1) KABC just signed a five year deal with the University of Southern California to broadcast Trojans Football and Basketball Games, plus do a Monday evening Trojan sports show every week.
2) KABC has three local talk shows on weekdays, and one piped in from Washington. There are plenty of Cumulus-owned Westwood One syndicated talk shows KABC could clear from its parent company in Market #2. But currently the only syndicated show KABC runs in the daytime is Ben Shapiro, 3 to 6pm. Morning drive is Jillian Barberie and John Phillips, followed by Larry O'Connor of WMAL-AM-FM in Washington, D.C. Even though O'Connor is already a Cumulus employee, I believe he's doing the two hour show only for Los Angeles, 10am to noon PT, 1-3pm ET. (His WMAL AM-FM show runs 3 to 6pm ET.) Then Dr. Drew Pinsky and Leeann Tweeden do early afternoons and Peter Tilden does early evenings. 12 hours a day of non-syndicated talk, just for KABC.
3) KABC has local news at the top of the hour most of each weekday. I suspect the newscasters may be Total Traffic employees. But then that means iHeart and Cumulus both think its profitable to have all day newscasters handling KABC local news. You might say, a talk station must have hourly newscasts. But the cheap way would be to just run Westwood One News all day. Maybe have a Total Traffic person just do a few quick So. Cal. headlines along with traffic, if they wanted to go the cheap route. Instead, the Cumulus-owned network newscasts only get heard overnight and weekends. And even on weekends, a local person still does So. Cal. news for a couple of minutes after the network news. All that costs some money.
4) For several decades, the FCC has allowed owners to have more than one AM and more than one FM in a market. But Cumulus has been content with only owning KABC and KLOS. Perhaps now, Cumulus is content with only owning KABC. Yeah, most owners like to have economy of scale. Numerous stations under one roof, one set of studios and offices, one sales staff, one engineering and support staff, with their costs spread over multiple signals. But for all these years, Cumulus has been fine with just having two stations in LA. Now it will have just one.
KABC's ratings are not good. But for now, the station must be profitable or we would see these five local hosts (and one DC host doing two hours just for LA) get replaced with syndicated shows. We'd see the local newscasters get replaced with Cumulus' own Westwood One News. Why spend this money and sign a five-year contract with U.S.C. if you are looking for the exit door?
2) KABC has three local talk shows on weekdays, and one piped in from Washington. There are plenty of Cumulus-owned Westwood One syndicated talk shows KABC could clear from its parent company in Market #2. But currently the only syndicated show KABC runs in the daytime is Ben Shapiro, 3 to 6pm. Morning drive is Jillian Barberie and John Phillips, followed by Larry O'Connor of WMAL-AM-FM in Washington, D.C. Even though O'Connor is already a Cumulus employee, I believe he's doing the two hour show only for Los Angeles, 10am to noon PT, 1-3pm ET. (His WMAL AM-FM show runs 3 to 6pm ET.) Then Dr. Drew Pinsky and Leeann Tweeden do early afternoons and Peter Tilden does early evenings. 12 hours a day of non-syndicated talk, just for KABC.
3) KABC has local news at the top of the hour most of each weekday. I suspect the newscasters may be Total Traffic employees. But then that means iHeart and Cumulus both think its profitable to have all day newscasters handling KABC local news. You might say, a talk station must have hourly newscasts. But the cheap way would be to just run Westwood One News all day. Maybe have a Total Traffic person just do a few quick So. Cal. headlines along with traffic, if they wanted to go the cheap route. Instead, the Cumulus-owned network newscasts only get heard overnight and weekends. And even on weekends, a local person still does So. Cal. news for a couple of minutes after the network news. All that costs some money.
4) For several decades, the FCC has allowed owners to have more than one AM and more than one FM in a market. But Cumulus has been content with only owning KABC and KLOS. Perhaps now, Cumulus is content with only owning KABC. Yeah, most owners like to have economy of scale. Numerous stations under one roof, one set of studios and offices, one sales staff, one engineering and support staff, with their costs spread over multiple signals. But for all these years, Cumulus has been fine with just having two stations in LA. Now it will have just one.
KABC's ratings are not good. But for now, the station must be profitable or we would see these five local hosts (and one DC host doing two hours just for LA) get replaced with syndicated shows. We'd see the local newscasters get replaced with Cumulus' own Westwood One News. Why spend this money and sign a five-year contract with U.S.C. if you are looking for the exit door?
