TORONTO -- The politics of radio have accomplished what broadcast watchdogs and the professionally-offended could not. Howard Stern is leaving town with a Derringer at his back.

Not that he was ever physically in town. Even when Q-107 launched the legendary shock jock in 1997, Stern's promotion for his debut consisted of a satellite press conference and an on-air reference to French-Canadians as "peckerheads."

Which goes a long way toward explaining why a ratings-healthy Q-107 pulled the plug on Stern's show yesterday, announcing that Monday's morning show would feature the a.m. debut of ex-drive-home guy John Derringer in a live broadcast from the Yonge St. Hard Rock Cafe.

The broadcast will be part of a daylong celebration of Q and the revamped Hard Rock, culminating in a street party on Yonge from Shuter to Dundas from 3-7 p.m., featuring Big Sugar and Geddy Lee.

The rub is that "Howard Stern is still number one in all our target demos," said J.J. Johnson, Radio GM for Q-107's owner Corus Communications. Indeed, Sun readers voted Stern their favourite morning man yet again in this year's reader's survey. "It's not about ratings," Johnson said.

Nor is it, in the short-term at least, about money, since Corus is paying off Stern's contract through the next few years to implement these changes to Q's morning show.

"Howard has done what he was hired for, and now it's time to move on. The reason Q-107 put Howard Stern on is the reason most people put Howard Stern on, because their station is a distressed property. So Howard Stern comes with a big pricetag and a promo machine. And when those stations get back on their feet, that's when a lot of them dump Howard."

It's been a bad few weeks on that front for Stern, who was also dumped in Phoenix this week and had his Saturday night TV show cancelled.

Key to Q's decision was the acquisition of Derringer 18 months ago from Montreal's CHOM, where he'd been since moving from the morning show at The Fan Toronto. His free-wheeling guy-talk "drive home" show (with his sidekick "Lobster Boy") quickly acquired Stern-like ratings, ranking #1 among males over 24. When the station decided to go "Classic Rock" 24-hours a day, and the time came to hand the morning show over again to homegrown talent, Derringer was an obvious choice.

"I don't know what it is, but it seems like I'm always taking over from somebody really popular," Derringer said yesterday. "I replaced (popular Montreal broadcaster) Terry DiMonte at CHOM and I replaced (original morning man) Bob McKeown at The FAN.

"There's nothing I can do about it. Stern fans are acting like I'm the one who made the decision to let him go. There's no question I'm going to be compared to Stern, and no question he's a trailblazer. My assignment here is to just be me.

"Basically my mandate is to do pretty much what I do in the afternoon ... There'll be no reinventing of my act."

After Monday, when he'll be broadcasting live from the Hard Rock from 5:30 a.m., Derringer will take his show back to the station's North York studios. Q will still broadcast daily from the Hard Rock from 3 p.m. to 7 with new drive-home guy Jeff Brown. In January, the station will open a new studio at Yonge/Dundas with its entire roster of talent.

"I just can't wait to move downtown from the corner of Yonge and Sudbury," Derringer said. "This is such a zero neighbourhood."


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