Howie Carr suspended by WRKO for a week – for bad-mouthing station management on the air. WRKO recently lost Rush Limbaugh to a new News/Talk station owned and run by Clear Channel.
For those who don’t follow Howie Carr in Boston or weren’t around a couple years ago, Howie had a very bitter lawsuit with WRKO (owned by Entercom Boston). At contract renewal time, Entercom made no offer to extend his contract, so he started talking to WTKK-FM (the other main news/talk station in town) and came to agreement to move there when his contract ran out.
After that became public, Entercom took Howie off the air and took him to court to prevent him from working for WTKK – his contract with Entercom said that he could not talk to another radio station about employment prior to the day his existing contract ran out. Howie was off the air for 4 months, during which he lost most of the affiliates on his regional network in New England. Howie lost his court case, and the judge decided he had to keep working for WRKO, but on the terms that WTKK-FM had offered. Entercom agreed to that match their offer, making him a “highly, highly, highly paid employee”.
But WRKO is not WTKK-FM – they carry Boston White Fox baseball games, which means during baseball season, Howie’s show is frequently shortened or preempted. On WTKK, he would have had a full show each day. Since the station no longer has Rush as Howie’s “lead in”, Howie is going to lose a lot of audience. More than likely his contract contains language basing some portion of his pay on the size of his audience.
I think it unlikely that Howie is going to come back this time. Let’s see.
[holding troll rod]
Howie’s weekly column in the Boston Herald tomorrow morning should be very interesting.
Howie was my evening drive for many years in Boston and has a pretty loyal local following. Although I haven’t looked at the hard numbers, I think his local appeal will allow him to pull enough listeners to Rush’s earlier spot on RKO or to TKK if he can ultimately free himself from the RKO contract. One hilarious feature of his show: the “Chump Line”. He loves to take a beating from the locals – very New England. I miss it.
Art, thanks for your tireless efforts.
Well, the best way to kill Howie’s ratings is to take him off the air. I thought the management statement about Howie was quite odd. It sounds like he must have called his boss an affirmative action twit to her face, or something. It’s become very personal.
Boston White Fox baseball games????
Blasphemy!
*sets hook*