FAN morning host choice is Krystal clear

Apparently Andrew Krystal has impressed The FAN 590 so much in his first month on the job, the station has given him a major promotion. Sources say Krystal will become the all-sports station's morning show host after Calgary's Mike Richards turned down the FAN's offer last week.

The move may be temporary, though, with Krystal moving back to the 9-to-noon spot once a permanent host is found for the crucial morning slot. But if Krystal can score solid ratings over the next 12 weeks, he may get the job full-time.

Don Landry and Gord Stellick muse on Black Thursday

It's never a good day when somebody loses his or her job, which made Black Thursday at the FAN 590 a pretty awful day for a lot of people -- include a lot of regular listeners.

It sure was a bad day for Gord Stellick, who says he and morning co-host Don Landry were notified at 8:59 a.m. that they were wanted in the boss's office. Moments later, they were unemployed.

``I never saw it coming," said Stellick. ``I'd heard rumours and we were on pins and needles for a while, but I just never expected this."

Landry, on the other hand, had a bad feeling even before he got the call.

``I thought our (ratings) numbers were pretty good, but I'd been hearing the rumours, too," he said.

Life in the radio world is tumultuous at the best of times. One bad ratings book and you can be out the door, though the wholesale changes made at the FAN usually are reserved for stations switching formats. Maybe that's why Landry, for one, was feeling a little philosophical a few hours after losing his job.

``Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet, but I really feel grateful to have had a 10-year run," he said. ``Right now, I'm proud of that and the job we did."

Stellick sounded the way he always does: a bit of self-deprecation mixed with humour and a belief that tomorrow will indeed be another day.

``I've been treated very well by the FAN," he said. ``I didn't like those 3 a.m. wake-up calls, but I'm going to miss it tomorrow."

The truth is that the pair, and many of their co-workers, were living on borrowed time. It's not that they were doing a bad job -- emails to The Star were running pretty much 50-50, which is a good thing -- it's just that 10-year runs in the radio business are rare at the best of times. And these are hardly the best of times.

The station needs a bit of fresh air and it needs strong personalties. Landry and Stellick worked well together, but they often shared the same opinions and were about light banter than strong commentary. Stellick's not capable of that and when Landry tried to be controversial it sounded forced.

While the comedy bits were inspired at times, they were starting to wear a bit thin.

As for the other shows, the afternoon slot just wasn't working. When Jack Armstrong paired with Doug MacLean, the show was a mish-mash of hockey and basketball talk. When Eric Smith replaced MacLean, it became basically a basketball show. 

Mike Hogan did his best, but the show needed a regular co-host. He worked well with Chris Schultz on football. Maybe something like that could have saved him. Sources say he will stay on to do Toronto Argonauts broadcasts, which is a good thing.

The real mystery is why the moves were made now, without replacements on board. Fill-ins are seldom a good idea.

DRAFTY DAY: TSN is expecting an NHL draft ratings record Friday night, in part due to the new ratings system and in part due to the big interest in hockey this year. Last year's draft coverage averaged 577,000 viewers.  ... CBC did well with the NHL awards night, averaging 746,000 viewers. That was the highest number in six years. ... Rogers Sportsnet has carried only a handful of Canadian Football League games in its history, but despite that is giving increased exposure to the league this season. Starting with a one-hour preview show Sunday (8 p.m.), Sportsnet will play up the CFL throughout the year. Recently retired Montreal Alouettes lineman Bryan Chiu will join former CFLers Willie Pless, Sandy Annunziata on a weekly panel to analyze and preview games. ... Softball fans and celebrity watchers should be interested in catching the Rod Black Celebrity Classic for Plan Canada on Sunday. The softball game, which will feature the likes of Wendel Clark, P.K. Subban, Rick Vaive and Jamaal Magloire, is at 11:30 a.m. at Brampton's Sesqui-Centennial Park (Bramalea Rd. and Countryside Drive.) Admission is free.

Greg Brady leaves 640 and heading to The FAN 590

Greg Brady, host of 640 Toronto's Bill Watters Show, has left the station and is heading to the rival FAN 590, sources say.

All links to Brady's blogs on the 640 website have been removed. The  FAN has called a staff meeting today, at which it's presumed Brady's arrival will be announced.

It's not clear what role he will take on, but his arrival likely means some sort of shakeup in the station's lineup.

Ratings eat Leafs Lunch at AM640

It's the oldest story in the radio business: Death by ratings.

That's the story behind AM640's decision to axe its daily Leafs Lunch program starting next month. So says program director Gord Harris. 

``Leafs Lunch was a good show, but it wasn't performing as well as it should," Harris said Friday, a day after notifying staffers that the talk station was cutting back from four hours of sports chat a day to three by dumping the noon-hour show -- at least for the summer. 

Harris said the move was made to provide a more consistent diet of news talk.

``Nobody lost their job and this wasn't about saving money," Harris said. ``It's about giving the audience what it wanted."

He said that host Darren Dreger will continue to do freelance work for the station and that producer Bryan Hayes will stay on. Bill Watters, naturally, will remain on the drive-time Bill Watters Show, with Dreger and Hayes possibly contributing.

``We can now focus our sports content on the drive-time show," Harris said.

The new people-meter ratings system seems to have played a part in the show's demise. Under the old diary system, Leafs Lunch appeared to be challenging the FAN 590-Rogers Sportsnet hybrid HockeyCentral at Noon. But the new system showed that not only was Leafs Lunch trailing the FAN, but it was scaring off audiences between Mike Stafford's morning show and Charles Adler's afternoon gig. Now Stafford will be on air from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with Adler providing a Toronto-focused segment at 1 and a national two-hour slot at 2.

Harris wouldn't elaborate, but indicated in a memo to 640 staffers that we may not have seen the last of Leafs Lunch.

``The Leafs Lunch brand is not going to die," he wrote, ``It will live on -- in a modified form -- beginning in September."

Since ratings are the lifeblood of radio, wild rumours about big changes at the FAN don't seem to make a lot of sense. The station scored very well in the spring ratings, but with a new program director on board anything is possible.

Lighten up, fans: Landry's invitation was a joke

I was heading to the chiropractor's office this morning in yet another attempt to stave off the effects of advancing years when I heard The FAN 590's Don Landry announcing that he was about to make an apology. Now, Landry's more an Ali G type of interviewer than a Mike Wallace, so I had to wonder what in the world he had said.

Well, in his apology, Landry noted he'd received a fair number of complaints from listeners who thought he'd been a bit hard on Chicago sportswriter Joe Cowley. It was all a joke, Landry said.

I have to admit I was skeptical. Anytime somebody has to explain that they were joking usually means they weren't.

But after listening to the Tuesday interview, prompted by Cowley's articles claiming baseball is dead in Toronto, I'm with Landry. He hardly sounded angry when he invited Cowley to ``kiss my big old Canadian back bacon behind and maybe we can catch up some other time."

Unfortunately, Cowley didn't seem to take it as a joke and neither did many listeners. And there's the problem with such jokes: not everybody gets it.

Olympics give FAN 590 a big lift

Radio was kind of the forgotten element of the Olympic broadcast consortium, mainly because most Canadians got their Vancouver Games hits from television.

As former FAN 590 boss Nelson Millman used to say before he crossed over to TV, ``Radio is a medium and television is a large."

But despite being a medium, the FAN got a large boost from the Olympics, according to the latest radio ratings courtesy of BBM Canada. The FAN's overall audience share, which scored a 5.4 share of adult males in the last ratings, jumped to 7.4 during the 17-day mania.

For the most part, the increases were across the board. Bob McCown's Prime Time Sports afternoon drive show was the biggest beneficiary, going from a 7.2 share to 12.0. The morning show did well, too, scoring a 7.5 share compared with 5.8 last time around.

Mike Hogan's Bullpen jumped from 4.4 to 5.7 while the Game Plan increased from 4.8 to 6.2.

While the ratings period covered more than the Olympics, the total picture is kind of irrelevant. It included December, which is death to talk stations like the FAN and 640 Toronto.

But there were still some interesting revelations. 640's Leafs Lunch scored a 3.0 share of males 25-54, with the FAN's HockeyCentral at Noon simulcast doing a 5.3 in its first hour. Its share jumped to 5.7 in the second hour, when Leafs Lunch was no longer on the air.

McCown is still the undisputed king of drive time, scoring a 9.2 share compared with Bill Watters' 3.6.

OTHER STUFF:  The Streaming Sports Network (www.SSNCanada.ca) will be showing live coverage of basketball, volleyball and hockey playoffs this weekend. ... The ESPN 30 for 30 series continues Tuesday on TSN with the documentary Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks (8:30 p.m.)

Vancouver Day 16: The end is nigh

One more day to go. One more day of boffo ratings for the CTV-Rogers guys.

Friday's prime time averaged 7.7 million, led by the Canada-Slovakia hockey game (9.5) and women's curlng (6.8). It turns out, by the way, that Thursday's women's hockey final was more popular than originally advertised.

An error in the ratings was corrected Saturday, showing that the game averaged 7.5 million viewers. It did beat out aerials, though, as the correction dropped its average by about 2 million to 5.5.

 RADIO DAZE; While most of the Games focus has been on television -- mine, too -- radio has played an interesting and unique role in the Olympic story. The CTV-Rogers consortium's radio network, which includes Toronto's FAN 590, has been supplying precedent-setting Olympic programming. In addition to regular updates and features, there's been plenty of play-by-play. Every time a Canadian is in a position to win a medal, the radio network has broken into programming, using the television feed. It's supplied some strange moments -- just imagine figure skating on the radio -- but it's been invaluable to those who can't get to a TV. ``We've been getting a lot of great feedback from listeners," says Nelson Millman, head of the consortium's radio operations and general manager of the FAN until Monday . ``Two years ago, I wasn't sure we could do this and a lot of people said we were crazy to try it. But I think it's worked very well." The key, Millman says, is the amount of work done by reporters and announcers. ``They've really embraced this," he says.

THE GOOD: CTV provided great coverage of the Brian McKeever controversy Saturday morning. Michael Landsberg produced the best question when he asked cross-country ski analyst Jack Sasseville what he would do if it was his decision. Sasseville, an excellent analyst, said that he would have kept the legally blind skier in the race. By making the decision the coaches put the four others in a very difficult position, he said. ... While the CTV Fam-Cam (my name, not theirs) has produced some interesting shots, most of the close-ups of athletes' parents have been pretty much time-wasters. But it struck gold Friday night by zeroing in on short track medalist Marianne St-Gelais as boyfriend Charles Hamelin skated in the 500 metres. Watching her was as exciting as the race itself. ...  NBC's Kenny Albert after Canada escaped a late rally by Slovakia in Friday's hockey semifinal; ``A collective exhale from 34 million residents of Canada." ... CTV's Pierre McGuire on Slovakia's second goal" ``(Richard) Zednik just wanted that puck more than anybody for Canada." ... Analyst Darren Pang detailed how a soft goal on Canadian goaltender Roberto Luongo set the tone for Slovakia's comeback. ``But at the end of the day, it's his great save that solidifies the win." ... CTV's Nick Kypreos on Slovakia's defensive strategy: ``If the Slovaks back up any more on (goaltender Jaroslav) Halak, they're going to fall into the Pacific Ocean." ... Gord Miller as Friday's game ended: ``Canada wins, barely." ... Brian Williams' interview with figure skater Joannie Rochette was excellent, ending with Williams telling her, ``What you did was beyond courageous." ... Great moment: Catriona Le May Doan walking into the CTV studio Friday night after curler Cheryl Bernard told Williams that the former speed skater was her hero. Thankfully, Darren Dutchyshen did not appear with a bottle of champagne. ... Ski analyst Brian Stemmle on the men's slalom course Saturday: ``You almost needd a Google map to figure this one out." ... Another great Stemmle line during the foggy race: ``I'd describe his skiing style, but I can't see it." ...  Great feature on the Ghanain skier known as the Snow Leopard on Saturday. It's a great story and Perry Solkowski's post-race interview capped it nicely.

THE BAD: Following the Canadian hockey victory, viewers were promised  the gold medals on short track speed skating and bobsled. But first, CTV airs one of those etalk features on the guy who wrote the music to CTV's ubiquitous Olympic theme song. Among the fascinating things we learned was that he likes to go shopping and that he watches breathless host Jeanne Beker's show ``all the time." As long as we have our priorities straight. ... Don Cherry surfaced this week, giving his reassurances that Canada would win the gold medal in hockey. One the main reasons, in his opinion, was the goaltending of ``Lalongo." Must be Canada's secret weapon. ... McGuire on Canadian defenceman Shea Weber's strength: ``He's Adonis on skates." Sounds suspiciously like a man-crush, doesn't it? .... Vic Rauter has done a great job calling curling throughout the Olympics, but was caught trying to set up a Canadian victory in the 10th end of Friday's women's final. As Cheryl Bernard's final stone approached the house, Rauter began calling the victory before it disappeared... It's nice that Canadian athletes have those nice team toques, but couldn't they take them off when the national anthem is played? It's kind of a basic, isn't it? ... Brian Williams pitching Olympic merchandise? Say it isn't so.

Vancouver Day 12: Golden skate has tarnished moments

 Coverage of Monday's ice dance finale showed the best of the CTV-Rogers consortium's work, and some of the worst.

The best came prior to the skate by leaders Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. CTV cameras showed them warming up and going through their routine in the corridors.  It was a fascinating look into what athletes do before the big event. Coverage of the skating was solid, too, with Rod Black, Jennifer Robinson and Victor Kraatz restricing their commentary to the pertinent points. Black's pronouncement that the Russian pair's program was ``klunky" and ``slow" was bang on.

The fact the entire event was carried on Rogers Sportsnet no doubt pleased fans of the icy dance.

 But things didn't go so well off the ice. CTV reporter Michelle Dube was stationed at the Ilderton Community Centre with hometown fans and, for some reason, decided to wear a Virtue and Moir ``Believe" sweatshirt. That's like a hockey reporter wearing a Leaf jersey.

After Virtue and Moir won the gold, there was some dead air behind the scenes and some obvious confusion. But the CTV-Rogers consortium managed to use its French-language partner RDS to get the first interview. Unfortunately, the RDS reporter who opened by gushing, ``I'm just so emotional right now." A little professionalism, please.

But the skate produced another ratings hit for the CTV family, with 7 million viewers watching their skate. Overall, the event averaged 3.5 million and the consortium's prime-time broadcasts averaged 5 million.

The day's big draw, no surprise, was hockey. The Canada-Finland women's game averaged 3.6 million viewers.

MORE GOOD: One of the strangest moments in radio came Monday night when the FAN 590 aired live coverage of Virtue and Moir's skate. Basically, it was four minutes of music interrupted by the occasional announcer's comment. On the other hand, that was preferable to someone actually describing what was happening (``they're skating forward, now they're spinning, now her dress flies up ...") It was also a bonus to anyone who was stuck in their car. Sure beat Joe on a car phone talking about the Leafs, too. ... Coverage of Monday's Canada-Finland women's hockey game was a model of how to do these events. The commentary by Kevin Quinnn and Cassie Campbell-Pascall was balanced, more about the game than Canada's chances. Lisa Bowes even interviewed a Finnish player. Interviews with foreign athetes should happen more often in all sports. .... Jamie Campbell had a great story during Tuesday's women's ski cross quailifying, telling how Julia Murray's father, the late Dave Murray, put a notice in the Whistler newspaper when she was born that ended with: Will she be a freestyle skier or a downhill racer?" ... Campbell made a great call on Ashley McIvor's ski cross gold medal Tuesday, as well. ... When a Great Britain stone hit something and basically gave Canada the victory in Tuesday's play, curling analysts Linda Moore and Ray Turnbull called it ``a bad break." There was no celebration that this was a good thing for Canada, which is the way it should be. ... While Vic Rauter, Moore and Turnbull are perforrming as expected, a real surprise has been Brian Mudryk's work with Russ Howard. Mudryk does a great job of using Howard's expertise.

MORE BAD: There's still too much jargon making its away across the airwaves on CTV. Cassie Campbell-Pascall referred to ``the PK" during Monday's women's game, a term that probably puzzed a lot of people who aren't regular hockey watchers. There was also a reference to a ``tranny" in ski cross, a term that may have a rather diifferent connotation to many viewers. Or maybe that's what the announcer was talking about.  ... Slow reaction:  CTV broke into ski cross coverage Tuesday to report on favourite Sven Kramer being disqualified from the 10,000 metres even though he set an Olympic record. We were promised an update. Two hours later, not another word had been heard. ... Maybe it's just me, but doesn't that CTV voice-over announcer sound a lot like Duffman from The Simpsons? ... During Tuesday's Great Britain-Canada women's curling match, microphones caught the Scots discussing strategy. Surely, CTV could have supplied a translation. Couldn't make out half of what they were saying. ... During women's ski cross qualifying Tuesday, analysts Chris Kent and Aleisha Cline discussed a recent article they felt was unfair to their sport. What this had to do with the event was not quite clear.

Satellite radio merger would benefit sports fans

There's a good chance the world of satellite radio in Canada will become a lot smaller very soon, which means it could become a lot bigger. And that would be good news for those who prefer to get their sports extra-terrestrially rather than through the old terrestrial radio system.

While both Sirius Canada and XM Radio Canada won't divulge anything more than their intentions to do what's best for their respective companies, sources say they will soon follow the path of their American counterparts and merge into one gigantic satellite radio company.

When it happens, sports fans will no longer have to choose between brands. Right now, a hard-core hockey fan has to decide whether he wants NHL play-by-play as offered by XM or the NHL talk supplied by Sirius. If you want to hear both NFL and NHL games, you either have to buy both or decide which one is more important to you.

That could all change with a merger that many say makes a lot more economic sense than operating two systems in a country one-tenth the population of one that couldn't support both.

Right now, XM seems more open to a marriage.

``The reality is that there have been discussions," said XM Canada president and CEO Michael Moskowitz . ``We will ultimately do what’s right for our shareholders.

``I think there are tremendous synergies … to help drive profitability, but we need to do the right thing.

We can succeed alone, but we believe there are synergies that could enhance this."

XM is the Phil Mickelson to Sirius' Tiger Woods, without all the girlfriends. While XM has about 500,000 subscribers in Canada, Sirius has more than 800,000.

That may explain why Sirius is a little less enthusiastic about a union, at least for publication.

``Our overall subscription base is considerably larger than XM’s and our shareholders and our board are pretty pleased with our success to date," said Sirius Canada president and CEO Mark Redmond. ``We’re just going to continue running our business until we see that there are opportunities to increase shareholder value, whatever that potential may be."

Sports, of course, constitute a small part of a satellite radio world driven mainly by music. But it plays a large role.

Redmond says its sweaty offerings, from football to NASCAR to general sports talk, ranks in the top third of what subscribers want. Moskowitz says XM's NHL games and hockey talk are consistently among the top 10 draws for customers.

A merger could kill some of those Canadian-based sports channels -- after all, what's the point of a merger without some trimming? --  but there will still be plenty to go around. If there's a downside to a possible merger, it's that prices could go up.

They did in the U.S. and, generally, less competition usually dictates a larger price tag. Still, for sports fans a merger could be a victory.

OTHER STUFF: XM has added former NHLer Darren McCarty to its hockey talk roster. He'll appear weekly on the afternoon Power Play show. ... The National Film Board is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the classic hockey film The Sweater by Roch Carrier and Sheldon Cohen. You can watch it at nfb.ca, or see it here.

 

FAN boss Nelson Millman heads to Sportsnet, Mike English heads out

Wednesday marked a day of some big developments in the Rogers sports family.

Nelson Millman, the man who piloted The FAN 590 through its first 15 years of existence, is moving over to Rogers Sportsnet.

The sports channel confirmed Wednesday that Millman, who was a vice-president and general manager at the all-sports radio station, will be taking the title of executive producer of studio productions. That means he'll be overseeing everything that Sportsnet produces in-house, from Sportsnet Connected to hockey pre-game shows.

He will replace news director Mike English, who is now out of a job.

``We are all stunned," said one Sportsnet staff member.

Millman, who has spent 37 years on the radio side of the business, will be handling television for the first time. That sounds like a monumental task, but Millman says he's prepared for it.

``The platform for delivery is entirely different, but it's still about performance, presentation and entertainment," said Millman, who will also continue to run the CTV-Rogers Olympic consortium's radio operations. ``I'm facing a pretty big learning curve, but change is never a bad thing."

So what does this all mean? Like most of Rogers media properties, both the FAN and Sportsnet were hit hard by the recession. Millman says he wanted a change. It's possible he may have wanted that change to get away from the pressure of trying to make a business work in a tough economy.

As for English, most likely he was ousted for the same reason most people in his position lose their jobs: the ratings weren't good enough.

That's a problem Millman will now face, and one that English's predecessors faced. It won't be easy.

Millman takes over at Sportsnet on Dec. 7. His replacement hasn't been announced, but he or she will also have some big challenges.