AM radio is not going to sway any elections. The "adults" who listen already know how they are going to vote. Conservative talk only feeds their obsession.
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Ford Reconsiders, Now Keeping AM Radio
- Thread starter DavidEduardo
- Start date
AM radio is not going to sway any elections. The "adults" who listen already know how they are going to vote. Conservative talk only feeds their obsession.
When I think our UK political scene is insane, I take a virtual trip to a US radio market via a web-based KiwiSDR and scan the AM dial to dissuade myself of that notion.
Yesterday, in Phoenix, I heard a British guy ranting at length about somebody called John Bolton; and Ben Shapiro dribbling into his mic about Target, LGBT+ pride and anal sex.
Or Russians in New York, Persians, Armenians and various Asian ethnicities in LA, and on and on with different ethnic groups in larger cities, ranging from Minneapolis and Detroit to Miami and Fresno.
While the response I often hear is "there are national streams for those groups" reality shows that those groups prefer overwhelmingly voices of the local community, ads for businesses that welcome them in their language and people they perceive to be their defenders at the local level.
And many marginal formats, such as gospel for the African American community, Catholic radio for people of that faith as well as 6 of the top 20 highest billing stations in America are also AM offerings.
The Air America "farther left" experience scared owners deeply and lastingly.
(And we forget that we have some great centrist-moderate liberal content on NPR that out-rates local conservative talk in most markets)
Air America did work in a couple of markets, most notably Seattle and Portland. But it faded after a year or so.
My evaluation was that the hosts were crusaders, not entertainers. Rush was fun to listen to... Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, David Bender, Thom Hartmann and the rest were more "campaigners" than entertainers and their intensity and pushy advocacy of their beliefs got tiring.
A good evaluation point is Rachael Maddow who does well on TV, where she has a shorter show and lots of producers, guests and scripted content assistance. But "on her own" with three hours of radio to fill every day, she ran out of content, tended to be repetitive and did not have all the great guests she has now.
I'm pretty sure that is the list. And I'm not sure they all qualify as "a significant audience."
Just sticking with what I know, California---I'll give you KFI, though their ranking is driven by time spent listening. They're number four, but with less than 25% of KRTH's total weekly audience (and half of KNX's).
But KLAC? Half of KFI's weekly total.
KFWB? Fewer listeners than KCSN in Northridge. Their weekly cume wouldn't make the top five in Memphis.
And KSFO in San Francisco has 30,000 fewer people listening every week than KFWB.
And NONE of those stations---apart from maybe KFI, which has always batted above its weight when it comes to news coverage---is the first place someone's going to tune in an emergency.
It won't bother anyone. It also isn't going to get used any more than it currently does, which is why Ford wanted to dump it.
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All of that, plus...
Conservatives rarely listened to liberal radio. They considered it a waste of time and---boring. And liberals found nothing to disagree with, which is where the majority of interesting callers come from.
Limbaugh hit on something early on---most of his conservative callers found nothing to disagree with Rush on, either---they were "Dittoheads"---so Rush would employ the improv technique of "Yes, and..."---amplifying the caller's correctness in agreeing with him and taking the opportunity to "educate" the caller and the listeners a bit more on the topic. He was very careful not to blow all of his key points in the monologue so that he could use them to keep the show moving from call to call.
Liberals would listen to Rush, and call, hoping to either argue or reason with him. They simply added to the entertainment value of his show and to the number of listeners.
Hanks has been accused of being very politically liberal. Doubt any dyed in the wool 'conservative' AM listsners left on the AM band, would be interested in what Tom had to say.
I'm thio
I doubt there's any disagreement or discussion on Clay and Buck, Bongino, Levin. If a istdisagreeing caller called in, if they even got on, it would be ":get off my phone you leftist pedophile groomer!"
It's not a political talk show. Hanks hosts a music show on a station that plays a eclectic mix of mid-century oldies. It's not aimed at conservative or liberal listeners, it's just the the kind of music that might still sound good on AM radio, hence the "Boss Radio" and "Route 66" tie-ins to the station's name.
In any case the point is moot since it's a unique streaming station that is not heard on AM, and I'm sure the programmer has no intention of putting it there. The day may come when some hobby broadcasters offer such programming on whatever AM stations remain after corporate radio sells them all off, though.
Far from it...
WHAS / WHO / KFAB / WBEN / WGR / WCBS-AM / WAQI / WIOD / KTNN / KNST / KTRH / WBT / WHAM.......
Nostalgia, got it. But the majority of AM listeners are white males 65+. That's because mainly 'conservative talk' is on AM, and those demos are their target audience. Tom Hanks has been demonized by right wing political talk hosts, for years ergo; a senior white male used to living in the AM political talk world, wouldn't appreciate even Tom Hanks 'spinnin' the wax'.
That would give him the best chance of attracting listeners.
You should watch "A Man Called Otto." It might soften your anti-old-white-male bias.
There's a difference between the target audience and who actually listens. Conservative AM talk radio purportedly targets 25-54 year olds. It's just not very good at accomplishing it.
What about KCBS?
It's a shell of its former self (especially it became an Audacy station), but as far as I know, it's still one of the highest rated stations in SF (and one of the few with a sizable AM audience).
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I think it's meant to be a list of AM-only stations that attract a significant audience without an FM simulcast,
We've been through this before many times. I've also explained the comment. Just because the term triggers you, doesn't mean it isn't a valid term.
It has an FM simulcast which likely gives them 70% to 80% of their AQH listening.
KFYR...