Talk Radio

[BigJimmy]

I can't see Talk Radio garnering a huge audience in the future.
older listeners are dying off & most young/middle age people don't seem interested talk radio.
Sports talk may do OK but not news--talk or so called hot talk.

 

[BigJimmy]

I suppose its possible some type of lifestyle talk format could attract
an audience. ( mostly young/ middle age women & some men). Why don't many
stations try such a format? (too costly ?)

 

[FredLeonard]

Look who runs the industry. Corporate elites. Money changers. At the local level, sales Babbits. They are right-wing. All their friends at the country club are right wing. All the people they meet at Chamber of Commerce luncheons are right-wing. And at the local level, radio is filled with right-wingers (even if they get poverty-level mcwages). They think they are sharing truth, justice and the American way. To these people, offering something other than right-wing hate talk is like a fundamentalist station doing a show on Islam. They think right-wing talk is public service. They even think it's what people want (since everybody in their own limited circle agrees with it).

No lifestyle talk is no more costly than any other type of talk, although syndicated shrink shows have pretty much dried up. Financial advice shows (Ramsey, Howard) are still around.

What has been shown to work is NJ 101.5 but the suits keep ignoring it. Too populist. Too skeptical of elites in power.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

We've had several threads here in the forums lately where we get into a "slug-fest" over the righteousness and the evilness of Talk Radio as we now it. We need to see if we can actually have a constructive conversation on the topic rather than the typical destructive abuse we end up writing. (Yeah, I've thrown a punch or two in these brawls myself.)

Maybe our conversation about talk radio is very parallel to the talk about the Republican Party. A number of observers have pointed out that the Republican Party is heavy on supporters and voters who are white, aging and male. Sounds a bit like Talk Radio? Both the party and Talk Radio have to figure out how to attract new followers. Younger followers? May more female followers? Maybe followers we don't classify as (pardon the abrupt term but I don't know what to substitute for it) ... followers we don't classify as "White Folks".

Can the current message and "platform" of Talk Radio and the Republicans simply be reworded to make it more attractive to a younger, less white and less male following? Or will there have to be a major reconstruction of the platform?

The Left has some work to do also. Maybe the platform of the Left also needs some repair and remodeling. The fact that the platform of the Left does not "radio" well is a challenge the Left must consider. And the same question applies here: Can the current message and "platform" of the Left be made attractive to the radio listener by simply rewording it to make it more attractive, Or will there have to be a major reconstruction of the platform on the Left also?

 

[BigJimmy]

I thought 101.9 -----NYC might try a lifestyle talk format but they did not.
Not sure how such a format would do in NYC.

92.3 & 102.7 tried talk years ago. Did not do really welll except for Stern on 92.3.
(Where is Greaseman now ? Who cares? )

 

[RadioTalker101]

I almost hope talk radio dies so you guys can move on with your life. Every other thread is a variation on this theme.

 

[BigJimmy]

why haven't alll news stations---- WINS, WCBS, KYW & others moved to FM ? (I mean to HD1 -- FM channels).
They see no financial benefit or ratings benefit in doing so? Or they don't want to remove music from any of
their FM stations yet ? WTOP FM Washington does welll with Alll News but Washington may be a unique news
market. But All News WNEW FM Washington has not done well yet.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I almost hope talk radio dies so you guys can move on with your life. Every other thread is a variation on this theme.

I don't think that is a practical or realistic hope on your part. I can't ever see the day coming when radio has no Talk. Once the spoken word disappears from radio, there is no hindrance for everyone to move to mp3 players and other distributions which do not need a transmitter. And with all the discussions going on about the future of AM radio, what future does AM radio have without Talk Radio and play-by-play sports?

Over the weekend I have had some "back channel" discussion via e-mail with the RD Rep about when posts remain viable in a topic and when they get over the line and end up in Take-it-outside. And I think I understand that RD wants all our discussions to remain radio-related. Don't have a big discussion about abortion or about tax rates or about government shut-down unless it is truly radio related.

So I jumped into this topic today with intention to do exactly that. If radio wants to keep having Talk Radio as programming content, is that viable? Will it gather audience? Can a radio station hope to increase the size of that audience, or will the audience get smaller and smaller year by year... may dropping 3 to 7% per year and eventually every radio station in America will turn their back on Talk Radio because it does work for them.

So I made an assumption. That people who chat here, that people responsible for DOING talk radio, for people who are responsible for overall programming could have an intelligent discussion of what Talk Radio might want to do in order to remain healthy and maybe even grow it's audience, and what things may be "the kiss of death" for the future of Talk Radio.

Which raises the question: who needs to move on with his/her life? The folks who cannot tolerate any discussion of possible changes to Talk Radio, or the people who enjoy the "brain cell exercise" of discussing: "What if ....... "

General Motors sells cars that are different than the 1984 models. Virtually all TVs are now flat screen instead of CRT based. Land-line telephones are bordering on becoming extinct. Elections are no longer ONE-DAY EVENTS. Why is it assumed that there is something carved on a stone that Moses brought down off the mountain that forbids us from having an adult discussion of where Talk Radio may be headed or should be headed or has to be headed?

 

[radiophiler]

My guess as the answer to why haven't WINS, WCBS and KYW moved to FM? Well, if they're making money on AM and they can put a different format on FM that will make more money, that's preferable, financially. Once they put the all-news station on FM they have two options for the AM: a simulcast or find a new format. The second choice appears to be nearly impossible today.
I think they put all-news on FMs in San Francisco and Chicago for competitive reasons. FM News launched in Chicago, and CBS really thought they had something to be concerned about. As time told the story that FM News wasn't a threat to the CBS all-newsers, they had no reason to put the any of their other all-news stations on FM.
For whatever reason, the 12+ ratings for the all-newsers in NYC and Philly on AM continue to hold up, with some seasonal ups and downs. CBS seems committed to this format ... look at how they're hanging on to WNEW-FM in Washington DC even though it gets clobbered by WTOP. If the listening to their all news stations in the markets where they're on AM only started to drop off, you might see the stations move to FM.
Also: CBS is limited in its number of stations in those markets not only by the regular radio ownership limits, but they have lower caps because they also own TV stations ... in Philly they own two TV stations.

 

[BigJimmy]

I see KYW slipped in recent ratings. If ratings for KYW, WINS , WCBS fall over a
period of time I think cbs might move All News to FM.