F
fred flintstone
Guest
RadioDailyNews.com:
Apparently, Parks has not figured out that Jerry is a big part of the problem - the problem with numbers and the problem with shrillness. Or maybe there are corporate politics issues working to keep Jerry on in Cincinnati. Cincinnati remains a corporate center for Clear Channel Radio (including Premiere Networks).
Despite Parks' compliants, Premiere Radio has not developed its own entry(ies) for the progressive talk format (unless you count Jerry Springer).
Clear Channel is also distributor for the Fox Sports Radio turn-key format (AAR would also qualify as a turn-key format), which badly trails ESPN Radio in both outlets and audiences. And sports talk is saleable. Even with small audiences, sports talk radio delivers the hard-to-get males in the money demo age segments which advertisers covet. Sports talk also avoids the challenge facing ALL political talk radio - major advertisers who do not want to seem associated with controversy and who will not buy political talk radio. Clear Channel also syndicates Jim Rome's sports talk program and has other local sports shows that could be candidates for syndication.
Clear Channel has more progressive talk stations than anybody else. Some are doing well. Others are not. Clear Channel has more of an incentive to push their sports talk products than to push progressive talk (distributed by AAR or Jones Radio). If a progressive talk station is not performing well, CC execs (like radio suits everywhere) will look elsewhere to place blame: Progressive talk is not right for the market. The format has peaked. AAR's product is shrill. They won't look at their own decisions which may have crippled some poor-performing progressive talk stations: AAR's weak morning drive programming. And CC's own Jerry Springer. It should be obvious by now: With a decent signal, a good local morning show and Stephanie Miller, progressive talk stations do OK. Without them, they don't. But given the nature of suits in radio, look for CC to start pruning its progressive talk stations, especially in favor of their own sports talk programming.
In the long run, maybe the worst thing that happened to progressive talk was the decision by the format's financial backers to kill Democracy Radio and put all their chips on AAR (and return to the failed policy of leasing stations). Despite hiring a guy to run it who had only political connections and no radio credentials, DR developed both Ed Schultz' and Stephanie Miller's programs. They also developed one local morning show, but put it on a weak station and hired a host who was more interested in going back where she came from and running for office. Now, without DR, nobody is developing programming (a problem that afflicts much of radio) - especially local programming progressive talk needs.
The article points out WCKY has shown declining numbers since it launched a year and a half ago and "The Homer" has shown consistent growth, adding:
Apparently, Parks has not figured out that Jerry is a big part of the problem - the problem with numbers and the problem with shrillness. Or maybe there are corporate politics issues working to keep Jerry on in Cincinnati. Cincinnati remains a corporate center for Clear Channel Radio (including Premiere Networks).
Despite Parks' compliants, Premiere Radio has not developed its own entry(ies) for the progressive talk format (unless you count Jerry Springer).
Clear Channel is also distributor for the Fox Sports Radio turn-key format (AAR would also qualify as a turn-key format), which badly trails ESPN Radio in both outlets and audiences. And sports talk is saleable. Even with small audiences, sports talk radio delivers the hard-to-get males in the money demo age segments which advertisers covet. Sports talk also avoids the challenge facing ALL political talk radio - major advertisers who do not want to seem associated with controversy and who will not buy political talk radio. Clear Channel also syndicates Jim Rome's sports talk program and has other local sports shows that could be candidates for syndication.
Clear Channel has more progressive talk stations than anybody else. Some are doing well. Others are not. Clear Channel has more of an incentive to push their sports talk products than to push progressive talk (distributed by AAR or Jones Radio). If a progressive talk station is not performing well, CC execs (like radio suits everywhere) will look elsewhere to place blame: Progressive talk is not right for the market. The format has peaked. AAR's product is shrill. They won't look at their own decisions which may have crippled some poor-performing progressive talk stations: AAR's weak morning drive programming. And CC's own Jerry Springer. It should be obvious by now: With a decent signal, a good local morning show and Stephanie Miller, progressive talk stations do OK. Without them, they don't. But given the nature of suits in radio, look for CC to start pruning its progressive talk stations, especially in favor of their own sports talk programming.
In the long run, maybe the worst thing that happened to progressive talk was the decision by the format's financial backers to kill Democracy Radio and put all their chips on AAR (and return to the failed policy of leasing stations). Despite hiring a guy to run it who had only political connections and no radio credentials, DR developed both Ed Schultz' and Stephanie Miller's programs. They also developed one local morning show, but put it on a weak station and hired a host who was more interested in going back where she came from and running for office. Now, without DR, nobody is developing programming (a problem that afflicts much of radio) - especially local programming progressive talk needs.