Names: Trish and Kenneth "Mac" MacDonald
Ages: 66, 70
Occupation: radio station owners
Last Seen: Petoskey, Saginaw, MI
Bee-otched For: being out of touch
Ages: 66, 70
Occupation: radio station owners
Last Seen: Petoskey, Saginaw, MI
Bee-otched For: being out of touch
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Yesterday, the Nielsen radio ratings were released for the Traverse City/Petoskey/Cadillac market. Here's some highlights:
*Country WTCM-FM continues its dominance in the market, even without longtime morning stalwart Jack O'Malley. Their sister News/Talk 580 remained steady. Sister Classic Hits WCCW-FM 107.5 had its worst book in ages with a mere 3.0. CHR Z93 remains ho-hum with a 2.4.
*WKLT had its best book since Omelette was fired a few years ago. Of course, this is the butt rocker's last book before 98.9 will be split off supposedly in a few weeks. As we reported last month, 97.5 is being sold to WTCM parent Midwestern Broadcasting for $400,000 while 98.9 is being spun off to religious broadcaster K-Love. With 100,000 watts missing from KLT, it's expected that the station's ratings will fall next book unless Midwestern wants to flip WTCM simulcaster 93.5 in Boyne City.
*Rock 105 and 95-5 had its worst book in two years. Smitty's departure from afternoons might have played a huge role. But, his addition to mornings at long-suffering Classic Rock sister The Bear have definitely helped them.
*In their last books, sister stations ESPN 106.7/105.5 and 94.3/92.5 The Fox both tied with a shitty 1.5. The ESPN stations have been taken silent while 94.3 is being sold to Central Michigan University. 92.5's future remains uncertain.
*The legal battles between Blarney Stone Broadcasting and R*y H*******n didn't hurt or help WLDR 101.9. They're still stuck with a 1.2. No word on if the rating is WLDR combined with its current incarnation, 94.5/106.3 The Bay.
All the major radio groups in northern Michigan reported to Nielsen except one: MacDonald Garber Broadcasting. The owners of 106 KHQ, Lite 96, 104.5 Bob FM, 96.7 The Bull and others have not subscribed to the service since Spring 2018. Usually, KHQ is in the top five, Lite 96 is around six or seven and flea-powered Bob is around a two share.
So why is MacGar not subscribing to the Nielsens? Simple: money. Nielsen ain't cheap. MacGar's former sister company in Saginaw, MacDonald Broadcasting also doesn't subscribe, either.
Now, as a broadcaster - especially in this age of internet streaming and SiriusXM - knowing how well your product is doing should be an important part of your business, even if it costs a little extra to know. Allegedly, MacGar's not doing well financially. Then again, neither are most traditional broadcasters.
MacGar's head, Trish MacDonald-Garber is allegedly not the nicest person in the whole wide world. Neither is her brother Kenneth, Jr., aka Mac., who runs the Saginaw and Lansing stations. Their father, Ken, Sr., was a union buster. I regularly talk to a guy who worked at their Saginaw cluster in the early 80s. I remembered the first-ever e-mail he sent me talking about the MacDonalds and how Ken, Sr.'s decision to kick the union out of his company led him to move to northern Michigan. I've heard that when MacDonald owned the sole CHR in Lansing, Z101.7 (now Variety Hits Mike FM), if Ken, Jr. was out of the office, he would call the DJ and tell him to "get the goddamn song off my station!" I've even heard that Trish is quite the intimidator; rumor has it that DJs at her stations have been known to quit because of her negative attitude.
But now, the ball's in Mac's court.
His popular Country station in Saginaw, 98.1 KCQ, was under fire recently for a post on Twitter claiming that they can't play two female artists in a row. Many in the Country music industry took offense to the tweet, especially superstar Kelsea Ballerini. She tweeted, "smells like white male bullshit and why LONG ago I decided they cannot stop me. And yet, they can play 18 dudes who sound exactly the same back to back. Makes total sense."
Ballerini along with other females with names like Dolly, Reba and Loretta have brought their voices to a type of music that's been associated with white - and often conservative - men. After all, Hank Williams learned how to play the guitar from a black bluesman named Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne. Let's not forget Charley Pride and the flak he got for being a black Country singer in the 1960s. And don't get me started on the Dixie Chicks.
The sad truth is that the music industry has so much great female talent and people of various race. When a Country station like KCQ tells their fans that they can't play two females in a row, it's sexist and a slap to the face of women who love the genre.
Even more depressing is that both Mac and Trish own right-winged AM talk radio stations. Mac has WILS in Lansing while Trish has WMKT in Charlevoix and WATT in Cadillac, a station whose on-air moniker is "Rush Radio". Yep! Nothing like a woman who owns a radio station named for a pill-popping, prostitute-fucking, slut-shaming asshole.
The sad truth is that there's a reason why terrestrial radio's dying, and it's because of people like the MacDonalds. When a radio company doesn't listen to ratings, they're out of touch. When a radio company tells their audience that they can't play two female Country artists in a row, they're out of touch. It's their fault that most of us would rather listen to internet radio vs. the same, tired 300 songs in a row. Hell, I shake my head knowing that if a huge hip-hop song is on the charts, KHQ will demote it to late night play and they'll play an ultra-censored version of it (i.e. in Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles", there's no "smoking" or "binge drinking"). But since Trish is rumored to be heavily Catholic, what you hear is what you get. Z93's not much help, either, since their programming director lovingly called the survivors of the Parkland shooting tragedy "libtards" on Facebook.
Makes me miss The Peak even more...
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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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