Finn said:
Jason Roberts said:
But, that having been said, it always seemed as though the liberal host, while popular, had, more often that the other hosts, times when he was ratings-challenged. Don't know why...that's just the way it was.
It might not be obvious, but did your gut tell you something different? A different feel to the conversation? Do you think liberal audiences want different things than conservative ones, or do you think the hosts were different performers?
What was the lineup/time slots?
First of all, my apologies for taking so much time to respond to you...I had some computer issues at home this week.
I'm not truly sure of what the answer would be. But, as I remember the liberal host, I do remember he had a very dry, ascerbic wit. Don't get me wrong, he was outright funny at times...but I thing the dry wit may have rubbed some listeners the wrong way. He was sometimes sarcastic, but all talk hosts can be that way at times.
Here are what my impressions were of the station I mentioned. It's News and Telephone Talk format came on the air in the very early part of the 1970's. I was working there about 7 years later. I was a news anchor there at the time. It was a daytimer. It's morning host was a conservative who was almost libertarian. (Think, just slightly to the left of Neal Boortz.) Quite frankly, he was capable of creating a "3 ring circus" atmosphere with his show with him as Ringmaster and he did that quite often. I think that was what was entertaining about him. You never knew what rant he would go on...or which caller he would "go after". I think that unpredictability was a factor in his success.
The longest running mid-day guy was the liberal I mentioned. He had the dry wit, seemed in person like he could have been a bit vain (elitist, maybe?). But, having said that, he was also a compassionate person, a "stand up for the little guy" type of man and could be funny and entertaining once you "figured him out". Maybe it was that point (that one had to "acquire the taste" for his personality) that brought about the occasional ratings challenge I mentioned. Even so, he had some good books, too. I'm not going to take that away from him.
Afternoons ran both directions as the station went through a couple of different hosts. There were conservatives to moderates. Even a liberal here or there. (And most were normally Program Directors of the station.) It was the morning and mid-day hosts who were around the longest, though and received the most local notoriety. Weekend hosts also ran the gamut. There were people of all political persuasions plugged in there. The station also dabbled with specialty talk on weekends (ask the experts type of stuff), and even debuted what I believe was the first specialty talk show aimed at home computer users in 1982. (Yep...talking about Atari's and Radio Shack TRS-80's as well as the more sophisticated computers for the day.)
Another point about this station (which was on the air in the talk format well into the 1980's.) There was national political talk...there was local talk (both political and non-political) and sometimes talk that might have been "off the wall" for its' day. (You'd have celebrity interviews...interviews and conversation with military people...even interviews and conversation with people supporting more radical issues of the times, for instance legalization of marijuana.)
The station was locally owned and operated by a man who was a staunch conservative Republican. And, just like about any other talk station, we had looney callers, bomb threats, an occasional death threat or two. It was all part of life inside this place. That's why I said if a day came when we didn't have a complaint about something that was said, we checked the transmitter.
For the record, the station was WAVI in Dayton, Ohio. And, regardless of your take on him as a talk host or his politics, it is where talker Mike Gallagher got his start. (I remember Mike just barely out of his teenage years.) It was an interesting time...and a truly unique radio station...it was WOR, WLS and WKRP all rolled up into one.
