Thursday, June 2, 2011

Off air, Listeners Find Ace & TJ Online

Demand crashes server

Ace & TJ went silent for the first time in 13 years on WNKS-FM ("Kiss" 95.1) Charlotte this week but apparently found an audience on the Internet, according to a story by Mark Washburn at charlotteobserver.com.

Demand for the online streaming of their syndicated show at www.acetj.com hit 75,000 listeners Monday at 6:08 a.m., and the server crashed at 130,000 listeners at 7:20 a.m., says Adam Goodman, the show's manager. Additional capacity was added.

"It's way beyond anything I was expecting," Goodman says.

Ace & T.J. ended their run on "Kiss" last Friday after they were unable to come to terms on a new contract with CBS Radio. They continue their syndicated program from a studio leased from rival Clear Channel Radio. Three stations that carry the show are owned by Clear Channel.

Under the terms of their noncompete contract, they cannot go on the air in Charlotte or negotiate with local stations until December.

Goodman says a second stream on the show's website, which offers a 24-hour replay of the show, saw a 600 percent surge through midweek with about 30,000 people accessing the show.

Goodman says he was also surprised that a Web-only segment, which runs for a half-hour after the broadcast show ends at 10 a.m., drew up to 18,000 listeners at its peak. They had not closely monitored the listening data to the Web segment before this week. "I think at one point the joke was that about 18 people were listening," Goodman says.

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