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Decimation of AM1260

N

nmoore6676

I am looking at the aftermath after the TRN programming is off and Ziegler has departed and it quite frankly looks like a store after the weekend sale. The good stuff is all gone and only the leftovers strewn around the aisles remain. Glenn Beck is moved back to 6am and live which is good, but what follows is a mish-mash of whatever.

6am to 9am Glenn Beck
9am to 11am Fred Thompson
11am to 1pm Fred Thompson, rebroadcast
1pm to 2 pm Larry Freakin' King??????
2pm to 4pm Lars Larson
Then music from 4 to 11, why not at least leave Lars on for the entire drive time period?

This brings back Deja Vu of the end of the Oldies format when they came up with "The Shuffle" which lasted I think less than a week before the MOYL came back on. Is history repeating itself?
 
Glenn Beck? Isn't that the guy that screams like a little girl?

Bring back the Shuffle! I actually heard Ace Frehley's "Back in the NY Groove" backed up to "Summertime" by Billy Stewart on that station. Best two weeks of radio ever!
 
scooty430 said:
Glenn Beck? Isn't that the guy that screams like a little girl?

Bring back the Shuffle! I actually heard Ace Frehley's "Back in the NY Groove" backed up to "Summertime" by Billy Stewart on that station. Best two weeks of radio ever!
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Glenn does get emotional but I wouldn't say he screams like a girl. With the departure of Laura Ingraham and the two other TRN shows they moved him back to 6am and it is now live instead of delayed. Fred Thompson started his show kind of simultaneously with the end of O'Reilly's radio show. I think the intention was to pick up the stations that had carried O'Reilly but that didn't happen. I don't understand why they didn't keep Ziegler (money?) and not repeat Fred right after he is on live. Also their website says that Larry King is on from 1 to 2pm but in fact I head a promo for Dr. Dean Edell so maybe the web is wrong.

I did enjoy the shuffle which was put on when they pulled the real oldies format. If it were I I would go back to that and maybe keep a couple of good talk shows the rest of the time. It seems like a thrown together smorgasbord now with no real clear direction. They did a good job with the oldies and the MYOL before; it was not as good the second time before they went country.
 
This station is the radio equivalent of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that Lucy is holding. No matter how many promises, it's always a swing and a miss.
 
Glenn cries a lot, because he loves his country so much it hurts, but I am not sure he screams. Not sure he is as entertaining on radio. On TV he is always just one 5 minute clip away from a nervous breakdown on te air...pretty hilarious stuff.
 
My question....and I have said it before...is why Glenn Beck is not screaming at his CC bosses to get him on a better station!

Look, I am as Air American as anyone, but no one can deny the fact that Glenn Beck is the hottest brand going in broadcasting right now. And he is stuck on what's left of KGIL.

Programming wise, if TRN will not play ball, you can go back to a more balanced schedule with Beck in the morning, Ed Schultz at 9, Fred Thompson at Noon, Neil Boortz at 3, Lars at 6, King at 8, the When Radio Was at 9, followed by Standards til 5am.

That's if you want to keep talking.

But more and more, I love the Shuffle Idea. It was a most unique format, and highly syndicatable if you ask me.
 
GOD I HATE KGIL. I really liked Ziegler. I emailed him and he replied right away and said they are changing to a music
format. But that don't jive. they just put Glen Beck on live. That's gotta cost them so coin. Then they had Jerry Doyle on a few weeks . There website never reflects their true programming. And they put Fred Thompson and of course he just started a vacation so no listeners again. putting Glen Beck on live must be a hail mary pass
 
Mr_Radio_Diary said:
GOD I HATE KGIL. I really liked Ziegler. I emailed him and he replied right away and said they are changing to a music
format. But that don't jive. they just put Glen Beck on live. That's gotta cost them so coin. Then they had Jerry Doyle on a few weeks . There website never reflects their true programming. And they put Fred Thompson and of course he just started a vacation so no listeners again. putting Glen Beck on live must be a hail mary pass
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Yeh and don't know if you tuned in this morning, but Glenn is out this week and he has a guest host!!
 
Mr_Radio_Diary said:
GOD I HATE KGIL. I really liked Ziegler. I emailed him and he replied right away and said they are changing to a music
format. But that don't jive. they just put Glen Beck on live. That's gotta cost them so coin. Then they had Jerry Doyle on a few weeks . There website never reflects their true programming. And they put Fred Thompson and of course he just started a vacation so no listeners again. putting Glen Beck on live must be a hail mary pass
Click to expand...

I don't think you can blame KGIL this time. Jerry Doyle is syndicated by TRN as is Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage. So they lost three shows but why Ziegler had to go is unclear unless they were going to go music. They now do after Lars Larson but the part that doesn't fit is picking up Fred Thompson and Dr. Dean Edell. I believe that Saul was used by Talk Radio Network to get "Los Angeles Clearances" for their three premier shows, Monica Crowley was also TRN but she quit. When Laura Ingraham switched to TRN Salem (KRLA) dropped her from all of their stations and KGIL jumped to shuffle their schedule to put her on live. The had already added Michael Savage and later Monica Crowley which was replaced with Jerry Doyle when for whatever reason Monica quite her weekday show.

I wanted Ziegler and this time his last show affected me more than his KFI exit had. I knew, reading between the lines, that he was not happy at 640 but this time there seemed to be a real enthusiasm and he was clicking well with P.J. as well as he had with Leah Brandon. If they are going to retain Beck and run music the rest of the day I suppose it could work. I doubt that it is costing them much except ad avails. Beck needs to be on in LA and for whatever reason Clear Channel will not give him the mighty 640. But why pick up new shows, they could even keep Lars in the afternoons and run the music the rest of the day and night.

Maybe if Handel works out in the middays, perhaps or if not put Bdeck on delayed. Another speculation is that since Gary Hoffman has been given a Sunday news show with Rich Marotta and Brian Martin that maybe it is a test to se if they could do a Handelless two hours and go to Beck for two hours prior to the "Great One" at nine. Just food for thought.
 
The KGIL mystery gets curiouser and curiouser. Supposedly Ziegler was out to usher in more music, but in the meantime new talk shows (Fred Thompson and Dr. Dean Edell) have been added. Larry King is now on early afternoon instead of late night. And only two hours of Lars is on with the obvious space to do more. If they are going music why add new shows?

Beck in the morning live makes sense, giving LA listeners a chance to participate on the phones. Monica Crowley got a lot of LA calls, the rest seemed to come from Richmond Virginia. Michael Jackson and Ziegler got calls, I think Ziegler more than Jackson, but obviously there are listeners to AM-1260.

The way I see it there was no reason to yank Ziegler, especially with a rebroadcast of Thompson. If they are staying talk during the day and going music at night then why not have at least one local talk show for three hours instead of two and then the syndication plus Lars and Glenn. If they are going all music all the time why start new shows?

I know all about the format changes of the past, they are well documented and I've heard most of them. Before this goes off on a tirade on the vagaries of Saul Levine, may I remind you all of the flips and flops on AM-570 and 1150 since Clear Channel took over those stations. One of those shifts pushed Mr. Levine to a couple of the AM 1260 shifts, standards to oldies, then back to standards when KLAC went sports talk, and 1150 went from sports to progressive talk. SOmebody ut htere has the dirt and inquiring minds, at least mine, want to know.
 
Is it possible that only programs which don't require a cash outlay are being retained? Was Ziegler being paid? The others appear to be barter arrangements.
 
Shoot From Hip said:
Is it possible that only programs which don't require a cash outlay are being retained? Was Ziegler being paid? The others appear to be barter arrangements.
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He was being paid, though a part of the deal may have been that he got spots to hawk his DVDs and to promote his "How Obama Got Elected" website.

Reading between the lines I got the impression that he took a bath on the distribution of the DVDs and that he was impelled to go back to work. Also in a part of his personal discussion on his last day he mentioned that his financial situation was now going to be on shaky ground and that his wedding plans might be in question as well. I don't know what kind of a deal Beck gives. The show is syndicated through Premier but like Rush Glenn owns it so the deal might be only barter to get on in LA. In the past he skirted the edges and this the first signal that ostensibly covers Los Angeles. I would imaging that Fred Thompson is barter and probably Lars Larson as well. Larry King probably is a gimme too.

What I am questioning is why put on talk at all if you are going to go music. Except for Glenn Beck nothing he has on will likely challenge KABC or the new KFWB lineup in any significant way. Beck would get more listeners were it not for the spotty coverage. If I have it right KFWB will delay Ingraham so Beck is only up against Handel who might be disintegrating and may also suffer from the overexposure. Mac Intyre is an acquired taste but has his fans. So unless Saul has all barter deals music would be the cheapest way to go and there are promotional advantages for that genre if you are the only game in town for concert promoters to go to. Maybe Saul is hoping to straddle the fence and get the best of both worlds but without Ziegler or another compelling local show there is not much to gain by keeping any talk time on the signal.
 
Shoot From Hip said:
My guess is you're putting more thought in to this than some of the principals.
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You are probably correct and that is sad. Too many programming decisions in radio are made for all of the wrong reasons but I would love to see KGIL succeed because I am 1000% behind local ownership. If the people who own media outlets are also residents of the community a lot of the so called ills of Radio, TV and Newspapers would solve themselves. When I grew up many many many years ago radio was still an actual voice of the community it was more than entertainment it provided vital news and views that related to all of the listeners and minority representation and fairness doctrines were not needed. If you had a beef you could talk to the owners and managers, heck you might even run into them at the supermarket, I did.
 
nmoore6676 said:
Too many programming decisions in radio are made for all of the wrong reasons but I would love to see KGIL succeed because I am 1000% behind local ownership. If the people who own media outlets are also residents of the community a lot of the so called ills of Radio, TV and Newspapers would solve themselves. When I grew up many many many years ago radio was still an actual voice of the community it was more than entertainment it provided vital news and views that related to all of the listeners and minority representation and fairness doctrines were not needed. If you had a beef you could talk to the owners and managers, heck you might even run into them at the supermarket, I did.
Click to expand...

I agree with you - local ownership is a must for any kind of decent radio. No matter how the big chains try to homogenize the nation with super-researched "product", the fact is that live and local -- WELL EXECUTED --trumps network feeds from New York any day of the week.

However, the problem with some local owners - and anyone who ever worked in radio worked for one of these - is that they're never content to hire talented people and let them do their jobs. They fancy themselves programmers, and can't resist tinkering with things. Eventually the talented people leave, and the ones that are left are the ones that need the paycheck more than they need to feel good about what they do.

Of course, I'd even rather have a lously local station to rake over the coals from time to time than to complain endlessly about what the Suits in Texas are doing from 1,000 miles away.

-- Doc.
 
Yes Doctor you get it quite well but one exception: The big guys stifle creativity just a much, maybe more than local owners. And creativeness is in the eyes of the beholder. What you and I might think as creative may be seen by others as brash and egotistic, remember it took a long time for people like Rick Dees, Howard Stern and back in the golden age, Arthur Godfrey to catch on. Overall I have to stand by my feeling that local ownership has advantages that in most cases trump the distantly owned conglomerates.
 
Mr. Levine has now hired former KOST midday personality Mike Sakellarides to do mornings @ KGIL utilizing a 'hybrid format' of some kind, according to Don Barrett's LARadio.co, according to today's edition of Tom Taylor's 'Inside Radio' newsletter.
 
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