Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Chris Baker's talk show canceled on KTRH and KPRC - this sucks, Chris, you'll be missed.

As Houston radio talk-show host Chris Baker continues working on his documentary film about talk radio, he'll have a new plot twist to incorporate into the mix — his dismissal from Clear Channel Houston's KTRH (740 AM) and KPRC (950 AM).

Baker, who had been on the air in Houston since 2001, and Cynthia Hunt, who recently joined him as co-host for an early afternoon show on KPRC, were told Monday night by Michael Berry, Clear Channel Houston's director of AM programming, that their shows had been canceled.

Baker's shift on KTRH will be filled by extended hours for the syndicated Sean Hannity show, which will air from 2 to 5 p.m., and by Berry's local show from 5 to 8 p.m. KPRC will extend the morning Walton and Johnson show and shift time slots for syndicated Erich "Mancow" Muller shows to fill the Baker/Hunt gap.

Hunt, a former KPRC (Channel 2) and KTRK (Channel 13) reporter, said the show she co-hosted with Baker for the past two months was canceled because "they're going more into the Radio Mojo format, which is kind of like Radio Maxim for men."

"I will absolutely miss the show and getting to talk to people every day and hear what they think about important issues," she said.

Baker, who works as a stand-up comedian in addition to his radio duties, said his removal was "just show biz." He did not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding his departure, citing ongoing conversations between his agent and station management.

However, Baker, who grew up in Dallas and worked in Kansas City before coming to Houston to appear on KPRC and later on KTRH, said Tuesday he was grateful to local listeners for advancing his radio career.

"Under Ken Charles (Clear Channel's former AM programming director who now works for the company in Miami), who is the best programmer I've ever known, we completely changed the face of talk radio in Houston," Baker said.

"We had a lot of fun and made a lot of great radio. I have no complaints. I'm proud of what we did here. We did it right. We did it in an honest fashion, and my career is going to go on because of it."

Baker said he will spend more time on his stand-up act and will continue working on his documentary, which has a working title of Don't Tell Me What to Think, and will focus on the federal Fairness Doctrine. His collaborator on the project for Spindletop Films is Cesare Wright, a Rice University graduate who attended film school at USC.

In the most recent Arbitron ratings book, KTRH ranked 18th in the market among listeners 25-54 in the 3-7 p.m. afternoon-drive period. KPRC ranked 28th among listeners 25-54 in the 10 a.m.-3 p.m. time slot among listeners 25-54 during September.

Berry did not return a telephone call or an e-mail message seeking comment on the programming changes.

2 comments:

Curtis said...

FYI... He will be moving to the Clear Channel affiliate in Minneapolis, and starts his on-air show at 7 a.m. on Monday the 11th of February. http://www.ktlkfm.com/main.html

Yedid said...

Chris got off to a shakey start with me but he got into the spirit of Houston in a few days and took off. I like him and think this idea of running him off to the great white north really reeeeeely sucks. I don't listen to Berry and think he made a mistake, or someone in the Borg Collective needs to realize you just left it wide open to the other great host you dumped who went to the station I listen to now. At least you moved that grotesque Phil Hendry off to the witching hour. One good move among many poor ones.