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Bo Snerdley will do an afternoon show on WABC Radio

WTF is with these one hour shows on AM 77?

One hour, less TOH news, 18 minutes of spot load....

the show prep must take all of 2 minutes.
 
Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Oh wait, this is serious.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

The 77 train wreck is fascinating in a morbid way.
 
Three hours is too long for a talk show, but it was pretty much necessary when they were all done in-studio. Working at home has changed that ... for the better, IMO.
 
wadio said:
Three hours is too long for a talk show, but it was pretty much necessary when they were all done in-studio. Working at home has changed that ... for the better, IMO.
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I couldn't get enough of Rush.

He used to tease about the "4th hour".

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
MRBIboredop said:
WTF is with these one hour shows on AM 77?

One hour, less TOH news, 18 minutes of spot load....

the show prep must take all of 2 minutes.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the afternoon drive program I listened to on KDKA when I was in Pittsburgh last month: They had minutes-long newsbreaks at the top and bottom of the hour, and traffic reports on the 5s followed by a few spots. During what airtime was left, the host got a little banter in here and there and took a call or two, but then it was seemingly time for yet another traffic update or news....Then she announced they were ending the show early that day because KDKA is the flagship for the Pirates baseball network and there was a game that afternoon.
 
"the show prep must take all of 2 minutes."

When they were at 2-Penn there was a fax machine dedicated to the gop talking points and other effluent for the day.

Just rip-read, build your show around them. Easy. No assembly required.

This is probably also true for the other huge wastes of electricity at 710 & 970 and why they all spout the exact same bilge at the same time.

The real purpose of WABC today is to bolster the ego and standing of its owner within the somewhat moribund, N. Y. State gop.

LCG
 
I have never done a radio show, but I imagine it takes a lot more than just getting a fax of talking points. Rush used to talk about his "stack of stuff" and often never got to run through all of it. The problem for too much of talk radio today is that it is the same topics over and over (Masks are bad, Democrats are Socialists, Trump was great). WABC probably does have too many hosts for an effective mid-day lineup. But if you were going to have one hour shows, getting an modern day Alan Colmes or Ron Kuby in there to spice things up could be interesting. Maybe have all the hosts serve together with 'soft' transfers of the prominence on the mike so that each one gets to lead an hour with their perspective. Make talk radio different.

With the improved weekend programming I think WABC is on the start to being on the right track. A lot more needs to be done to make it a competitive operation again. But Mr. Cats has the money and interest to take the project on.

Radio still has to be an art. I have often wondered how much prep a successful music DJ needed to do. It couldn't simply be a case of walking in to the studio and start spinning discs. For an engaged DJ, for a morning show for instance, executing that HAS to take preparation. Comedic bits should take some amount of rehearsal, and a planning of when the individual pieces will be introduced and when the sidekick is supposed to "jump in" happens.
 
SCMcKinney said:
I have never done a radio show, but I imagine it takes a lot more than just getting a fax of talking points. Rush used to talk about his "stack of stuff" and often never got to run through all of it.

Radio still has to be an art. I have often wondered how much prep a successful music DJ needed to do. It couldn't simply be a case of walking in to the studio and start spinning discs. For an engaged DJ, for a morning show for instance, executing that HAS to take preparation. Comedic bits should take some amount of rehearsal, and a planning of when the individual pieces will be introduced and when the sidekick is supposed to "jump in" happens.
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I've seen all ends of the spectrum regarding show prep, at both talk and music stations. I've seen talk hosts who were deeply involved and did a lot of research and prep work and even selected guests on their own (one reason Rachael Maddow reportedly wanted to step back a bit at MSNBC is because she was so deeply involved herself with show prep that some thought she was reaching burnout. It wasn't uncommon for her to arrive at 9 a.m. to work all day on prep for her show that evening). On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen talk hosts who just peruse the national and local news for 30 minutes or an hour before their show to quickly get up to speed and pick out stories they might discuss on their program. I've also seen hosts with staff who were paid to do that for them, and they grabbed the folder and a cup of coffee on their way to the studio and reviewed everything during the news break just before their show began.

Same with music stations. I've seen morning hosts who'd record hours of TV programming at night to get drop ins and bits for their own morning shows, who subscribed to a "prep service" which meant they spent lots of time listening to all the song parodies, fake commercials, comedy bits and other items from the prep service to determine what might work for their shows, and I've seen some, especially in smaller markets, who'll personally reach out to people they want to bring on their show for interviews or they'll personally reach out to record reps to book time with artists who are coming to their town for concerts, etc. I've also seen other morning shows at music stations where the only rule is that they'll keep chatter between everyone during breaks to a minimum so their on-air banter will be as spontaneous as possible, and they'll work on bits and rehearse things briefly during breaks just before they're about to do them live. I've also seen shows where they'll have a meeting after every morning's show to discuss what worked, what didn't go so well, and to go over their plan and "running order" for the next day's show.

There are most likely several factors that determine the amount of prep done and who's involved, including the host(s) and other players involved, the budget of the station, market size, etc.
 
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I get the feeling you could walk into WABC off the street at noon, go into Cats's office, give him a 5 minute demo pitch, and be on the air at 4 pm.

IDK why so many here knock WABC, I think Bernie and Sid in the morning are great, Greg Kelly is good in the afternoon, and having the old music on weekend is better than vitamin infomericals. AM radio is never going to make any real money anyway, at least Cats is rich enough to have fun with it and try some different things.
 
I have to guess WABC is at least breaking even right now. No matter how much money you have or how much you like this business, you arent gonna pour money down a sh^t hole forever. If you can at least get it to not lose money, you can own your own radio station in market #1 and brag to that fact
 
SCMcKinney said:
But if you were going to have one hour shows, getting an modern day Alan Colmes or Ron Kuby in there to spice things up could be interesting.
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Wouldn't that be the equivalent of playing "Highway to Hell" on your soft AC station? You know, just to keep it interesting. LOL
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I have to guess WABC is at least breaking even right now. No matter how much money you have or how much you like this business, you arent gonna pour money down a sh^t hole forever. If you can at least get it to not lose money, you can own your own radio station in market #1 and brag to that fact
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It probably doesn’t matter what the financial situation is. Cats could operate the station as a line item for Gristedes, and probably was able to absorb whatever losses were incurred after Cumulus sold it to him.
 
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