK (92.3 FM) starting Jan. 3.
Yesterday's announcement by Infinity Radio, parent of WXRK, ends months of speculation on who will step into commercial morning radio's largest shoes.
Stern earns an estimated $100 million a year for Infinity. He is moving to Sirius Satellite Radio in January because he says the FCC's often vague indecency guidelines "make it impossible for me to do my show any longer on commercial radio."
While the 51-year-old Roth made his reputation as the frontman for the hard rock band Van Halen in the '80s, his arrival signals the end of the full-time rock music format on WXRK.
While rock will still be played on weekends, the weekday K-Rock will become a primarily talk format called "Free FM," which Infinity also is launching in several other major cities.
Roth's show, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., will be heard in seven cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, on stations that now carry Stern.
Other Stern stations will get different morning hosts, including Adam Carolla in Los Angeles and Star and Buc Wild, who are based at New York's WWPR (105.1 FM), on KXBT in Austin, Tex. Magician Penn Jillette will have a weekday one hour program on WXRK, and the radio giant is expected to announce even more brand-name broadcasts in the coming weeks.
Roth, who has never been a radio host, went on the air with Stern yesterday to talk about the new deal. He traded jokes with the shock jock and said he's ready to go.
The track record of famous entertainers as radio hosts has been mixed, with a few like Steve Harvey and Ted Nugent doing well while others like Danny Bonaduce have flopped.
"This is a bold move by Infinity" to hire big-name hosts from outside radio and put talk on so many FM stations that previously offered music, said Tom Taylor, editor of the newsletter Inside Radio.
"Now it's up to David Lee Roth," he said, "to hunker down and do it."
Infinity CEO Joel Hollander called yesterday's announcements "groundbreaking" and said he expects it will be "12-24 months" before the success of the new hosts and format is clear. He declined to project at what point the new programming could produce as much revenue as the departing Stern.
"Can this succeed? Absolutely," said Walter Sabo, a radio consultant who launched a similar weekday-talk format at WKXW in New Jersey 15 years ago. "As long as you put the right talent on the right stage."