RADIO HOST NEIL ROGERS THREATENS TO QUIT SHOW IF TIME ISN'T CHANGED

WQAM-AM (560) talk-show host Neil Rogers, the South Florida market's dominant radio personality, Friday accused general manager Greg Reed of destroying the station and threatened to leave the air if his demands aren't met.

Rogers' chief complaint is the time of his show. When WQAM juggled its lineup Jan. 2, Rogers agreed to move the start of his four-hour show back to 9 a.m., despite the fact he had broadcast from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for more than a decade. Traditionally, morning drive-time shows air from 6 to 10 a.m., with the midday program beginning at 10, a practice WQAM also followed until four weeks ago.

PHONE CALLS AIRED

"I've done 10 to 2 for years. That's what I do," said Rogers who, since Jan. 2, has repeatedly aired phone calls from listeners complaining about the new schedule. "I can't reinvent the audience. And the 40 percent of the audience that's not listening from 9 to 10, they come on at 10 and I'm in the middle of a show already. [Reed's] destroyed the whole continuity of my show.

"I'm going back to 10 to 2, and if that isn't satisfactory, too bad."

Contacted Friday, Reed said he was withholding comment until he had time to consult with his lawyers, a meeting that could take place this weekend.

Rogers' lawyer, Norm Kent, admitted his client agreed to the new schedule when he signed a two-year, $2.5-million-plus contract extension with WQAM in the fall. But that part of the agreement, which binds Rogers to the station until 2006, included provisions the station has not lived up to, including a major marketing campaign for Rogers' new hours and the construction of recording studios in Rogers' apartments in Toronto and Amsterdam, Netherlands, from which Rogers plans to broadcast his show eight months out of the year.

FEB. 15 DEADLINE

Kent said WQAM is contractually obligated to have the Toronto studio finished by Feb. 15, a deadline he doesn't expect the station to meet. And if that deadline is missed, Rogers is promising to ignore his contractual obligation to go on the air at 9.

"Neil has drawn a line in the sand," Kent said. "Neil wants Greg to redact that portion of the agreement that has him broadcasting at 9. This is not something that has suddenly popped up. We have been addressing these concerns since Jan. 2.

"Neil [is] frustrated because Greg was being unresponsive. . . .
This is his career. And I think he feels rightly that Greg is screwing around with his career."

WQAM is the sixth station Rogers has worked for in his 25 years in South Florida, and some of those station switches have been preceded by contract fights. Six years ago he was forced off the air for 71/2 months while WQAM negotiated with WIOD-AM (610) for the rights to Rogers' program.
Thirteen years before that, Rogers signed contracts with both WNWS-AM (740) and WINZ-AM (940), forcing the stations to wage a legal fight for his show.

Kent said the time change has frustrated ongoing efforts to land a syndication deal for Rogers, in which the WQAM broadcast would be carried by stations in other markets. In addition to raising Rogers' profile, syndication would also mean additional income for both Rogers and the station. But Kent said that the fact that most stations program in four-hour blocks beginning at 6 a.m., there's been little interest in a show that begins at 9.

FLAGGING RATINGS

Rogers' show is the only nonsports program on WQAM, which overhauled its programming earlier this month after its morning program, The First Team, fell apart in the wake of firings and the defection of Joe Rose to a full-time television job. Troubled by flagging ratings in the morning, Reed moved Rogers - who attracts one in 10 listeners among men 25 to 54, the station's chief demographic - back an hour in the hope of salvaging something from the all-important morning-drive period.

But the move appears to have backfired. The new morning program remains plagued by problems, among them an admission by host Jeff DeForrest - after whom the show was named - that he paid a Miccosukee Indian Gaming marketing director kickbacks to ensure he got the contract to broadcast television shows from its Tamiami Trail casino.

Only four South Florida stations sold more advertising than WQAM in 2000, the last year for which figures are available. The station's $16.4 million in revenue was best among the 42 stations in the Naples-based Beasley Broadcasting Group.