Al Johnson said:
PD: If peace reigns between Air America and the other lib-talk providers, why did the new Air America program director rush right out and hire Lionel (apparently at some expense) to put up against Stephanie Miller (where he doesn't stand a chance)? They could have hired Lionel and left him where he was in late night. Lionel would have been (and was) a much stronger entry than the hodge podge of weekend hosts and fired hosts they run now. Lionel in the evening could have kept stations from defecting to Malloy and they might have even kept some of Lionel's WOR Network stations (thereby giving themselves a foot in the door at those operations). But ego ruled, and they had to try to beat Stephanie Miller.
Oh, Al. (A Peg Bundy moment.
)
Actually longtime Lionel listeners already know the answer to this. Lionel wasn't willing to jump from WOR unless he had a different timeslot. He didn't want to move from WOR to AAR unless he got a daytime slot "where I can get my life back." It's no secret Lionel was unhappy with WOR, especially in the last four months as things continued to fall apart over there. He walked off his own show on at least five occasions when the phone system crashed and WOR felt dealing with him was a lower priority than some of the other talent (he was stuck in Joy Browne's studio for a long time and at one point, her wall erected for her short TV stint literally fell on him while he was on the air, in perhaps a telling moment).
Lionel has a proven record of drawing stations with his program, which is not traditional political talk. It's actually a unique show for the format.
Daytime is far more important to AAR than the fringe hours. Malloy was the lowest paid host on Air America and was shown the door and the late night slot has been a dumping ground ever since. A lot of stations had already flipped to Lionel on WOR because they wouldn't clear Malloy (who joined AAR later), and others ran time-shifted programming. It's very nice that a small group of dedicated Seder fans are upset about the fact he was bumped to weekends, but one look at the station clearances for his show told the story. AAR needs to do something to keep the late morning slot viable, and they'd be better off with Lionel than more of the same with Seder (and I have nothing against Sam myself). Some stations can delay Lionel back into his old WOR slot as well. Our local station in Rochester time shifts Hartmann into the 10p-12a slot right now - Lionel would have been better off without the two week break from WOR to AAR because a lot of stations made decisions about that timeslot in the interim and Lionel could have stayed put (through the magic of time delay) in his old evening slot if there was a smoother transition.
Importance of Air America: Yes, they created buzz and awareness of liberal talk and established the idea the liberal and conservative hosts should not be mixed on a station. At the same time, they made themselves look like idiots and gave the format a "loser" image.
Only to the right wing and their hand-wringing friends who bought into the talking points that have been running since day one. If Air America wasn't delivering a full day lineup of programming to affiliates, even now, most of them would switch off the format altogether and head back to the sloppy second conservative stuff not carried by a market's dominant conservative talker, sports radio, or Spanish. Make no mistake, there are only a handful of talk stations around that run all over the political spectrum. If you don't have enough shows to populate the format, forget it. The one exception, if you want to call it that, is Alan Colmes, but his show is marketed TO conservative talk stations and listeners, not to liberals.
We are now seeing the inevitable shakeout of talent as the format matures and more players enter the picture. You want AAR to stick with Sam Seder who can't get station clearances?
Don't buy into the talking points from the anti-AAR obsessors. These are the same people who, for instance, attacked Air America for hiring entertainers to do talk radio, but were absolutely silent when the likes of Ollie North, Bill Bennett, and Armstrong Williams turned up on the air. The rhetoric is transparent.
RR: I share Evn's contempt for most of the talk radio community. I make an exception for Thom Hartmann, who seems to be decent guy and to have integrity. Agree or disagree with his politics, that puts ahead of most of the rest of them. Will he save Air America? The question assumes he won't jump to another distributor. He's already signed with Stephanie Miller's producer and agent. I think he will be a part of liberal talk for the long haul. I don't think he'll necessarily be a part of Air America.
I have nothing against Thom Hartmann either, but he reminds me of Michael Jackson (the talkshow host, obviously). A real nice guy with depth and honesty, and few listeners outside of his home market. Remember, talk radio is entertainment, and if you're not entertaining, people aren't going to listen to you. And considering the clearance war over Hartmann vs. Schultz, Schultz won bigtime, to the point where XM's Air America channel carries Schultz instead of Hartmann. (And I am no big fan of Schultz either).
My prediction: Air America will fade away (at least in anything like its present form). Thom and Randi will move on. Lionel will likely go back to an evening gig with another syndicator, too. There will be fewer liberal talk stations but those that remain (in markets most receptive to the format) will be stronger and more successful. Conservative talk will wane, too. Top performing stations and syndicated hosts will continue. The weaker links (2nd and 3rd talkers in a market and also-ran hosts) will also fall by the wayside. Salem's turn-key network will keep going as long as the company wants to use money from brokered preachers and gospel music to keep it going. Political talk is weakening. Hot talk/FreeFM shock talk has mostly failed. Advice talk will always be around someplace. The question is: What will be the next big thing in talk radio (like political talk was for the 90s and 00s)?
I don't see much evidence that political talk as a format is going anywhere... except perhaps to FM in more markets. But listeners are starting to demand more than cookie cutter hosts who read talking points. They want to be entertained along the way, which is why I think Miller's show has such strong appeal. Shock talk has failed in part because stations are worried about the FCC -- but I'd say Stern and friends are still doing quite well on satellite radio.
Most of what you predict has been true all along though. Second and third tier hosts are always coming and going. Conservative talk loses some audience until a Democrat gets into the White House (and vice versa I'll bet), and the religious pollution of the airwaves via FM translators and network-owned full power stations shoveling shows very few people want to hear will continue as long as there are private subsidies to keep them on the air (and you don't read much of that on Brian Baloney's blog, and he seems to have a personal problem with private individuals subsidizing unpopular networks to keep them on the air... unless they air conservative shows of course).
And lifestyle talk for women is just getting off the ground, and that will wed a lot of personal advice talk into it along the way. Think 'The View' for radio.
