Bill Nojay on WYSL

[The Voice of Reason]

Listening to WYSL this morning I heard that former RGRTA head and local attorney Bill Nojay is going to be doing a local talk show on the station starting January 22nd. Does anyone have any further information about this?

 

[Bob1370]

Bill's a very fiercely partisan fellow. He's been a guest on my show a few times, he's comfortable on mike and I'm sure he'll hold his own against any challenger (either guest or caller). It's interesting, though, that WYSL is starting its foray into local talk programming with someone with such an intensely partisan image and track record. It may play reasonably well in some of the outer-ring counties of the metro where the GOP remains strong, but in Monroe County (which is becoming increasingly competitive and now has a Democratic plurality in registrations) I wonder how much traction this show will get, especially when Lonsberry and Limbaugh have already pretty much locked up the right wing of the audience and everyone else is already pretty much locked in with other alternatives.

 

[Mark_Giardina]

Bill's a very fiercely partisan fellow. He's been a guest on my show a few times, he's comfortable on mike and I'm sure he'll hold his own against any challenger (either guest or caller). It's interesting, though, that WYSL is starting its foray into local talk programming with someone with such an intensely partisan image and track record. It may play reasonably well in some of the outer-ring counties of the metro where the GOP remains strong, but in Monroe County (which is becoming increasingly competitive and now has a Democratic plurality in registrations) I wonder how much traction this show will get, especially when Lonsberry and Limbaugh have already pretty much locked up the right wing of the audience and everyone else is already pretty much locked in with other alternatives.

You never invited me to be a guest on your show. :'(

 

[Inventor989]

With CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, AAR, MSNBC, NPR/PBS, Current and most local TV populated and controlled by leftists, and more being churned out by the socialistas at our universities every year, there can't possibly be enough conservative voices on radio to balance the warped media landscape today. Kudos to Bob Savage.

 

[raymond_shaw]

With CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, AAR, MSNBC, NPR/PBS, Current and most local TV populated and controlled by leftists, and more being churned out by the socialistas at our universities every year, there can't possibly be enough conservative voices on radio to balance the warped media landscape today. Kudos to Bob Savage.

Speaking for all "leftists" on this board, all hail Cesar Chavez. BTW, I hear ABC's leftist parent company, Disney Corporation, will be giving all employees the day off for Castro's upcoming funeral(followed by the flag at corporate hq's to at half mask for 30 days).

 

[Philip_Airtime]

With CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, AAR, MSNBC, NPR/PBS, Current and most local TV populated and controlled by leftists, and more being churned out by the socialistas at our universities every year, there can't possibly be enough conservative voices on radio to balance the warped media landscape today. Kudos to Bob Savage.

I really take issue with this kind of broad generality. Prove it! Just because you say it doesn't mean it's true. Every journalist I know is committed to finding the truth. Its the news media's responsibility to question those who are in power, whether Democrat or Republican. The right-wing commentators like Rush talk about the "liberal media" because the reporting these organizations do doesn't conform to their world view. Therefore, the reporting is biased. Are there specific individuals at these news organization which may appear to be partisan? Sure. I'd be silly to say otherwise. But taken as a whole, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and NPR are objective news organizations just doing their job. BTW, Air America Radio should not be lumped with the others because it is not a news organization. It is a left-of-center provider of talk shows.

 

[rochestermediamonitor]

Now will Bill's show be on after the suppliment infomercial, or the broadcast of Livonia's girls high school bocce game?

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Now will Bill's show be on after the suppliment infomercial, or the broadcast of Livonia's girls high school bocce game?

One must give Mr. Savage credit for carrying live local sporting events on his station. Your snide comment about a high school bocce game only diminishes what could have been a legitimate question posed on this board. I happen to enjoy the local basketball and other sporting events carried on WYSL. At least that station is making an effort to be more involved in the local community. How many other AM stations can make such a claim?

 

[therealjm12]

One must give Mr. Savage credit for carrying live local sporting events on his station. Your snide comment about a high school bocce game only diminishes what could have been a legitimate question posed on this board. I happen to enjoy the local basketball and other sporting events carried on WYSL. At least that station is making an effort to be more involved in the local community.

As being a vetern of employment of many a small market radio station, I can tell you these local high school games (and informercials) pay the bills. They can be the difference between being in the red or black. Same for snowmobile races, remotes from local fairs, and even coverage of local blood drives. They not only give the stations good community relations but make the $$$ in the slow months. Bob Savage seems to understand this (maybe a master of it) and that's probably why he doesn't give "a hoot" if he shows up in the ratings.

 

[Element9]

As a veteran of many a small market radio station, I can tell you that local high school games and informercials pay the bills.They can make the difference between being in the red or black. Same for snowmobile races, remotes from local fairs, and even coverage of local blood drives. They not only give these stations good community relationships but make the $$$ in the slow months. Bob Savage seems to understand this (maybe a master of it) and that's probably why he doesn't give "a hoot" if he shows up in the ratings.

We prattle about ratings (and lack of such) all the time here, but when you're the person who signs the checks, the real ratings are the numbers on your balance sheet. Bob Savage makes WYSL sound as good as any news talk station in Rochester and Buffalo, even when it's airing a colon-blow show!

Savage knows how to promote and package the station's programming, including the snow mobile races and colon-blow shows, as programs of value and interest, which is the major difference between how WYSL presents itself on the air and the way many the other small market operators who run the exact same shows, but lack the style, present themselves.

Most small markets stations are satisfied to air these types of shows and let them to sound like islands of dissonance, without packaging, production and staging, or any promotion.

Bob Savage is successful at programming and maintaining the WYSL's bottom because he is a GM who has a strong programming background, while many other small market GM's come from the sales ranks.
_________________________________________________
It was unintentional in the first draft, but upon review, it's worth noting the word "rank" has two different meanings.

 

[Savage]

Thanks for the reference to the "colon-blow" shows, which gave me a big laugh out loud first thing this morning. Also thanks for the apropos response to the low "colon-blow" about our sports coverage. rochestermediamonitor might be interested to know that Rochester's largest employer, the U of R, pays for this excellent sports coverage - if he ever listened, he'd hear a network-quality play-by guy, JC DeLass, call the games. Ditto for SJF, Roberts Wesleyan, RIT and other colleges. They're actually entertaining broadcasts done professionally, and, yes, they generate a lot of revenue. The only high school we do is Bishop Kearney through a cooperative effort with that school's very progressive broadcasting program. When we do BK games kids who have an interest in pursuing a broadcast career get the opportunity to join JC on-air for a quarter doing color. It's a great opportunity for young people to get hands-on experience - in an era when everybody in the industry bemoans the lack of entry-level chances for aspiring young radio people.
Let the cheap shots fly. We're proud of our sports coverage. And, whether you politically agree with him or not, we're excited about Bill Nojay, who is primarily interested in improving life around here.

 

[JohnW]

The front page of yesterday's Democrat & Chronicle B section had a blurb about the Nojay show.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I had the opportunity to hear Bill Nojay on WYSL while traveling to Buffalo this afternoon and if I am allowed a first impression I must say that I was not impressed. I thought this show was designed to discuss the upstate economy. Instead it was nothing but another right-wing conservative critical of Liberals. (I happen to be registered to vote but not with any political party, just in case anyone wants to know)
Nojay’s constant hammering of Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and her position on the issue of a Fairness Doctrine wore thin after a while. I happen to support the Fairness Doctrine and also believe that Reagan and Clinton were wrong in supporting deregulation and the Telecommunications Act; both of which opened the door to allow companies like Entercom, Clear Channel, Cumulus and others to monopolize local radio. As a well known Republican one would think that Mr. Nojay would support the idea of competition instead of monopolies. And he also used the L word (Liberal) like it was something to be scorned. It was liberal lawmakers who passed Social Security, which I am sure Mr. Nojay will be happy to collect when he retires, along with Medicaid, Medicare, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws. I don't want to turn this into a discussion of one's political views, but I am just tired of the divisiveness in this country. I hope that the Bill Nojay Show sticks to its theme of commenting on our local economy and ways to resolve issues impacting us instead of just being another mouthpiece for the conservatives. God knows we have enough of those already on the air.

 

[Element9]

I have heard Mr. Nojay only once and that was a while ago. At that time I believe he was not the host of the show but an interviewee. If what you write is an accurate account of his WYSL show, I would only add this observation: Many small market talk show hosts follow the lead of the better know syndicated talk show hosts such as O'Reilly and Limbaugh. In many cases, they're not radio broadcasters, but ex-politicians, accountants, P-R people or, as in Mr. Nojay's case, attorneys. In many cases theyr firmly believe that if a knucklehead community college drop out(comparitively speaking) like Rush Limbaugh can succeed, then certainly a person with an advanced degree can do better.

Folly.

In many cases, these locals are accomplished attorneys, plumbers, doctors or accountants, yet they're downright lousy talk show hosts. They believe they're "smarter than the average bear" and in many cases they are. But their education betrays them because smart as they may be in the areas of accounting, legislating and the law, they HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL ON THE RADIO.

Sorry about the caps. Not shouting, just making a point.

So, these locals invariably flail around, throw verbal grenades and pray that somebody... SOMEBODY will call. In most cases listeners DO call... their pals and cronies from the courts and associated businesses, who tell them how great they are, what a good job they're doing and how much they agree with the host. The same eight callers every day, playing the same eight themes over... Hillary is evil, democrats are cut-n-runners, tax and spenders; or conversely, Dubya is an imbecile, Wolfowitz is the devil, Cheney is a scheming draft dodger and yada-yada-yada... it becomes tiresome after the third show.

Lawyers (sorry Bob) are often the worst offenders in this capcity: The Barristers of Bombast. This is likely because dummies don't make it through law school (even if they're "legacies") and they certainly don't pass the bar because daddy is a city court judge. Nope. You have to be pretty smart to be an attorney. The local talkmeisters need to understand that in order to be a proficient and effective talk show host, one must be creative and technically adroit, entertaining as well as smart.

Mr. Savage might want to sit Mr. Nojay down and give him a primer in Talk Radio 101. Of course, it just may be that Nojay is buying the time and cares not a fig for Mr. Savage's sage radio advice. Then again, one attorney instructing another attorney in the fine art of broadcasting would make for a pretty entertaining talk show in its own right. Can you imagine THAT exchange of ideas?

UN-civil procedure!

-9-

 

[SirRoxalot]

Lawyers One-on-One

Then again, one attorney instructing another attorney in the fine art of broadcasting would make for a pretty entertaining talk show in its own right. Can you imagine THAT exchange of ideas?

Two guys who know EVERYTHING that there is to know about EVERYTHING trying to explain to each other why THEY'RE right and the other guy is WRONG? It could turn into a Jerry Springer episode!

Only kidding Bob...

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Oh why not play the hits and talk dirty? That used to work. ;D

 

[rochestermediamonitor]

Maybe they could combine the programming so Bill could try colon blow while doing color for the girls Bocce game? Now THAT would be entertaining.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

It appears that Mr. Nojay decided to cut back on the political rhetoric and concentrate more on upstate's economy and our state's dysfunctional government. I find his talk show to be more informative and even entertaining. A far cry from his first day on the air.

 

[vistua]

Just a few thoughts.

Mr Nojay seems to be doing well, I disapprove of many of his views but he seems to be able to hold on as a broadcaster. I am especially impressed because he is well, a err... (there's no polite way to say this). Lawyah!!!!

The ratings of the station are somewhat... irrelevant. It's actually the quality of programming (which overall, is depressingly low... Sorry, if I ever again hear Mr Savage refer to the county executive as "The Magster" I shall vomit.)

Regarding criticism of the Media as being "Liberal". It is. I am NOT a conservative AT ALL, and I can assure you that the Media is almost uniformly welfare-statist (I-E Liberal). However I am pleased that I have not been able to discern bias in the station, per-se (except of course in the talk-shows, but everyone knows that!)

I think that WYSL should probably focus more of it's energy on boosting it's newsgathering and (local) hard-news reporting

 

[Element9]

Regarding criticism of the Media as being "Liberal". It is. I am NOT a conservative AT ALL, and I can assure you that the Media is almost uniformly welfare-statist (I-E Liberal).

Here we go again, "the liberal media" canard from the O'Reilly-Hannity-Fox News-Bauerle-Limbaugh cabal.

Meanwhile, dominant AM talkers like WBEN and WHAM spew their right and sometimes far-right-of-center local and syndicated pabulum to scores of listeners who can't wait to drink the Kool-Aid, propeling these stations to top three status in their respective markets.

That "liberal" media?

Here's my disclaimer. I'm a registered Independent... which means I can't vote in Republican and Democratic primaries. Fine. It's the price I pay for wanting to maintain a position of neutrality being in the news business.

NPR and PBS get tagged (mostly by the neo-cons) with the "liberal" stigma simply because these organizations ASK questions and objectively expose both sides of the issues.

Now, what about the CORPORATE welfare state? Tax breaks for companies that gouge the American consumer at the gas pump, the military-industrialists who assisted in bringing us Iraq; and locally, the abundant IDA's that give away the farm (at taxpayers' expense) any time a company wants to locate to a community in New York state or worse, re-locate from one community to another in Monroe county?

When we talk about "welfare," let's at least talk about it HONESTLY. Please.

And what about that same "liberal" media that didn't do its homework and co-opted itself by cheering on the executive and legislative branches of our federal government in the "war on terra'?" Weapons of mass destruction? Mushroom clouds? Yellow-cake uranium? High grade aluminum tubes for producing fisionable uranium and plutonium?

Is THAT the liberal media we're talking about here?

Fey!

-9-