• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Herald: WRKO Red Eye Overnights; WXKS (AM) lousy ratings

Maybe right wing radio is doing OK in Boston--various RKO and TKK shows and Rea on WBZ--but not so much WXKS? And left wing radio, non-commercial at least, does well (BUR, GBH)

Hannity has tough competition from Howie and Severin. But as they point out even el Rushbo is flat.

If anything Clear Channel is getting some
ads/shows “cleared” in Boston, and they probably make enough money on their FM signals (Jamn 94.5, Kiss 108) to subsidize
the conservative talk
 
but the idea is not to subsidize, the idea is to make a profit.

In the short term you invest in a new format in hopes of building the station into something that makes more money than it was before and recouping the investment and then some.

If CC thought people were going to follow Rush to 1200 in this market they were wrong.

I spend a lot more time listening to 96.9, and even listened to Charlie Manning for a while yesterday. Rush is way down on my list for a bunch of reasons, the crappy sound and signal being two of them, his content being another.
 
Many talk stations around the country surged in the ratings as a result of the midterm elections and the energized conservative base that makes up talk radio's P1 audience. That surge, just like the election results here in Massachusetts, missed the talkers here. You have to wonder if RKO, TKK & XKS-AM can't thrive in this political enviornment, what is the future of conservative talk in the market? WRKO is a mess, and it will only get worse when Howie leaves in a year or two. WTKK is still searching for an identity (and ratings) even after 10 years on a big signal FM. Rush Radio is getting similar numbers as the old progressive talk format got, even with an upgraded signal, much more promotion and its superstar national lineup. The cumes on these stations are among the lowest of all stations in the market, and the shares aren't much better. Talk is also the most expensive formats to run locally. When Howies salary alone is the equivalent of 25% of his station's gross revenues, that can't be sustainable long term. The format needs less competitors and a commitment to bring in younger and more moderate listeners.

Either that, or maybe Boston is just an NPR kind of town....
 
One thing's for sure; we hear talk of WEEI possibly moving to FM or a simulcast but not so much
WRKO. Stations like WTAG or WPRO are doing that but I doubt 680 would. If they are making a profit, even a small one, RKO could stay with talk --but what happens when the contracts for
Howie, Finneran, etc. expire? There must be a reason why they stay talk.

Is it a case now of too many talkers, and inevitably one will flip? More likely XKS though I get the feeling Clear Channel wants to stay with it at least a little while rather than a sudden flip soon.
The signal is improved--for people like me, though some still have problems. They want to clear their shows and the model is to have Beck, Rush, Hannity, etc., plus at least one local show (just like
having John "Ozone" Osterlind on Rush Radio 99.5 in New Orleans...listened to him when I visited.
Their competition is ironically from Entercom--WWL which has local talk on both AM and FM)
http://www.wwl.com/

They are competing with both RKO and TKK shows, plus WBZ at night. And again since WBZ
gets huge numbers--perhaps mostly from news--we can't say conservative talk has failed since
Rea is prob doing well, also.

Howie does keep throwing hints about how in a couple years he won't have to mention that people can tune to WCRN if they can't pick up WRKO after sunset. Whether he can find a home
at Greater or CBS, who knows.

As for WTKK what would they go to if they dumped talk--smooth jazz? Doubt it; foreign?
CHurban? What?

It would be interesting if Clear Channel did pack up Rush Radio. I would expect WRKO to be offered him again; no room on WTKK? After all they need to place I'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim Michael Graham
in that slot (and first hr of Severin). (EXTREMELY unlikely but if they wanted to pick up some
money, sell 96.9 to Entercom: WEEI 96.9... Again, EXTREMELY unlikely!)

Yes the idea is to make a profit not subsidize but I'm saying that's probably what's happening here now. It's like a "loss leader".
 
bostonradio tweeted to me that CC could be keeping the seat warm for Howie in '12...if so, I replied,
I could see Howie getting a new "network" that would also include WTAG, WHJJ etc (CC stations).
Perhaps even WGIR?
WTAG is also at 94.1 FM in Worc
 
Providence is now a market that Arbitron measure with PPM devices; a month ago, they measured WXKS-AM as getting the number of people who could fit into a college basketball auditorium. For the latest PPM: zilch. My theory is that they multiply the PPM users who tune in to WXKS-AM by a certain number to get the cume. Those people went away.
 
Laurence was citing the story in the "Chicopee Herald"* about WXKS ratings; surprised he reads
the "Wrestling News" as the Globe-Democrat used to call them. Careful, he may wake up one morning declaring that Howie Carr is a great writer and he might someday vote Republican.
It's a conspiracy! Brainwashing! :)

*--perhaps similar to the "New York Banner" that is a big part of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"..?
 
raccoonradio said:
Laurence was citing the story in the "Chicopee Herald"* about WXKS ratings; surprised he reads
the "Wrestling News" as the Globe-Democrat used to call them. Careful, he may wake up one morning declaring that Howie Carr is a great writer and he might someday vote Republican.
It's a conspiracy! Brainwashing! :)

*--perhaps similar to the "New York Banner" that is a big part of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"..?
Click to expand...
If I go to the Boston board of Radio-info.com, and view a link to a Herald story about radio, then I will read it, and even leave a clarifying comment. I post to the Boston Globe all the time, but I only registered at the Herald only recently because of a link that contained something compelling. Most other Herald comments are the most definitive refutation of evolution available.
 
Ah! So if John Kerry does an op-ed for the Herald, which he has done, then... :) just kidding!
I try to get in there to lend a bit of info to articles about the sports radio war, or the
lousy signals of RKO and XKS (AM) etc! Mark S. of Boston Radio Watch mentioned that Jessica H.
was reacting to lousy ratings for XKS after a mere 9 months, when even from the start of
Rush Radio, CC was pointing out it would take time to build an audience.

Don't forget also that more than a bit of Jeff Katz's show (and the end of Hannity, etc.) is done while it's dark
and recep can be really tough. I wonder how the fans of Coast to Coast put up with it? Maybe can try getting it on a diff station.
 
Yikes...the masked man has followed me to Charlie Pierce's blog. So far, he has left my utterances at the Opera-List blog unanswered. (He wouldn't understand the historical reference to Beethoven playing in the Bonn Opera Orchestra as a yute and the possibility of music from Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienned" being an inspiration for LvB's Third Symphony, although that's a well-known meme in the musical community).
 
All I know is if I had to change a format from classical to rock I'd use either Roll Over Beethoven
(C. Berry, Beatles, ELO) or Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven :) (These days Murphy does
music for Family Guy)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom