Tom Joyner Back on Chicago Radio

To many African Americans, Tom Joyner is the king of black radio.  Based in Dallas, with a nationally syndicated radio show reaching some 115 markets and 8 million listeners across the country, Joyner is unquestionably a radio powerhouse.

So when Clear Channel, the San Antonio, Texas-based media conglomerate, unceremoniously announced in March that it was replacing “The Tom Joyner Morning Show“ with the nationally syndicated “Steve Harvey Morning Show“ at WVAZ-FM in Chicago, Joyner fans were outraged. After all, Chicago was the first market to ever carry Joyner’s show and WVAZ-FM had aired the show for 13 years. Many Chicagoans see Joyner as a part of the city’s fabric, a part of the family.

But you can’t keep a good man down.  Last week, after four weeks off the air, Joyner returned to the airwaves in the Windy City, this time on Soul 106. 3 FM (WSRB/WYRB), a Denver, Colorado-based Crawford Broadcasting station.

“People were very outspoken about the show leaving Chicago,” says Joyner, “so we went to Crawford and they gave us a proposal. But since we were on the street, it wasn’t much of a deal. We decided to buy the four hours completely, essentially becoming our own affiliate.”

Joyner would not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.

Clear Channel’s decision to replace Joyner with Harvey, the comedian and best-selling author whose popular show runs in more than 60 markets, underscores the pressures of the radio business in today’s challenging economic environment; radio had already and continues to face threats from alternative sources of audio entertainment like satellite radio, iPods and the Internet.

“The new media explosion makes it harder and harder for established stars and formats to aggregate audiences in an environment that is experiencing fragmentation and dispersion,” suggests Christopher H. Smith, professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California. “Tom Joyner is not immune to the shifting dynamics,” he adds.

And it arguably did not help that Joyner’s show is owned by Reach Media, a division of Clear Channel competitor Radio One, the nation’s largest radio company targeting African Americans.

The stresses on the radio industry are readily apparent.  According to Chantilly, VA-based BIA Advisory Services, a media research and consultancy, 2008 radio revenues in the U.S. were $16.7 billion, down 8.5% from 2007. Additionally, 2009 revenues are expected to decrease 11%.

“Radio is taking it on the chin in the economic downturn,” says Mark R. Fratzik, Ph.D., senior vice president at BIA. “With Steve Harvey’s show being syndicated by Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio, there’s always that incentive to air your own programming versus licensing other programming.

Even though Mr. Joyner is popular, Clear Channel probably had a reasonable alternative to his show that costs less.” In fact, upon sending Mr. Harvey to V103, WGCI’s new morning show is a locally-focused program hosted by Chicago radio veteran Tony Sculfield. “Tom is one of the classiest guys in the business,” says Earl Jones, president and market manager for Clear Channel Radio-Chicago. “Business drove our decision,” he adds.  To Jones’s point, Clear Channel clearly has not been exempt from the industry’s woes. Its radio revenues fell 7% in 2008 to $3.3 billion and declined 13% for the fourth quarter of 2008.  Jones would not disclose any estimated cost savings attributable to replacing Joyner.

Risky Proposition

By charting his own course back to Chi-Town, Joyner assumes the risk that would otherwise be absorbed by the station owner; he therefore is charged with not only creating a good show but also selling the advertising inventory, a daunting task given the economic climate Joyner likens his new Chicago business model to television deals in which a company buys time on an independent station to carry a show, which an affiliate station will not carry. While such a strategy is not unheard of in radio, according to BIA’s Fratzik, the scale and size of the Chicago market makes Joyner’s situation unique.

Speaking on the merits of Joyner’s move and acknowledging the station’s weak signal, Fratzik says, “I think he’s putting his money where his mouth is and it’s admirable that he’s willing to take the risk. It says that he’s confident that he can attract enough listeners.”

Joyner is banking that the popularity of his show—which based on Arbitron’s most recent PPM (portable people meter) ratings ranked as the #4 morning show (before the WVAZ cancellation) in the city in the 25-54 demographic group to Harvey’s No. 14—will garner him favorability with listeners and thereby win over coveted advertisers; Joyner had 292,200 listeners to Harvey’s 268,100 for listeners six and over.

“We stepped out on faith,” says Joyner, who found out he was being pushed off the air after returning from vacation.
“I’ve been fired a lot of different ways, but this ranks as one of the coldest,” he said recently. “I had to find some way to get back into the Chicago market. The station doesn’t have the greatest signal, but it’s on the South Side. And it gives us an opportunity to super-serve the community.”

As a part of Joyner’s strategy and commitment to the city, he will establish an internship program for media communications students at Chicago’s Kennedy-King College and when in the city will air from the campus.