KQRS' Barnard Retires--In Three Years

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Tom Barnard, the Grand Poobah of morning radio in the Twin Cities, has decided to retire from KQRS-FM in December 2012.  That's a week before the alleged Mayan Apocalypse takes place.  We'll believe it when we see it.

Barnard's show, which has dominated the local ratings for so long that he's beaten back every challenger he's ever had (and that includes Howard Stern), is proof positive that Minnesota Nice is a myth.  He and his band of paid stooges go after anything and everything in such a crude manner that you might need to take a shower afterwards.  In other words, folks, Barnard is no better and no worse than your average conservative talk jock currently polluting the airwaves.

Some of Barnard's material has made headlines.  When he and his minions make fun of a certain minority, picket lines form outside the KQRS studios demanding that he be fired.  Management (currently Citadel Broadcasting), not wanting to lose its cash cow, usually give Barnard a slap on the wrist.

Barnard seldom talks to the media, but he does have three past or current members on the air with him:  Bob Sansevere (St. Paul Pioneer Press sportswriter), Mike Gelfand (former sportswriter) and Jeff Passolt (news anchor for KMSP-Fox 9).  Wonder how that affects their journalistic integrity, if they had any to begin with?

Thanks to Barnard, KQRS is the top-rated radio station in town, and has been for several years.  But their numbers have been slipping lately.  Are people getting tired of the same old classic rock songs?  Or are people just tired of radio, period, as sales of MP3 players and online music will attest?

Three years is a long time in almost anything, including radio.  If Barnard is indeed serious about quitting the medium, he won't be hurting for work.  He also does commercial voice-overs that reportedly pay as much as (if not more than) KQ ever does.  Barnard may be controversial, but once the Big Fish swims away, only minnows will be left in radio.  Unless the Mayans were right about 2012.