Ryan Seacrest To Replace Rick Dees?

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http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,13476,00.html

 

More Mike Time for Ryan Seacrest?

 

by Joal Ryan

 

Just what Ryan Seacrest needs--another gig.

 

The moonlighting metrosexual American Idol host may be about to notch his fourth big-money job after a seismic shakeup in Los Angeles radio.

 

Longtime L.A. deejay Rick Dees told his KIIS-FM audience Tuesday he was signing off his drive-time a.m. show, "Dees in the Morning," after 22 years.

 

"It has been decided I will no longer be doing the daily morning radio show on KIIS-FM," Dees said.

 

Dees and his corporate bosses at radio giant Clear Channel Communications had been in contract talks. Dees' current pact expires at the end of the year.

 

Last week, Daily Variety all but reported that said talks were not going well. It noted that Dees had talked on air of an upcoming "life-changing" announcement, and that Seacrest was in line to take over his slot.

 

Seacrest is already employed by: (1) Fox's American Idol, which he hosts at least twice a week; (2) Twentieth Television's syndicated infotainment show On Air with Seacrest, which he hosts five days a week; and, (3) Clear Channel's syndicated radio show American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, which he hosts once a week.

 

The KIIS-FM gig is a five-day-a-week, early-morning, much-caffeine-needed grind.

 

No comment Tuesday from KIIS on either Dees or Seacrest. An announcement from the station was said to be in the offing for Wednesday. Perhaps not so strangely, that's when Seacrest's camp expected it'll have something to say on the matter.

 

There was no word on who'd be filling in for Dees bright and early on Wednesday.

 

Dees, 53, began his run at KIIS in 1982. At the time, he was best known to coast-to-coast listeners as purveyor of the 1976 chart-topping novelty number "Disco Duck (Part 1)."

 

At KIIS, he became Los Angeles' top-rated morning radio personality--a title he ceded several ratings periods ago, crowded out by Spanish and hip-hop format stations.

 

Making like a 20th century Ryan Seacrest minus the highlights, Dees branched out into TV in the 1980s, hosting Solid Gold (1984-85) and Into the Night with Rick Dees (1990-91), one of ABC's umpteenth, pre-Jimmy Kimmel attempts to launch a successful late-night talk show.

 

On air Tuesday, Dees said he will continue as host of Clear Channel's Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, heard on more than 350 stations across the world.

 

In an interview later on L.A.'s KCBS-TV, Dees said it was not his choice to leave the a.m. gig, and that his corporate bosses pulled the plug. Apparently defending his viability, Dees made a pointed reference on his show that it had been an "honor and privilege [to host] the number-one revenue-producing" morning program in radio.

 

Dees also quoted the Bible, and reminded listeners that he loved them--a lot.

 

"I really do love you, and I pray for you and your family," Dees said on KIIS-FM. "God bless you from the heart of my microphone."

 

If Seacrest replaces Dees, it'll mark the second time in as many months that the 29-year-old whippersnapper has supplanted a radio legend.

 

In January, Seacrest succeeded Casey Kasem as host of American Top 40, a gig Kasem had held since 1970.

 

Both Dees and Kasem are Radio Hall of Fame inductees.

 

Seacrest is no stranger to workaday L.A. radio. Until recently, he was the afternoon drive-time deejay on KYSR-FM.