David Lee Roth Radio

David Lee Roth, the host, was best-known as Van Halen’s former lead singer and in his solo capacity. On the CBS operated and owned stations, the show aired on seven different markets:

N.Y.C.- WFNY-FM
Cleveland- WNCX- FM
Dallas- KLLI-FM
Philadelphia- WYSP-FM
Pittsburgh- WRKZ-FM
West Palm Beach- WPBZ-FM

During March, when David Roth took a rather unexpected week’s vacation, there was mass speculation pertaining to format change or cancellation of the show, after he had only been doing the show for a period of two months. After weeks and weeks of tension between the Radio management at CBS and David Roth, and several unscheduled changes in the format, this show was cancelled abruptly without any warning in April.

Then Joel Hollander, the CEO and Chairman of CBS Radio made the announcement that the show was being replaced by the Opie and Anthony Show on April the 26th. Due to the cancellation of the show, David Roth reportedly had retained the same exact law firm that the radio host Howard Stern was currently using for his lawsuit against the Chairman of CBS Corporations, Leslie Moonves, CBS Radio, as well as it’s parent CBS Corporation.

At the time, all David knew was someone had to pay when it came to the four million dollar salary that he and CBS could not arrive at an agreement about.

Criticism Surrounding the Show:
There were many listeners that viewed this show as “skin crawling awful”, stating that Roth had no clue about what he was doing and they advised Roth that if he was to listen to himself, he too would experience physical pain. On the other hand, there were some viewers that viewed him as a loudmouth punk that was a true mess. Generally, fans and critics alike concluded that David Roth was totally unprepared for the world of radio talk shows. In today’s world, you can’t just get on the air and do anything that you want - you have to take into consideration your listeners.

In relationship to a radio talk show, the listeners are what can make your radio talk show a total success and the listeners can make your radio talk show a complete failure. As a radio talk show host, it is up to you how you appeal to your listeners, but you should bear in mind that you can’t expect all of your listeners to feel the same way that you do about certain things.