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Today's paper. Last Updated: 05/31/2012

Sun May Set on 'Moscow in the Morning' Radio Show

Moscow's first English-language program, Radio Maximum's "Moscow in the Morning," may go off the air as early as Friday because of falling advertising revenues, one of the founders and the program director said Thursday. Yevgeny Abov, commercial director of the weekly Moscow News, the Russian co-founder of Radio Maximum, said it would meet Friday with the joint-venture president to decide whether to continue the morning show in the face of dropping advertising revenues. "Moscow in the Morning" went on the air in early 1992 as the first English-language program in Russia. With American disc jockeys Cami McCormick and Charles Bornstein filling three hours a day with news, jokes, columns and Western music, it quickly became a household name. "The Russian listeners are tuning out," Abov said. "We don't want to close down the program, but we have to look at the audience too." "'Moscow in the Morning' is taking up prime time," Abov said. "Pressure from Russian advertising is increasing. We are losing those commercials." Because Radio Maximum has expanded its Russian audience to St. Petersburg and to the UKW frequency, which most Western radios cannot receive, many advertisers want to air their commercials in Russian only, Abov said. He declined to confirm or deny reports that the program would run its last show Friday, but said a press release on the future of the program would be issued after the board meeting. Bert Kleinman, president of the joint venture and board member for Westwood One, arrived in Moscow on Thursday but refused to answer calls. According to McCormick, program director and the leading voice for "Moscow in the Morning," Kleinman had said recently that he planned to take the program off the air but had refused to tell her when. "I'm really pissed off," McCormick said. "The least I expected was to be treated with a little respect." "It's been a lot of hassle getting up at 3 A.M. every day," she said. "I hoped that when I left I'd leave with a good feeling." "We always understood that it would not last forever," McCormick said. "It was not put on the air to make money." Instead, the program served to promote the new station and attract Western advertisers, she said. Tamsyn Rose, who reads the business news on the program, said the news came as "a real blow." "With just the three of us and no resources, I think we did very well," she said. "I think we meant quite a lot to people, both Russian and foreign." McCormick and Rose said that they continuously clashed with the Russian owner, Moscow News, and got no support from the U.S. partners, Harris Corp., Story First Communications and Westwood One.




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