CANCELLED LIBERAL STATIONS: SYMPTOM OF BIGGER PROBLEMS

[ABQTom]

The progressive talk stations that keep getting cancelled are symptoms of bigger problems...

First, PD's assume that their listeners are 100 percent conservatives, or 100 percent liberals. Then, they tend to go along with the Air America clock 24/7 ASSUMING that will get ratings. But it won't (See below).

Listeners to ANY station, liberal or conservative, are composed of listeners of all political persuasions.

The primary reason that people listen to talk hosts is because they are ENTERTAINING.

So - Programmers should strive to make their programming as entertaining as possible, and not rely on corporate schedules, like the Air America clock.

Second, the cancelled stations are a result of problems at the Air America radio network. This network offers programs like Lionel, Richard Green, and weekend interview programs (i.e. Robert F. Kennedey) that get low ratings. This leaves "Hartmann and Schultz" middays for a station to get good revenue from.

Third, the Air America weekend sattelite programs are boring 1-2 hour long interview programs, like ecotalk and mark green's program. Compare these to the more entertaining sports programs and traditional weekend talkers like BOB BRINKER and BRUCE DUMONT. Also, for whatever reason, I never see weekend reruns of Big Ed, but I do see reruns of Air America reruns right off the satellite. Certainly, some board op at the conservative Clear Channel sister station of a given station could play back Ed on weekends.

Progressive talk isn't going to make it on individual stations until PD's stop their reliance on Air America programs. Their are MANY more liberal programs out there - Alan Colmes/Jay Diamond, Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy, Doug Basham, Bill Press, Bob Brinker, Clark Howard, Bruce Dumont, etc.

TO THE CREDIT OF KLSD, they DEPART from the Air America and Jones 24/7 clocks by adding local host Staci Taylor, Alan Colmes, Mike Malloy, and Bill Press.

So why is the station considering flipping formats? Doesn't make any sense to me, since they have all the ingredients in place, and their Signal is OK, although it looks like they could invest in 4-5 towers and shoot 50,000 watts out to sea.

 

[Lopaka]

If what we are seeing posted is correct, the problem is that liberally oriented stations do not draw the numbers, are hard to sell to advertisers, and don't rake in the profits. Of course you cannot believe everything you read on the internet, but if its true it means that as a business liberal radio does not pull its own weight. So all you get politically is conservative radio. And the problem with that is that most elections are decided within a few per centage points, and radio can very very easily deliver a two or three per cent change. Its not that people are stupid, but if all they hear is conservative political commentary combined with news coverage that emphasizes Paris Hilton's latest eye shadow while ignoring something rather more important like looting the treasury or gutting the Constitution or perhaps a nuclear attack against a country thats at peace with us now, the country is going to be continually doomed to the kind of leadership that historically destroys empires. So something needs to be done. How about banning ALL political commentary from radio? Its just an idea, but seriously, the country's deficit alone is a disaster, go ahead, look at its dimensions, it will blow your mind, and 80 % of it was run up by guess who. There has to be a stop put to this political economic suicide or the country is done for. Ending all political commentary on radio might be the easiest way to do so.

 

[emeripsni]

... Ending all political commentary on radio might be the easiest way to do so.

This has been a very "popular" move in Cuba, China, former USSR, Muslim nations and many dictatorships. My guess would be that the "pesky" 1st Admendment would be a big stumbling block.

 

[Garrett]

The progressive talk stations that keep getting cancelled are symptoms of bigger problems...

First, PD's assume that their listeners are 100 percent conservatives, or 100 percent liberals. Then, they tend to go along with the Air America clock 24/7 ASSUMING that will get ratings. But it won't (See below).

Listeners to ANY station, liberal or conservative, are composed of listeners of all political persuasions.

The primary reason that people listen to talk hosts is because they are ENTERTAINING.

So - Programmers should strive to make their programming as entertaining as possible, and not rely on corporate schedules, like the Air America clock.

Second, the cancelled stations are a result of problems at the Air America radio network. This network offers programs like Lionel, Richard Green, and weekend interview programs (i.e. Robert F. Kennedey) that get low ratings. This leaves "Hartmann and Schultz" middays for a station to get good revenue from.

Third, the Air America weekend sattelite programs are boring 1-2 hour long interview programs, like ecotalk and mark green's program. Compare these to the more entertaining sports programs and traditional weekend talkers like BOB BRINKER and BRUCE DUMONT. Also, for whatever reason, I never see weekend reruns of Big Ed, but I do see reruns of Air America reruns right off the satellite. Certainly, some board op at the conservative Clear Channel sister station of a given station could play back Ed on weekends.

Progressive talk isn't going to make it on individual stations until PD's stop their reliance on Air America programs. Their are MANY more liberal programs out there - Alan Colmes/Jay Diamond, Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy, Doug Basham, Bill Press, Bob Brinker, Clark Howard, Bruce Dumont, etc.

TO THE CREDIT OF KLSD, they DEPART from the Air America and Jones 24/7 clocks by adding local host Staci Taylor, Alan Colmes, Mike Malloy, and Bill Press.

So why is the station considering flipping formats? Doesn't make any sense to me, since they have all the ingredients in place, and their Signal is OK, although it looks like they could invest in 4-5 towers and shoot 50,000 watts out to sea.

There's already a thread for this, there's no need to keep posting new ones on the same topic.
Also, are you from or or living in the San Diego market? It's Stacy Taylor, not Staci Taylor.

 

[Bob_Hudson]

"radio can very very easily deliver a two or three per cent change"

Not at all, my naive friend, not at all. I spent 10 years in high level politics and I know radio is near the bottom of the list when it comes time to buy campaign ads. As for talk radio: let's face it - those guys (mostly guys) are preaching to the choir and don't sway anyone one way or the other. Maybe the conservative talkers might be able to move the Republican primaries one way or the other if they all decided to, say, push Fred Thompson or some other person, but really this is a zero sum game. Talk radio is entertainment and it is still the major TV networks and the newspapers that have the real influence: if Rush says Hillary's a whacko, it's no big deal - if NBC or CNN or the Washington Post say Hillary's a whacko, then her campaign is over. The major media anoint the candidates then shape the public perception of them by determing how and when they covered in the news and all the lesser media, including radio and the internet, then provide a forum for like-minded folks to debate the candidates the major media have chosen for their parties. And forget all that talk about the new impact of blogs: the people who actually vote don't read that stuff and the people who read blogs and might vote only read blogs about the people they already plan to vote for, if they get around to voting.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

Bob, this issue has been visited many times before ... And prominent poilticians try to attribute the Angry White Male syndrome to the evils and influence of conservative talk radio. YOU could not have stated the case better even if you were stating the "case" to the Supreme Court. Bravo!!

 

[ABQTom]

Quote

"If what we are seeing posted is correct, the problem is that liberally oriented stations do not draw the numbers, are hard to sell to advertisers, and don't rake in the profits. Of course you cannot believe everything you read on the internet, but if its true it means that as a business liberal radio does not pull its own weight."

Sadly, this is true - check out KOPT 1600 in Eugene, Oregon links below. But it doesn't have to be true! Programmers could displace Randi Rhodes with the more moderate, mild mannered, Peter B. Collins, syndicated over Jones out of San Francisco 3P-6P PT.

"Its not that people are stupid, but if all they hear is conservative political commentary combined with news coverage that emphasizes Paris Hilton's latest eye shadow while ignoring something rather more important like looting the treasury or gutting the Constitution or perhaps a nuclear attack against a country thats at peace with us now, the country is going to be continually doomed to the kind of leadership that historically destroys empires. So something needs to be done. How about banning ALL political commentary from radio?"

It's also a matter of the ethics of Program Directors. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE for putting the Glenn Becks on who discuss actors and actresses, and the Sean Hannities and Mark Levins who are pro-war.
Even Air America hosts and Jones (Big Ed) this week are spending too much time on the bathroom scandal.
And meanwhile, there are more threats that we're going to attack Iran.

Ethics of Program Directors from Liberal Veteran Host JAY DIAMOND:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/diamond1.html


Liberal station KOPT scraps local content
By Ilene Aleshire
The Register-Guard
Published: Thursday, August 2, 2007

Liberal-leaning KOPT radio station has pulled the plug on local programming, switching to a nationally syndicated format as of today.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/08/02/b1.bz.kopt.0802.p1.php?section=business

A local voice silenced
A Register-Guard Editorial
Published: Friday, August 3, 2007

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/08/03/ed.edit.radio.0803.p1.php?section=opinion

 

[clericus]

The North County Times radio columnist mentioned this already but it bears repeating. NPR is a significant reason for the ratings weakness of KLSD and AA.

NPR fulfills the ideological needs of the ideological left pretty consistently, right down to Daniel Schorr's tedious, self-indulgent, unprofessional, Narcissistic, self-referential commentaries which invariably begin with the phrase, "When President Nixon put me on the his enemies list...."

With Daniel Schorr and Terry Gross and Talk of the Nation (is it still on?), ATC, WeSat and WeSun and the APR programming, who needs AA and KLSD?

 

[Bob_Hudson]

The North County Times radio columnist mentioned this already but it bears repeating. NPR is a significant reason for the ratings weakness of KLSD and AA.

NPR fulfills the ideological needs of the ideological left pretty consistently, right down to Daniel Schorr's tedious, self-indulgent, unprofessional, Narcissistic, self-referential commentaries which invariably begin with the phrase, "When President Nixon put me on the his enemies list...."

With Daniel Schorr and Terry Gross and Talk of the Nation (is it still on?), ATC, WeSat and WeSun and the APR programming, who needs AA and KLSD?

And don't forget the Saturday programming of Garrison Keillor, Michael Feldman of Whad'Ya Know? and the Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me guy - all of whom are amazingly adept at weaving political vitriol into their monologues.

I can tolerate that, but it is increasingly hard to stop myself from holding a fundraiser to send Mr Schorr a case of denture adhesive.

 

[Lopaka]

Re the angry white man...
Remember way back when KCBQ had a jock who did a bit called Freeway Roulette? At his signal, everybody who was driving was supposed to change lanes. Whew. Let a tort lawyer get ahold of that one today and the sky's the limit!
Then there was the great Happy Hare stunt of inviting everybody down to greet Juan Trujillo's yacht, free baloons for the kids, etc...thousands showed up, uninvited of course, and the captain, thinking it a political demonstration, set sail. Hare was admonished. But today? International incident!!

And I do remember in the heyday of angry white man hate radio walking, jogging, riding the bike around the neighborhood (Pt. Loma) and hearing wealthy privileged elite white men chatting with each other in front of their veritable mansions whining about how miserable their poor lives were, parroting exactly the garbage they heard on political commentary entertainment shows like Limbaugh. Just like today, the same cast venting their hate for Mexicans and oh by the way do you know anybody who will cut my lawn and trim my hedges for $2 an hour...

Radio has loads of creative people in it and it is indeed difficult to recogniize that something put out over the air merely as entertainment has produced dire results. Its all a statistical game. Yes, the vast majority of drivers would never consider a lane change without checking first but all it takes is ONE and then especially if its your daughter who gets hurt why, then the problem would be very clear. If you are a Mexican-American citizen of long standing in this country and you are harrassed or discriminated against by bozos who buy into the presently acceptable line of hate that sells time so well now, why that might be a problem too.

Radio is influential. That power requires responsibility. The economy may actually tank over the debt, it is a distinct possibility. The endless attacks against the competent President Clinton for his irrelevant, utterly irrelevant dalliance, the deliberate cover up of facts readily available in "Shrub" (Molly Ivins) and elsewhere regarding the unbroken record of incompetence of the present leadership, have had their effect. Defective systems destroy themselves. Our country would be much better served if radio simply abandoned all political commentary, its the only responsible thing to do.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Right. Let's remove all comentary from radio programming. Sure.

Our country would be much better served if radio simply abandoned all political commentary, its the only responsible thing to do.

I was in a country where a radio station and a newspaper teamed to "remind" the military government that it was time to make good the promise to return to democracy. The govenment "asked" the stations to abstain from political commentary. The request came in the form of the radio station owner (me) being kicked out of the country, and the newpaper manager being shot.

The problems with many Americans is that they wish for things that are proven to be evil and they do this because they live in a nation that has such a superavit of freedom that even dumb things can be asked for.... freely.

 

[bossforever]

wow thats deep ;D

 

[SDRadio]

Re: Right. Let's remove all comentary from radio programming. Sure.

Our country would be much better served if radio simply abandoned all political commentary, its the only responsible thing to do.

I was in a country where a radio station and a newspaper teamed to "remind" the military government that it was time to make good the promise to return to democracy.

Ecuador?

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Right. Let's remove all comentary from radio programming. Sure.

Our country would be much better served if radio simply abandoned all political commentary, its the only responsible thing to do.

I was in a country where a radio station and a newspaper teamed to "remind" the military government that it was time to make good the promise to return to democracy.

Ecuador?

Yes.

 

[smedge2006]

I think the bigger problem is that the revenue expectation as quoted by at least one blog for KLSD is way too high. Five million a year? Anything less is a "subsidy"? For a 5 kW AM in an under top-10 market? Ridiculous. Formats will never grow with these kinds of burdens. That budget was designed to be a backbreaker.

 

[jonbruce]

After about a year on the air KPTR 1340AM progressive talk in the Palm Springs market thundered in the a 0.2 in the last book and only one local business has bought time on it. But there are no plans to terminate it as it costs the 5 station cluster nothing to run it. The station has no staff and is automated 24/7. Local news is done once an hour 5am to 7pm by newscasters at the right-wing KPSI 920 at no additional cost as "they are here in the building anyway". Only one hour a week is local; a pre-recorded interview ultra left-wing program that I do as part of my job. The company owns the land and building the 1340 tower is on and even that has a number of two-way radio leases that bring in cash. So the only expense is the electricity for the 1kw transmitter.

 

[mj]

even if that was the budget expectation ($5.0 million), it really is not unreasonable based on San Diego being a $200 million revenue market. For perspective....In 2006 KOGO did almost $14 million, XPRS 13.5, KFMB-AM over 9.0... that is just the AM side...
KPRI did $5.5 million with their signal deficiencies. KLSD did 2.5 in '06. That really is not good enough based on their ratings position, and the amount of inventory they had to sell.

 

[FightingIrish]

After about a year on the air KPTR 1340AM progressive talk in the Palm Springs market thundered in the a 0.2 in the last book and only one local business has bought time on it. But there are no plans to terminate it as it costs the 5 station cluster nothing to run it. The station has no staff and is automated 24/7. Local news is done once an hour 5am to 7pm by newscasters at the right-wing KPSI 920 at no additional cost as "they are here in the building anyway". Only one hour a week is local; a pre-recorded interview ultra left-wing program that I do as part of my job. The company owns the land and building the 1340 tower is on and even that has a number of two-way radio leases that bring in cash. So the only expense is the electricity for the 1kw transmitter.

How are they doing as far as promoting it? I've noticed that they have no website to speak of, and some rather old promotional pages in PDF form on the owner's website.

This seems to be a problem in some markets, where they just put it on the air and hoped for strictly word of mouth. That's not promotion - that's a weak prayer. And hoping people will just tune in to a weak AM signal that for years simulcast an FM station that none of them likely listened to anyway is asking a lot. In addition, talk radio, whether it be liberal, conservative, estrogen-infused, how-to shows or sports, is a long-term, slow growth format. Rarely is it an instant ratings success. It requires commitment.

This is the problem that WSMB in Memphis had. They merely slapped up the straight Air America feed, no Ed Schultz, no Stephanie Miller or some of the other ratings-grabbers, and ran with a badly out-of-date website for a long time, with no local presence whatsoever. The last promotion they did was almost two years ago, with some rather half-assed advertising and a rather ugly billboard. This past weekend they flipped to sports, and to be honest, I wondered why it took them so long.

The Palm Springs station could probably do better than a 2.0 share. But they really have to let people know it's out there. The AM band is not the type of location people just happen to scan by. Perhaps if people knew it was there, they might just tune in.

The progressive talk format is really only as strong as the stations carrying it.

 

[SDRadio]

After about a year on the air KPTR 1340AM progressive talk in the Palm Springs market thundered in the a 0.2 in the last book and only one local business has bought time on it.

Jon, I'm not going to throw darts at your point; what plays in Palm Springs doesn't mean a return on investment in San Diego. The owner, in this case, Clear Channel Communications, is dictating a change. If KLSD had solid threes -- there wouldn't be a format change. With sub-par ones ... there is going to be a regime change.

Does Air America have another station lined up IF 'LSD ch-changes?

 

[FightingIrish]

The Palm Springs station could probably do better than a 2.0 share. But they really have to let people know it's out there. The AM band is not the type of location people just happen to scan by. Perhaps if people knew it was there, they might just tune in.

The progressive talk format is really only as strong as the stations carrying it.

Meant to say 0.2, not 2.0.