Well, BigA, I see today's edition of Talker's came in the email. Funny, but this is really an odd series of posts on the the nature of Talk Radio as we start a new year. Savage is being taken down to minimal, if any, hours on the air. He is going to midnight in Nashville at 99.7 WTN. Shapiro is going on nights. My wife and daughter actually mentioned that they had managed to hear the guy and both "liked" him, which says a lot. (I honestly have not ever listened to him, so I have no idea how it will work out.) Film says he is boring. The format is fragmenting and attempting to go "local" with "talent" that doesn't come that cheap and doesn't have proven track records, so there is a potential for a national panic and meltdown from many in management at various levels, and the costs outweigh the profits because the only profit seems to be weekend info shows. That is a disasterous business model.
What I found more interesting is the second article in today's
Talkers e-mail about the line-up changes at KABC was the article about Dave Ramsey
ave Ramsey Show a Top Podcast in 2018:
From
Talkers: "According to data from Apple, the podcast edition of the nationally syndicated Dave Ramsey radio show (airing on more than 600 stations across the country) was the fifth most-downloaded podcast of 2018."
There was some rather vibrant conversation on the NYC board about Ramsey as he was being shifted off the dial. His flagship is in Nashville at WLAC-AM, which has had horrific ratings for the past few years. He was originally on 99.7 WTN. Now that WLAC-AM is also on the I-Heart trans 98.3, I actually hear Dave from time to time. His teachings are pretty much the same, so you still know what you are going to get after a few shows. He has never really changed (Note that I refrain from saying "improved") his on-air delivery after almost two decades. I find that interesting. Odd thing is he is still on 600 stations and yet is in the Top 5 Podcasts? They don't mention the actual number of people who have listened to his podcasts. But, people are obviously really interested.
Is it fair to say that we are simply seeing concrete evidence of where radio is going rather quickly? Especially listeners of the "older" demographics? This makes me ask the questions that I always ask.
1.) Can you really keep listeners listening to talk radio? Yet, look at sports talk. Anything to learn from that?
2.) If it's not the actual talk show hosts, is it the constant commercials that are too numerous and way too long? (I still contend the old 30's and 60's are way outdated, but what can you replace them with?)
3.) We all see the issues with many AM stations in many of the Top 100 markets, but yet there still are some very successful AM stations with good billings AND listenership. Where will these top rated AM's be in three years? Will AM even be around in 10?
4.) So now podcasts are the "life support" of some of these talk show hosts that are leaving ter-radio and that is going to help AM radio how? Replacing hosts with unknown hosts drives people who liked the previous host to listen to anything but the radio station they once did, so?
5.) How will the bigger radio companies conquer and divide themselves without actually hurting themselves more? It seems like talk radio needs a "go to" listener platform that allows multiple corporations to literally share in branding the talent, building them nationally and reaping the benefits of online listenership vs. making potential listeners search for some talent online. My point is how long will it be before radio has to concede the format to TV and the internet?
I know this takes us a way from the KABC issue, but maybe it answers some local questions. Thankfully LA is not Seattle... so I am allowed bring this up.
