"The effective executive focuses on contribution. He looks up from his work and outward toward goals. He asks: 'What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?' His stress is on responsibility." Peter Drucker

David Lee Roth, the Howard replacement, had another bad trend in New York. According to John Mainelli, writing in The New York Post...

There is reason for concern. Roth's audience was down to an estimated 32,000 listeners last month, off 88 percent from Stern's 277,000 last December.

John's article, Fading Out, is here. Is Roth, the musician without radio experience, responsible?

Numbers for the Michael Eisner CNBC debut are out. 95,000 viewers, 39,000 in the 25-54 demo. TV Newser sez...

Eisner lost most of his lead-in. At 8pm, CNBC's "Deal or No Deal" had an impressive 518,000 total viewers, with 245,000 in the demo. Eisner lost 82 percent of the total viewers, and 84 percent of the demo.

TV Newser is here. Is Eisner, the exec without television experience, responsible?

My opinion is...in both cases leadership is responsible. Is this a casting issue? An issue of direction or failure to provide appropriate direction? Some combination of both? Not having first hand knowledge of what's going on I am not able to make that call. It does, however, seem to me that each performer, Roth and Eisner, would benefit from better leadership. Roth and Eisner deserve nothing less. In my experience, the quick, easy and wrong solution is to blame the talent without first carefully reviewing how they are being directed. Management must be held accountable; management is responsible for producing results. My suggestion...the first step is to catch talent doing something right. Roth and Eisner may each achieve great success yet but for that to happen they will need responsible, qualified leadership. As to the chatter that Roth is "difficult" my take is that is simply wonderful news, have yet to meet a great talent that was not, in some manner, "difficult." More often than not the "difficult" characterization is a symptom of poor or unqualified leadership rather than poor or unqualified talent. Before replacing the talent, change up the leadership.

Jeff Jarvis has written about DLR (with comments) here and here. Bravo Jeff!

Clear Channel, CBS, Citadel and Entercom have each had a sit down with FCC staffers in what some are saying is an effort to make any pay for play problem go away (thanks to RDN impresario Larry Shannon for the pointer). The story from Reuters here

Howard is the cover story in this week's Entertainment Weekly...

Does it bother you that most of your fans haven't followed you to Sirius?

I was just at my psychiatrist and I said, ''I just got great news: We hit the 4 million mark. And I'm angry. It should be 20 million.'' It's insulting to me that everyone hasn't come with me. I take it personally. The competitive thing is a sickness that eats at me. I want to say to my audience in this article, ''F--- you! You haven't come with me yet? How dare you?'' [Laughs] ''We're up to wild, crazy stuff, the show has never sounded better. You cheap bastard!''

Read the Howard Stern cover story here. The EW site needs major work, page design is very poor, no excuse for the slow page loading.

Patrick Phillips interviews Elizabeth Spiers, the uber-cool princess of snark, here. Bravo Patrick!

Looking for a great business book? Please allow me to suggest The Daily Drucker, get details via the Amazon link, upper right of this page. Exceptional, read-it-with-a-highlighter-good; Highly recommended. (FD - the link uses my associate account).