• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

77 WABC/New York Adds The Ben Shapiro Show on January 2019

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

https://news.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=c40376

This is one of the Cumulus Owned stations airing Ben Shapiro. The Ben Shapiro Broadcasts were a result of Savage cutting hours on other threads I seen though.


Cumulus is bringing the Westwood One nationally syndicated talk radio program The Ben Shapiro Show to New Yorkers' afternoons on 77 WABC Radio. The Ben Shapiro Show will air weekdays on 77 WABC from 3pm-6pm Eastern. The program, which launches on 77WABC on Monday, January 7, 2019, includes two LIVE hours of radio programming and one hour of the Ben Shapiro podcast airing on the radio.

The Ben Shapiro Show is a high-energy, action-packed program as host and podcast-to-broadcast innovator Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com, covers America's most powerful political personalities, brutally breaking down the culture, while never giving an inch. The live radio show extension was recently announced on the heels of the success of syndicating The Ben Shapiro Show, the top conservative podcast in the nation in 60 U.S. markets.
Click to expand...
 
The trade newsletters already have been running ads for the show with ratings information citing WABC's airing of Shapiro's podcast as resulting for a 152% increase in audience. They've been running the podcast at 5PM. The 3PM start replaces Savage Nation.
 
Last edited:
As much as I dislike Ben Shapiro, I dislike Michael Savage even more. His rambling, unhinged mess of a radio show was badly dragging down WABC's ratings.

Now if they can only give Curtis Sliwa a better co-host than Rita Cosby. His show hasn't been worth listening to since Ron Kuby left. I know the two of them didn't get along off-mike, but it made for entertaining and engaging radio.
 
In market #1 you would think someone would do local programming 24x7. WABC is a ratings nightmare because they have gutted the local content.

For years I've been shocked to go to NYC and hear less local radio than Boston, Chicago or even some smaller markets.
 
spt87 said:
In market #1 you would think someone would do local programming 24x7. WABC is a ratings nightmare because they have gutted the local content.
Click to expand...

The local content didn't get ratings either. That's why they killed it.

They have Curtis Sliwa, Rita Cosby, Bernie & Sid, and others doing local.
 
I would argue letting Rush cross the street to WOR, putting a fossil like Don Imus in morning drive for a number of years, and putting a no-talent hack such as Rita Cosby on the air explains WABC's pathetic ratings. Stated more succinctly, Cumulus' executive management team ran the station into the ground.

It will NEVER bounce back. Once a venerable AM station is on a death spiral, there is usually no reversing course.
 
spt87 said:
In market #1 you would think someone would do local programming 24x7. WABC is a ratings nightmare because they have gutted the local content.

For years I've been shocked to go to NYC and hear less local radio than Boston, Chicago or even some smaller markets.
Click to expand...

New York has 1010 WINS, WCBS which are live and local 24/7.
Plus WFAN, which is live and local almost 24/5 and almost all weekend.
Plus what WABC and WOR offer.

Compare to Chicago, where:
WBBM is live and local 24/7,
WGN is live and local almost 24/7, WIND is local only in AM drive, and WLS will be local only in AM drive come January.
Plus WSCR is live and local 24/5 with shows from CBS Sports Radio mixed with local shows on weekends.

I'm not sure I see much difference in quantity of live, local talk programming. And of course in Chicago only WBBM is a ratings winner. WGN is usually 10th-15th 6+, and WLS and the sports stations barely register, and WIND doesn't subscribe.
 
TheBigA said:
Quote Originally Posted by spt87
WABC is a ratings nightmare because they have gutted the local content.

The, TheBigA said:
The local content didn't get ratings either. That's why they killed it.
Click to expand...

Some some romanticism with the idea that live/local is always better.

I would rather listen to a good proven recorded program....than a very bad local/live host.
 
I don't know the statistics, but regarding talk radio in general -- seems majority of the political talk shows, whether syndicated or local, are of the conservative bent. So in general has the listenership gone down in recent years? With so much going on politically, are more people spending more time with their TV watching Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN for politics than listening to radio for the same?? I used to listen to Levin and Hannity but no more. There's only so much time.
 
TheBigA said:
Not generally. Nielsen just reported the talk radio format is back to #1.
Click to expand...

... in PPM markets, 6+, as reported in Talkers on Monday.

I can believe it, because most PPM markets have several stations with decent ratings in the format. Nielsen includes all-News and public radio formats in their category. So in New York, that's 6 stations summing to about 16 shares. But WABC has lower audience than NJ 101.5, so they aren't going to get a lot of credit for the strong showing of the "news/talk" format. It's not like most markets have six stations airing a Hot AC format, so summing all those ratings together makes the comparison a bit unfair.

The same story repeats itself in markets like San Fransisco, Washington DC, and Chicago, where all-news and public radio stations destroy the conservative news/talk format in ratings.

There are some exceptions. Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Cincinnati come to mind as places with well-rated conservative news/talkers.
 
Rush isn't exactly attracting big numbers for WOR.
Click to expand...

WOR defeats WABC regularly in the ratings now, sometimes by a 2:1 margin.

WABC's ratings fell by roughly 40% in the few months following the departure of Rush and Hannity, and they've only fallen further since then!

Losing Rush & Sean *AND* putting on bad local content have all served to destroy the ratings WABC once had.
 
MarkW said:
WABC's ratings fell by roughly 40% in the few months following the departure of Rush and Hannity, and they've only fallen further since then!
Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? Rush & Hannity left five years ago. For a long time, the two stations were tied. Then WOR added the Mets and that seemed to help a little bit. The WABC collapse has been more recent, maybe tied to the replacement of Imus with Bernie & Sid. But yes, I agree weak local content, combined with bad syndication has been disaster.

Something seems to be going on with Hannity, because in the last few months, several stations, including WSB, have moved him from live to later at night.
 
Are you sure about that? Rush & Hannity left five years ago.
Click to expand...

Yes, I am. Remember, before Rush & Hannity left, WABC held a sizable lead over WOR.

WABC basically fell from mid/upper 2's to mid/upper 1's. WOR rose to upper 1's. Once WOR added the Mets and dumped Schnitt from mornings, they grew their AQH share a bit further.

Of course, these days, an AQH share in the mid/upper 1's would be a major *improvement* for WABC! :)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom