Black talk network gone in NYC, Boston

[raccoonradio]

Radio One's black talk network--Rev Al Sharpton, Two Live Stews, Michael Eric Dyson--is off in NYC and Boston. In Gotham, it had been on WWRL 1600 (well, SOME shows) but Air America is going there, and WLIB
1190 is going to black gospel. In Boston, WILD 1090 has ditched the black talk network (including local host Jimmy Myers) in favor of black gospel as well (though the Tom Joyner morning show, which had been at their
sister station at 97.7, will move to 1090...since 97.7 got sold to Entercom and will be simulcasting rocker
WAAF as of Tue at 5:30 pm)

Boston Herald: "In addition, WILD’s AM sister station 1090 will adjust its format. Radio One will move the Tom Joyner morning show from 97.7 FM to AM-1090. News talk programming will be discontinued on WILD 1090 and replaced with contemporary inspirational and gospel music, Jones said.
Also cut will be the Jimmy Myers (talk) show, said Tony Bennis, former producer of the show, adding “despite the fact that it was exceeding and doing really important things in Boston.”

 

[Radio_Realist]

said Tony Bennis, former producer of the show, adding “despite the fact that it was exceeding and doing really important things in Boston.”

Apparently, attracting an audience that advertisers wanted to reach wasn't one of those things.

 

[fred flintstone]

Syndication One was never cleared in New York (WWRL or anywhere else).
It was mentioned as a possibility for WLIB post-AAR but that didn't happen.

 

[FightingIrish]

I haven't heard much about R1's format, but I know WERE in Cleveland is an affiliate. Anyone else know who's carrying it?

Losing Boston is a serious blow. That's as close as they've gotten to NYC.

Seems lots of AM stations are picking up urban gospel (like WLIB). That format has been doing well lately.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>as a possibility for WLIB post-AAR but that didn't happen.

Oh OK, that's probably what I had read....thought, though, that one or two of those hosts were on WWRL
along with the likes of Colmes..

 

[ajhenderson]

WWRL never had anything from S1, and in fact, their brokered "Doc Block" of schlock programming takes up a slight majority of the 10a-7p that S1 is on air.

Apparently, attracting an audience that advertisers wanted to reach wasn't one of those things.
LOL

I haven't heard much about R1's format, but I know WERE in Cleveland is an affiliate. Anyone else know who's carrying it?
A couple dozen stations, including a number of stations, like WERE, that couldn't succeed doing anything but urban programming.

Losing Boston is a serious blow. That's as close as they've gotten to NYC.
In terms of proximity? Atlanta and Detroit are larger markets than Boston.

Seems lots of AM stations are picking up urban gospel (like WLIB). That format has been doing well lately.
Perhaps, but the power ratio is crap. I suppose it's a better option than ninth-rate talk or religion running on AM facilities that never should have been approved for construction in the first place.

 

[954]

I haven't heard much about R1's format, but I know WERE in Cleveland is an affiliate. Anyone else know who's carrying it?

In Miami, WTPS, the former brokered WVCG.

Here's some history and info from when they flipped:

http://RadioPages.net/radio/wtpswvcg.html

They have some great Caribbean programming (such as reggae) on weekends.
That's generally the only time I listen.

73s

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

An OMW reader in Pittsburgh tells us that Sheridan's WAMO/860 has just dropped the Radio One talk programming, going back to the music programming it had before it took the talk shows in February.

WAMO's AM side keeps Tom Joyner in morning drive and Bev Smith at night...shows which were also on before the Dyson/Sharpton/Two Live Stews shows joined the lineup.

 

[fred flintstone]

S1 Appears to be Crashing

Too bad! It looks like S1 is on the ropes.
I listened a few times online and I was disappointed in the production quality of shows. In particular, the Rev Al lacked his usual charisma and seemed to be fumbling.
Even though AM is a poor choice for music, many Urban-targeted stations seem to prefer Black Gospel to Urban Talk.
Mostly these are Class D AM stations (upper end of the AM band; low power) which only put a decent signal into the center city; in the 'burbs they are generally unlistenable.
This makes them poorly suited for White liberal talk (or most other formats) but well suited for Urban Talk (and other urban formats).
Even so, these stations make up the preponderance of White liberal (progressive) talk stations.
As a result, the progressive talk format is severely handicapped from the start.
The flamethrowers almost all gravitated to conservative talk years ago (a few to all news or sports, with one non-AAR progressive talk flamethrower currently in Buffalo). Salem cornered much of the rest of the decent AM real estate.
Leaving progressive talk to weak stick latch key stations or rim shots in most markets.
But what is a handicap for progressive talk for White folks could work fine for Urban talk (generally politically liberal).
Tom Joyner and Radio One have good track records but somehow they don't seem able to pull it off with Syndication One.
Michael Eric Dyson showed strong promise.
But the Rev Al (who was S1's "name" - their Franken) fell flat.
The network did not appear to generate numbers in the Arbitron books or in station financial ledgers.
Too bad.
I wonder what went wrong here. It should have worked.

 

[kaufcom]

Re: S1 Appears to be Crashing

The flamethrowers almost all gravitated to conservative talk years ago (a few to all news or sports, with one non-AAR progressive talk flamethrower currently in Buffalo). Salem cornered much of the rest of the decent AM real estate.
Leaving progressive talk to weak stick latch key stations or rim shots in most markets.

You are so right about this. With a few notable exceptions, Lib Talk stations are mostly garbage. There's a comparative scenario in the TV industry. UPN and WB have tried to compete with the major network stations and have not been successful ergo the fomation of the CW network. And the TV business has the "cable factor" which gives all signals a boost. There is no "cable factor" in terrestrial radio broadcasting.

 

[954]

I wonder what went wrong here. It should have worked.

Very interesting analysis. I enjoyed reading it.

But have you considered that the target market for their message
is busy watching Oprah or Entertainment Tonight or listening to
ipods .... and couldn't care less about what Al Sharpton has to say?

73s

 

[fred flintstone]

Re: S1 Appears to be Crashing

You are so right about this. With a few notable exceptions, Lib Talk stations are mostly garbage. There's a comparative scenario in the TV industry. UPN and WB have tried to compete with the major network stations and have not been successful ergo the fomation of the CW network. And the TV business has the "cable factor" which gives all signals a boost. There is no "cable factor" in terrestrial radio broadcasting.

AAR is already at 20% of the audience listening online or via satellite.
Cable/satellite TV took almost three decades to reach its current penetration level.
Internet audio and satellite radio are relatively new and wireless Internet audio hasn't gotten started yet.
Audio (it may not be "radio" any more) could well have its own "cable factor" in a decade.

Fox has been able to compete successfully. They were a few years ahead of UPN and WB. Picking up some established major market VHF stations helped. Getting football helped, too. But mostly Fox had stronger programming (which UPN and WB lacked). In radio or TV, it's all about programming. And lately, even AAR's fans are admitting program/host quality is where AAR needs work.

 

[kaufcom]

Re: S1 Appears to be Crashing

Fox has been able to compete successfully. They were a few years ahead of UPN and WB. Picking up some established major market VHF stations helped. Getting football helped, too. But mostly Fox had stronger programming (which UPN and WB lacked). In radio or TV, it's all about programming. And lately, even AAR's fans are admitting program/host quality is where AAR needs work.

Yes, programming is key. (especially in television where ratings are recorded a daily and minute by minute basis, unlike radio's absurd month to month reporting system.) However, distribution is also a very important factor. Fox never would have made it without getting a broadcast affiliate in virtually every single market and cable/satellite coverage (which is now over 80%) in the markets where they still have weak UHF affiliates. UPN and WB never could do better than 80% broadcast coverage so now the merged and they reach 95% of the US. While it's true that 20% of AAR's audience comes from satellite radio, less than 4% of the total talk radio audience comes from satellite. This is expected to increase to 7% by 2010. Hardly, similiar to cable.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Yes, programming is key.

No question it's important, but programming comes in second after promotion. It doesn't matter how good your programming is, if you expect to gain an audience by relying on the one-two punch of word of mouth and listeners stumbling onto your station by accident and sticking around to sample your show, you expect something that isn't gonna happen.

Here in Pittsburgh, there aren't many ad media that are exclusively seen by the Urban audience (why can't we just say "Black"? Why do we have to use the euphamism "urban"?), so anything that WAMO might have done to let the urban audience know what about the S1 would have been visible to us white guys as well. I never saw ads for S1 on any advertising media in town. My job takes me all around the city, and I never saw any ads for the S1 talk programs on WAMO.

So, if they expected anyone to tune them in, they must have been counting on lots and lots of Dionne Warwick's friends, because their the only people who would have known those programs were on the air.

 

[fred flintstone]

Yes, there does seem to be an if-you-build-it-they-will-come mind set among a lot of people in broadcasting, especially those out to "make a difference." AAR mostly avoided this by getting so much attention by screwing up.

 

[raccoonradio]

Thought I heard that WLIB (now with gospel format) is running Rev. Al from the black talk network at midnight/

 

[fred flintstone]

WLIB has run a Sunday morning show with the Rev Al since before and during the AAR LMA. This is a WLIB program and neither AAR or Syndication One were/are involved.

 

[InstrumentofTRUTH]

Radio One's black talk network--Rev Al Sharpton, Two Live Stews, Michael Eric Dyson--is off in NYC and Boston. In Gotham, it had been on WWRL 1600 (well, SOME shows) but Air America is going there, and WLIB 1190 is going to black gospel. In Boston, WILD 1090 has ditched the black talk network (including local host Jimmy Myers) in favor of black gospel as well (though the Tom Joyner morning show, which had been at their sister station at 97.7, will move to 1090...since 97.7 got sold to Entercom and will be simulcasting rocker WAAF as of Tue at 5:30 pm)

More proof that civil rights GARBAGE doesn't work on the air. I'm so proud of myself for downright EMBARASSING Zemira Jones (who launched this crappy project) at the R&R Talk Radio Seminar this year--telling him that this LINEUP won't be a success at all. If the news above is correct, then the stations mentioned were part of the ORIGINAL stations that rolled out this project. True enough, they've dumped this GARBAGE on several stations since then, but they are FAILING TOO.... not only because the liberal message isn't appealing, it is because they have selected BAD talents.

Michael Dyson--NO entertainment value. Ignorant. His only attribute is that he uses a plethora of BIG words. He might have been a great candidate on Akeela and the Bee movie, but as a talk show host? No one can make you fight your snooze button more than he can.

Al Sharpton--Yet another ZOO. Of course, his show is FAR SUPERIOR in the entertainment category than Michael "make you drowsy" Dyson (even though it doesn't take much to do so), but the civil rights manifestation is outdated, predictable, and unmoving as well. Since this company is hell bent on displaying civil rights, then they could probably keep Sharpton, but they need to put INTELLIGENT programs around his.

The Stews--A very successful tandem in Atlanta, but a horrible NATIONAL sports show. They have become quite racial in most of their topics as well. They are good at talking Atlanta sports (specifically Michael Vick), but they can't carry a national talk show.

The problem with Radio One is that they are more intent on catering to the LOSERS of the black race (that bring NOTHING to the table, by the way), than catering to blacks of intellect. If they were really interested in putting a good talk shows on the air that cater to the UPLIFTING of the black race, then they would focus on putting THOUGHT-PROVOKING programming on the air. There's no way that anyone with a functionally operational brain thinks that Michael Dyson's show is thought provoking. No programs with PREDICTABLE messages are thought provoking. Non-stop civil rights are tremendously predictable, and are NOT thought provoking, and that's why they do not bring a growth in the listener base.

The question Radio One has to ask itself is that are they going to continue with their allegiance to non-stop civil rights, or are they are going to try to make some money by putting on the BEST programming possible? If they choose to do the latter, then they are going to have to "clean house" with this talk lineup.

 

[InstrumentofTRUTH]

Re: S1 Appears to be Crashing

Too bad! It looks like S1 is on the ropes. I listened a few times online and I was disappointed in the production quality of shows.

This is because they are/were of the belief that their black skin, and their racist views are/were enough to attract ALL black listeners. The "dirty little secret" is that it is NOT enough. First of all, there are NOT enough blacks that are ignorant enough to resonate to such a message, and many of those that could are not turning away from MUSIC (i.e. hip hop). Secondly, the liberal and civil-rights oriented message is ANTI-business, and since advertisers are BUSINESSES (hello, is anybody home?) they aren't eager to advertise or sponsor a show that undermines their purposes.

Tom Joyner and Radio One have good track records but somehow they don't seem able to pull it off with Syndication One. Michael Eric Dyson showed strong promise. But the Rev Al (who was S1's "name" - their Franken) fell flat. The network did not appear to generate numbers in the Arbitron books or in station financial ledgers. Too bad. I wonder what went wrong here. It should have worked.

It would have worked if they added the RIGHT talents. The people they decided to add are NOT radio talents. These are PUPPETS for the Democratic party. They were brought to this network to ensure that the "slave" blacks remain on the plantation, with the blessing of their "slavemasters" (i.e. WHITE liberals). The sooner we realize that blacks are NOT monolithic, and some of us do use our BRAINS for what they are designed for (thinking for ourselves), then they will realize that the crap they decided to put on was a hideous mistake. Go to my website and read some of my columns on radio, and you will be enlightened on why the Radio One project was a colossal failure. You also need to check out my show, then you will have a little idea of what a REAL talk show is supposed to be like.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>They were brought to this network to ensure that the "slave" blacks remain on the plantation, with the blessing of their "slavemasters" (i.e. WHITE liberals).

Yup...meanwhile are there still some conservative black talkers still out there..Larry Elder? Ken Hamblin? Guess they're still both on, or at least Elder is...

>>ANTI-business

same problem Air America has. In the book South Park Conservatives, Brian Anderson wrote about a South Park episode about a Starbucks-like business coming to town, and there were protests against it--but the kids
point out that big businesses are worth having--"they make computers and cars and canned soup", etc.
Why advertise on a network that puts down businesses?