AIR AMERICA 1580 WVKO COLOMBUS, OHIO - TAKING A BIG RISK - TOO AGENDA DRIVEN

[ABQTom]

The new Air America 1580 WVKO in Colombus, Ohio is on the air, http://wvko1580.com/schedule.html, but they are taking some big risks. Beginning at 3pm, and continuing most of the night long, their programming is HEAVILY agenda driven. They haven't included any programs that appeal to "moderates" and "conservatives," such as Peter B. Collins, Alan Colmes, Jay Diamond, and Doug Basham.

Weekends, likewise, with ultraliberal intellectuals who have little experience with commercial AM talk radio, like Laura Flanders, Sam Seder, and various other commentators a Professor (Kennedey) and a Reverend (Gaddy).

They would be better served to drop much of their ideology on weekends, and offer Dr. Dean Edell, Bill Handel, Kim Komando, Clark Howard, and Bob Brinker on weekends.

Again it is this type of agenda-driven lineup that makes those of us liberals incredibly disappointed because we know what good AM radio should sound like. AM 1580's heavy agenda driven format is an example of what Jay Marvin has been discussing in his posts below.

Syndicated Liberal talk radio would be much better off if we had more people like Jay Marvin, Peter B. Collins, Jay Diamond, Alan Colmes, Turi Ryder, Lou Pete, Bryan Styble, Doug Basham, Lydia Cornell, Turi Ryder, Erin Hart, Arnie Arnesen, etc. on more stations.

6am-9am The Bill Press Show
9am-12pm The Stephanie Miller Show
12pm-3pm The Ed Schultz Show
3pm-6pm The Randi Rhodes Show
6pm-8pm The Rachel Maddow Show
8pm-10pm "Clout" with Richard Greene
10pm-1am "This is America" with Jon Elliot
1am-3am The Lionel Show (Rebroadcast)
3am-6am The Randi Rhodes Show (Rebroadcast)

Tentative Weekend Schedule
Saturday
12am-1am "This Is America, with Jon Elliott"
1am-3am The Lionel Show (Rebroadcast)
3am-6am Best of "The Thom Hartmann Program"
6am-9am Best of "The Young Turks"
9am-10am Marc Sussman’s Money Message
10am-11am "State of Belief" with Reverend Welton Gaddy
11am-1pm Best of "The Lionel Show"
1pm-2pm FreeThoughtRadio with Dan Barker & Annie Laurie Gaylor
2pm-3pm "Go Vegan" with Bob Linden
3pm-6pm "Ring of Fire" with Robert Kennedy Jr.& Mike Papantonio
6pm-7pm "7 Days in America" with Mark Green & Arianna Huffington
7pm-8pm Best of "The Thom Hartmann Program"
8pm-10pm Best-of "Clout" with Richard Greene
10pm-12am Best of "This Is America, with Jon Elliott"

Sunday
12am-1am Best of "This Is America, with Jon Elliott"
1am-4am Best of"The Randi Rhodes Show"
4am-7am Best of "The Lionel Show"
7am-9am Best of "The Young Turks"
9am-10am "7 Days in America" with Mark Green & Arianna Huffington (Rebroadcast)
10am-1pm Best of "The Thom Hartmann Program"
1pm-2pm "Radio Nation" with Laura Flanders
2pm-4pm Best-of "Clout" with Richard Greene
4pm-7pm "Seder on Sunday" with Sam Seder
7pm-8pm "State of Belief" with Reverend Welton Gaddy
8pm-11pm "Ring of Fire" with Robert Kennedy Jr.& Mike Papantonio
11pm-12am "On the Real" with Chuck D. (Hour 1)

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

Progressive talk is, by definition, agenda driven. So is conservative talk. That is the nature of political talk.

Some may say this is not a good thing or that agenda-driven talk has run it's course, but agendas are the basis of these formats.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Tom, I even detect an agenda in your posts.

The purpose of talk radio is to appeal to liberals, not conservatives or moderates (although I'd say most of so-called liberal talk actually represents the "agendas" of so-called "moderate Democrats," not progressives). Talk show hosts who try to appeal to everybody end up appealing to nobody.

The issue, as Jay Marvin has been pointing out, is about how the "agenda" is presented, not whether there is an agenda.

It's a moot point any way. No format ("agenda") is going to get an audience on a coffee pot station at the high-end of the AM band.

 

[GR]

The lineup has nothing to do with any "agenda." What is on the air right now is far from the finished product. The opportunity to lease the station arose very suddenly, and the new format was put together in a hurry. It will change soon, and include local programming.

 

[jaymarvin]

The hell with the agenda how does the talk show hosts sound? In the case of Air America not very good. And how long can they go on bleeding money? The end has to come sometime. Why not let someone do the format who knows how?

 

[robbbc]

The hell with the agenda how does the talk show hosts sound? In the case of Air America not very good. And how long can they go on bleeding money? The end has to come sometime. Why not let someone do the format who knows how?

It is all Jones (not-AAR) from 6AM to 3 PM- that's a large chunk of prime real estate. Ed and Steph do take stands contrary to the party line. Randi is the only significant AAR person during radio prime time at 3-6, and she is no slop when it comes to ratings- regardless of her heat. Maddow's program (after power down 1/2 the year) when last I heard it had drink of the week, Hollywood stuff, and other odd stories du jour. Hardly a Mike Malloy lookalike. Lionel repeat at night- talk about your moderate talker. The M-F schedule looks fine and the stuff on after 8 isn't going to reach any kind of mainstream audience anyway- probably just AAR for now. The weekend stuff is also a hodge-podge that needs work but, again, it is still early days.

 

[kaufcom]

The big story about launch of lib talk in Columbus on WVKO is not the lousy signal. Big news another lib talker with a lousy signal. It's also not the line-up. It doesn't take a programming genius to pick three from column A -- Press, Miller, and Schultz and four from column B Rhodes, Maddow, Greene, and Elliott. The real story is that Columbus is the first market that has dropped lib-talk to re-introduce the format in a year and a half. During the past year, 16 markets -- including Columbus -- have dropped their only lib talk station. Despite the fact, that thousands have signed petitions, and message groups have sprung up, nothing has been done to restore the format in any of these markets. (Go to Talking Radio for a list) So let's give credit to the people and groups (Ohio Majority Radio and Progress Ohio) in Columbus who were able to convince a apolitical station owner --Bernard LLC -- to give lib talk a chance. Maybe we will see similar developments in other former lib talk markets.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

During the past year, 16 markets -- including Columbus -- have dropped their only lib talk station. Despite the fact, that thousands have signed petitions, and message groups have sprung up, nothing has been done to restore the format in any of these markets.

Maybe that's the real story. Well-intentioned amateurs and activists and their "grass-roots" efforts may be fine for political campaigns, saving whales and referenda drives but are totally meaningless in radio. If somebody does not figure out a way for this station in Columbus to make money, we will soon be talking about the first market to lose liberal talk twice.

 

[Gnarlodious]

Where you have one side setting the agenda, you eventually have the other side sweating just to keep up. And liberal programming is in the sweatbox. Corporate driven programming had 15 years head start beginning from when Ronald Reagan deregulated in 1987. Before deregulation this never was a problem, remember?

So it is corporate ownership of radio stations that is the real cause of all the partisanship. Keeping a political machine in position that makes their existence possible is the main thrust of 90% of radio programming. Screw the hard-working American.

 

[ABQTom]

The big story about launch of lib talk in Columbus on WVKO is not the lousy signal.

The signal is NOT lousy during the day - Barooosk, you got this rumor from KJCB, Maloney, Akronite, OA, or some other conservative... It's 3200watts day covering the area. To my understanding, the station is under temporary authority to operate at just 1,000 watts, because the previous owner had financial issues, and continued to operate the station at 1kW in order to prevent the license from being permanently revoked by the FCC.
The power is 290W, at night but not knowing the local geology and surficial deposits from the last glacial epoch I can't comment on any issues with theoretical nightime groundwave propagation. In Albuquerque, 290W at night is perfect, don't know about Colombus.

 

[smedge2006]

Well-intentioned amateurs and activists and their "grass-roots" efforts may be fine for political campaigns, saving whales and referenda drives but are totally meaningless in radio.

Especially since the hard-nosed, cynical corporate professionals are doing such a great job improving ratings and revenue, and making the medium relevant to the next generation.

 

[willcail]

First 1580 AM is a Class B station with means it broadcast at 3200 watts during the day. The former station was a Class C station broadcasting at 1000 watts. Lets see hmm... witch station have a better coverage? Now the former station that used to broadcasting Progressive Talk is not listed in the new radio ratings book whatsoever. That was some smart programming decisions right there. Flip the station to conservative talk and now no ratings. It proves that no one in Columbus OH want to here Michael Savage incoherent hate speech.


The station is under construction. It will change. Hell it already have a local ad playing.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

First 1580 AM is a Class B station with means it broadcast at 3200 watts during the day. The former station was a Class C station broadcasting at 1000 watts. Lets see hmm... witch station have a better coverage? Now the former station that used to broadcasting Progressive Talk is not listed in the new radio ratings book whatsoever. That was some smart programming decisions right there. Flip the station to conservative talk and now no ratings. It proves that no one in Columbus OH want to here Michael Savage incoherent hate speech.


The station is under construction. It will change. Hell it already have a local ad playing.

And this is sure to get Phil Boyce scratching his head. I am actually on a waiting list to get my commercials on the air.

Details at the Columbus board.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I drove thru Columbus a week ago, and they appear to have flipped to Spanish??

 

[Ultimajock]

...Mike Malloy just announced on tonight's show that WKVO is his latest affiliate -- who did he bump? The website doesn't look like it's been updated yet...

 

[SeanMGilbow]

...Mike Malloy just announced on tonight's show that WKVO is his latest affiliate -- who did he bump? The website doesn't look like it's been updated yet...

A rebroadcast of Lionel from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

You folks in Columbus should really put more effort into promoting your station to real world listeners in your own markets and not to radio people, radio enthusiasts and radio geeks on radio boards and lib talk blogs. We don't matter. We may be curious about what's going on but we are not your audience.

 

[Shoot From Hip]

You folks in Columbus should really put more effort into promoting your station to real world listeners in your own markets and not to radio people, radio enthusiasts and radio geeks on radio boards and lib talk blogs. We don't matter. We may be curious about what's going on but we are not your audience.

If, as someone said earlier in this thread, the station is still "under construction", then it makes perfect sense NOT to promote yet. You don't promote to a product that's not exactly how you want it to sound. At this point in the year, ratings are not an issue. Perhaps they're using the rest of this month to get the product ready for January launch.

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

You folks in Columbus should really put more effort into promoting your station to real world listeners in your own markets and not to radio people, radio enthusiasts and radio geeks on radio boards and lib talk blogs. We don't matter. We may be curious about what's going on but we are not your audience.

If, as someone said earlier in this thread, the station is still "under construction", then it makes perfect sense NOT to promote yet. You don't promote to a product that's not exactly how you want it to sound. At this point in the year, ratings are not an issue. Perhaps they're using the rest of this month to get the product ready for January launch.

Under construction? What a cop out! Exactly the kind of mind-set I'm talking about. Radio stations are never set in stone. But they are on the air now. No out of town try-outs or studio previews in radio. You are saying they should operate at a low while they ponder Hartmann or Schultz, Stephanie or Lionel?? They should have thought about all this way before now. Amateur Hour.

But when anybody criticizes the station or it's programming, they can say "we're still under construction." Give me a break.

 

[Shoot From Hip]

Read my post carefully. I said "If" the station is still under construction. I don't work there; I don't have a clue. But, I do know that you don't waste marketing resources in December for a format that's just gone on the air and at the end of a ratings period. I'm not there, I haven't listened, and frankly I couldn't care less. But I do know a little about when to market and when to lay low. And, if they are in fact still making adjustments, as someone suggested, then they are wise not to invite people in to the tent yet. Who knows-- they may not even have a marketing budget.

PS-- You seem extraordinarily confident that your solutions are what any and every stations needs to do. Could you please identify a success story that demonstrates your strategies at work in the real (vs. theoretical) world? Thanks.

 

[mobile-exradiodj]

Julius Leonard Marx is the Lou Dobbs of this board, bitchin' all the time with no solutions...