NY DAILY NEWS Mayo exits HOT97

Hot-97, Kiss exec is dialing back
By DAVID HINCKLEYDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

After three eventful years whose low points included Hot-97's "Tsunami Song" and whose high points included Kiss-FM returning to the top of the ratings, Barry Mayo is stepping down as senior vice president and market manager for Emmis Radio.
"I'm a radio guy," he said yesterday. "But there's another Barry Mayo who does other things, and he's been feeling very unfulfilled.
"I told my bosses yesterday that this job requires 110% of your time. So even though I can't imagine another company that would be better to work for, I want some of that time back."
Among the things he will resume, he said, is photography: He's compiling a long-term study of race issues.
He will continue at Emmis, overseeing WRKS (98.7 FM), WQHT (97.1 FM) and WQCD (101.9 FM), until a successor is named. He will also remain an in-house consultant for a year and may eventually consult for "one or two" other stations.
"I know people in radio say, 'Consultant? Oh God, that means he got fired,'" said Mayo with a laugh. "But this is my choice. I had a contract option for another year that the company said it wanted to pick up. I said no."
On the whole, he said, he's pleased with what's happened since he took the job in February 2003 - starting with the fact that ad revenue rose every year.
On the air, he said, a big win was boosting WRKS from 11th place up to a tie for second, a jump that started when Mayo replaced Tom Joyner's syndicated morning show with the local Jeff Foxx show.
"That was a tough decision," said Mayo. "I remember [Emmis radio division President] Rick Cummings saying, 'Are you really sure about that?' But for a year I had begged Tom to add New York elements to his show, and he didn't. When I made the decision, it ruined a 25-year friendship. Tom hasn't spoken to me since.
"But I knew we had the talent to do our own show."
Kiss also scored with afternoon host Michael Baisden, though Mayo deflects credit. "That was all [program director] Toya Beasley," he said.
Smooth-jazz WQCD has remained generally steady and calm, which isn't a word that would be applied to Hot-97 after a year that started with last January's ill-advised "Tsunami Song" parody.
"There's no way in hell I could have foreseen what would happen with Hot last year," Mayo admitted. "And if there's anything I could take back, it's pretty obvious it would be 'The Tsunami Song.' I didn't hear it or approve it beforehand, but I take full responsibility for the fact it went on the air for four days.
"It was clearly the biggest f-up of my career."
The resulting firestorm led to two dismissals from the Miss Jones morning show, considerable losses from canceled advertising and Emmis paying $1 million to a tsunami relief fund.
It also cast Hot-97 as a villain in discussions on whether radio goes too far.
Mayo praised Emmis yesterday for holding the line where it did. "Almost any other company," he said, "would have fired [station management]."
Most important, said Mayo, listeners also stayed loyal. Although rival WWPR (105.1 FM) passed Hot in the morning after hiring former Hot morning man Star, WQHT remains slightly ahead overall.
"I told everyone at Hot they should be enormously proud," Mayo said. "No radio station ever had that kind of year, and to rebound like they did is amazing."
Other than "Tsunami," said Mayo, "There aren't a lot of things I would have done differently in the past three years."
But he does think radio in general should reassess some things, like the consequences of the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed companies to own more stations.
"When I started 30 years ago, radio was broadcaster-driven," he said. "Now it's investor-driven. You get a report card every 90 days [Arbitron ratings], and you have to get your ratings, make your numbers.
"So you start getting more outrageous to get people's attention, and I think that's what leads to things like 'The Tsunami Song' and Opie and Anthony and some of what Star does.
"I'm just not sure it's good for radio in the long term. I'm not sure it's the best way to build a business."
Still, he won't bail out. "I'd never get out of radio completely," he said. "But for a while, I'd like to be an artist who also happens to do radio." Originally published on January 19, 2006