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Jim Isabella out at WNIR, Kent.

DavidEduardo said:
However, with the "acceptance" of the current administration well below 40% and huge controversial issue in education, immigration, global warming, race relations, the international change in the leading world power and the like, there are many sociopolitical subjects for discussion.
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The audience for the "discussion" exists. But there's a shrinking audience for the yelling, lecturing and conspiracist bent that makes up a large percentage of what's being broadcast. You can have those discussions, even from a conservative standpoint, without playing to the fringes. Tim's point is valid - THAT portion of the audience is not a long term viable market. And most AM talk outside of the stations you mention (and a few others like KIRO, KMBZ, and WWL) are not making those adjustments, and we're not seeing a plan.
 
Andy Travis said:
The audience for the "discussion" exists. But there's a shrinking audience for the yelling, lecturing and conspiracist bent that makes up a large percentage of what's being broadcast. You can have those discussions, even from a conservative standpoint, without playing to the fringes. Tim's point is valid - THAT portion of the audience is not a long term viable market. And most AM talk outside of the stations you mention (and a few others like KIRO, KMBZ, and WWL) are not making those adjustments, and we're not seeing a plan.
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There are plenty of smaller market talk stations that are doing very well... the Akron-Canton talker, a Class A FM, is typically in the 6 to 8 share range and bills very well on a traditional talk model. There are many stations like that outside of the biggest markets that are thriving.
 
Traditional mass media now have a monster competitor for advertising dollars....one they can do very little unseat: advertising on line (search engines, social media, other places on the web). How do I know this? I speak with many of my 20-30 year former radio advertising business owners, read trades, observed the web, speak to people (sales people and managers) who are now in the industry: revenues are down primarily because billions of formerly radio/TV/newspaper ad dollars have drifted to on line. That's not my opinion....not hobbyists opinion...but from the mouths of people spending ad dollars and folks actually in the industry. It's a shame the web came along....sure did change my life & the lives of many others in the radio industry in particular. And, the 1996 Tel-Com bill seemed to be the first shot at permanently putting owning radio stations as a highly profitable business in a tailspin. Sad, but real.
 
10 years working evenings plus Saturday late afternoons leaves no time for a life outside of radio. Howie and Stan did the 6 day shifts for years, but maybe it's time for The Kaiser to consider alternative programming on Saturdays and let the hosts have the weekends off. The Klaus brothers are in their 70s and probably don't work weekends.
 
Firebird61 said:
10 years working evenings plus Saturday late afternoons leaves no time for a life outside of radio. Howie and Stan did the 6 day shifts for years, but maybe it's time for The Kaiser to consider alternative programming on Saturdays and let the hosts have the weekends off. The Klaus brothers are in their 70s and probably don't work weekends.
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Jimmy? (I am truly surprised the K boys have yet to sell the station. In the new advertising environment a stand alone station in a medium market gotta be a lot to juggle).
 
Tim said:
Jimmy? (I am truly surprised the K boys have yet to sell the station. In the new advertising environment a stand alone station in a medium market gotta be a lot to juggle).
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In a market like that, most radio revenue is local. A well-known and well-respected local broadcaster can do just fine.
Tim said:
And, the 1996 Tel-Com bill seemed to be the first shot at permanently putting owning radio stations as a highly profitable business in a tailspin. Sad, but real.
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The 1996 legislation was a reaction to the fact that, enhanced by Docket 80-90, 50% of all US radio stations were not profitable in the early 90's.
 
DavidEduardo said:
In a market like that, most radio revenue is local. A well-known and well-respected local broadcaster can do just fine.

The 1996 legislation was a reaction to the fact that, enhanced by Docket 80-90, 50% of all US radio stations were not profitable in the early 90's.
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No shock at that. But, as the expression goes: “...it is what it is...”.
 
DavidEduardo said:
In a market like that, most radio revenue is local. A well-known and well-respected local broadcaster can do just fine.

The 1996 legislation was a reaction to the fact that, enhanced by Docket 80-90, 50% of all US radio stations were not profitable in the early 90's.
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OMG, yes: local-direct ad revenues are critical! From my perspective, radio’s biggest challenge is to find and train competent advertising sales people who will develop and grow face to face client-salesperson relationships. Not texting or e-mailing packages to potential advertisers...from sales people terrified at the idea of human contact.
 
There is a critical need for competent, radio,”street sales people”. Folks who develop face to face business relationships with potential and current radio advertisers. E-mailing and texting station “packages” to business owners hoping to grow big ad revenue bases is not realistic. Face to face is critical. If a person a station hires is terrified at the idea of meeting in person with business owners, you’ve got to find another employee. Or 2, or 3, or 10.
 
DavidEduardo said:
For the stations like WLW, WSB, KFI and the like there is no reason to rapidly change at this moment. Evolution is a good idea, but a programming "revolution" is not needed.
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Those three stations are not only the three most successful talk stations out there, they have taken risks and have hosts that aren’t the same boilerplate hosts. Even WSB got WSB-TV traffic reporter Mark Arum to host a largely apolitical show in afternoon drive.

WNIR during its peak had a unique lineup: a good-natured “shock jock” duo of Stan Piatt and Steve French, an “anything goes” midday show with Howie Chizek, stalwart liberal Joe Finan in afternoons and Jim Albright hosting a dating show in evenings. Of course it couldn’t last forever, it was a miracle it lasted as long as it did.
 
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It's great there's a few talk stations around the USA who are changing the traditional "1-sided political" ranting & raving & non-stop complaining formula. But, with hundreds and hundreds of radio stations still banging away at the tired old crutch....here's hoping more will evolve. Heaven knows the radio industry needs a fresh approach....both spoken word & music formats. Bland means boring. Boring means declining time spent listening. Way too many creative on air folks out there who need jobs and can provide appealing programming for the public. Fingers crossed.
 
DavidEduardo said:
However, with the "acceptance" of the current administration well below 40% and huge controversial issue in education, immigration, global warming, race relations, the international change in the leading world power and the like, there are many sociopolitical subjects for discussion.

For the stations like WLW, WSB, KFI and the like there is no reason to rapidly change at this moment. Evolution is a good idea, but a programming "revolution" is not needed.
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Elected officials from BOTH Democratic & Republican party have good & bad players. One side isn't the "good" one and the other always the "bad" one. Many of them are full of it. What bugs me about talk radio is they rarely discuss that reality. But, reality is dull, and many of the public seem to love sensationalism...even if most of that isn't real! Sensationalism isn't creative, compelling programming. Maybe I need to listen to the streams of WSB, KFI, and WLW. It'd be great if they weren't the tired old 1-sided political BS pounding away....and non-stop complaining about everything from A to Z. Boring!!!!!
 
The WEOL Morning Show is a different type of talk show. They tend to present an easy-going, pleasant talk show often geared specifically to their base of operations in Lorain County, Ohio.
 
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Bill Hall has officially taken over the evening slot on WNIR. Only now it's from 7pm to 10pm instead of from 7pm to 11pm and he is not listed for Saturdays.

Meanwhile, there has still not been any announcement or news regarding the spot Angela Bellios used to have on mornings until last year. "The Morning Buzz" is now listed as Steve French, Phil Ferguson and Friends.
 
So are we to assume all the Weigel subchannels will be moving to 35, a low power station? I was hoping they would buy 55.
 
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