Feud Coverage in Talk Radio

[TheBigA]

I thought this was an interesting article about the general state of talk radio using one national story, the president's feud with the world's richest man.

News/Talk Radio Coverage of the Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump Feud Exposes the Format's Major Flaw

This is the juiciest red meat imaginable dangling off the entertainment bone for news/talk radio hosts. And many didn't jump on it like they were starving.

barrettmedia.com

I'm sure we have posters who listen to more talk radio than the writer of this article. So I wonder what they think.

I would have thought most talk stations would simply overlook the story. Fox mainly did interviews supporting the president.

 

[davideduardo]

I thought this was an interesting article about the general state of talk radio using one national story, the president's feud with the world's richest man.

News/Talk Radio Coverage of the Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump Feud Exposes the Format's Major Flaw

This is the juiciest red meat imaginable dangling off the entertainment bone for news/talk radio hosts. And many didn't jump on it like they were starving.

barrettmedia.com

I'm sure we have posters who listen to more talk radio than the writer of this article. So I wonder what they think.

I would have thought most talk stations would simply overlook the story. Fox mainly did interviews supporting the president.

The issue is that there is not much you can say about it. It's a spat, but nobody but the two individuals involved can give any answers as it is also personal. It does not make for a deep talk subject.

That said, I'd start a "spat countdown" if a station was fully locally programmed to when they talked to each other again, with occasional days and hours since the break "and still counting". I did this once to time how long it would take the President of the Dominican Republic to respond to our morning show's question, and got a response in about 6 hours!

 

[TheBigA]

The issue is that there is not much you can say about it.

Isn't that where the creativity comes in? To me that's the point of the article, where these hosts take themselves too seriously.

So I'd like to hear if maybe some local hosts had an original approach to the story.

 

[Delete My Account]

My takeaway from that article, and not just on this issue but very often there is a lot of originality lacking in talk radio these days. It's almost as though a lot of the outlets, the ones fortunate enough to still have local hosts, just get complacent or are run by program directors that have very little sense of what the format is supposed to be in their market or how to coach talent.

Or perhaps the format now is too ideologically wedded to the current occupant of the White House to deal with it in an entertaining manner. Sad but not unexpected.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

The issue is that there is not much you can say about it. It's a spat, but nobody but the two individuals involved can give any answers as it is also personal. It does not make for a deep talk subject.

It certainly could, given that the President has had spats with a wide spectrum of people. His advisors, his appointees, governors of various states, White House reporters, members of Congress, foreign leaders, etc. The President sees it as a feature, to re-enforce the idea of his devotion to "the people" and not "the elite" (although that might not be how he would phrase it).

But I certainly can't imagine Hannity observing "gosh, Trump sure does cycle through advisors like MSNBC cycles through hosts." That would be unbecoming.

 

[TheBigA]

As far as the national shows, Mark Levin didn't really deal with the story. He instead started his own feud with Tucker Carlson.

‘A Loathsome Ass’: Fox’s Mark Levin Goes Berserk on ‘Unhinged and Pathetic’ Tucker Carlson

Fox News' Mark Levin went berserk on his former colleague Tucker Carlson Thursday, calling him a "loathsome ass who is increasingly unhinged and pathetic."

www.mediaite.com

Sean Hannity mainly attacked MSM's coverage of the musk feud as being an example of how the media tends to focus on negativity.

 

[Delete My Account]

Sean Hannity mainly attacked MSM's coverage of the musk feud as being an example of how the media tends to focus on negativity.

He is aware of who he works for, right?

 

[Syfy]

The issue is that there is not much you can say about it. It's a spat, but nobody but the two individuals involved can give any answers as it is also personal. It does not make for a deep talk subject.

That said, I'd start a "spat countdown" if a station was fully locally programmed to when they talked to each other again, with occasional days and hours since the break "and still counting". I did this once to time how long it would take the President of the Dominican Republic to respond to our morning show's question, and got a response in about 6 hours!

Thats debatable. Theres many people on youtube whose whole channel basically revolves around in depth conversations surrounding these kinds of celebrity spats and arguments and many are very successful.

 

[Delete My Account]

There are YouTubers & podcasters who seem to make money just dissecting and poking at other people's shows, many of which aren't that successful themselves. It's the entire concept of the "Dabbleverse" which seems to have originated because of John Melendez, formerly of the Stern show.

 

[wadio]

I thought this was an interesting article about the general state of talk radio using one national story, the president's feud with the world's richest man.

News/Talk Radio Coverage of the Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump Feud Exposes the Format's Major Flaw

This is the juiciest red meat imaginable dangling off the entertainment bone for news/talk radio hosts. And many didn't jump on it like they were starving.

barrettmedia.com

I'm sure we have posters who listen to more talk radio than the writer of this article. So I wonder what they think.

I would have thought most talk stations would simply overlook the story. Fox mainly did interviews supporting the president.

If you buy the author's point of view:

And if seeing a couple of billionaires publicly bicker to the point that they’re lobbing wild, inflammatory accusations and threats at one another didn’t set off your Entertainment Censor (patent pending), I’m just not sure what will.

... then the rest of the article makes sense. But this was not just a fight between the most influential guy in the country and the wealthiest, it was a very public fight between the President and a person he entrusted with an important project, trying to cut Government waste. And Musk did a complete 180, which was certainly strange and newsworthy.

But not all talk show hosts took it so seriously as to lose complete entertainment value. Markley, Van Camp and Robbins and Vince Coglianese, for example, I'm sure inserted the quirkier side as they always do. If the author listens mainly to Hannity, Levin, etc., that would explain his feeling.

But he did mention a local host who he thought covered it well, and I give him credit for saying this:

Yet, I’m not certain news/talk radio handled that gift from the content heavens correctly. That’s a generalization, which is something that I usually try to avoid. Nobody really wins when you paint with a broad brush.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

But not all talk show hosts took it so seriously as to lose complete entertainment value. Markley, Van Camp and Robbins and Vince Coglianese, for example, I'm sure inserted the quirkier side as they always do. If the author listens mainly to Hannity, Levin, etc., that would explain his feeling.

Markley, Van Camp & Robbins have so few affiliates that I wouldn't blame the writer if they got overlooked. I only know the exist because a station I worked for 20 years ago used them to fill Rush's slot.

 

[wadio]

Markley, Van Camp & Robbins have so few affiliates that I wouldn't blame the writer if they got overlooked. I only know the exist because a station I worked for 20 years ago used them to fill Rush's slot.

So how many affiliates do they have? This article from a couple of years ago says approaching 100.

MARKLEY, VAN CAMP & ROBBINS MARCHING TOWARDS 100

MARKLEY, VAN CAMP & ROBBINS ADDS SEVENTEEN LIVE STATIONS 12-3p ET. Alpha Media and Compass Media Networks are experiencing a surge in demand for The Markley, van Camp & Robbins Show. The show recently added over two dozen new markets with seventeen new LIVE clears for MARKLEY, VAN CAMP & ROBBINS...

www.compassmedianetworks.com

Not too bad.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

I think MVC&R has exactly one affiliate in the top 10 markets, Cumulus's KLIF in Dallas.
Most of the country's big talk stations are owned by iHeart, Cumulus or Audacy, and they all air someone by corporate mandate in what had been Rush's slot. KLIF is an exception because Cumulus has two talkers in that market.

Having a hundred stations in St. Cloud, Minn. or Blacksburg, Va., or San Luis Obispo, Calif. produces almost zero name ID for the show for a national commentator.

 

[wadio]

I think MVC&R has exactly one affiliate in the top 10 markets, Cumulus's KLIF in Dallas.
Most of the country's big talk stations are owned by iHeart, Cumulus or Audacy, and they all air someone by corporate mandate in what had been Rush's slot. KLIF is an exception because Cumulus has two talkers in that market.

Having a hundred stations in St. Cloud, Minn. or Blacksburg, Va., or San Luis Obispo, Calif. produces almost zero name ID for the show for a national commentator.

That's too bad. It's a very good show.

 

[101tm]

That's too bad. It's a very good show.

Agreed.