Saturday, March 14, 2009

Perrault Out at KXSP-590 AM

Jim Minge of the Omaha City Weekly reported earlier today that Matt Perrault will be leaving KXSP-590 AM at the end of the month. Apparently, Perrault confirmed it on a Creighton message board as well this evening.

I can't say that I'm terribly surprised; KXSP's ratings have been near the bottom of Omaha radio station ratings, except during Creighton basketball season. (Even got called out by Matt himself a couple of years ago.) A few months after that exchange, I finally completely stopped listening to Perrault after the great Creighton/NCAA ticket heist. I've always anticipated this change, and figured it would come right after the end of Creighton basketball season when their ratings slide into oblivion. You could see the warning signs of trouble when they added Travis Justice into the mix to shake things up.

No word as to what will replace Perrault's show on KXSP next month; I kind of question whether it will even remain all-sports. Jim Rome and Dan Patrick, even though I don't particularly care for them, seem to have some following, so they may remain, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a more generic talk format evolve on KXSP.

It's never a joyous event when someone loses a job, and it's never a joyous event when a local show leaves the airwaves. Although I thought his show was poorly done, it's a local show providing local coverage of mostly local sports. That's a loss for the region. Here's hoping that KXSP regroups and finds a new host (no, not Justice) to continue local sports coverage. Competition on the radio is a good thing, and just because KXSP failed with an inferior product doesn't mean that there isn't room in this market for another local sports talk program. Maybe you try it in the morning, rather than go head-to-head with KOZN-1620 AM.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good info Mike. Long overdue. Later Matty-boy.