Big Ed: Back to Local Radio

[Steven21]

It is worth noting that WBEN/Buffalo is live and local from 5A-10P (with the exception of Rush from 12-3P) and in the latest trend they hit a 13.9 share.

 

[fred flintstone]

So, are you suggesting that stations should look to the dying KDKA as an example of the way to win over strong, vigorous competition? Are you suggesting that as long as every baboushka in Lawrenceville has her Atwater-Kent tuned to 1020 and doesn't know how to change the station if she wanted to, KDKA is a station others should emulate? How many other cities in the US (outside of Florida) skew as old as the population of Pittsburgh?

And we're not just talking "old" as in Baby Boomers. We're talking "old" as in people who had been listening to KDKA since the time when Rege Cordic came over from WWSW! We're talking "old" as in people who voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. To say KDKA skews old is a total understatement. KDKA doesn't skew old, KDKA skews ancient!

No. I am suggesting they look to NJ101.5 as an example. All local-live. Water-cooler topics, not ideology. Strong in the money demos. Click here to listen.

 

[Radio_Realist]

I am suggesting they look to NJ101.5 as an example.

That's strange. You made no mention of that station in any previous posts. How could that have been your suggestion all along when this is the first time you've mentioned it?

As for their "water-cooler" topics, are their local hosts especially good or are they not very entertaining but people tune them in anyway just because they are local?

Are you saying that bad local will consistently beat good national just because it's local? Or would you agree that local only beats national if the local is as good as the national? In other words, if you have two hosts of equal talent and appeal, then the local one will beat the national one.

You keep posting the few, isolated examples of where local is beating national as if those exceptions to the rule prove something. What you've posted by way of examples so far only proves that better beats worse. You shown nothing that proves local beats national.

 

[fred flintstone]

I am suggesting they look to NJ101.5 as an example.

That's strange. You made no mention of that station in any previous posts. How could that have been your suggestion all along when this is the first time you've mentioned it?

As for their "water-cooler" topics, are their local hosts especially good or are they not very entertaining but people tune them in anyway just because they are local?

I have mentioned NJ101.5 before - several times. I'm disappointed you don't remember. I always thought you were one of my most devoted readers.

I included the link to the audio stream so you can judge their programming for yourself. Wait until Monday. On weekends they do Oldies.

Please stop exaggerating what I post in order to try to refute your exaggeration. Reductio ad absurdum is an old trick (back to Aristotle, at least) and very obvious.

Are you saying that bad local will consistently beat good national just because it's local? Or would you agree that local only beats national if the local is as good as the national? In other words, if you have two hosts of equal talent and appeal, then the local one will beat the national one.

The latter. And since "talent and appeal" are subjective attributes and many factors are involved, they don't even have to be "equal" for local topics and local involvement to tip the balance toward the local host.

You keep posting the few, isolated examples of where local is beating national as if those exceptions to the rule prove something. What you've posted by way of examples so far only proves that better beats worse. You shown nothing that proves local beats national.

Sadly there are only a few, isolated examples of competitive local talk radio. Before syndication, not many stations had adopted the talk format. Talk radio was limited to a few "full service," large market stations (usually blow-torches). Talk radio is an expensive format. Good talent is expensive. So there are few examples of good local talk and of stations which are mostly or completely local-live.

Then again, there are few examples of good syndicated talk radio, either. Rush and Hannity are the only top-tier, major league syndicated hosts. Local hosts do have to be good to compete for listeners with them. On the other hand, competing for listeners with the likes of Mike Gallagher is not so difficult. But competition for listeners is only part of the equation. No matter how you slice it, syndicated talk is cheaper. Even with less "talent and appeal," a syndicated schedule is often more profitable. And cost-cutting is the name of the game in radio now.

 

[Radio_Realist]

I have mentioned NJ101.5 before - several times.

Not in this thread. I realize you love to keep launching new threads on old topics, but that doesn't mean I commit your posts to memory. If you want to expand on what you've said in previous threads, perhaps you should continue posting in those threads instead of launching redundant threads on the same topics, ad infinitum.

I included the link to the audio stream so you can judge their programming for yourself.

Thank you, but as I don't have several hours to spend listening (which is really what it takes to get a feel for a host's abilities) and I don't have internet access in my car while I'm out and about driving (which is when I do most of my radio listing, like the vast majority of radio listeners) I doubt if I can avail myself of the opportunity that you present.

Tell me, are you a home-bound recluse who has the luxury of spending his entire day listening to distant radio stations on the internet? I'm not.

Rush and Hannity are the only top-tier, major league syndicated hosts.

You must not have ever heard Jim Quinn.

 

[fred flintstone]

Discussion of any type with you is pointless.

However, I do have a suggestion on what you should do with the KDKA tower.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Discussion of any type with you is pointless.

I can understand how you'd feel that way. Since you appear to regard "discussion" as launching a thread that consists of something you clipped from somewhere else, and then sitting back to watch people applaud you for your insight, it makes sense that you would regard someone who disagrees with you as pointless.

 

[ajhenderson]

in my car while I'm out and about driving (which is when I do most of my radio listing, like the vast majority of radio listeners)

Incorrect.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Incorrect.

I stand corrected. I should not have said "vast majority", I should have said "large pluarity".

 

[ajhenderson]

Incorrect.

I stand corrected. I should not have said "vast majority", I should have said "large pluarity".

Again, incorrect. Try less than half.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Try less than half.

A pluarity is less than half.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Re: Monitor's hosts NYC connections

Fred's post brings back a Monitor memory. I remember listening one weekend when Ted Brown was one of the Monitor host's. At that time Ted apparently must have also worked locally on WNBC, the flag ship station for Monitor. At one point in the show he was making some promo comment and said right here on WNBC, paused, ah and NBC's Monitor, and continued on with the show. But this memory of Ted's slip of the tongue goes along with what Fred was saying about a number of the hosts on Monitor were working locally in New York radio.

 

[fred flintstone]

Part of the time Ted Brown was on Monitor, he was doing mornings on WNEW 1130AM (now WBBR).
And Bill Cullen hosted Monitor during the period he did mornings on 660 WEAF/WRCA/WNBC (now WFAN).
While Arlene Francis worked on Monitor, she had a weekday show on WOR 710 (plus What's My Line on CBS-TV).
Walter Kiernan also had a weekday show on WOR while hosting Monitor and Peter Roberts did news on WOR during the same period he was a Monitor "communicator" (host).
Mel Allen did Yankee games on WHN 1050 (now WEPN) and WCBS (now Newsradio 88) while working as a Monitor host.
Jim Lowe was a Monitor host while also a WNEW DJ.
Ed McMahon hosted a local game-talk show on WNBC ("Fortune Fone") while also hosting Monitor - and, of course, being Johnny Carson's announcer on The Tonight Show.
Brad Crandall hosted a weeknight call-in talk show on WNBC and did Monitor on the weekends. (He is the voice of the Mister Macho wig commercial on WKRP in Cincinnati.)
Ted Steele was another Monitor host whose weekday gig was playing records on WNEW.
Murray the K was a DJ on WNBC while he took a host shift on Monitor.
Bob and Ray did shows on various New York stations overlapping their Monitor work.

The Monitor Beacon

 

[ajhenderson]

Try less than half.

A pluarity is less than half.

Not necessarily. But considering its basically a three-way race between home, car, and work listening, a plurality would likely be less than half. But, you went from "vast majority" to a "large pluarity"... that not only doesn't make that much sense (a large winning vote?) it is still a bit misleading. There's not that many percentage points difference between each of the three, which obviously vary by market.

Sorry to nitpick, but car listening is way overrated in many peoples' minds.

 

[Ultimajock]

Part of the time Ted Brown was on Monitor, he was doing mornings on WNEW 1130AM (now WBBR).
And Bill Cullen hosted Monitor during the period he did mornings on 660 WEAF/WRCA/WNBC (now WFAN).
While Arlene Francis worked on Monitor, she had a weekday show on WOR 710 (plus What's My Line on CBS-TV).
Walter Kiernan also had a weekday show on WOR while hosting Monitor and Peter Roberts did news on WOR during the same period he was a Monitor "communicator" (host).
Mel Allen did Yankee games on WHN 1050 (now WEPN) and WCBS (now Newsradio 88) while working as a Monitor host.
Jim Lowe was a Monitor host while also a WNEW DJ.
Ed McMahon hosted a local game-talk show on WNBC ("Fortune Fone") while also hosting Monitor - and, of course, being Johnny Carson's announcer on The Tonight Show.
Brad Crandall hosted a weeknight call-in talk show on WNBC and did Monitor on the weekends. (He is the voice of the Mister Macho wig commercial on WKRP in Cincinnati.)
Ted Steele was another Monitor host whose weekday gig was playing records on WNEW.
Murray the K was a DJ on WNBC while he took a host shift on Monitor.
Bob and Ray did shows on various New York stations overlapping their Monitor work.

The Monitor Beacon

...you left out Henry Morgan, whose "Monitor" duty overlapped with his two-a-week WOR spot "Here's Morgan" and his panel position on CBS-TV's "Ive Got a Secret"...

 

[Radio_Realist]

car listening is way overrated in many peoples' minds.

After leaving on-air work in radio, I moved to advertising and marketing. I've bought market research, conducted market research, and read published marketing research reports. While people might spend more time with a radio receiver turned on while at work or at home, the #1 location in which people actually listen to the radio (as opposed to using it as sonic wallpaper or background noise) is when they are driving in their cars, alone.

I've seen research that shows that people who had a given radio station turned on all day while at work couldn't answer a single question about the content of what they had heard, yet they could recall many details of what was played during their time commuting.

If you define "listening" as meaning that something can be heard even if it is ignored, then I'll agree that home and office environments have a lot of radio listening going on. But if by listening you mean actually paying attention to what is there to hear, then driving in a car wins hands down, by a big margin.

 

[fred flintstone]

...you left out Henry Morgan, whose "Monitor" duty overlapped with his two-a-week WOR spot "Here's Morgan" and his panel position on CBS-TV's "Ive Got a Secret"...

Thanks. It was my recollection he was on WOR then but I wasn't able to verify it.

It is interesting how much Monitor air-talent came over from WOR and WNEW - more than from 660 AM.