Oh boy, which way will the ratings go now?

It'll be interesting to find out...

After more than 40 years as one of Houston's signature radio franchises, Hudson and Harrigan are no more.
The longtime morning drive time talk show on KILT (100.3 FM) will be replaced, for the moment, by afternoon drive host Rowdy Yates and Erin Austin, a member of the Hudson and Harrigan morning show team, Brian Purdy, general manager of CBS Radio Houston, said Wednesday.

I will admit that I hadn't listened to pretty much any terrestrial radio since I got Sirius early last year, but that's still a sad thing to see. Those guys -- the H&H characters, if not the folks playing them -- might have been a Houston thing, but folks all over Southeast Texas knew of them, apparently. I remember one semester at Lamar I was getting advised by the chairman of the communication department, Dr. Pat Harrigan, and our discussion lapsed into last names, as we both had unusual ones. I mentioned to him that there was a Houston deejay named Harrigan, and to my immense surprise he responded, "Yes, is he still there?" I suppose it's only natural that the professors would be that familiar with the media outlets here and in Houston, with Houston being so close we CAN get its radio stations most of the time, but I was still surprised.

At any rate, it's almost like another couple of old friends are gone now. You might remember me saying that being able to listen to all the same stations I listened to back in my College Station days was just like catching up with old friends. And it was, to the point that I was able to tolerate some of the bad music. Perhaps that's what they mean when they talk about "personality-driven" radio stations like KILT. I will admit, though, that the station's playing of the older music made it a lot easier to listen to than its crosstown competitor. But what happens when a "personality-driven" radio station gets rid of its personalities? I guess we'll certainly find out, won't we? At least one person here is saying that the guys sounded tired and lifeless after CBS let go two of their colleagues, Robert B. McEntire and T.J. Callahan. I surely wouldn't have blamed them. They probably went on the air every day after that wondering how much longer they were going to have jobs. No doubt R.B. and T.J. were worried themselves after the company laid off Jim Carola and Pat Hernandez at the end of 2004. Times and circumstances change, I know, but it still sucks for them all.