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David Lee Roth Gets Stern's Morning Slot
October 27, 2005
By RAFER GUZMAN, Newsday
Infinity Broadcasting announced Tuesday that David Lee Roth, the swaggering front man for the 1980s hair-metal band Van Halen, will take over Howard Stern's morning slot in New York and six other cities, confirming rumors that had been circulating for months.
The complete Free FM schedule isn't nailed down, but early signs point to an affinity with Comedy Central or Maxim magazine, and not only because of Roth. Jimmy Kimmel will be Infinity's creative consultant. Adam Carolla, a late-night host and a collaborator with Kimmel on Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers" and "The Man Show," will be the morning host in Los Angeles.
The magician-comedian Penn Jillette also is getting a show. Some Infinity stations outside New York will feature morning hosts with proven track records of drawing male listeners. "`The Man Show' is not the model," Hollander says. "It just happens to be that Jimmy and Adam worked together on the show and were wildly successful."
Three Infinity stations now airing Stern will convert to the company's Jack format; the Houston station will air CNN Radio News.
Stern's departure probably isn't the only driving force behind the switch to all-talk, says Michael Harrison, publisher of the radio trade magazine Talkers. "Even if Stern were still around, they'd be considering doing this," he says. "There's been a tremendous interest on the part of operators to think about going talk on FM with music stations that might not be doing that well."
Just as music migrated away from AM stations and onto FM, it's now migrating to the Internet and iPods, Harrison predicts. "The future of FM music is far more perilous than the future of talk radio."
By RAFER GUZMAN, Newsday
Infinity Broadcasting announced Tuesday that David Lee Roth, the swaggering front man for the 1980s hair-metal band Van Halen, will take over Howard Stern's morning slot in New York and six other cities, confirming rumors that had been circulating for months.
The complete Free FM schedule isn't nailed down, but early signs point to an affinity with Comedy Central or Maxim magazine, and not only because of Roth. Jimmy Kimmel will be Infinity's creative consultant. Adam Carolla, a late-night host and a collaborator with Kimmel on Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers" and "The Man Show," will be the morning host in Los Angeles.
The magician-comedian Penn Jillette also is getting a show. Some Infinity stations outside New York will feature morning hosts with proven track records of drawing male listeners. "`The Man Show' is not the model," Hollander says. "It just happens to be that Jimmy and Adam worked together on the show and were wildly successful."
Three Infinity stations now airing Stern will convert to the company's Jack format; the Houston station will air CNN Radio News.
Stern's departure probably isn't the only driving force behind the switch to all-talk, says Michael Harrison, publisher of the radio trade magazine Talkers. "Even if Stern were still around, they'd be considering doing this," he says. "There's been a tremendous interest on the part of operators to think about going talk on FM with music stations that might not be doing that well."
Just as music migrated away from AM stations and onto FM, it's now migrating to the Internet and iPods, Harrison predicts. "The future of FM music is far more perilous than the future of talk radio."
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