Clear Channel New Orleans News/Talk Lineup

[nolaradiobuff]

How would you like to have this lineup? This is the actual lineup at 99.5 FM WRNO/New Orleans:

MONDAY - FRIDAY
12 mid - 2 AM Sean Hannity
2 AM - 4 AM Dave Ramsey
4 AM - 5 AM America in the Morning
5 AM - 9 AM Sean Hannity
9 AM - NOON The Andre Trevigne Show
NOON - 2 PM The Dennis Miller Show
2 PM - 7 PM Sean Hannity
7 PM - 9 PM Mark Levin
9 PM - 12 mid The Dennis Miller Show

11 hours of Hannity, 5 hours of Miller, 3 hours of Local Talk (Andre).

Are you kidding me? It looks like the 1.8 they got two books ago was their ratings pinnacle.

BTW, on the weekends they run more Hannity and O'Reilly reruns. Sunday O'Reilly was talking about Ohio and Texas polls in advance of Super Tuesday 2. Pathetic.

 

[Don62]

Just goes to show you how Crap Ch. cannot run radio.

I was in Atlanta this past week.

Guess what the Crap Ch. NT station had for its p.m. drive?

Dave Ramsey. Wow. That's compelling and informative talk.

Just take it off the bird. No muscle, no sweat.

The 50kw daytime station sounds tinny to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGST

 

[justareporter]

They actually have ANY people working for them? I was sure it is all done with transistors, bells and whistles.

 

[dustintv]

Good lord who programmed this? That PD should be fired. Hannity in the morning? Who wants to listen to a day old radio show in the mornings? WHY? This is why I hate Clear Channel a lot when it comes to treatment of news/talk stations...syndicated galore. But sometimes the folks at CC get it right, like my own local station WHAM with their schedule.

 

[quadraphonic]

That is one solid schedule! :
Man alive...someone is a Sean Hannity fan.

 

[cm454]

I cannot imagine why more and more people are turning AWAY from traditional radio as their go-to audio source for entertainment.

 

[bayou_city_bob]

In fairness to 99.5 FM, they are in a heavy period of transition right now, including a PD Change.

They lost their mid-morning host Jim Brown to a sabbatical last month. I don't know what happened to Rob & Bo (5a-8a) and their afternoon show (5p-7p). In fact, I think their afternoon show was still on the station as of 2 weeks ago.

99.5 has been advertising for some host slots, so they are obviously doing some sort of relaunch. Also, don't forget that next month they get Rush Limbaugh (after stealing him away from WWL).

I could see a new lineup of Jim Brown 5a-8a, Andre 8a-11a, Rush 11a-2p, Hannity 2p-5p & Levin 5p-7p starting next month.

 

[nolaradiobuff]

Bob - They still could do better.

You don't fire your AM and PM Drive hosts without a plan, and Jim Brown in the morning is not a plan. His voice couldn't hack working 5 midday shifts, how is it going to work in AM Drive. And, his show was terrible. He has the personality of a rock.

Yes, Rush is coming April 1st. But Levin in PM Drive will be brutal and who's going to cover 7-9?

Too many questions and too many issues for a station in a major market.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

Just goes to show you how Crap Ch. cannot run radio.

I was in Atlanta this past week.

Guess what the Crap Ch. NT station had for its p.m. drive?

Dave Ramsey. Wow. That's compelling and informative talk.

Just take it off the bird. No muscle, no sweat.

The 50kw daytime station sounds tinny to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGST

Nobody listens to WGST. If you want Atlanta's source for talk radio, turn on 750 WSB.

 

[willcail]

Wow Sean Hannity and his sidekick Mark Levian? No wonder CC is loosing money. Haven't they know that New Orleans is left leaning? Why not Ed Schultz or Stephanie Miller? Heck CC owned WJNO in Palm Springs FL carries Hannity, Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes and have decent ratings.

 

[ajhenderson]

Will - haven't you seen that WSMB was a failure as PT?

BTW, WJNO no longer carries Ed Schultz - a casualty of moving Hannity over from BZT.

Bob is right; 99.5 (oops, 99.5fm.com) used to have TOO much local talk. I don't know why Premiere is so set on moving Rush to a bunch of #2 and #3 stations to prop up big brother's station ownership biz, but if they're going to do that, I wonder why Glenn Beck, who just overtook Laura Ingraham in the Talkers audience survey with 6.5 mil listeners, doesn't get the same treatment.

 

[willcail]

KJCB,

Any radio format will fail if you don't promote and generate ad sales. Look at the Columbus Ohio market. When CC flipped WTPG 1230AM (progressive talk) to WYTS 1230AM (conservative) and their ratings drop by 60% by flipping to conservative talk. Instead of getting 0.9 to 1.4 share now that station gets * to 0.6 share. Now since WVKO 1580AM is back on the air and airing progressive talk because there is a market for it in Columbus Ohio. The GM is promoting the station and generating ad sales. Plus they have local shows. Airing 11 hrs of Sean Hannity will not help the station.

 

[ajhenderson]

A lot of stations in this day and age don't promote themselves. If you can't generate sales, get a new sales team. Of course, the liberal stations, from my experience, refuse to do a lot of creative things to bring in NTR money. The fact that WVKO has returned doesn't mean there is a market for prog talk there - it means someone thinks there is. I could really care less; it's better than having another Salem news/talk station. But ratings aren't everything... every time someone mentions how a station lost 0.3 shares or something, I realize they can talk about sales but don't really know what it is they're talking about. I bet WYTS is making about as much money as WTPG through 'TVN combo sales and a more open-minded approach from advertisers.

 

[smedge2006]

Of course, the liberal stations, from my experience, refuse to do a lot of creative things to bring in NTR money.

As in brokering everything before 6 a.m., after 7 p.m., and on weekends? If anything, that's uncreative -- stations have been doing that for nearly 20 years. (Although the stations that focused on connecting with the listeners, such as the great top-10 market talkers and the former Jacor stations, avoided it until recently.) Prosti-talk is not the way for a desperate station to survive. It simply prolongs the agony. "We can make the nut if we just sell one more half hour of colon blow."

A station with a 0.3 that puts its energies into selling brokered time in off hours soon finds it's making more money on Saturday and Sunday than it does the rest of the week. Then comes the push to sell hours on weekdays. Soon Monday through Friday is a radio flea market. I've seen it happen on a number of occasions.
Don't forget, your rates will always stink because the conservatalker can charge 12 times as much to destroy their cume and TSL for half an hour.

If the progressive talker has a strong signal, it should IMO make a push to become the number one talker period on the weekends. Grab the listeners who are turned off the conservatalkers by all the infomercials and people pushing bizarre refinancing schemes, miracle cures, and chiropractic offices. Do a live show featuring conservative callers only and have one of your weekday hosts smack 'em out of the park one after the other. Rag on the top conservatalker in town for going to the Plant Doctor or the Mutual Fund Show or Miracle Bio-ener-hydro-anthrocyanipoop P-350 Compound #12 on the weekends.

If you don't have the signal, that may not be an option. But there are others that don't make the station sound like the radio flea market. Much of NTR activity on the web looks very much like public radio underwriting to me. Maybe that's the business model of the future, who knows?

Radio fromats are not 6a-7p M-F, EXCEPT talk radio. That has to change.

 

[ajhenderson]

Smedge, I didn't say it was all about brokering; you did. Although a few hours here and there wouldn't hurt, especially in the markets where there is practically no brokered time. Someone mentioned Columbus... that's one of 'em. Since everyone is listening to WTVN on Saturday and Sunday, why not cash in and make a few bucks. WYTS and WTDA are apparently too bone-headed to do this (I know for a fact the ladder is first-hand).

There are plenty of ways to bring in revenue. I'm not going to write a novel, but I've explained here before why many libtalk operations don't do it.

Since you brought up brokered time, however, I will dispute a few key points. The fact is that the station with a 0.3 probably doesn't make much money unless its the eight station filling out a cluster and is completely automated. The rest of them are breaking even or losing money, so they sell time to cover the nut. Stations that never had listeners or money coming in sell anything they can... why not? In this overradioed environment, some stations can't win. No business should be forced to lose tons of cash to satisfy your desire for "good radio". Brokered time consists of a lot more than "colon blow", which indicates you use perjorative terms to describe things you're afraid of but don't know that much about.

I do like your one point, and have considered trying an idea on one station to have more brokered time during the week when competition is strong, and all good shows on the weekend. This would only work in markets like Dallas where EVERY station, great or horrible, sells a large part of the weekend and there are few options to go to for "quality" shows. However, programming libtalk for conservatives - eh. In this day and age, there are plenty of other mediums that someone who likes conservative talk doesn't have to listen to liberal talk. Most won't.

Also, you bring up an interesting point in the plant doctor show. The top stations in most markets have home improvement shows, gardening shows, etc., that bore the bejesus out of most people, but bring in tons of money. Is that any worse than brokered time? Phil Boyce mentioned here awhile back that most sporting events on WABC (and many other stations) are on not because they couldn't get a bigger audience with a talk show making fun of Nancy Pelosi, but because it pays a lot better. Outside of most of the rust belt, sports isn't a huge deal to a huge number of people, and even in those markets, there are decent stations airing A-league baseball games, hockey games, etc., that no one cares about.

Also, you mention that talk radio is treated like a 6a-7pm format. Most stations air "quality" programs 24 hours a day on weekdays at least; I am not aware of much time being sold outside of those hours. Save Brother Stair, the rare Tony Alamo appearance, or something else crazy, no one wants to buy that time, and even if they did, I have yet to see any significant talk stations sell weekday time. Oops... I take that back... WOCA in Ocala, FL sells one midmorning hour during the week. Please note the correction.

 

[Don62]

Also, you bring up an interesting point in the plant doctor show. The top stations in most markets have home improvement shows, gardening shows, etc., that bore the bejesus out of most people, but bring in tons of money. Is that any worse than brokered time? Phil Boyce mentioned here awhile back that most sporting events on WABC (and many other stations) are on not because they couldn't get a bigger audience with a talk show making fun of Nancy Pelosi, but because it pays a lot better. Outside of most of the rust belt, sports isn't a huge deal to a huge number of people, and even in those markets, there are decent stations airing A-league baseball games, hockey games, etc., that no one cares about.

Also, you mention that talk radio is treated like a 6a-7pm format. Most stations air "quality" programs 24 hours a day on weekdays at least; I am not aware of much time being sold outside of those hours. Save Brother Stair, the rare Tony Alamo appearance, or something else crazy, no one wants to buy that time, and even if they did, I have yet to see any significant talk stations sell weekday time. Oops... I take that back... WOCA in Ocala, FL sells one midmorning hour during the week. Please note the correction.

Yuck. Any time I hear a ballgame come on one of my favorite stations (and none of them are sports talk), I immediately flip the station. What crap.

Also, you mention that talk radio is treated like a 6a-7pm format. Most stations air "quality" programs 24 hours a day on weekdays at least; I am not aware of much time being sold outside of those hours. Save Brother Stair, the rare Tony Alamo appearance, or something else crazy, no one wants to buy that time, and even if they did, I have yet to see any significant talk stations sell weekday time. Oops... I take that back... WOCA in Ocala, FL sells one midmorning hour during the week. Please note the correction.

I've always wondered why owners of this respected medium drag their product into the mud so easily.
(Of course, it's always only about money, nothing more, nothing less. If there were money to be made with Nazis on a show,l radio's dweebs would be running that crap too.).

No one who owned a sailboat or yacht would deliberately make it go off course and run it into the ground, crashing it on the rocks.
Yet that's what the genius' a radio do with their mediocre and banal programming.

Can you imagine how listeners react? What they would tell another person near the radio?
"...Hey, listen. This station had a talk show on but now, 15 minutes before the top of the hour, interrupted it with this loser. Heh heh. How stupid."

Oh, I forget. People don't listen to radio at night or on weekends.

 

[Radio1360]

Just goes to show you how Crap Ch. cannot run radio.

I was in Atlanta this past week.

Guess what the Crap Ch. NT station had for its p.m. drive?

Dave Ramsey. Wow. That's compelling and informative talk.

Just take it off the bird. No muscle, no sweat.

The 50kw daytime station sounds tinny to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGST

Nobody listens to WGST. If you want Atlanta's source for talk radio, turn on 750 WSB.

Or 920 WGKA-AM

 

[ajhenderson]

I saw that Michael Castner, formerly with KFI News, is starting a new NO morning show. Probably WRNO, no? If so, there's your morning show.

 

[nolaradiobuff]

Castner's here and he sucks. The last thing RNO needed to do was bring in a pair of outsiders who know nothing about New Orleans to do AM Drive. Hopefully, it's not permanent as after almost two weeks he's still not listed on the station's web site.

All Castner does is read the newspaper and read the comments on NOLA.com (owned by the newspaper).

Maybe he and Robin Wallensky were good news people, but being good at news does not make someone a talk show host.

 

[Signal_Faded]

Just goes to show you how Crap Ch. cannot run radio.

I was in Atlanta this past week.

Guess what the Crap Ch. NT station had for its p.m. drive?

Dave Ramsey. Wow. That's compelling and informative talk.

Just take it off the bird. No muscle, no sweat.

The 50kw daytime station sounds tinny to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGST

Nobody listens to WGST. If you want Atlanta's source for talk radio, turn on 750 WSB.

Or 920 WGKA-AM

Right...because everyone loves them some Salem product! Speaking of owners who can't do radio. They have more wasted sticks around the country that anyone.