Glenn Beck Loses Madison Affiliate At Height Of Wisconsin Union Crisis

[DToTheJ]

Media Matters is reporting that Glenn Beck's Madison, WI affiliate WTDY has dropped the show, explaining "his unabashed deriding of Madison is unacceptable for broadcast in our community." The station added that the radio show has evolved into a promotional vehicle for Fox News recently, but "Monday's program was the final straw."
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102250040

Here's a recap of what Beck said about the Wisconsin protests on his Monday show:
http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/02/21/anarchists-socialists-and-communists-party-in-wisconsin/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/bla...ve-while-taking-over-wisconsin-state-capital/

 

[jh]

Considering WTDY had a 1.5 in the most recent ratings (fall 2010) and was below a 1 in the three books before that, it's unlikely many people in Madison heard Beck's attacks on their city.

It looks like they're moved in "America's Radio News" from TRN to fill most of the gap. http://www.wtdy.com/content/SHOWS-16.html

 

[TalkShowGuy1979]

With Loveline and Robert Wuhl on the lineup I have a feeling that Glenn Beck is not the problem there...

 

[smedge2006]

WTDY competes with both conservative WIBA and liberal WXXM (The Mic 92.1), both owned by CC. They position themselves as the Madison local talk station and carry both liberal and conservative hosts. They're clearly putting their hometown above ideology. Think about it, before vertical integration of the industry, no locally owned station would put up with a syndicated show that constantly bashed their town and their listeners.

There are probably other motives as well. "Fox News", as their release pointed out, is on WIBA. WTDY also lost the Wall Street Journal affiliation to CC, which (strangely) is putting the Journal's morning show on the liberal talker. So this may be payback to CC/Premiere. That WSJ show often features the Journal's stable of right-wing pundits from its opinion bullpen. This strikes WXXM listeners as yet another attempt to destroy the station -- having tried and failed to kill the station, they'll boil it away bit by bit by adding conservative programming. I can't help but think that the management of WXXM won't be satisfied until they've turned it into a secondary conservatalker, or a WIBA simulcast, despite its respectable numbers (2's and 3 shares) with no local overhead.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

WIBA didn't air Beck because it has a local show in the 8-11 AM (CT) slot: "Outside the Box with Mitch Henck".

http://www.wiba.com/pages/mitch.html

 

[DonTheTrucker]

So this may be payback to CC/Premiere.

No way! It MUST mean that people are sick of racist homophobic sexist conspiracy nuts like Beck! No other explanation will do! Don't get in the way of the gloating or you'll be called names too.

Now that I got that out of the way, of course there's more to it than content of the show. It almost always is. People who run radio stations are smart enough to not drop a major show because some guy in New York made fun of their town in the middle of a major nationwide story about the town.

 

[smedge2006]

Now that I got that out of the way, of course there's more to it than content of the show. It almost always is. People who run radio stations are smart enough to not drop a major show because some guy in New York made fun of their town in the middle of a major nationwide story about the town.

Syndication politics, as apart from politics politics, are a fact of life in radio. Having said that, I don't see what's "smart" about letting someone a thousand miles away on to trash your town on your airwaves every day. It usually doesn't happen because there's vertical integration between the syndicators and stations, therefore it's not ALLOWED to happen. Beck's an outlier even in that field, as he just doesn't know where to stop (as in calling the minor children Terri Schiavo's husband made with another woman "bastards" on the air).

 

[DonTheTrucker]

[EDIT]


This station has been looking for an excuse to dump the guy and he gave them an out. They took it. It's hardly newsworthy since he'll be on another station there in short order.


[EDIT-disruption]

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

This station has been looking for an excuse to dump the guy and he gave them an out. They took it. It's hardly newsworthy since he'll be on another station there in short order.

Give us some background on your statement. I gather from the statement that you know Madison well. Tell us what station is likely to grab the broadcast in short order.

In a market of 500,000 people, this weekend 125,000 people showed up in the snow and rain at the capital to rally for what I think is considered to be a "liberal" point of view. And you think radio stations in a town like that are standing in line waiting for the opportunity to add to their schedule something like Glenn Beck?

 

[Rusty Muck]

Media Matters is reporting...

Wow, what a trustworthy news organization. </sarc>

WTDY is also home to ultra-liberal host John "Sly" Sylvester, who spews civil gems like this. And of course no one says anything.

 

[w9wi]

Give us some background on your statement. I gather from the statement that you know Madison well. Tell us what station is likely to grab the broadcast in short order.

In a market of 500,000 people, this weekend 125,000 people showed up in the snow and rain at the capital to rally for what I think is considered to be a "liberal" point of view. And you think radio stations in a town like that are standing in line waiting for the opportunity to add to their schedule something like Glenn Beck?

Indeed. I *do* know Madison well, and I think it's reasonable to assume the line of Madison radio stations waiting to pick up Beck's show will have a length somewhere between zero and one.

The only other station in town that airs conservative hosts is WIBA-AM.

 

[DonTheTrucker]

Give us some background on your statement. I gather from the statement that you know Madison well. Tell us what station is likely to grab the broadcast in short order.

I got my information from a post in this thread. I don't know Madison any more than you do, other than having been through there a few times in my travels.

This is what I base my information on:

There are probably other motives as well. "Fox News", as their release pointed out, is on WIBA. WTDY also lost the Wall Street Journal affiliation to CC, which (strangely) is putting the Journal's morning show on the liberal talker. So this may be payback to CC/Premiere. That WSJ show often features the Journal's stable of right-wing pundits from its opinion bullpen. This strikes WXXM listeners as yet another attempt to destroy the station -- having tried and failed to kill the station, they'll boil it away bit by bit by adding conservative programming. I can't help but think that the management of WXXM won't be satisfied until they've turned it into a secondary conservatalker, or a WIBA simulcast, despite its respectable numbers (2's and 3 shares) with no local overhead.

I underlined the part that you should notice. Next time please read the thread before talking down to me.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Give us some background on your statement. I gather from the statement that you know Madison well. Tell us what station is likely to grab the broadcast in short order.

I underlined the part that you should notice. Next time please read the thread before talking down to me.

I'm sorry. When somebody makes a claim I don't see it as a "put down" to say: "O.K. Let's see the cards you were holding before you give them back to the dealer."

I will confess that I gambled that you would have to put yourself down by admitting you really don't know Madison.

I got my information from a post in this thread. I don't know Madison any more than you do, other than having been through there a few times in my travels.

This time YOU gambled wrong. I DO know Madison. There is a vacant condo up there that my wife loves that we would be moving into if we felt comfortable at our age dealing with "industrial strength" winter weather.

I spent a couple of hours on the phone last night with my family-connection there. She has a copy of the bill the governor has proposed in its current wording which she has searched through to see what it would do to their current medical coverage which is through a group of state employees. This is a little off-topic for this thread, but for this couple the governor has proposed a bill that goes beyond draconian!

This is what I base my information on:

There are probably other motives as well. "Fox News", as their release pointed out, is on WIBA. WTDY also lost the Wall Street Journal affiliation to CC, which (strangely) is putting the Journal's morning show on the liberal talker. So this may be payback to CC/Premiere. That WSJ show often features the Journal's stable of right-wing pundits from its opinion bullpen. This strikes WXXM listeners as yet another attempt to destroy the station -- having tried and failed to kill the station, they'll boil it away bit by bit by adding conservative programming. I can't help but think that the management of WXXM won't be satisfied until they've turned it into a secondary conservatalker, or a WIBA simulcast, despite its respectable numbers (2's and 3 shares) with no local overhead.

No, I read what you had quoted including the part now emphasized. Interesting conjecture on the part of the person who made the statement. Here in my reaction to the statement:

Some of us complain from time to time that CC/Premiere seems to be highly invested in a campaign to force-feed conservatism of an extreme variety down the throats of all of us. To which the standard reply is: Oh, no! CC is simply a very predictable straight business organization that has NO purpose other than making money. If I accept the section that you quoted then I have to assume the writer has decided that CC is a poor business manager more interested in creating a conservative world than in making money.

The quote says WXXM in it's current operation has respectable ratings and low overhead. Towns like Madison that are home to THE state university tend to be communities with two significant populations: A signficant mother-lode of liberals, and a smaller sub-culture of new-age spiritual-thinking blended with a GLBT population. Tell me how turning WXXM into a second tier conservative voice makes more sense that being the first tier liberal voice.

 

[Silkie]

Media Matters is reporting...

Wow, what a trustworthy news organization. </sarc>

WTDY is also home to ultra-liberal host John "Sly" Sylvester, who spews civil gems like this. And of course no one says anything.

Can you say "another George Soros enterprise"?

 

[w9wi]

Tell me how turning WXXM into a second tier conservative voice makes more sense that being the first tier liberal voice.

I would suggest WXXM isn't the first-tier liberal voice. That position would fall to non-commercial WORT-FM.

(those inclined to blast NPR should understand WORT is NOT a NPR member station)

 

[Mike Schwartz]

Tell me how turning WXXM into a second tier conservative voice makes more sense that being the first tier liberal voice.

I would suggest WXXM isn't the first-tier liberal voice. That position would fall to non-commercial WORT-FM.

(those inclined to blast NPR should understand WORT is NOT a NPR member station)

Are you sure about the ratings for WORT-FM. I didn't find them listed in the Fall 2010 Arbitron ratings, but noted that WXXM was ranked #12 with a 2.9 share, making it the number 2 talker in the market.

 

[DonTheTrucker]

Tell me how turning WXXM into a second tier conservative voice makes more sense that being the first tier liberal voice.

That's easy. Liberal talk has failed in almost every market it's been tried in. Even college towns.

And here come the excuses...

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I don't know about WORT-FM's ratings, but it is clearly the superstation of "community radio" - a full-power locally-run community station with a vast mix of music and talk programming.

It probably qualifies as the left-leaning "leading station' in the Madison market.

It's also where Michael Feldman started his radio career, as a volunteer host long before Wisconsin Public Radio brought him over, and eventually lured him back (after a stint at WGN/720 Chicago) for "Whad'ya Know".

 

[MattParker]

Tell me how turning WXXM into a second tier conservative voice makes more sense that being the first tier liberal voice.

That's easy. Liberal talk has failed in almost every market it's been tried in. Even college towns.

And here come the excuses...

Don, you lie. (I know you hate to be confused with facts.) Progressive talk has done pretty well in Madison. Despite this, the right-wing talk show host who also was Clear Channel's regional program manager wanted to shut down progessive talk on WXXM-FM, saying he wanted to be the "grim reaper of progressive talk." A listener (and advertiser) protest forced him to back down.

Clear Channel put progressive talk on a weak stick AM west of Boston. Then they pulled it. They said it "failed." Now they have Rush-Beck-Hannity on the same station and guess what? They are doing even worse than progressive talk did? Where are your excuses? Clear Channel has taken progressive talk off other stations in other markets claiming if "failed" and with similar resuts: The new format does not do as well as progressive talk. Maybe the people who run radio want it to fail. Obviously you do. You only want radio to offer content you agree with.

 

[Mike Schwartz]

Still, the numbers that WXXM draws likely make it the strongest station in the format.

FA09 WI10 SP10 SU10 FA10
3.1 3.4 3.4 2.0 2.9

Since I don't have time to review the 60 or so progressive talker ratings nationally, does anyone know of more successful station? I know that KPOJ used to draw numbers like this, but not anymore.