Bethenny and Khloe take broadcast media
Yeah, you’re going to need a lot of liquor when you read this news.
Man, you really got to weep for the media business these days. Tuesday was clearly a dark day for those who still care about the integrity of the business as two (more) dark clouds are descending on the horizon.
One cloud is named Bethenny; the other is named Khloe.
During the NATPE gathering in Miami on Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced it had signed a deal with Fox Television Stations to air an hour-long talk show hosted by Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel for a six-week summer test run. The talk show is billed as a “no-nonsense perspective on everything from pop culture and current events to relationships, beauty, fitness, and lifestyle segments”. The program is being exec produced by Ms. Frankel and Ellen DeGeneres, who had her on her show several times.
Fox plans to test the show at WNYW in New York and KTTV in Los Angeles and a few other Fox-owned stations. However, don’t look for Fox O&Os WFLD or WPWR to participate – usually, Fox does not include the Windy City when testing syndicated product.
Of course, this is from the same brain trust who renewed the awful Jeremy Kyle talk show for a second season, despite averaging numbers similar to those of all-news WIQI-FM. Despite her very solid credentials (author, chef, and entrepreneur), she is best remembered for appearing in Real Housewives and the ultra lame spinoffs Bethenny’s Getting Married and the soon-to-launch Bethenny Ever After (she was also a runner-up on the Martha Stewart edition of The Apprentice, but only seven people actually remember that show.)
I suppose next we’ll have a daytime talk show hosted by Real Housewives of Atlanta pain-in-the-ass NeNe Leakes very soon. Yeah, just plop it between Jerry Springer and Maury Povich every afternoon (this would’ve been a reality if Randy Michaels were still at Tribune.)
But much, much worse than this project was the hire made yesterday at a Dallas radio station.
On the same day, Clear Channel Media (yes, that what they want to called now – different name – same old BS) announced it was hiring Khloe Kardashian Odom to host a short shift at the company’s KDMX-FM in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, beginning Monday. Ms. Odom’s one-hour lunchtime show on the Hot AC station (approximately Noon to 1 p.m. CT) plans to play requests, feature interviews with celebrities, and other goodies. So of you want to hear the latest regarding the love life of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo – remember, you heard it here first.
Ms. Odom of course, is married to current Dallas Mavericks player Lamar Odom, who met her during his playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers. Khloe’s famous sisters of course are Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, the latter one she appeared with on docu-reality series Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami on E! Kim Kardashian was also married to a basketball player for a brief time, whose scam of a wedding was also seen on E!
During the time Odom was playing with the Miami Heat (2009-10 season), Khloe Kardashian held down a late-night radio gig for a brief time at Top 40 outlet WHYI-FM.
A real tough break for aspiring radio personalities in the Metroplex. So much talent out there – and Clear Channel hires Khloe Kardashian for an hour-a-day shift. What total BS. The only reason why she was hired was to get cheap publicity for KDMX, which it really didn’t need – in the Arbitron PPM survey for October 2011 (the latest one not influenced by Christmas music), KDMX ranked 6th overall in the Metroplex.
This is part of Clear Channel’s mission to rely more on nationally-recognized personalities like Ryan Seacrest and Mario Lopez and less on live, local, personalities. The Khloe Kardashian hiring – not to mention WGN Radio’s hiring of Chicago Blackhawks now-injured goon Daniel Carcillo to host a one-hour weekly music show – are just more symbols of what’s wrong in the media business and radio in particular. Really, this is how you stay relevant in 2012?
As you may have heard by now, many Chicago radio fans were upset when WLS-FM decided to replace legend Dick Biondi in the 7 p.m. -to-midnight shift with John Records Landecker, shoving the 79-year old veteran to a 11 p.m.-to-2 a.m. time slot. Now imagine if it was Khloe Kardashian taking over Biondi’s shift instead…
Let’s just say Chicago police would get plenty of practice preparing for those NATO/G8 protesters coming to town in May.