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Shannon Farren Suspensions?

Know? No.

Best guess?

They had a PD who had their back for 22 years---Robin Bertolucci. Now, eight months after she's gone, they don't. At least not with the clout that Robin carried with corporate, which was significant.

When I visited KFI for half a day six years ago, one of the things that really impressed me was the sense that both Robin and then-News Director Chris Little had enormous reciprocal trust and respect with the rest of the staff.

Without someone like Robin (and I was fortunate to have someone like that in Bill White at KFBK), you're less insulated from the iHeart culture, where cost-cutting and layoffs (known as "managing the decline") are a way of life.

And speaking of "managing the decline", KFI is less able to cover the news in a city that right now needs local news coverage. Latest numbers (yeah, they're 6+, but they're what we've got) show KNX in fifth place with a 4.5 and KFI 11th with a 3.8.

More worrying is that KNX's weekly cume is 1,078,100 and KFI has less than half that number---480,500.

For perspective (and advertisers do not use this metric):

If you measure strictly by the number of people tuning in during a week (weekly cume), KFI is the #25 station in Los Angeles. 80,700 more people tune into KPCC (LAist 89.3).

Only 11,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KLYY (Jose 97.5 y 107.1). Only 21,000 more people tune into KFI in a week than tune into KKLQ (K-Love 100.3).

Very interesting Michael, On a di... if my summary is wrong or misleading. Thanks
 
My theory on that is that advertisers prefer the current approach. I still see reports where advertisers check the "do not air" box for controversial programming.
KFI, and most talk stations, don't even get such agency buys. Listen to KFI and most of the ads are local direct or from local agencies.
 
Very interesting Michael,

On a different thread about WBAP, Dallas’s drastic decline in ratings from over about a 3 share a year ago to .9 in the latest ratings, I noted that WBAP while slightly lower AQH than its competitor (News and talk KRLD), that BAP had a much higher cume, over 100,000 more weekly listeners. Interestingly our chat friend (since I never met him) and radio expert David Eduardo replied that most advertisers don’t care about cume. Since I also view you as a radio expert, do you agree with this view? Also David, please correct me if my summary is wrong or misleading. Thanks

What I said in the post that you just quoted:


For perspective (and advertisers do not use this metric):


So, yeah. Advertisers buy time differently. They don't use cume.

That doesn't change the fact that a longtime, heritage major station with a monster signal is actually the 25th-rated station in Los Angeles when it comes to the total number of weekly listeners.

If that number is going up, fine. For KFI, as @Huff showed us, it's going down.

Eventually that will affect the metric the advertisers buy.
 
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You're talking about the host who was the core of KEIB? That's your answer. KFI decided they didn't want to alienate the advertiser base. They gave him his own private radio station. He could say and do whatever he wanted, and it didn't hurt the revenue base at KFI.
No, the intent with moving Rush was to make KFI more LA-centric for listeners. The national ad agency accounts that would not buy "controversial" content didn't buy due to the demos anyway. The KEIB idea was to make something salable out of an "abandoned" 1150 station.
 
David...


The move to KEIB was less than two years later.
But the KEIB move had more to do with expanding the revenue base. By the time KEIB was created, those national accounts that bought the Limbaugh show had either calmed down or been replaced.

In any case, those were national accounts on the EIB "network" and not KFI local sales. Opening KEIB meant that Clear Channel had two different talk stations to sell instead of one.
 
But the KEIB move had more to do with expanding the revenue base. By the time KEIB was created, those national accounts that bought the Limbaugh show had either calmed down or been replaced.

In any case, those were national accounts on the EIB "network" and not KFI local sales. Opening KEIB meant that Clear Channel had two different talk stations to sell instead of one.

Okay, except you said...


The national ad agency accounts that would not buy "controversial" content didn't buy due to the demos anyway.


Well, they did until Rush called Sandra a "slut". Those demos weren't stopping them before that.
 
OK, so declining cume over a 20 year period. Is that strictly a KFI problem or a format problem?
Format problem. They’re going through the same issues that 97.1 went through when they were talk and their numbers plummeted. Is there an interest in 2025 Los Angeles for this kind of talk?
 
In my opinion, I think this is just the case of a new program/news director wanting to “change” things and wanting to “reign” in talent. I remember as a main anchor, I told a joke that would’ve never gotten in me in trouble with my old news director, but it pissed my new one off at the time
 
This might be a case of a station that suffered by not moving to FM. Now it’s too late. KFI might not be around in a few (2 or 3 years). It was nothing for Audacy to axe WCBS.
 
It was nothing for Audacy to axe WCBS.

They didn't "axe WCBS." They accepted a financial offer from Good Karma to put their local sports talk station on the frequency.

Beasley did essentially the same thing with a full market FM in Boston, which they leased to Bloomberg.

So yes, if someone came to iHeart with an offer to pay them more for the use of 640AM than they're making now, they'd gladly take the money.
 
Okay, except you said...





Well, they did until Rush called Sandra a "slut". Those demos weren't stopping them before that.
The cancellations were for the EIB network, not for local sales on KFI to any extent.

Back then, KFI mostly had national buys through the Limbaugh and Dr Laura networks. If you look at ratings back in, let's say, 1997, you see Spanish talker KTNQ beating KFI in 25-54. By Y2K the amount of national placed directly on KFI was pretty limited; the network shows were where the national stuff was found. KFI was not getting all those accounts that cancelled in direct buys; it was the network that took the hit.

The deeper sales reason for moving Rush to KEIB was that the show was taking up a large percentage of the commercial time on KFI during that day part. They felt they could sell all the avails locally if they moved Rush to 1150. And putting Rush elsewhere made KFI more "local" and tailored for LA while preserving the national Rush revenue for the network.
 
This might be a case of a station that suffered by not moving to FM. Now it’s too late. KFI might not be around in a few (2 or 3 years). It was nothing for Audacy to axe WCBS.
Very different. Audacy had two very expensive and highly duplicative news stations in the same market. KFI is a talk station, which has a very different audience and sales approach. KFI continues to be a huge biller in LA, where most of what it sells is local agency and local direct business.
 
Format problem. They’re going through the same issues that 97.1 went through when they were talk and their numbers plummeted. Is there an interest in 2025 Los Angeles for this kind of talk?
97.1 plummeted when it's key talent left. The whole station was floating on the morning magnet Stern gave them.

Talk on radio is an older adult format. You are not going to get 18-34's and 18-49's to listen to "hot" talk. It's a podcast world for them.
 
And putting Rush elsewhere made KFI more "local" and tailored for LA while preserving the national Rush revenue for the network.

But if we just focus on LA advertisers, I really don't think any of them want to have their spots running in the middle of a negative political rant. Even if its local issues. That's just not the sales environment that works for them. We're not talking about national advertisers. It could be Pink's Hot Dog Shack.
 
No, the intent with moving Rush was to make KFI more LA-centric for listeners. The national ad agency accounts that would not buy "controversial" content didn't buy due to the demos anyway. The KEIB idea was to make something salable out of an "abandoned" 1150 station.

And I had always thought the KEIB deal was to keep most San Diego listeners from hearing Rush on KFI instead of on their own local affiliat, KOGO. Silly me!
 
What I said in the post that you just quoted:





So, yeah. Advertisers buy time differently. They don't use cume.

That doesn't change the fact that a longtime, heritage major station with a monster signal is actually the 25th-rated station in Los Angeles when it comes to the total number of weekly listeners.

If that number is going up, fine. For KFI, as @Huff showed us, it's going down.

Eventually that will affect the metric the advertisers buy.

And what all of this is looking like is that AM listening is declining a great deal faster than previously thought. @Huff's cumes seem to prove that is very much happening at KFI.
 


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