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mwebster
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A Washington Post/AP story provides an update on Radio One's plans for a Black talk-radio network.
<blockquote>On a recent conference call, Radio One Inc. chief executive Alfred C. Liggins III spent much of his time explaining to analysts how his large urban radio company could break the industry's sluggish boundaries. "We're in the black people business," he said. "We are in the business of aggregating audience for this particular demo and providing content to them." To prove it, he ran down the company's plans for next year, which include launching the first national talk radio network targeting a black audience ... </blockquote>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112400783_pf.html">
Read Full Article(Registration may be required)</a>
Radio One owns AM stations in Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Richmond, Cincinnati, Miami, Dayton and Augusta (plus FM Urban music format stations in these and other markets). R1 also holds a majority interest in Reach Media which syndicates Tom Joyner.
Key points:
<ul>
[*]The new Black talk network will feed programming from 10 am to 7 pm (avoiding direct competition with Joyner).
[*]The Rev Al Sharpton's talk show will air in the late morning day part.
[*]2 Live Stews, a sports talk show from Atlanta, will air in afternoon drive.
[*]No program announced for middays so far.
[*]Radio One plans to put the Black talk network on AM stations the company owns and sell it to other Urban stations.
[*]R1 is targeting markets with a Black population over 15% of the total.
[/list]
One question: To what extent will this Black talk network erode the audience for progressive talk or cause the format (and its largest distributor, Air America Radio) to lose stations? Some AAR "affiliates" are low powered AM's which do not put a good signal into suburban and exurban portions of their markets; but might be better suited for a format targeting a mostly urban audience.
The best known host for this new "network," the Rev Al Sharpton, has been hosting a local weekend program on AAR's New York station, WLIB (a legacy from station owner Inner City Broadcasting Corp). He is a dyanamic and charismatic personality; he could be "the big one" AAR let get away. Shaprton has been a well known political and civil rights activist in New York City and elsewhere and campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. Radio One was a major contributor to Sharpton's campaign.
<blockquote>On a recent conference call, Radio One Inc. chief executive Alfred C. Liggins III spent much of his time explaining to analysts how his large urban radio company could break the industry's sluggish boundaries. "We're in the black people business," he said. "We are in the business of aggregating audience for this particular demo and providing content to them." To prove it, he ran down the company's plans for next year, which include launching the first national talk radio network targeting a black audience ... </blockquote>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112400783_pf.html">
Read Full Article(Registration may be required)</a>
Radio One owns AM stations in Washington, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Richmond, Cincinnati, Miami, Dayton and Augusta (plus FM Urban music format stations in these and other markets). R1 also holds a majority interest in Reach Media which syndicates Tom Joyner.
Key points:
<ul>
[*]The new Black talk network will feed programming from 10 am to 7 pm (avoiding direct competition with Joyner).
[*]The Rev Al Sharpton's talk show will air in the late morning day part.
[*]2 Live Stews, a sports talk show from Atlanta, will air in afternoon drive.
[*]No program announced for middays so far.
[*]Radio One plans to put the Black talk network on AM stations the company owns and sell it to other Urban stations.
[*]R1 is targeting markets with a Black population over 15% of the total.
[/list]
One question: To what extent will this Black talk network erode the audience for progressive talk or cause the format (and its largest distributor, Air America Radio) to lose stations? Some AAR "affiliates" are low powered AM's which do not put a good signal into suburban and exurban portions of their markets; but might be better suited for a format targeting a mostly urban audience.
The best known host for this new "network," the Rev Al Sharpton, has been hosting a local weekend program on AAR's New York station, WLIB (a legacy from station owner Inner City Broadcasting Corp). He is a dyanamic and charismatic personality; he could be "the big one" AAR let get away. Shaprton has been a well known political and civil rights activist in New York City and elsewhere and campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. Radio One was a major contributor to Sharpton's campaign.