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KEGL

Old Grey Coyote said:
Mike Rhyner was the wrong guy to run a hot talk station, but he was the right guy to run a sports talk station. I don't think that anybody at that station really qualified to do hot talk. They were trying to sell this as a sports station that wasn't a sports station because the market already had too many sports stations. It turned into some mild mannered Dad Talk with just a little bit of sports mixed in. A combination nobody really wanted. No surprise that this didn't work.

But they really didn't want to do what Rhyner wanted to do, which was what he always did. I guess that frustrated him. He's a sports guy.
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This makes more sense. It goes in line with what he said in the article. How many successful FM sports stations does iHeart actually have? I dont think iheart dallas actually cared about the freak’s success. It sounds like Ben and Skin just kept bugging them to try talk on 97.1 bc of their relationship with the Mavericks.
 
Loverofradio said:
This makes more sense. It goes in line with what he said in the article. How many successful FM sports stations does iHeart actually have? I dont think iheart dallas actually cared about the freak’s success. It sounds like Ben and Skin just kept bugging them to try talk on 97.1 bc of their relationship with the Mavericks.
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Seriously? Do you really think iHeart would've just ran with The Freak for funsies because talent pushed them into it?

Any decision leading up to The Freak would've had lots of planning, discussion, forecasting of ratings and revenue vs. expenses, etc. before anything hit the air.

Still, even with all that, it was a gamble that didn't pay off. Considering the cost of such a format, iHeart Dallas clearly had some expectation of a certain level of ratings and/or revenue that didn't materialize in the demo (The ~1 share we saw in the 12+ number wasn't great, but it's not what the format would've been judged on).
 
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Calling the station "The Freak" made a few false promises as well. Maybe they should have played Korn's Freak on a Leash when they stunted, or there was a good reason they didn't.

Mild, unoffensive Dad Talk with a little bit of sports mixed in doesn't sound all that freaky or edgy to me. In fact, it's kind of false advertising. Maybe they should have called it "Life in the Suburbs". Give me a station where your highest rated talk show host gets busted for drunk driving, then gets arrested for beating up his girlfriend. Who also dates porn starts and drives a car with a confederate flag painted on the roof when he isn't driving one of his two batmobile replicas. Whose side man is now doing time in a Federal Prison for child molesting. Now THAT's a freaky station! But I'm not sure I want to take that ride again.
 
Loverofradio said:
This makes more sense. It goes in line with what he said in the article. How many successful FM sports stations does iHeart actually have? I dont think iheart dallas actually cared about the freak’s success. It sounds like Ben and Skin just kept bugging them to try talk on 97.1 bc of their relationship with the Mavericks.
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iHeart not only runs one of the most successful FM Sports station in the country (KFXN - The Fan), but also one of the most successful hot talk stations (WTKS) Rhyner just doesn't want to take responsibility for his own failure. He's right about one thing though, Dallas already has enough sports stations and there isn't room for another one. But, had they been entertaining, a hot talk format could have worked (and had actually worked in the past).
 
mnradiofan said:
But, had they been entertaining, a hot talk format could have worked (and had actually worked in the past).
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Can you name a single hot talk station that "worked" in the past that was not anchored by Stern in the morning?
 
DavidEduardo said:
Can you name a single hot talk station that "worked" in the past that was not anchored by Stern in the morning?
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Real Radio 104.1 Orlando 90s to Now
102.5 The Bone Tampa 2012 to Now
97.9 The Loop Chicago in the 90s
Also many FM Sports stations (especially those owned by Audacy that evolved from CBS' "Free-FM" debacle) have retained many of the Hot Talk morning shows and format elements
 
lanceventa said:
Real Radio 104.1 Orlando 90s to Now
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I spent hours and hours listening to Real Radio in the 90's and found it about half way between conventional talk and hot talk. Let's call it "modern talk".
lanceventa said:
102.5 The Bone Tampa 2012 to Now
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A parallel to Real Radio. Same situation.
lanceventa said:
97.9 The Loop Chicago in the 90s
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That is a good example. But it suffered from a short shelf life.

So we have two semi-examples and one true but short example... out of 300 rated markets?
lanceventa said:
Also many FM Sports stations (especially those owned by Audacy that evolved from CBS' "Free-FM" debacle) have retained many of the Hot Talk morning shows and format elements
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All sports behaves best with a guy-talk morning show. Who wants to hear stats while they shave and sit on the pot?

This is the classic Imus situation. Talk about everything else guys talk about at the bar except a lot of spots.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I spent hours and hours listening to Real Radio in the 90's and found it about half way between conventional talk and hot talk. Let's call it "modern talk".

A parallel to Real Radio. Same situation.

That is a good example. But it suffered from a short shelf life.

So we have two semi-examples and one true but short example... out of 300 rated markets?

All sports behaves best with a guy-talk morning show. Who wants to hear stats while they shave and sit on the pot?

This is the classic Imus situation. Talk about everything else guys talk about at the bar except a lot of spots.
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You're taking a 30+ year examples as to why it doesn't work. Hot Talk is conventional talk positioned for M 25-54 as opposed to 45+. WTKS-FM and WHPT are the standard definition of Hot Talk.

Remember the format evolved from Press Communications launching both Real Radio 104.1 and New Jersey 101.5 in the early 90s with both taking divergent paths mainly because 101.5 hit gold with attacking state tax hikes in its early days so they hitched their wagon to local issues talk, while 104.1 went with the guy talk over time.

There are other examples doing well right now such as WMMS Cleveland with a hybrid Talk in prime dayparts and Rock at night (plus Sports PBP).

But in regards to the Sports stations, it goes beyond the morning shows now. Hell even in the 90s, Mike & The Mad Dog dedicated hours to non Sports topics. Sports radio is guy talk.
 
I believe the VO guy on KEGL is the same one iHeart uses in my neck of the woods on WVBZ/Winston-Salem and WQNS/Asheville NC.
 
Ben & Skin started a YouTube show on Monday.


About 18 minutes in, they address The Freak going away, how they're all sad because they put a lot into it, but there's a lot they can't say because they're still under contract.
 
The Eagle imaging is stellar. Sounds so much better than it used to.

I'm still a little confused with some of the music. There are glimpses of perfections - and then they slip off into lala land. I don't want to knee jerk . . . but I think it deserves some credit for how it sounds right now.
 
That may be about the worst rock playlist I've ever seen. LOL NIGHT RANGER! 😲

Does the Eagle have a list? This should be interesting.
 
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