Cleveland Radio Feb 24 Ratings

[skiwest]

I find that a bit surprising. I figured the old-timers who have been supporting the station would gradually drop off with each passing year. But apparently WKHR is still getting enough support to keep it going.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Talk radio programmers must be loving this spirited exchange between listeners about their programs and hosts. It points out that the format has involved and passionate fans who may love it or hate it but they listen! And that's what it's all about, attracting an audience, even an older and smaller one, that they can sell.

Sell by what metric? Talk radio historically cannot attract the blue-chip advertising because of the content often being controversial and the older-skewing audience. Most talk stations broker out all or part of the weekends because the weekday lineup can't bill enough to pay the bills. WHK throws away the 3pm hour, part of the most critical parts of the day, for a financial infomercial.

And if and when the day comes that they can't, the format will go the way of radio soap operas and big band music.

To be honest, talk radio only continues to exist because there is no other option for these stations besides going dark or becoming satellite-fed godcasters.

 

[skiwest]

I think we will see some of the small AM stations going dark in the next few years.

 

[johnbasalla]

WHK throws away the 3pm hour, part of the most critical parts of the day, for a financial infomercial.
Is Sebastian Gorka that much better?

 

[Santa fe]

I think we will see some of the small AM stations going dark in the next few years.

Not just small ones either. One of the biggest reasons AM licenses are being turned in is that the antenna farms are becoming too expensive to maintain and often the land is now worth more than the station. Look at 1560 in New York. And for many, even moving and downgrading to flea power to feed an FM translator isn't worth it.

Talk radio historically cannot attract the blue-chip advertising because of the content often being controversial and the older-skewing audience. Most talk stations broker out all or part of the weekends because the weekday lineup can't bill enough to pay the bills.

But so far they are getting dollars. And some comes from motivated advertisers who want to see certain points of view on the air. The younger skewing "Hot Talkers" like WMMS may give the format a few more years. Sports talk is a different animal altogether, and I think that format will be around for a long time.

 

[skiwest]

WHK throws away the 3pm hour, part of the most critical parts of the day, for a financial infomercial.
Is Sebastian Gorka that much better?

Well, at least Gorka fits the station's weekday format.

 

[johnbasalla]

Well, at least Gorka fits the station's weekday format.

So does Bill Gunderson in that his is a talk show and it doesn't go 'against-the-grain' of their main talk "umbrella"... and the station makes money to boot.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

I find that a bit surprising. I figured the old-timers who have been supporting the station would gradually drop off with each passing year. But apparently WKHR is still getting enough support to keep it going.

In the context of "jazz fans" - which cross over with the big bands and pop standards, there are all ages.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Well, at least Gorka fits the station's weekday format.

It's basically the station admitting that they can't make any money on the conservative talk format (especially in the way by which they program it) in a critical time period.

 

[davideduardo]

True enough, but I will point out that left wing "attack talk radio" generally failed while right wing "attack radio" is successful. I think that reveals something about the two different audiences.

Or the ability to entertain of the left wing talk efforts like Air America.

The biggest issue of the Air America folks is that it was not fun to listen to them. They mostly sounded like lecturers, not entertainers.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

Or the ability to entertain of the left wing talk efforts like Air America.

The biggest issue of the Air America folks is that it was not fun to listen to them. They mostly sounded like lecturers, not entertainers.

I remember listening to A-A back when it was on 1190 AM in NYC. And yes, the only show that sometimes was semi-entertaining was Rachel Maddow. And I'm a leftie!

 

[Yabadabado1]

I'm betting there were more "conservative" outlets then Air America had at the time. I'm not even sure if there was an A.A.
station in Cleveland at all. Except for news. I wouldn't listen to "talk" radio even if they said it cured excessive gas. Well....maybe for a few minutes if Robin Williams was the host. And infomercials make break out in hives and have trouble breathing.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Or the ability to entertain of the left wing talk efforts like Air America.

The biggest issue of the Air America folks is that it was not fun to listen to them. They mostly sounded like lecturers, not entertainers.

The truly successful talk shows are those that grow organically. Air America was set up to fail right away because it was a turnkey service made up mostly of novices (not like the professionals were any better, Mike Malloy was a veteran of WSB radio and he was painful to listen to). It was a collection of tropes and not the good ones.

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

Air America was awful. I am not just saying that cause I am right of center but it truly was terrible. The only host on there who had a semblance of an entertaining show was Thom Hartmann. He was more center/left than all out progressive. as David said I feel like I was being lectured too by some college professor who thought everyone else was dumb and only they were the intelligent ones. Before anybody jumps down my throat there are plenty on the right side on radio like that too.

 

[thenetwork]

Air America was awful. I am not just saying that cause I am right of center but it truly was terrible. The only host on there who had a semblance of an entertaining show was Thom Hartmann. He was more center/left than all out progressive. as David said I feel like I was being lectured too by some college professor who thought everyone else was dumb and only they were the intelligent ones. Before anybody jumps down my throat there are plenty on the right side on radio like that too.


LikeQuot

I can think of one in particular that uses the same schtick to start their show and has used it for more than a decade -- and still labels the show as "The NEW..." Show. Then it's like a church service: Let's all turn to a specific Psalm and together repeat the usual verses together -- over and over again, day after day, year after year.

If I had the patience to listen to a full show, about 85% of it is still practically retread verbatim material from years past -- the other 15% seems to get tied to some dead horse point that gets yet another beating.

Good shows (radio and TV) know when to move on from something that has run it's course and when to try something new. The last decade of Letterman's show on CBS was unwatchable for me because they overdid the same stuff -- including having the same musical group 4 or 5 days straight. His days at NBC were much more enjoyable and off the wall.

Many of these shows are like bad salad bars who only top off the toppings, while most of the bins still have the bulk of the original, old, stale contents just below it.

 

[vjm]

I'm betting there were more "conservative" outlets then Air America had at the time. I'm not even sure if there was an A.A.
station in Cleveland at all. Except for news. I wouldn't listen to "talk" radio even if they said it cured excessive gas. Well....maybe for a few minutes if Robin Williams was the host. And infomercials make break out in hives and have trouble breathing.

In the 2010s, Lake County station WABQ 1460 carried a syndicated liberal talk format for a spell before flipping to gospel.

In the mid 2000s, WARF 1350 had a liberal talk format (in fact that's when they took their current call letters, as it reflected their slogan at the time of "Radio Free Ohio". Towards the end of the 00s the flipped back to Fox Sports, which is what they've been ever since, and in 2020 went from being Akron focused to Cleveland focused.

If you look at most of the major national syndicators (Premiere, Westwood One, Salem, Compass, Fox News Radio) their talkers are all right of center.

Here in Cleveland WTAM's talkers are mainly conservative (except for liberal Jimmy Malone - who's only on for an hour - and George "Beam Me Up Scotty" Noory overnights). Of course WHK is staunchly on the right, and have had their conservatalk format riveted in place since 2004.

The only station with some semblance of consistent liberal talk is WERE 1490, which airs Al Sharpton's national show (sometimes multiple times a day) and the labor union oriented America's Workforce with Ed "Flash" Ferenc (which he has hosted for 26 years now...roughly half a decade longer than he was part of the Buzzard Morning Zoo to put it in perspective)

WNIR 100.1 was the longtime home of the left of center Joe Finan, and John "Couch Burner" Denning - who is in his 12th year of manning the midday slot previously held by the late great Howie Chizek - is liberal (Couch Burner was a frequent caller to Chizek's show back in the day, and he and Howie usually went at it).

Long story short, liberal talk is there, you just gotta work to find it more than the plentiful conservative talk.

 

[MediaLover]

WERE is a joke. The company that owns it doesn't care at all about the station. The fact that it overdoses on Sharpton every day confirms it. Should not have left 1300 for 1490.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

In the 2010s, Lake County station WABQ 1460 carried a syndicated liberal talk format for a spell before flipping to gospel.

In the mid 2000s, WARF 1350 had a liberal talk format (in fact that's when they took their current call letters, as it reflected their slogan at the time of "Radio Free Ohio". Towards the end of the 00s the flipped back to Fox Sports, which is what they've been ever since, and in 2020 went from being Akron focused to Cleveland focused.

If you look at most of the major national syndicators (Premiere, Westwood One, Salem, Compass, Fox News Radio) their talkers are all right of center.

Here in Cleveland WTAM's talkers are mainly conservative (except for liberal Jimmy Malone - who's only on for an hour - and George "Beam Me Up Scotty" Noory overnights). Of course WHK is staunchly on the right, and have had their conservatalk format riveted in place since 2004.

The only station with some semblance of consistent liberal talk is WERE 1490, which airs Al Sharpton's national show (sometimes multiple times a day) and the labor union oriented America's Workforce with Ed "Flash" Ferenc (which he has hosted for 26 years now...roughly half a decade longer than he was part of the Buzzard Morning Zoo to put it in perspective)

WNIR 100.1 was the longtime home of the left of center Joe Finan, and John "Couch Burner" Denning - who is in his 12th year of manning the midday slot previously held by the late great Howie Chizek - is liberal (Couch Burner was a frequent caller to Chizek's show back in the day, and he and Howie usually went at it).

Long story short, liberal talk is there, you just gotta work to find it more than the plentiful conservative talk.

Dennis Maniloff (Manaloff?) and Brinda sometimes lean left. But the bulk of the local programs are generally heavy on sports.

 

[vjm]

WERE is a joke. The company that owns it doesn't care at all about the station. The fact that it overdoses on Sharpton every day confirms it. Should not have left 1300 for 1490.

Urban One wanted the WJMO gospel format on the stronger signal.

Even before Urban (then Radio) One bought the station, WERE was a land of misfit toys, loading up on brokered programming all through the week.

Remember in the mid 2000s, WERE even had a brokered midday block of standards music, which was scotched taped to the schedule after Salem reacquired 1420, flipped from standards to conservatalk, and dumped the WRMR call letters to reinstate the traditional WHK calls back from 1220.

 

[vjm]

Dennis Maniloff (Manaloff?) and Brinda sometimes lean left. But the bulk of the local programs are generally heavy on sports.

D-Man usually tilts right and has a more wide open show, Brinda leans left, but isn't a big political talker and mainly sticks to sports.

Manoloff (Man-ol-off) has kinda followed the template established by Triv and Bob Frantz...come in as sports guys and over time branch out to general/political talk (while being able to go back to sports when events warrant), and more often than not have a rightward slant.

WTAM's main local shows (Wills and Snyder, Bloomdaddy, D-Man) have sports as part of the mix, but aren't pure sports talkers - they have anything and everything. Jimmy Malone just kinda does his own thing during the 9-10a slot.