Good observation on Mike Pintek. KDKA is live 24 hours a day weekdays, local 17, though Jim Bohannon does live plugs for his show on AM 1020 and KDKA is one of the CBS O&Os that carries a show that I believe is based in St. Louis between 1 and 5 a.m. KD right now has Pintek from noon to 3 and a former Youngstown host, Robert Mangino, from 6 to 10 that provide pretty good local talk. A KDKA-TV "investigative reporter," Marty Griffin, is on from 9 to noon, the morning drive show is sort of a "Good Morning Pittsburgh" on radio and the station runs a WINS/KYW-style news block from 3 to 6 p.m. Weekends feature some eclectic programming, much of it bartered, and three recorded hours of Handel On The Law Sunday afternoon, but libertarian Dimitri Vassilaros (a copy editor and columnist at the Tribune-Review here) on Saturday night and progressive Chris Moore (also of WQED-13) and Father Ron Lengwin on Sunday night are interesting alternatives. (Yes, that is a Catholic priest, and spokesman for the local diocese, but "Amplify" is quite ecumenical and worth a listen.)
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Here in Boston, there's Jeff Katz in the mornings on Rush Radio 1200 AM. His show is devoted almost exclusively to national politics, and he does a good job with it. Of course, there's Howie Carr, who's already been mentioned. WBZ 1030 AM has Dan Rea's excellent 'Nightside' in the evenings, which is a mix of local and national issues. For sports talk, WEEI and the Sports Hub 98.5 are all local during the days and evenings, only going syndicated (ESPN for 'EEI & Fox Sports for the Hub) during the overnights.
It's very hard to develop streaming interest in local shows, despite all my efforts. Looking down my all time list of non-syndicated talk shows (data back to 2006) sort of ignoring the imposed definition of "good" in the original question
Steve Malzberg (#58 overall) on WOR is in the gray area - he's technically syndicated, but the WOR radio network isn't exactly overflowing with affiliates.
Larry Elder (#61) has recently returned to the air after a long absence. He tried syndication for a few months, but it didn't work out.
Jay Severin (#90) in Boston on WTKK in Boston, when he isn't out hiking in the wildnerness
Mandy Connell (#92) used to have a big following until she left Florida and moved to Kentucky.
Bill Handel's (#96) local show on KFI in Los Angeles
Mark Simone on WABC (#110) does a great show on Saturday AM, and then the Oldies music in the evening
Chris Stegall (#117) from KCMO
Dale Jackson (#123) from WVNN in Alabama
Joe Madison (#131) doing urban talk on WOL in Washington DC
That's about where we reach "statistically insignificant"
Steve Malzberg (#58 overall) on WOR is in the gray area - he's technically syndicated, but the WOR radio network isn't exactly overflowing with affiliates.
Larry Elder (#61) has recently returned to the air after a long absence. He tried syndication for a few months, but it didn't work out.
Jay Severin (#90) in Boston on WTKK in Boston, when he isn't out hiking in the wildnerness
Mandy Connell (#92) used to have a big following until she left Florida and moved to Kentucky.
Bill Handel's (#96) local show on KFI in Los Angeles
Mark Simone on WABC (#110) does a great show on Saturday AM, and then the Oldies music in the evening
Chris Stegall (#117) from KCMO
Dale Jackson (#123) from WVNN in Alabama
Joe Madison (#131) doing urban talk on WOL in Washington DC
That's about where we reach "statistically insignificant"
Almost none of those shows I'd make any effort to find, streaming wise.
Maybe Bill Handel, but if I want a dose of him, his "Handel on the Law" is carried by two of our local Clear Channel talkers.
KGO/SF has an excellent slate of local talkers (for now, at least) I can easily access on my smartphone, but I don't make the effort.
Maybe Bill Handel, but if I want a dose of him, his "Handel on the Law" is carried by two of our local Clear Channel talkers.
KGO/SF has an excellent slate of local talkers (for now, at least) I can easily access on my smartphone, but I don't make the effort.
SRGuide said:
Steve Malzberg is an excellent host. He's on WOR against Hannity on WABC and usually beats him in PM Drive.
Is Larry Elder back on terrestrial radio? I know he at least tried an online station. What station is he on?
Mark Simone's Saturday AM show is excellent. It's the one time a week WABC acknowledges itself as a New York radio station. Simone's Saturday night show is now called "Saturday Night". It used to be "Saturday Night Oldies". As SNO, it was on from 6 PM to 10 PM and was basically the replacement for CBS-FM during its failed JACK-FM experiement. When it was first changed to "Saturday Night" it was reduced to three hours, 6-9 PM. It's now down to two hours, 7-9 PM.
SRGuide said:
He's back on his old station, 790 KABC out of LA from 9am-12pm PST.
SRGuide said:
Unless you're a real afficianado of listening to talk shows just to critique the hosts, there's very little appeal from a really good local talk host for anyone who doesn't either live in the city the show originates from, or is at least a former resident.
What makes a local talk show good is local content, as in talk about local issues. It makes perfect sense that anyone who doesn't live in a given city would have a difficult time getting enthused about conversation about local topics that aren't relevant.
As for "local" hosts who attempt to only talk about national issues, in hopes of one day getting syndicated, that's a whole different issue. Such people do not do "local shows". People who attempt to do a national topic show but only in one city are syndicated show wannabes, not local hosts.
newhampshiredude said:
Thanks! I'll check it out!
Talk_Dude said:
This really doesn't apply to KGO...which certainly has its share of Northern California topics, but also broadens its focus to topics of interest that might not originate in the area. The hosts are not hoping to be syndicated...in fact, one KGO host (Gil Gross) was already syndicated by CBS Radio in the past
They're just good hosts, basically, and California is a source for talk show fodder far beyond its borders. Of course, this all could change in a year or two, given recent events on Front Street...
OhioMediaWatch said:Talk_Dude said:
This really doesn't apply to KGO...which certainly has its share of Northern California topics, but also broadens its focus to topics of interest that might not originate in the area. The hosts are not hoping to be syndicated...in fact, one KGO host (Gil Gross) was already syndicated by CBS Radio in the past
They're just good hosts, basically, and California is a source for talk show fodder far beyond its borders. Of course, this all could change in a year or two, given recent events on Front Street...
Between 100% local content only and 100% national content only there's a big, big range. I wasn't talking about local hosts who sometimes would include national topic when there was something big going on. I was talking about the "local" hosts who almost never mentioned anything happening within the range of their tower unless it was a national issue.
Talk_Dude said:
And I agree there. You can call them Rush-wannabes, Hannity-wannabes or Beck-wannabes.
OhioMediaWatch said:Talk_Dude said:
And I agree there. You can call them Rush-wannabes, Hannity-wannabes or Beck-wannabes.
One of the best of the bunch is Jim Quinn in Pittsburgh who does "Quinn and Rose in the Morning" on 104.7. He did his show on WRRK for years, then was hired by Clear Channel when they flipped 104.7 to talk. Clear Channel threw him a bone and put his show on a handful of stations. The thing is, his show is actually quite good, though an acquired taste. He pulls good numbers in Pittsburgh. It just seems like there's minimal demand for a syndicated news/talk format morning show anywhere.
So, even though technically he's a "wannabe", his lack of syndication isn't because he and Rose don't do a good show.
The fundamental problem with Quinn & Rose is it's on during morning drive. That's the only time most news/talk stations absolutely want their own local shows. Bill Bennett is the other big show on during that hour - but Salem Talk is the core of his network - Salem doesn't do local talk except in a few minor cases (Sliwa in New York, WIND in Chicago)
The other morning talk shows tend to find homes on Sports stations, Classic Rock or R&B stations where they aren't locked in with Weather and traffic on the 8s.
The other problem is much of the show's content is local - people in Youngstown probably don't care that Pittsburgh Children's Hospital is having a fund raiser. They also do time-zone specific references on East Coast time in keeping with their regional character.
The show is carried on Clear Channel's XM channel 158. It should really decide if it wants to be national syndicated or not. It's one of the most streamed programs during that time period - a lot of XM users come looking for a free stream.
The other morning talk shows tend to find homes on Sports stations, Classic Rock or R&B stations where they aren't locked in with Weather and traffic on the 8s.
The other problem is much of the show's content is local - people in Youngstown probably don't care that Pittsburgh Children's Hospital is having a fund raiser. They also do time-zone specific references on East Coast time in keeping with their regional character.
The show is carried on Clear Channel's XM channel 158. It should really decide if it wants to be national syndicated or not. It's one of the most streamed programs during that time period - a lot of XM users come looking for a free stream.
SRGuide said:
When did they start devoting any significant amount of time to Pittsburgh issues? I've been away from the 'Burgh for almost three years, so my recollections of the show are old. Back when I listened, they sometimes mentioned local fund-raisers, but never devoted more than a few minutes to them. When did that change?
D
DoubleC
Guest
In My Opinion a Good Local talk Show will Hit The HOT local topics First and Then Connect the Hot National Topic to your Local area. Here in Albuquerque the Hot Topic Monday Should be Tonights Gov Debate. Before you hit the air go over their answers and Fact Check. This past weekend there were two huge health care clinics privately funded and helped thousands! tie that in with the national debate on health care. The local host should be able to talk more than just local politics, they should know local, sports,entertainment,economy etc and be ENTERTAINING at the same time. we have a host here who is back in the Shock jock talk days and thinks 4 leter words are entertainment is it?
Here is a question posed to me by a listener Do you air a High Quality National Show with a whos who of guests and topics or do you air a Local rush wannabe..what do you think.
Here is a question posed to me by a listener Do you air a High Quality National Show with a whos who of guests and topics or do you air a Local rush wannabe..what do you think.
There's not a LOT of Pgh-centric content on "Quinn and Rose", at least in the times I've tuned in (I'm not a regular listener).
The show positions itself as "America's Morning Show", but still feels too regional to me.
The problem with talk-format morning shows and syndication will limit what Quinn can do. Even the most penny-pinching local station in markets of any size try to put on something resembling a local morning drive show, and the tiny markets may be running Doug Stephan already.
The show positions itself as "America's Morning Show", but still feels too regional to me.
The problem with talk-format morning shows and syndication will limit what Quinn can do. Even the most penny-pinching local station in markets of any size try to put on something resembling a local morning drive show, and the tiny markets may be running Doug Stephan already.
Or possibly America's Morning News, which WAVL "Liberty 910" in Apollo (whose 5,000-watt daytime signal reaches Pittsburgh some 25 miles away) picked up when it flipped from contemporary Christian to talk a few weeks ago. It runs Bill Bennett from 9-noon, Neal Boortz from noon-3 (his FOURTH stop in Pittsburgh), Dave Ramsey from 3-6 (Ramsey had been on 2-5 even when WAVL was "Praise 910"), Clark Howard from 6-9 and John Batchelor from 9-1. WAVL drops to 68 watts at night which barely reaches the state police barracks across the river from Apollo.
Do I really think an AM station is going to make any sort of dent in an FM talker's ratings?
No. But Pittsburgh has some pretty strange radio trends these days.
Also, I suspect WAVL, which is owned by an Assembly of God, found it needed a niche it didn't think anyone else was filling in its area, which also is covered by two other religious AMs as well as a 2 AM/1 FM combo in Butler (WAVL is licensed to Apollo but its studios are in Sarver, Butler County).
With 5,000 watts during the day, WAVL could draw some Pittsburgh area listeners.
With 68 watts at night, WAVL will find it hard to make a dent just in its home base.
No. But Pittsburgh has some pretty strange radio trends these days.
Also, I suspect WAVL, which is owned by an Assembly of God, found it needed a niche it didn't think anyone else was filling in its area, which also is covered by two other religious AMs as well as a 2 AM/1 FM combo in Butler (WAVL is licensed to Apollo but its studios are in Sarver, Butler County).
With 5,000 watts during the day, WAVL could draw some Pittsburgh area listeners.
With 68 watts at night, WAVL will find it hard to make a dent just in its home base.
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