Did Severin take a pay cut?

From Jessica Heslam's interview with Jay Severin in the Boston Herald:

Severin referred questions about the conditions of his return — including whether he took a pay cut — to his agent and attorney, George Tobia. Tobia declined to comment on the conditions, saying simply, "Jay is very excited to be back in the fold on his station. He loves working there and he’s excited about doing a great show for WTKK."

If the answer was "no," wouldn't Severin and Tobia just say "no"?

From Eric Moskowitz's story in the Boston Globe:

As have others who have followed the issue from both sides, [El Planeta managing editor Marcela] García speculated that the suspension had as much to do with Severin's reported $1 million annual salary and his recent drop to 14th in the ratings as with his particular remarks. A spokeswoman for Greater Media Inc., has confirmed that WTKK's parent company and Severin are in negotiations.

Negotiating over what?

Keep your eye on the big picture. From the beginning, this has sounded more than anything like the story of a troubled media company — and keep in mind that all media companies are troubled — trying to get out of a contract it agreed to in the midst of an entirely different economic climate.

I don't think we're going to see any $1 million-a-year local radio hosts anymore. It must be particularly galling for Greater Media to have to pay Severin that much to come in last in his two-person race with WRKO's Howie Carr.

No doubt Severin's ratings on Tuesday will be spectacular. We'll see if he can sustain it.

The numbers tell the story

Jay Severin has been disappeared from the WTKK home page, though you can still find his blog if you know where to look.

The Boston Herald's Jessica Heslam has the numbers, and they tell a gruesome story. During the first quarter of 2009, Severin dropped to 14th place among 25- to 54-year-old listeners, the most demographically important group. Severin's WRKO rival, Howie Carr, was in sixth place. Severin had a 3.6 share; Carr, 5.2.

Heslam notes that Severin's plunge came as radio stations switched to a new method of measuring audience. What's unclear is whether the old system was artificially inflating Severin's numbers; the new system is artifically hurting him; or people are just sick of listening to his race-baiting rants.

I love this:

Sources within Greater Media, which owns the station, have told the Herald that management has been dissatisfied with the "hateful" tone his show has taken. One source said Severin had been warned in the past.

So when was this magical period when Severin's show was not "hateful"? No doubt Greater Media executives thought Severin sounded a whole lot less hateful when he was beating Carr every day. I'm sure one thing they really hate is paying a reported $1 million-plus a year to a host who's coming in 14th in the ratings.

Lehigh on Severin

Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh, who's tangled with Jay Severin before, weighs in with a terrific column on Severin's suspension from WTKK Radio (96.9 FM). I love this:

From the start of his talk-radio career, Severin was just bright enough to be an accomplished charlatan, clever enough to coat his gut-level biases and bigotry with a thin veneer of analysis. But he was neither smart nor knowledgeable enough to add much of value to the public discussion.

On "Beat the Press" this evening, Emily Rooney expressed the view that Severin will be back. Perhaps she's right. (The segment should pop up on the new BTP Web site over the weekend.) I believe that was Curtis Sliwa I heard filling in for Severin this afternoon, which suggests that management didn't even have a Plan D in place, never mind a Plan B or C.

Still, I find it hard to believe that management is happy about paying Severin a reported $1 million-plus a year only to lose the ratings battle to WRKO (AM 680) host Howie Carr — who, after all, would now be 'TKK's morning host if only he hadn't signed a contract with 'RKO that would make Curt Flood weep.

Are these the Severin sound bites?

The Boston Globe posts two brief audio clips of Jay Severin insulting Mexicans. They are utterly unremarkable — pedestrian, humorless, racist crap of the sort that's been tumbling from his mouth for years.

If WTKK (96.9 FM) managment wants to claim that these are what got him suspended (and we don't know that), then you'd have to say this is a John DePetro situation. That is, management wants Severin gone and is looking for any convenient excuse.

Brian Flaherty writes that Severin makes more than $1 million a year, although I don't know who or what his source is. And Flaherty notices something I've noticed, too — Severin's afternoon drive-time rival, Howie Carr of WRKO (AM 680), has been crowing about having the largest talk-radio audience in the afternoon lately, something Severin had bragged about for quite a few years.

More than a million dollars is a lot to pay a talk-show host who is essentially in last place, given that there are only two major-station political talk shows in Boston during afternoon drive.

More: Lance has worse. Vile stuff — though, again, I've been hearing this garbage from Severin for years.

Reese Hopkins is gone

Yeah, I know. Reese who? Financially troubled WRKO (AM 680) has decided to replace him with syndicated talker Laura Ingraham, who was dumped recently by WTKK (96.9 FM) to make way for — and no, you really can't make this stuff up — Curtis Sliwa, of 1980s Guardian Angels fame.

DePetro blames it all on his wife

Former Boston radio talk-show host John DePetro, class act that he is, has decided to blame his wife for the book-cooking that resulted in his meteoric — and, as it turns out, fraudulent — climb in the Providence ratings.

"It's embarrassing all the way around," DePetro tells Alisha Pina of the Providence Journal. "I don't have a lot to add. My wife was asked to take part in a radio survey, she did and she shouldn't have. It was wrong."

Ratings for DePetro, the morning host on WPRO Radio (AM 630), had showed him zooming from 11th to fourth place recently. Now we know why. The six ratings diaries submitted to Arbitron by Kristen DePetro represented more than 3,800 listeners, according to the ProJo.

DePetro was canned by Boston's WRKO (AM 680) in November 2006 after he referred to independent gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross as a "fat lesbian." Worse than that is heard on WRKO every day, of course, but DePetro's problems were compounded by his minuscule ratings. (DePetro's bio on the WPRO Web site says that he "left Boston with much fanfare, and returns to Rhode Island as a well known name.")

Looks like he — or at least his wife — tried to fix his ratings problem in Providence, and I mean that in both senses of the word.

More from Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald.

Howie being Howie

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr's snide attack on state Sen. Jim Marzilli today is by the numbers, but it's worth reading all the way to the last two lines. No, he hasn't gotten over it. Will Carr get chewed out when he shows up at work this afternoon at WRKO Radio (AM 680), or will this just be waved off as Howie being Howie?

Meanwhile, good Jon Keller commentary on WBZ Radio (AM 1030) this morning on Marzilli's lawyer, who's gone way, way beyond the call of duty. While Marzilli himself has made it clear that he's got some serious problems by checking in to a psychiatric hospital, his lawyer, Terrence Kennedy, has dismissed the charges against Marzilli as "ridiculous."

That's pretty offensive. What ever happened to "my client has pleaded not guilty, and beyond that we have no comment"?

Finneran embraces the dark side — again

You would have thought that WRKO Radio (AM 680) talk-show host Tom Finneran had learned from his last go-round. Less than three months ago, Finneran was lambasted for signing up to be a lobbyist for the state troopers union. He quickly backed off.

Now, though, Finneran, a former Massachusetts House speaker, has officially registered as a lobbyist, according to the Herald's Jessica Heslam, and has taken on the Liquor Liability Joint Underwriting Association of Massachusetts as a client. If that sounds a little too obscure to worry about, just consider that Finneran's new best friends will be very interested whenever there's talk of new laws regarding underage drinking, drunken driving, liability insurance and the like. According to the organization's Web site:

LLJUA is a liquor liability insurer of last-resort. To be eligible for coverage from LLJUA, the business owner has to be turned down for coverage in the voluntary market. LLJUA's liquor liability insurance is available for owners of taverns, hotels, restaurants, social clubs, package stores, caterers and other businesses that sell alcoholic beverages.

So, let's see. A man staggers out of a bar, wraps his car around a telephone pole and is seriously injured. His family sues the bar, claiming the bartender should have known he was drunk and refused to serve him. Finneran the talk-show host rails against the suit, claiming that the driver should take responsibility for his actions and that tort reform is needed to prevent such frivolous lawsuits. And Finneran the lobbyist pockets another check from the organization that stands to benefit from such "reform." Got it.

My Northeastern colleague Steve Burgard is rightly appalled (I'm thinking of renaming this blog "Husky Nation"), telling the Globe's Carolyn Johnson, "For a serious news organization, it would be unthinkable." Hosting a talk show may not be journalism, but it's an activity with many resemblances to journalism. Finneran doesn't owe his tiny band of listeners much, but he does owe them his independence.

You'd like to think that when Finneran's expressing his opinion in his tortured, rococo syntax that his opinion isn't bought and paid for. But it is. He should be gone. And perhaps he will be — the Herald account suggests that WRKO management is none too happy about this.

More: The Outraged Liberal has further thoughts.

Photo (cc) by Brosner, and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Boston's talk devolution

While the focus on the talk-radio wars here and elsewhere has generally been on the dysfunctional station that is WRKO (AM 680), it seems that the real mess may be at WTKK (96.9 FM). Globe columnist Steve Bailey reports that WRKO is charging — and presumably getting — considerably more money for advertising than its rival during the all-important morning and evening commutes.

In the morning, 'RKO's Tom Finneran show (on which Bailey appears) is charging $400 for a 60-second ad, compared to $250 for the same ad on the syndicated "Imus in the Morning" program on 'TKK. In the afternoon, Howie Carr (WRKO) gets $600, while Jay Severin (WTKK) lags at $350.

I imagine this needs to be taken with at least a grain of salt. In the newspaper business, ad-rate cards tend to feature more creative writing than anything you'll find in the actual paper, and that may be true of radio as well. But Bailey's numbers make a certain amount of sense.

Finneran, the born-again non-lobbyist, hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but the aging Imus' return has essentially been a non-story. I suspect that most of Imus' few remaining listeners found a new morning routine during his richly earned hiatus, and they're not going back.

As for the Carr-Severin war, it's a shame both sides can't lose — but Carr does manage to bring intelligence, wit and an encyclopedic knowledge of Boston to the table, despite his laziness and his occasional indulgences in homophobic snickering. Severin possesses a large vocabulary, but his ranting, his mindless cheerleading on behalf of Mitt Romney and his mundane-yet-offensive insights into politics are tiresome. I'm not sure why, but Severin has become much less listenable since his return from syndication a couple of years ago. I guess listeners agree with me, given that Severin was beating Carr in the ratings before he left.

WTKK could have solved its drive-time shortcomings. Part of it wasn't the station's fault — Howie Carr wanted to switch and become the station's morning host, but his contract didn't allow him to do so. If I were running 'TKK and had somehow found a way to land Carr, I'd have kept him in the afternoon and moved Severin to the less important mid-day slot. Then I'd have moved "Eagan and Braude," the station's best program, to morning drive.

Not that they asked me. But you know what? They'd be better off if they had.

One final note. Bailey also reports that the ad rates charged by the sports-talk programs on WEEI, a sister station to 'RKO, absolutely blow away both 'RKO and 'TKK. To paraphrase Henry Kissinger's famous dictum about academic politics, the infighting between 'RKO and 'TKK is so fierce because the stakes are so small.

Finneran gives up lobbying

I'm pleasantly surprised that Tom Finneran chose to keep his radio talk show over lobbying. I had figured we'd be hearing any day that he was leaving WRKO. Good for him — although I don't understand how he ever thought he could ethically do both.

Finneran jumps the shark

Tom Finneran is on the air this morning, broadcasting from the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Which means that WRKO (AM 680) has already blown it. Program director Jason Wolfe should have hired a security guard to keep Finneran away from the microphone if that's what it took to prevent the born-again lobbyist from using the public airwaves today.

I only listened for a few minutes so I could verify that (1) Finneran was doing his show and (2) he wasn't talking about his lobbyist deal, reported today by Frank Phillips of the Globe. So I don't know if the matter came up earlier in the broadcast. What I do know is that this is exactly what his critics predicted would happen when Finneran was hired, amid much ballyhoo and controversy, to take the 6-to-10 a.m. slot.

I like Finneran, even if I think his reign as Massachusetts House speaker was heavy-handed and occasionally abusive. I think his conviction on obstruction-of-justice charges was a travesty. I appreciate his efforts to establish a civil, substantive tone on his radio program, "Finneran's Forum." But though talk-show hosts don't owe us much, they certainly owe us their independence. Now that's gone.

According to Phillips' story, Finneran the lobbyist is representing the state troopers union. How on earth can Finneran the talk-show host discuss public safety if he's in the tank to a major player?

A word about ethics: No reputable news organization would allow a journalist to do this, whether he or she is a straight-news reporter or an opinion-monger. It's not about objectivity, something that's undesirable in columnists and talk-show hosts alike. Rather, the principle is that your opinions can't be bought and paid for.

Yes, I understand that the ethical standards for talk-show hosts are different from those of journalists. (No self-respecting journalist, for instance, would read advertisements, which is part of the job description for talk-show hosts.) But there are areas where the ethics of these two very different media jobs coincide, and this is one of them. If Finneran were to criticize Gov. Deval Patrick's public-safety policies, for instance, how can we know whether his opinion is sincere or if, instead, he's grinding the union's axe?

It's possible — maybe even probable — that Finneran is looking beyond his talk-radio career. The show's been dull, and one of the main reasons is that Mr. Speaker all too often sounds like he's trying to maintain his political viability. His ratings have been painfully low. Perhaps he and management already have an understanding that when his contract runs out, he's going to move on.

But this is an outrage. If Finneran plans to embark on a lobbying career, let him do it today. And let someone who's not bought and paid for take his place at WRKO.

Into your mind it will creep

Regardless of what may or may not be going on at WRKO Radio (AM 680) with Todd Feinburg, I am sure the is-he/isn't-he act is not aimed at making Jessica Heslam and Brian Maloney look bad. Which is what Brian seems to think.

Talking casino gambling

I'll be a guest on WRKO Radio (AM 680) on Saturday from 8:30 to 9 a.m. Host Christy Mihos and I will be kicking around casino gambling, which we both think is a lousy idea.

Speedy recovery, Mr. Speaker

Best wishes to Tom Finneran, who'll be off the air for a few weeks while he prepares to undergo and recover from surgery for prostate cancer.

Same as it ever was

After all that, we're going to have Howie Carr back in his old time slot on WRKO (AM 680) and a new/old Imus show in the morning on WTKK (96.9 FM)? Apparently so. WRKO is milking Carr's return for all its worth, running a huge "I'M BAAACCK!" graphic on its Web site this morning.

Prediction: Howie's numbers will be better than they were before he disappeared from the airwaves, at least for a while. He'll have an opportunity to show some energy and attract some new listeners — or maybe bring back a few old ones who'd given up on him in recent years. But Imus, who hasn't had the benefit of all the free publicity Carr received during the past few months, will have to rebuild.

Brian Maloney, who earlier this week was wondering if Carr might move to a talk station in Charlotte, N.C., now says, "Other than a higher salary, Howie doesn't seem to have won a single battle." Other than a higher salary? Good grief. We should all be such losers.

And why can't someone come up with a new idea in this market that actually works?

Has Howie surrendered?

The trade publication All Access reports that the Howie Carr will return to WRKO (AM 680), an admission of defeat following the courts' refusal to let him jump to WTKK (96.9 FM) in violation of a provision in his now-expired contract. Brian Maloney of Save WRKO and Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald have the details.

Maloney thinks Carr has been "humiliated." I disagree. But it is an admission on his part that he got incredibly bad advice in his attempt to shift to 'TKK's morning drive. As "Amusedbutinformedobserver" correctly points out, if Carr had simply let his contract with 'RKO run out, he could then have done anything he liked. Instead, the shift to 'TKK was announced while he was still under contract, and a provision that allowed 'RKO to match any other offer kicked in, to his detriment.

It looks like Boston radio could soon be back to the same as it ever was. I'd guess 'TKK will return to its previous schedule by picking up the new Imus show for morning drive and moving Michael Graham to a shift where no one will run the risk of actually hearing him.

About the only change in the offing is for the worse — Imus' loathsome former sidekick, Bernard McGuirk, remains at large, and could wind up at WRKO.

Vennochi to Carr: Phone home

Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi absolutely nails Howie Carr and Tom Finneran today. She writes:

Other than the late Boston city councilor Jimmy Kelly and the ailing former city councilor Dapper O'Neil, I can't remember anything nice Carr has ever said or written about anyone.

His critiques go far beyond differences over ideology. His commentary is often rude and personal and he takes adolescent delight in mocking physical characteristics. His unflinching meanness undercuts an admirable willingness to take on the powerbrokers. But from a marketing perspective, Carr obviously knows what he's doing, as proven by the bidding war for his services.

At the same time, Finneran's long-winded odes to every establishment figure and cause in town cry out for an antidote. Finneran has the pol gene, which makes him congenitally unable to find fault with one of his own. Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley, the Boston firefighters or the Boston police — they are all heroes no matter what.

Vennochi predicts that Carr, who's been off the air since September, will eventually see the light and return to WRKO (AM 680), whose management has so far refused to let him out of his contract. She may be right.

I had thought that 'RKO would eventually let Carr move to WTKK (96.9 FM) in return for huge piles of cash. But there may be no pile large enough to compensate for what 'RKO would lose if Carr is allowed to take over the morning shift at 'TKK and compete head to head with the likable but hapless Finneran.

Scotto heading to Albany

Former WRKO Radio (AM 680) talk-show host Scott Allen Miller is heading to Albany, N.Y., to become program director and morning-drive host at WROW (AM 590). This will be Scotto's second stint in the Capital District.

Mrs. Media Nation hails from the Albany suburbs, so I have some familiarity with the region. I'll send Scotto off with this Albany Times Union multimedia package on "Central Ave: Broken Dreams, Second Chances."

Sliming Scotto

Adam Gaffin's got the links on how former WRKO Radio (AM 680) talk-show host Scott Allen Miller's Wikipedia entry was recently vandalized to make him appear as a Satan-worshipper who's into porcine bestiality.

The idiotic stunt was almost certainly perpetrated by someone at Entercom, WRKO's parent station, as Brian Maloney discovered by inspecting the digital entrails. Miller, who held his tongue when he was fired to make way for Tom Finneran, responds with class.

At this moment, at least, it looks as though the vandalism has been undone.

DePetro does it again

John DePetro, the ratings-challenged former WRKO Radio (AM 680) talk-show host, is at it again. Ian Donnis explains that DePetro, now back on the air in Providence, blurted out a few remarks in an appearance on MSNBC that indulged in some pretty raw racial stereotypes.

DePetro, of course, was fired by WRKO after he referred to 2006 gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross as a "fat lesbian." Thus did he show that he had forgotten the first rule of talk radio, which is that you can only get away with stuff like that if you've got the numbers.