Sibling Rivalry Media moves pit brother against brother. by Jim Hanas Last week, Fox Television announced the promotion of John Koski to vice president and general manager of WHBQ-TV Fox 13. Koski, a native Memphian and 17-year veteran of the station — most recently as vice president of programming — succeeds D’Artagnan Bebel who has moved on to manage the Fox-affiliate in Houston. “I feel very fortunate to be here, and we as a station intend to continue building our relationship with Memphis,” says Koski, a graduate of Germantown High School who started work at WHBQ as an 18-year-old intern. “What that means is we’re going to continue to improve our news product. We want to be the best in Memphis and we want to stay involved in the community.” But John is not the only Koski on the move in Memphis. After months of searching, WMC-TV Channel 5 has finally hired an investigative reporter, none other than John’s older brother Rudy Koski, also a Germantown grad, who will arrive early next month from Huntsville, Alabama, where he has been the investigative reporter at NBC-affiliate WAFF — which, like WMC, is owned by Raycom Media — since 1996. So, are the brothers Koski looking forward to squaring off from opposing corners of the market? “I think it’s a great move for him, and I’m glad he’s going to be here although I would probably prefer that he not be a competitor in the broader picture,” John says of Rudy. “We have decided we’re going to leave business at business, and when we’re together we’ll talk about other things, like golf.” “It’s exciting for him, and of course, he’s got a big job to do,” says Rudy of John. “And I’ve got an important job to do. We’re just going to do what we do and hopefully we’ll both be successful.” The Ratings Game After a Y2K-related delay that left radio execs fuming, Arbitron has finally released quarterly ratings for the last three months of 1999. The local ratings continue a trend of increasingly tough competition among area stations. Memphis’ top five stations are separated by just 1.8 share points, compared to the 2.9 points that separated them the previous three months. Share represents the average percentage of listeners that are tuned in to a particular station at any give time. Among listeners 12 and older, Memphis’ top ranked stations are: WHRK-FM “K 97,” KXHT-FM “Hot 107,” and WDIA-AM, with three stations — WRBO-FM “Soul Classics 103.5,” WRVR-FM “The River,” and WGKX-FM “Kix 106” — tied for fourth. Among listeners 25 to 54 — where first and fifth are separated by almost three share points — competition is not nearly so tight, with WRBO heading up the pack, followed by WMC “FM 100,” WEGR-FM “Rock 103,” KJMS-FM “Smooth 101,” and WHRK. E-mail media-related tips, quips, and complaints to Jim Hanas at hanas@memphisflyer.com.