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closeMonday, Dec. 08, 2008
Russ Martin Show gone as Live 105.3 hits the Fan
Robert Philpot
Things have been happening faster than I can type them, but Live 105.3 FM is indeed a thing of the past and it has become 105.3 The Fan, Dallas' newest all-sports station. The biggest news out of that is ... well, I'll let Brian Purdy, senior vice president/market manager for CBS Radio Dallas, tell you, although you can probably guess.
"The biggest change, obviously, is Russ Martin and his show are no longer with the station," Purdy says. "However, [Chris] Jagger and his morning show will remain the same in morning drive."
Purdy and station manager David Henry both said that Martin's firing being taken off the air has nothing to do with his recent legal problems stemming from an incident in July (Martin was charged with misdemeanor assault after his fiancee accused him of beating her and brandishing a weapon during an argument July 14 at his Southlake home). I haven't been able to track down Martin for comment yet.
"This change was simply made for a broader audience, bigger audience," Henry says. "And just how much Dallas-Fort Worth is a big sports town."
So why keep Jagger and not Martin?
"I don't want to comment on that, other than Jagger's ratings have been very optimistic in the early PPM numbers for us," Henry said, referring to the portable people meter, a new Arbitron method of tracking ratings.
Midday hosts Ben & Skin have been bumped up to Martin's old 3-7 p.m. slot. Kevin Scott, like Ben & Skin an alum of 105.3 rival The Ticket, and Greg Hill, a former Texas A&M football player, will do middays at least temporarily.
"When we hired [Ben & Skin], we had them do more of a 'guy talk' presentation vs. sports," Purdy says. "Obviously, they were ecstatic when we informed them that they were going all-sports."
So is there room for a third sports station in the market? Purdy and Henry believe there is. And although I'm skeptical, the amount of hits sports stories get on the Star-Telegram's Web site leads me to also believe that there is.
"No question there's room," Henry says. "The signal advantage that 105.3 FM has over our market competitors is night and day. It's the only full-market signal at 100,000 watts for the Metroplex."
Jeff Catlin, program director of the Ticket, isn't taking the change lightly. "I look at every station that broadcasts in Dallas-Fort Worth as a competitor -- regardless of format," he said in an e-mail. "I respect them all and the job they do trying to entertain their respective audiences each day."Purdy says the station will be more similar to the Ticket, with a lot of caller interaction, than to ESPN Radio. The new station has the rights to the BCS Championship, the Cotton Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl.
Purdy says that Live 105.3 was picked for the flip because CBS saw an opportunity in sports radio in Dallas-Fort Worth, and this allowed for minimal lineup changes (although Tom Leykis and Big Dick Hunter's nighttime shows are both gone).
On the air, at any rate, the change was remarkably fast, with the station beginning stunting Monday morning by playing college fight songs and then doing the full flip at 3 p.m. Usually, flips like these come after weeks of rumors but this one came quickly.
"We wanted to be quick," Henry says. "This is a sports town. Yesterday, I happened to be at the [Cowboys-]Steelers game, and everybody wanted to know, 'What happened? What are our playoff chances?' We wanted to be on the air in December so we could talk about the BCS games, why OU made [the championship] and Texas didn't, things like that."
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