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Air America in Gainesville and Tallahassee?

F

FloridaBear1776

Guest
It amazes me that Florida's two college towns, both Democratic strongholds, don't have liberal talk radio stations. It would seem to me that Air America would be a better use of 980 in Gainesville than whatever it is they're doing now. Not to mention the train wreck format on 1450 in Tally -- what is it, Conservative Talk and Black Gospel? AM talk has always been a flop in these two markets, maybe because it's out of alignment with the population base.
 
I had hoped the Star 99.5 FM in Gainesville would have gone Air America instead of Bob & Sheri and syndicated talkers all day and Fox Sports overnight and on the weekends. They'll be carrying the Steve Spurrier show and South Carolina football this fall. They don't have a decent signal in Ocala so I thought Air America would be good fit.

I doubt 980 (WDVH) would go that route. They are actually getting some ratings with their classic country format which they do a good job with. 1430 is the only other possibility but they're doing pretty well with gospel and make a nice combination with Magic. Pamal has a new guy in charge so who knows but he has to worry about making 100.5 & 106.9 competitive first.






> It amazes me that Florida's two college towns, both
> Democratic strongholds, don't have liberal talk radio
> stations. It would seem to me that Air America would be a
> better use of 980 in Gainesville than whatever it is they're
> doing now. Not to mention the train wreck format on 1450 in
> Tally -- what is it, Conservative Talk and Black Gospel? AM
> talk has always been a flop in these two markets, maybe
> because it's out of alignment with the population base.
>
 
Classic Country usually pulls healthy 12+...

But it's all 55+ and basically unsaleable.
 
> It amazes me that Florida's two college towns, both
> Democratic strongholds, don't have liberal talk radio
> stations. It would seem to me that Air America would be a
> better use of 980 in Gainesville than whatever it is they're
> doing now. Not to mention the train wreck format on 1450 in
> Tally -- what is it, Conservative Talk and Black Gospel? AM
> talk has always been a flop in these two markets, maybe
> because it's out of alignment with the population base.
>
As a radio veteran of the Tallahassee market for over 20 years, I have
to say, Tallahassee has never been an easy market!

1450 is owned by Rev. R.B. Holmes, who has now brokered out most of the
daytime hours to ministries, except for O'Reilly and Hannity in the afternoons.
Amazingly enough, it showed in the ratings just a little this time around.
I don't look for them to change much from their brokered time set-up.

Cumulus' 1410 ESPN, a sports station, dropped off the ratings entirely
this time around. Formerly running "The Light" gospel, I think WTAL 1450 picked up some of this audience after the flip. 1410's signal is anemic.

WFRF 1070 and WCVC 1330 are both brokered - WFRF to preaching/teaching and WCVC
just last week leased out its airtime to EWTN Catholic radio in a five-year deal. WFRF - never will happen; WCVC, who knows? It's been dollar a holler for a while. It is still Christian-owned by the same person.

WNLS 1270, which they call WFLA, is a combo conservatalk/sports station, and pulled the only real share of any AM in the market. It's owned by Clear Channel and carries local morning host Preston Scott 9a conservative), Beck, Rush, afternoon sports talker Jeff Cameron, etc.

One problem is that none of the AMs can be heard in the office buildings. Unless they stream, they can't get a sizable daytime audience.

It's kind of like the Tampa area - everything gets brokered out. Nobody listens, but the owners have money coming in - so to heck with the listeners.

Talk radio as a whole is down several points here..<P ID="signature">______________
Proudly remembering the days of the hometown "country giant" radio stations now at
http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall</P>
 
Re: Classic Country usually pulls healthy 12+...

Just out of curiosity, what kind of demo would Air America attract? I would think it would be toward the upper end as well.




> But it's all 55+ and basically unsaleable.
>
 
Re: Classic Country usually pulls healthy 12+...

> But it's all 55+ and basically unsaleable.
>

I don't get it. What gives with this obsession with the 25-54 demo? It's like the only demo that pulls any real numbers in radio today.
 
Air America demo

Air America skews a little younger than rightwing talk, as do Dems generally. It has done well in college towns--Ann Arbor & Madison--with rimshot signals. Biggest success is in Portland, Oregon where Clear Channel slapped it on a full power/big signal AM--620/KPOJ. From a zero share up to a near-tie with CC's rightwing news-talker. What a great combo sell!

BTW, Classic Country shouldn't be mostly 55+ if the programmers gave it any thought, at all. Sure, Hank, Sr. and Patsy Cline attract Senior Citizens--the music is 50 years old! Country Oldies focused on '75-'95 generates 35-54 numbers. See Houston's KTHT(FM).

> Just out of curiosity, what kind of demo would Air America
> attract? I would think it would be toward the upper end as
> well.
>
>
>
>
> > But it's all 55+ and basically unsaleable.
> >
>
 
> 1450 is owned by Rev. R.B. Holmes, who has now brokered out
> most of the
> daytime hours to ministries, except for O'Reilly and Hannity
> in the afternoons.
> Amazingly enough, it showed in the ratings just a little
> this time around.
> I don't look for them to change much from their brokered
> time set-up.

Wow! It seems WTAL is a much different station now than five years ago.

> Cumulus' 1410 ESPN, a sports station, dropped off the
> ratings entirely
> this time around. Formerly running "The Light" gospel, I
> think WTAL 1450 picked up some of this audience after the
> flip. 1410's signal is anemic.

Agreed. And the low-powered, 18-watt nighttime signal doesn't help either.

> WFRF 1070 and WCVC 1330 are both brokered - WFRF to
> preaching/teaching and WCVC
> just last week leased out its airtime to EWTN Catholic radio
> in a five-year deal. WFRF - never will happen; WCVC, who
> knows? It's been dollar a holler for a while. It is still
> Christian-owned by the same person.

At least WFRF has a sister FM station, so listeners throughout most of north Florida and south Georgia can listen 24/7.


> WNLS 1270, which they call WFLA, is a combo
> conservatalk/sports station, and pulled the only real share
> of any AM in the market. It's owned by Clear Channel and
> carries local morning host Preston Scott 9a conservative),
> Beck, Rush, afternoon sports talker Jeff Cameron, etc.

I think the CC management ought to decide whether to go all-talk or all-sports. The only problem is, there are no other such stations in Tallahassee.
 
Re: Air America demo

> Air America skews a little younger than rightwing talk, as
> do Dems generally. It has done well in college towns--Ann
> Arbor & Madison--with rimshot signals. Biggest success is in
> Portland, Oregon where Clear Channel slapped it on a full
> power/big signal AM--620/KPOJ. From a zero share up to a
> near-tie with CC's rightwing news-talker. What a great combo
> sell!

KPOJ actually beat the CC rightwing talker in the 25-54 demo, which demonstrates your point that Air America skews younger than rightwing talk. In 25-54, KPOJ was the number one AM station in the market in the Spring book.
 
> > It amazes me that Florida's two college towns, both
> > Democratic strongholds, don't have liberal talk radio
> > stations. It would seem to me that Air America would be a
> > better use of 980 in Gainesville than whatever it is
> they're
> > doing now. Not to mention the train wreck format on 1450
> in
> > Tally -- what is it, Conservative Talk and Black Gospel?
> AM
> > talk has always been a flop in these two markets, maybe
> > because it's out of alignment with the population base.


Here in Tally it always amazed me when I had access to Maximiser and looked at the unpublished ratings for NPR...HUGE numbers. Highest in town for mornings and huge through the whole day. Clearly there is interest in talk in this town, and clearly for a slant that isn't conservative. Is Air America the ticket? I don't know. They make the mistake of thinking political talk is actually about politics a lot of the time. Would be better than the trainwrecks we've got.

There *is* a station that you can hear in Tally with Air America on it, btw. 1690 out of Atlanta comes in pretty well at night and I can just barely pull it out of the static while driving during the daytime most days. You just have to have an AM radio new enough to cover the expanded band. Or old enough to cover the 1940's "police band". Shows how far 10 kilowatts would carry if the FCC hadn't overcrowded the rest of the AM band.
 
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