Conservative Talk Radio on the Wane in California (Los Angeles Times Hit Piece)

[ChannelFlipper]

;D Once again some on here prove what nut jobs they are ;D The republican party has become the party of the angry white guy. The reality is that that the party needs to change and become more inclusive to minorities or else they will keep losing elections. Conservative talk radio is still much more powerful than Liberal radio, but they have a niche audience. It doesn't translate to having any effect on national elections. Rush and Hannity are powerhouses, but others like Savage and Lars Larson are at the bottom of the barrell of talk radio. The religious right has high-jacked the republican party. The american people have figuered out that the republicans and conservative talkers are just obstructionists. If they had any real influence then McCain and Palin would be in the White House. Just the thought makes me cringe. John & Ken didn't even have any influence on the local scene. Last I checked republicans caved in Sacramento and we're getting a tax-hike on April 1st. Conservative radio is just entertainment and nothing more and yes it is on the wane.

Lots of opinions from (far) left field provided above. No facts presented for the ultimate claim that conservative radio is on the wane. A decrease in ratings over a given period of time would be the germane metric, if you can find them. Otherwise I offer congratulations on the post. It is worthy of publication in the fourth largest daily newspaper in America!

 

[Zeb Norris]

Lots of opinions from (far) left field provided above. No facts presented for the ultimate claim that conservative radio is on the wane. A decrease in ratings over a given period of time would be the germane metric, if you can find them. Otherwise I offer congratulations on the post. It is worthy of publication in the fourth largest daily newspaper in America!

"Far Left"? Really? To Rush et al anybody to the left of Hitler is "Far Left". If Nixon was around today they'd call HIM "Far Left".

I don't have access to dayparted ratings info nationally so I can't comment with any accuracy about the subject of the thread, but the poster you're slagging did cite a fact; so called "conservative" (actually far-right; look up the word Conservative if you don't believe me) talk show hosts were unable to prevent a serious loss for Repuglicans.

But whatever. Go ahead and slake that thirst with some nice refreshing Kool Aid. Then you and 4U Hates can get together to figure out how to alienate some more Latinos from the Repuglican party.

 

[mred]

The New York Sun was another conservative paper that went broke. A number of conservative papers are in non-union parts of the country, their labor costs, plant costs are less than big city papers. Places like Seattle are more net oriented than Tulsa, etc as well. Look at GE stock, etc. ...all media is taking a hit, Microsoft laid off, so talk radio vs. newspapers is not the issue.

 

[nmoore6676]

Once again the Los Angeles Times upholds its tradition of slanting the news, partial truths and outright left wing lies. This is a total lying hit piece on California conservative talk radio. Interesting that this is published after a week that John & Ken have raked the L.A. Times over the coals for not covering their tax revolt that attracted 15,000 people on 3/7 in Fullerton.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-talkradio15-2009mar15,0,39114.story

I think Michael Finnegan forgot these facts, among others:

KFI REPLACED John Ziegler with Kennedy and Suits. No local talkshow time was lost.
KABC has expanded Doug McIntyre's show to 5 hours from 4.
KOGO has added local host Chip Franklin to mornings from WBAL in Baltimore in a shift that was all news but now is talk and news.
KSTE Sacramento had its best ratings book in history (Fall 2008) moving 4.3 to 5.5 to place second of all Sacramento stations beaten only by sister news/talk KFBK, the perennial leader in Sacramento. The two, alone, command an incredible and record 13.2 share of Sacramento radio. Salem talk KTKZ had it's best ratings book ever. Even KSFO from San Francisco in the Sacramento ratings doubled.
KFI climbed to a 4.3 share in the January PPM. It's highest in over a year and rates as the #3 station in Los Angeles. The article failed to included John & Ken's KFI cume from the San Bernardino-Riverside PPM, Ventura-Oxnard and San Diego ratings.
KOGO had higher ratings in the Fall 2008 book than it did in the previous Fall book. It's Winter 2009 P1 ratings are also higher than the Winter P1 2008 ratings report. It rates as the #2 station in San Diego.
KSFO's ratings were up 10% in January 2009 just 0.1 of a point less than it's highest rating in the last year.

The SCBA announced that automotive advertising in Los Angeles radio was down 2/3 in January 2009. Cutbacks in advertising and jobs, due to the economy, has hit radio, tv and yes, even newspapers. I guess we couldn't tell that by how thin the Sunday Los Angeles has become. They even have dropped the local news section, the California section. If you follow www.laobserved.com almost every single week there are job layoffs reported at the Los Angeles Times. Those circulation numbers at the Los Angeles Times have only been pointing one way, south. Now, I guess, they shouldn't do anything like file by bankruptcy? Oh, that's right, they already did.

I hope the rumor that Rupert Murdoch wants the Los Angeles Times is true. We'll finally get some "fair and balanced" truth in a Los Angeles newspaper. Wouldn't that be great, for once.

Actually the way I see it liberal talk lost more shows here. Ed Schulz off KTLK and then KGIL. Alan Colmes was taken off KGIL and Michael Jackson who was local also off KGIL. KTLK gave up local host Marc Germaine. Conservatives actually gained in syndication with the addition of Glenn Beck and Monica Crowley. Beck was on KLAA for a time but at least where I am that didn’t count.

Larry Elder was replaced with Al Rantel and then Mark Levin from New York so that is one local conservative show down, in drive time. Rantel has been moved, when he returns to after baseball and will be preempted so make that a half loss. As you noted Ziegler was replaced with another local show, Kennedy and Suits. By the way his leaving was not really voluntary as the article has it. It was as a result of him having an on the air pissing match with John Kobylt so eventually management and JZ agreed to agree not to continue his employment. The only other shifting was on Saul Levine’s KGIL with Neil Boortz and Lou Dobbs being axed from 1260/540 but they were replaced with other syndicated shows in the same slots.

We couldn’t get any more time on air for conservative shows, unless KTLK went right and or KFWB is made News/Talk. Then the question is what shows, given the economy, not likely local. Maybe we ‘d get back Neal Boortz and Jerry Doyle could be added. There aren’t too many others worthy of local air time and if Boortz and Doyle were they’d likely already have a home here. I personally like them both but there is nothing spectacular enough to lure people away from what they are already used to.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Lots of opinions from (far) left field provided above. No facts presented for the ultimate claim that conservative radio is on the wane. A decrease in ratings over a given period of time would be the germane metric, if you can find them. Otherwise I offer congratulations on the post. It is worthy of publication in the fourth largest daily newspaper in America!

"Far Left"? Really? To Rush et al anybody to the left of Hitler is "Far Left". If Nixon was around today they'd call HIM "Far Left".

Well, let's take a look at Nixon's record:

- Created the Environmental Protection Agency and signed the Clean Air Act while approving the most sweeping environmental legislation in history.
- Increased welfare benefits (specifically many Johnson era Great Society programs), signed civil-rights laws and established protections for minorities, women, the handicapped and children.
- Proclaimed the first official U.S. Earth Day in 1971.
- Reformed the government's approach to give greater self-determination and civil rights to U.S. Indian tribes.
- Established greater communication with Chinese communists.
- Used Federal price controls and wage freezes to combat inflation
- Created the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) whereby the rich in the country had to pay taxes regardless of the tax loopholes they took advantage of.
- Quadrupled funding for the arts
- Spent more on social programs than defense for the first time in the country's history

Nixon is not around today and, yes, by any fair measure (not warped ideologies and old hatreds) he would easily be considered a leftist, particularly for his era, when many of these issues represented huge changes in government policy. You are more correct than you know, Zeb!

 

[XRQKFM]

Re: Conservative Talk Radio on the Wane in California (Los Angeles Times Hit Pie

Conservative radio is just entertainment and nothing more and yes it is on the wane.

Based on what facts? That's like saying MSNBC, is just a News Channel and Gov. Gray Davis left office on his own accord!

"Far Left"? Really? To Rush et al anybody to the left of Hitler is "Far Left"

Actually; Hitler was far left; and like Obama, ran on a platform change and massive social reform.

John & Ken are by no means conservative, and the original point was the failing of the Los Angeles Times to report a story factually. If you think "Conservative Talk Radio" is on the Wane in California and John & Ken are conservative; the L.A. Times has found another fool for a reader.

John & Ken, bagged Sarah Palin all the time for her conservative stands; fact is she would have made a far better choice for President than McCain or Obama; and much easier on the eyes than either one of them.
Like Nixon; Sarah Palin is very mis understood! And like Nixon; vary smart.



Steve
www.xrqkfm.com

 

[davideduardo]

Look at GE stock, etc. ...all media is taking a hit,

GE is not a media stock, it is a financial. In recent years, nearly half the profits have come from the finance and loan division, which had ecpanded way beyond financing jet engines for Boeing customers. It's whole play was based on a platinum AAA credit rating which allowed it to borrow cheaper than nearly anyone (you can count the AAAs on the fingers of your hands) and when that was in jeopardy, the cost basis of the money they loand went south fast.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Look at GE stock, etc. ...all media is taking a hit,

GE is not a media stock, it is a financial. In recent years, nearly half the profits have come from the finance and loan division, which had ecpanded way beyond financing jet engines for Boeing customers. It's whole play was based on a platinum AAA credit rating which allowed it to borrow cheaper than nearly anyone (you can count the AAAs on the fingers of your hands) and when that was in jeopardy, the cost basis of the money they loand went south fast.

They only lost the AAA rating last week. The stock has been on a huge downward slide for years, mostly correlating with Jeffery Immelt's tenure as CEO. Most of the problems of late have related to their GE Capital financing unit. Most on Wall St. consider GE to be a 50% financial stock (or more) due to the losses in that unit dwarfing profit in other units. Immelt is to GE what Farid is to Citadel. How either of them is still employed is a tribute to backroom/boardroom politics. Shareholders of each company should have revolted a long time ago, but now of course it is too late.

 

[4UH8SIMBKAGN]

The New York Sun was another conservative paper that went broke. A number of conservative papers are in non-union parts of the country, their labor costs, plant costs are less than big city papers. Places like Seattle are more net oriented than Tulsa, etc as well. Look at GE stock, etc. ...all media is taking a hit, Microsoft laid off, so talk radio vs. newspapers is not the issue.

The new online only Seattle Post Intelligencer now has a newsroom staff of 15. They had 150 in the newsrooom before going online only today. Doesn't look like much of a news investment if they think the future is online for Seattle.

The New York Sun never sold more than 14,000 copies per day. Hardly a newspaper to compare to the big city dailies that are shutting down or losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Smaller newspapers are doing well. In fact, readership is up. It has more to do with local competion and access to local news. http://www.minnpost.com/stories/200...ny_newspapers_still_thriving_in_smaller_towns

The Los Angeles Times, for being in an entertainment industry town, has always been a pathetic resource for news on the "industry". For radio alone, it has always reported next to nothing while other papers in the past, such as the Chicago Sun Times, had a reporter dedicated to radio industry news. I don't go to the Los Angeles Times if I am looking for the news or for objectivity in reporting. About all the L.A. Times is still good for is their dwindling ads. Other than that, I have absolutely no use for it. It could go away and we'd likely see better, new resources for local news pop up with more fair or objective reporting. At least we'd know which side of the fence they're on and they wouldn't be hinding under their desks as they currently are doing on this story at the L.A. Times.

The update from John & Ken is no retraction yet. In fact, no editor or the reporter, of who Robin and John & Ken have all contacted, has returned calls, faxes or emails. Lying cowards.

 

[radioman148]

Re: Conservative Talk Radio on the Wane in California (Los Angeles Times Hit Pie

>>The Los Angeles Times, for being in an entertainment industry town, has always been a pathetic resource for news on the "industry". For radio alone, it has always reported next to nothing while other papers in the past, such as the Chicago Sun Times, had a reporter dedicated to radio industry news.>>

The Chicago Sun Times had an excellent radio reporter Robert Feder who wrote about radio 5 days a week.

>>The update from John & Ken is no retraction yet. In fact, no editor or the reporter, of who Robin and John & Ken have all contacted, has returned calls, faxes or emails. Lying cowards>>

Don't hold your breath waiting for the LA times to print any retraction.

 

[mred]

GE doesn't own NBC? Name some major media stocks that are up. And what about the 2.8 billion write down of the Wall Street Journal by Murdock? WSJ has conservative editorial policy, why aren't they booming?

If it is the ideology of the LA Times that is causing their problems, then if someone started a conservative paper in LA, according to you, it would sell millions of copies.

If there is such demand for conservative papers, then why didn't the New York Sun take the place of the NY Times? The fact that it only sold 14,000 copies was because there wasn't a big demand for any newspaper in NYC, liberal or conservative.

The Times article was not a "hit piece" either, it is obvious that John and Ken lost advertisers. KGIL has no signal, so what happens there is not that big of a deal.

The people that think there is going to be some sort of thousand year reign of conservative talk radio, are as much in denial as the people who couldn't see the housing downfall coming.

 

[davideduardo]

GE doesn't own NBC?

Yes, but the NBC division is a very small par of GE; the jet engine division alone has a larger share of revenue. So GE is not considered a "media company." Because nearly half of profits used to come from GE Capital and the financial divisions, investors considered it first a financial and gthen a conglomerate.

The people that think there is going to be some sort of thousand year reign of conservative talk radio, are as much in denial as the people who couldn't see the housing downfall coming.

Talk radio, which is about 99% conservative, has increaded share in the last Year, quarter and month. The LA Times article was just wrong on so many counts, starting with the statistics which were interpreted by someone who obviously does not know cume from share.

 

[mred]

I guess that's why companies that are heavily invested in talk radio: Citadel, Clear Channel, etc. are doing so well and laying off so many people? since they expanded so much last year? I bet those dittoheads in Ohio just whip or the credit card to buy something they here advertised on talk radio.

What happened to the car dealer ads, the mortgage ads, the hotel ads on the J & K show? I haven't heard the rotten puss filed mouth dental ads as much either.

(Housing had a record year before it started to tank as well.)

 

[4UH8SIMBKAGN]

I guess that's why companies that are heavily invested in talk radio: Citadel, Clear Channel, etc. are doing so well and laying off so many people? since they expanded so much last year? I bet those dittoheads in Ohio just whip or the credit card to buy something they here advertised on talk radio.

What happened to the car dealer ads, the mortgage ads, the hotel ads on the J & K show? I haven't heard the rotten puss filed mouth dental ads as much either.

(Housing had a record year before it started to tank as well.)

Tell us which radio company ISN'T laying off or has lost advertisers. The SCBA reported a 2/3 downturn in auto advertising. I can name a number of station groups which have little or not even ONE talk station that are laying off. Talkradio is doing great, as I pointed out in the first post in this thread. Where are your facts? Tell us what stations, in any format, that haven't lost advertisers.

You are obviously not listening to KFI. KFI still has mortgage, car dealer, hotel and even rotten puss filled mouth ads. The latter was a live read just yesterday.

 

[smedge2006]

How can this be a hit piece... when every point made by the Times was made a month earlier... by a (former) California conservative talk host?

http://www.sacunion.com/pages/columns/articles/11567/

 

[ChannelFlipper]

How can this be a hit piece... when every point made by the Times was made a month earlier... by a (former) California conservative talk host?

http://www.sacunion.com/pages/columns/articles/11567/

Although this piece is mostly garbage in and of itself, it doesn't come close to half-truths, blatant distortions and outright lies that were presented as "facts" in the LA Times. This is a pure opinion piece with almost no factual information supporting the thesis. The concept that Rush is vulnerable simply because he may have a few weak affiliates is laughable.

If I am a talker without Rush, I am salivating at the thought that my market competitor might dump him so I can crush him later when I sign him up myself. This has happend to a few Citadel stations because they can't seem to make decisions without politics getting in the way. This is part of the reason why their stock costs less than a gumball at the dimestore.

 

[radioman148]

How can this be a hit piece... when every point made by the Times was made a month earlier... by a (former) California conservative talk host?

http://www.sacunion.com/pages/columns/articles/11567/

Although this piece is mostly garbage in and of itself, it doesn't come close to half-truths, blatant distortions and outright lies that were presented as "facts" in the LA Times. This is a pure opinion piece with almost no factual information supporting the thesis. The concept that Rush is vulnerable simply because he may have a few weak affiliates is laughable.

If I am a talker without Rush, I am salivating at the thought that my market competitor might dump him so I can crush him later when I sign him up myself. This has happend to a few Citadel stations because they can't seem to make decisions without politics getting in the way. This is part of the reason why their stock costs less than a gumball at the dimestore.

You're right on Flipper. Stations are salivating to get Rush.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

The LA Times's coverage of local radio has been pathetic for decades.

The late Don Page was not only a terrific journalist who covered LA radio very well, but he also had a very fascinating talk show on Sunday evenings on KLAC, with guests such as Charlie Van Dyke, Michael Jackson, Dick Whittinghill & tons of other LA radio legends who certainly had their own vignettes and opinions, which made for a very compelling program.

 

[radioman148]

Re: Conservative Talk Radio on the Wane in California (Los Angeles Times Hit Pie

The LA Times's coverage of local radio has been pathetic for decades.

The late Don Page was not only a terrific journalist who covered LA radio very well, but he also had a very fascinating talk show on Sunday evenings on KLAC, with guests such as Charlie Van Dyke, Michael Jackson, Dick Whittinghill & tons of other LA radio legends who certainly had their own vignettes and opinions, which made for a very compelling program.

I would have liked to have heard that.

 

[mred]

If talk radio is doing so well, why would a top broadcaster like Lars Larson be dumped so like day old swedish rye bread? It is the beginning of the end for talk radio. It is going to bust like the car and housing sector.