This is an open letter to WFTL and Ken Pauli. I'm sending a copy of this letter to Ken, but I wanted to bring this to discussion with all of you.
Now that Bill O' Reilly is off the air, I'm curious as to what Ken Pauli and the FTL team plan to do with their afternoon lineup.
So far 850 WFTL as a whole has a solid morning news program, Dr. Laura, Savage at night, and Joey Reynolds. Along with Dennis Miller and Steve Malzberg, their lineup is sound. I just can't believe how this station has gone through the plethora of programming options in the afternoon and nothing has panned out.
So I'm going to pretend to be PD and try to figure out what to do with WFTL's afternoon lineup.
I would first drop the afternoon news from 5-6pm and create separate Noon-3pm and 3pm-6pm shifts.
Now Let's look at the history of Afternoon 850 WFTL Programming that has not panned out:
-Norm Kent and Al Milian was on for less than a year, going back to the Live 85 days and then the flip from Live 85 to 850 WFTL.
-Jeff DeForrest was on for two years doing the Jock Exchange
-Neil Boortz was on for a year, and didn't garner ratings. Kicked it over to WLVJ to finish the contract.
-Laura Ingraham was on delay 9-midnight, and garnered no ratings. They might have the lost the rights to 'DJA so they can't carry her.
-Jerry Doyle was on for a year, and dropped for bad ratings.
-Jim Defede was on for less than a year, and for sure they will not choose to bring in local talent (so no to Randi Rhodes).
Now let's look at the options they have to work with using their existing affiliations and what I would do with them.
Joyce Kaufman is probably under contract (I would keep her in the lineup at 12-3 or 3-6.)
Dr. Laura runs live 3-6pm ET (She would work bad for PM drive so she should stay where she is.)
Dennis Miller runs live 10-1pm ET (he performed badly live on Mantalk so I would keep him at night.)
Now let's look at what options they have for syndication.
First off, I would not look to fill 12-3 or 3-6 with local talent.
As for syndicated programming, here's where I would be looking for syndication options:
-Radio America ( has Rush Limbaugh fill-in Roger Hedgecock and G. Gordon Liddy) Hedgecock is an option but it wouldnt compete.
-TRN has been tapped of their talent roster. (Rusty Humphries could've been an option, but the run on Mantalk with no ratings rules it out. -Tammy Bruce wouldn't pan out, and although Monica Crowley has been test run on weekends, it would work.
-Westwood One (Fred Thompson, Lars Larson) WDJA has the rights to those shows, so the programming is not available.
-Dial Global (was Jones Radio, has Neil Boortz, Bill Press and Ed Schultz) Boortz did pan out, Press I would pass on.
Therefore, as Pretending PD of WFTL. I would recommend to management to pick up Ed Schultz.
Ed Schultz actually got ratings during his stint on WINZ for the two years he was on, to the point that he did live broadcasts in Miami. He is also familiar to the West Palm audience on WJNO and ran on the station for two years, and was dropped only when Sean Hannity was picked up by WBZT, and then stayed on BZT until Schultz contract with JNO expired.
You could air his program live 12-3pm or play him back 3-6. I would put Ed on on live 12-3, and then have Joyce live 3-6pm.
Ken Pauli, Steve Lapa, George Johns, as a program director for a talk radio station myself. I would recommend you contact Dial Global and pick up Ed Schultz.
Now I open up the discussion for debate.
Now that Bill O' Reilly is off the air, I'm curious as to what Ken Pauli and the FTL team plan to do with their afternoon lineup.
So far 850 WFTL as a whole has a solid morning news program, Dr. Laura, Savage at night, and Joey Reynolds. Along with Dennis Miller and Steve Malzberg, their lineup is sound. I just can't believe how this station has gone through the plethora of programming options in the afternoon and nothing has panned out.
So I'm going to pretend to be PD and try to figure out what to do with WFTL's afternoon lineup.
I would first drop the afternoon news from 5-6pm and create separate Noon-3pm and 3pm-6pm shifts.
Now Let's look at the history of Afternoon 850 WFTL Programming that has not panned out:
-Norm Kent and Al Milian was on for less than a year, going back to the Live 85 days and then the flip from Live 85 to 850 WFTL.
-Jeff DeForrest was on for two years doing the Jock Exchange
-Neil Boortz was on for a year, and didn't garner ratings. Kicked it over to WLVJ to finish the contract.
-Laura Ingraham was on delay 9-midnight, and garnered no ratings. They might have the lost the rights to 'DJA so they can't carry her.
-Jerry Doyle was on for a year, and dropped for bad ratings.
-Jim Defede was on for less than a year, and for sure they will not choose to bring in local talent (so no to Randi Rhodes).
Now let's look at the options they have to work with using their existing affiliations and what I would do with them.
Joyce Kaufman is probably under contract (I would keep her in the lineup at 12-3 or 3-6.)
Dr. Laura runs live 3-6pm ET (She would work bad for PM drive so she should stay where she is.)
Dennis Miller runs live 10-1pm ET (he performed badly live on Mantalk so I would keep him at night.)
Now let's look at what options they have for syndication.
First off, I would not look to fill 12-3 or 3-6 with local talent.
As for syndicated programming, here's where I would be looking for syndication options:
-Radio America ( has Rush Limbaugh fill-in Roger Hedgecock and G. Gordon Liddy) Hedgecock is an option but it wouldnt compete.
-TRN has been tapped of their talent roster. (Rusty Humphries could've been an option, but the run on Mantalk with no ratings rules it out. -Tammy Bruce wouldn't pan out, and although Monica Crowley has been test run on weekends, it would work.
-Westwood One (Fred Thompson, Lars Larson) WDJA has the rights to those shows, so the programming is not available.
-Dial Global (was Jones Radio, has Neil Boortz, Bill Press and Ed Schultz) Boortz did pan out, Press I would pass on.
Therefore, as Pretending PD of WFTL. I would recommend to management to pick up Ed Schultz.
Ed Schultz actually got ratings during his stint on WINZ for the two years he was on, to the point that he did live broadcasts in Miami. He is also familiar to the West Palm audience on WJNO and ran on the station for two years, and was dropped only when Sean Hannity was picked up by WBZT, and then stayed on BZT until Schultz contract with JNO expired.
You could air his program live 12-3pm or play him back 3-6. I would put Ed on on live 12-3, and then have Joyce live 3-6pm.
Ken Pauli, Steve Lapa, George Johns, as a program director for a talk radio station myself. I would recommend you contact Dial Global and pick up Ed Schultz.
Now I open up the discussion for debate.
