After hearing that former Fox News Channel prime-time host Tucker Carlson was fired today (April 24th), I'm beginning to think that his "next act" might be a national radio talk show.
And I see this as a possible scenario for his coming to radio:
I wonder if I-Heart owned Premiere Networks might make Carlson an offer for a national morning drive radio talk show.
Although most I-Heart owned talk stations currently have a local morning drive show (which is the only local daily program on many of their all-talk stations), I could see Premiere Networks signing Carlson for a national morning drive talk show.
There are several things that could work in favor of this idea:
First, Carlson is a "name", despite the circumstances that resulted in his being fired by Fox News Channel. And, like most of the syndicated hosts who fill up I-Heart owned talk stations outside of morning drive, he's politically conservative. His views would certainly fit in with the kind of talk programming most of these stations carry.
Although hiring Carlson for a morning drive radio talk show would cost the proverbial "pretty penny", Premiere parent I-Heart could use their corporate power to muscle his show onto almost all of their all-talk stations. That way, Carlson's huge salary could be offset by the savings I-Heart would generate from eliminating dozens of local morning shows on their all-talk stations.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that Boston (WRKO-680 and WXKS-1200), Cincinnati (WLW-700 and WKRC-550) and Los Angeles (KFI-640 and KEIB-1150) are the only markets where I-Heart owns multiple all-talk stations. A Tucker Carlson morning show could thus end up on all but three of I-Heart's talk stations from day one, leaving only WRKO, WLW, and KFI among I-Heart talk outlets with local morning drive talk shows. So if I-Heart could exert enough muscle, a Tucker Carlson show could be on in morning drive in dozens of markets upon launch.
And, Premiere Networks might find much interest in a Tucker Carlson morning drive talk show among all-talk stations owned by other companies in cities where parent I-Heart doesn't own an all-talk station.
But there are also some disadvantages:
One is that, as noted above, dozens of all-talk stations would lose their only local programming (as noted above). And this would mean that local commercial talk radio would vanish from many, if not most, markets.
Another is that there's no guarantee that a national Tucker Carlson morning show would be a financial success. There could be sponsor boycotts stemming from some of his past statements.
And management at some non-I-Heart talk stations offered a national Tucker Carlson show might reject it because they either might be worried about advertiser boycotts (see the previous paragraph), or simply think that a local morning drive talk show might generate more listeners and revenue than a syndicated Carlson show, despite the money they'd save by replacing a local morning drive show with Carlson.
And I see this as a possible scenario for his coming to radio:
I wonder if I-Heart owned Premiere Networks might make Carlson an offer for a national morning drive radio talk show.
Although most I-Heart owned talk stations currently have a local morning drive show (which is the only local daily program on many of their all-talk stations), I could see Premiere Networks signing Carlson for a national morning drive talk show.
There are several things that could work in favor of this idea:
First, Carlson is a "name", despite the circumstances that resulted in his being fired by Fox News Channel. And, like most of the syndicated hosts who fill up I-Heart owned talk stations outside of morning drive, he's politically conservative. His views would certainly fit in with the kind of talk programming most of these stations carry.
Although hiring Carlson for a morning drive radio talk show would cost the proverbial "pretty penny", Premiere parent I-Heart could use their corporate power to muscle his show onto almost all of their all-talk stations. That way, Carlson's huge salary could be offset by the savings I-Heart would generate from eliminating dozens of local morning shows on their all-talk stations.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that Boston (WRKO-680 and WXKS-1200), Cincinnati (WLW-700 and WKRC-550) and Los Angeles (KFI-640 and KEIB-1150) are the only markets where I-Heart owns multiple all-talk stations. A Tucker Carlson morning show could thus end up on all but three of I-Heart's talk stations from day one, leaving only WRKO, WLW, and KFI among I-Heart talk outlets with local morning drive talk shows. So if I-Heart could exert enough muscle, a Tucker Carlson show could be on in morning drive in dozens of markets upon launch.
And, Premiere Networks might find much interest in a Tucker Carlson morning drive talk show among all-talk stations owned by other companies in cities where parent I-Heart doesn't own an all-talk station.
But there are also some disadvantages:
One is that, as noted above, dozens of all-talk stations would lose their only local programming (as noted above). And this would mean that local commercial talk radio would vanish from many, if not most, markets.
Another is that there's no guarantee that a national Tucker Carlson morning show would be a financial success. There could be sponsor boycotts stemming from some of his past statements.
And management at some non-I-Heart talk stations offered a national Tucker Carlson show might reject it because they either might be worried about advertiser boycotts (see the previous paragraph), or simply think that a local morning drive talk show might generate more listeners and revenue than a syndicated Carlson show, despite the money they'd save by replacing a local morning drive show with Carlson.
