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Herman Cain leaves syndication in 2017, staying on WSB, four other CMG stations

Between WDBO,WOKV and WSB Herman can be heard virtually from north of Palm Beach County, Georgia, South Carolina and on WSB to the Tennessee border,so it's a nice chunk of territory.

WOKV and WSB have excellent AM signals. 690 is legendary getting into Eastern North Carolina during the day. I always wondered why WDBO switched it's AM to ESPN. Kind of a waste for a nice signal at 580. Like WSB and WOKV, keeping the news talk format on 580 would have given them a lot more coverage.
 
The reality is that when Neal Boortz did this show, it had more stations, and was carried by a major syndicator. Lately it's been syndicated internally, and Cox really isn't set up to syndicate shows. It's more expensive for them, and they're getting out of that business.
 
Actually, Cain is listed as a Westwood One offering. Just like Clark Howard, who also is heard out of WSB Atlanta.

Cain isn't carried on a lot of stations, although I hear him sometimes on a station in Portland ME when I'm in that area. Westwood One originally had Dennis Miller on at the same time, as well as Geraldo Rivera. Now the other late morning show on Westwood One is Jonathon Brandmeier, who's also leaving syndication.

So Chris Plante of WMAL Washington will be the new late morning offering by Westwood One. He is already heard on a few Cumulus stations outside DC.
 
The last part of the article Ho posted is very interesting. Scheduling changes coming soon.

As a huge Boortz fan and as someone who despises both Erickson and Cain, I'd really like to see Eric Von Haessler get on prime time rather that be morning or afternoon.

He's similar to Boortz in terms of his politics and his entertainment side though not as brass and controversial as Boortz. Few weeks ago, he was sitting in for Erickson and my liberal friend was in the car with me listening and absolutely loved him.

Lost respect for Hermain when he went head first in the tank for Trump and he's just not as entertaining. Erickson, well, that voice! Oh and his obsession about abortion and gay marriage gets old. Also think he is full of it going from #NeverTrump and calling Trump out on his controversial comments and now defends those comments now that Trump has won the election.
 
I passed Boortz in the hall at White Columns one lunch time, and took minor issue at something or other he'd said. He grinned and said yeah, and they loved it, didn't they? Which they did. He understood what it's all about.
 
A lot of shows have tried to launch in that 9-12noon slot over the years, and none have really survived. Beck still has a lock on that time period in the Eastern and Central time zones. We'll see how Chris Plante does. He was on Cumulus stations when they pulled Geraldo from everything but WABC. He was dropped locally in favor of a local show.
 
gr8oldies said:
He was dropped locally in favor of a local show.
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Hannity recently was quoted as saying he thinks talk radio needs to go back to local.

http://radioink.com/2016/11/16/hannity-return-local-want-survive/

He's really right. There's very little that he, Rush, Savage, or Levin bring to the table that can't be done by someone local. They're all speaking the same talking points. It's one of the reasons why this format has stalled. I get the money savings of syndication, but stations have to split avails with the syndicator. So if you can afford a live body, there's more potential money to be made locally. I think that's what WSB has realized.
 
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benale said:
Like WSB and WOKV, keeping the news talk format on 580 would have given them a lot more coverage.
Click to expand...

More coverage on a band that most people under 65 do not listen to.
 
We have a couple of hosts who have been on the air for years if not decades (our talker is on FM). They do a lot of shift-long paid remotes and lots of endorsements. The problem is, how does a station start from scratch with unknown local hosts?
 
gr8oldies said:
The problem is, how does a station start from scratch with unknown local hosts?
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Every town has local "celebrities." People who were famous by playing on the high school football team or in local government. That's a good place to start. We hired a former mayor who was very popular.
 
“Herman Cain is uniquely situated to comment on the upcoming election..."

I've met Herman. He's a nice guy. He has a certain inside angle about the election. But:
• Election's over.
• This is radio.
• Herman's over.

Herman can talk about other things, but do people want to tune in to hear Herman talk about other things? It's called "balance" I'm sure WSB is watching the numbers carefully - and probably lining us 400 focus groups. Watch EvH fill in more for Herman (and maybe more Boortz); we'll see....
 
Never cared for HC as a radio talker. Personally, seems like a nice guy. His voice, IMO, puts more to sleep than to tune-in.
He is where he is (daytime) because of his friendship with Boortz, and Boortz still wields clout between the white columns.

Boortz, in 2008 and 2012 said he would retire if Obama and or Hilary took over the White House. Now that both are out, I wonder if retirement is getting old and a future mike awaits him, more than the fill-ins he has been doing.

It would be good to hear more of him
 
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I had heard that Cain's show had marketing problems. Many stations had problems with a Black conservative talker, for whatever reason. Maybe they felt they couldn't sell the local avails in the show compared with other talkers.
 
We've had a local black conservative talker in Knoxville for a couple of decades (who sometimes does fill in Atlanta) and no problem selling local ads and endorsements on his show. Cain's style (and his politics) are a bit different from Boortz, so that could be a factor.
kf4rca said:
I had heard that Cain's show had marketing problems. Many stations had problems with a Black conservative talker, for whatever reason. Maybe they felt they couldn't sell the local avails in the show compared with other talkers.
Click to expand...
 
Well, Salem this year added Larry Elder to its conservative talk schedule in the evening, when Hugh Hewitt moved to morning drive. But I don't know of any non-Salem stations carrying Elder.
 
trusty said:
“Herman Cain is uniquely situated to comment on the upcoming election..."

I've met Herman. He's a nice guy. He has a certain inside angle about the election. But:
• Election's over.
• This is radio.
• Herman's over.

Herman can talk about other things, but do people want to tune in to hear Herman talk about other things? It's called "balance" I'm sure WSB is watching the numbers carefully - and probably lining us 400 focus groups. Watch EvH fill in more for Herman (and maybe more Boortz); we'll see....
Click to expand...

With his libertarian leanings, EvH is probably a better Boortz substitute than Herman Cain. I'd listen to EvH.
 
Let's look at the numbers.

Herman Cain came in at #55 on the Heavy Hundred. Compare that with Clark Howard at #46. (Alex Jones comes in at 42.)
Larry Elder is at 82. Have you ever heard his Phone-A-Bro segment. Hilarious!
EVH is not on the Heavy Hundred being a local talker. I can't listen very long- just gets too silly.
And another local talker is Brian Crabtree. On the Salem stations also.
 
I like Herman and will continue to catch him on WHIO. Hopefully this doesn't mean he'll be leaving the airwaves. Time will tell.
 
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