Ben Shapiro Drops Radio-Only Hour, Making Room For The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Ben Shapiro Drops Radio-Only Hour, Making Room For The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.

Westwood One is leaning into using podcasting as a launch for talk radio programming as it has signed a deal to launch a syndicated show hosted by The Daily Wire’s

www.insideradio.com

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I feel like the Shapiro show has been a failure in radio syndication. It seems like WW1 can't sell it to anyone except themselves and tiny independent stations.

 

[Dondd]

His delivery is annoying. And it's the same hard-right talking points one gets everywhere else.
Not an independent thinker anywhere on talk radio, an extinct species.

 

[Kelly A]

His delivery is annoying. And it's the same hard-right talking points one gets everywhere else.
Not an independent thinker anywhere on talk radio, an extinct species.

That's actually a good point. The AM radio dial is flooded with the hosts all parroting each other. Senior's used to listen to Rush Limbaugh because his producer was really good at cooking up some new topic to get the audience outraged.

 

[Gregg.]

It will be interesting to see how three separately hosted hours will work on Cumulus talk stations. As said in the article above, it will be...

Ben Shapiro ... 3-4pm ET
Matt Walsh ... 4-5pm
Michael Knowles ... 5-6pm

These separately hosted hours will compete with Sean Hannity 3-6pm on iHeart talk stations. Cumulus/Westwood One also syndicates...

Chris Plante ... 9am-noon
Dan Bongino ... noon-3pm
Mark Levin ... 6-9pm
Red Eye Radio ... 1-5am
America in the Morning ... 5-6am

 

[TheBigA]

It will be interesting to see how three separately hosted hours will work on Cumulus talk stations. As said in the article above, it will be...

The important stations are running local talk in afternoon drive, not syndicated hours. They run Walsh at night.

 

[Rusty Muck]

That's actually a good point. The AM radio dial is flooded with the hosts all parroting each other. Senior's used to listen to Rush Limbaugh because his producer was really good at cooking up some new topic to get the audience outraged.

Such was the case even in the early 1990s when talk radio started to be overrun with the “Rush clones”. There’s long been a lack of interest in finding or cultivating any other unique talent, even Hannity largely copied Rush’s act when he came to WABC. Then you have the Salem hosts, which is the real-life Attack of The Clones.

 

[johnbasalla]

Such was the case even in the early 1990s when talk radio started to be overrun with the “Rush clones”. There’s long been a lack of interest in finding or cultivating any other unique talent, even Hannity largely copied Rush’s act when he came to WABC. Then you have the Salem hosts, which is the real-life Attack of The Clones.

On Salem hosts, I would respectfully disagree when it comes to Dennis Prager. He is a sophisticated and deep-thinking person. He usually provides examples and backing for what he shares and doesn't just shoot-from-the-hip and shoot-his-mouth-off. Check out his videos at PragerU.com. Easy-to-take, 5-minute videos about America, Americanism and values. A recent video is about President Franklin Pierce who wanted to hold the Democratic party together and stop the nation from heading towards civil war. He failed at both, and it is all explained. Your average radio talk show host wouldn't cover such items. Dennis Prager is, truly, unique and a welcome voice in our discourse.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The inherent problem with Salem’s idea of talk radio is that they are compelled to be ham-fisted with their viewpoints. PragerU, tbqh, is heavily partisan and polemic and yet it didn’t stop Salem from launching a show with Charlie Kirk—who is even more openly partisan—in the same timeslot as Dennis. Their last moderate host, Michael Medved, got tossed in 2018 and Joe Walsh was unpersoned after breaking from the company line.

But the problem is also quite basic. Talk radio, especially the conservative talk part, is just not entertaining and comes off as bad, uninspiring radio that offers no reason for anyone to listen.

Let’s consider the real reason why Air America failed, and which people largely gloss over. It wasn’t because the hosts were liberal or the stations they were cleared on left a lot to be desired technically-speaking… it was because the hosts were the furthest thing from entertaining and often came off as forced or boring or mean-spirited. That’s Bad Radio 101 and the marketplace rightfully rejected it.

The majority of conservative hosts out there have the same problem: they just aren’t entertaining and come off as predictable and robotic. It is incredibly difficult to remember anything they actually say. Chances are you couldn’t pick Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Clay Travis, Dan Bongino, Jesse Kelly, Sebastian Gorka or Buck Sexton out of a lineup even if they had gigantic name tags on their shirts and everyone pointing to them. There’s no effort given by any of them to make them stand out. Likewise, why would the marketplace not reject them and the format as a whole?

 

[TheBigA]

But the problem is also quite basic. Talk radio, especially the conservative talk part, is just not entertaining and comes off as bad, uninspiring radio that offers no reason for anyone to listen.

What's worse is that advertisers many years ago realized that it's a bad environment for their advertising. That's why talk radio is filled with 1-800 ads rather than major national companies.

 

[johnbasalla]

Dennis Prager is very interesting to listen to, imho. A few of his fill-in hosts, not so much so. As a polar opposite in the Salem lineup that provides talk diversity is "Officer" Tatum who is plain-speaker. A number of times, I get 'a kick' out of listening to his takes. Being a black host, he has unique takes on some topics, such as Hip Hop music.

 

[Dondd]

Prager is too one-sided. I once called him and got on the air. Before I made my main point, I told him, "as a conservative Republican, you must be EMBARRASSED to be a Trump supporter."
I was surprised he didn't respond or interrupt me (I was ready to go after the pathetic ex-president) as I went on to take him to task about his whining about Covid restrictions.

 

[gr8oldies]

The inherent problem with Salem’s idea of talk radio is that they are compelled to be ham-fisted with their viewpoints. PragerU, tbqh, is heavily partisan and polemic and yet it didn’t stop Salem from launching a show with Charlie Kirk—who is even more openly partisan—in the same timeslot as Dennis. Their last moderate host, Michael Medved, got tossed in 2018 and Joe Walsh was unpersoned after breaking from the company line.

But the problem is also quite basic. Talk radio, especially the conservative talk part, is just not entertaining and comes off as bad, uninspiring radio that offers no reason for anyone to listen.

Let’s consider the real reason why Air America failed, and which people largely gloss over. It wasn’t because the hosts were liberal or the stations they were cleared on left a lot to be desired technically-speaking… it was because the hosts were the furthest thing from entertaining and often came off as forced or boring or mean-spirited. That’s Bad Radio 101 and the marketplace rightfully rejected it.

The majority of conservative hosts out there have the same problem: they just aren’t entertaining and come off as predictable and robotic. It is incredibly difficult to remember anything they actually say. Chances are you couldn’t pick Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Clay Travis, Dan Bongino, Jesse Kelly, Sebastian Gorka or Buck Sexton out of a lineup even if they had gigantic name tags on their shirts and everyone pointing to them. There’s no effort given by any of them to make them stand out. Likewise, why would the marketplace not reject them and the format as a whole?

Basically "anyone who votes Democratic wants to transition your children and force them to read black history, and only MAGA can save you" is the message. I can't believe that. that many people believe that