Apparently syndicated host Micheal Smerconish has an opinion similar to mine...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173587119
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173587119
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IS THIS THE END FOR CONSERVATIVE TALK? (PART 2)....
- Thread starter Parttimer
- Start date
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
Wake up and smell da money! Like Stern and Laura Schlesinger
he is doing this for the CASH. No matter what sort of high-sounding
principles he spouts as being his reasons.
he is doing this for the CASH. No matter what sort of high-sounding
principles he spouts as being his reasons.
FreddyE1977 said:
And that would make him different than other broadcasters.... how?
And that would make him different than other people who stir the political soup via Blogs and other methods.... how?
One can go have a "day job" of some kind that provides enough money to live on and then devote some time and energy to being a verbalizing-person on topics that are political and social, or one can make a living in the process of verbalizing topics that are political and social. Either way seems to be accepted as part of the American scene today.
Having walked out the door as a broadcast gig ended a few times myself, it is possible there is some issue other than the viability of doing talk via broadcast at work here. For us to try and analyze what has happened here and write the history book today is probably a bit ludicrous on our part.
Today we can't look forward to the day when Paul Havey will tell us "The Rest of the Story".
Good grief...here we go again. :
"It's over for conservative talk!!!"
We were one of the first four affiliates of a former KQV jock (Jeff Christie) in 1988. Within four months of his debut, Rush was being derided as a sensationalistic, opportunistic knee-jerk neo-Nazi and _________________ (fill in your favorite pejorative here.) HE WON'T LAST, we were told. 24 years ago. I was there.
Interactive talk, mostly conservative/libertarian, has been one of the few bright spots and growth areas in our industry for about.....TWO decades now.
NPR wishes that Smerconish, a middling talent at best, is a harbinger of doom for this dominant - and still successful - format.
"It's over for conservative talk!!!"
We were one of the first four affiliates of a former KQV jock (Jeff Christie) in 1988. Within four months of his debut, Rush was being derided as a sensationalistic, opportunistic knee-jerk neo-Nazi and _________________ (fill in your favorite pejorative here.) HE WON'T LAST, we were told. 24 years ago. I was there.
Interactive talk, mostly conservative/libertarian, has been one of the few bright spots and growth areas in our industry for about.....TWO decades now.
NPR wishes that Smerconish, a middling talent at best, is a harbinger of doom for this dominant - and still successful - format.
I listened to Smerconish for several years. When he did mornings at WPHT, I could get him on my way to work in Western PA. I actually liked that show best - his reasoned conservativism was interesting - but the popular culture segments and even local stories were very well done. I listened via syndication and later podcast when he moved to afternoons. His show was good but he always seemed to be swimming up stream.
I think his contention that there is little room for moderation and civility on radio is correct. However, Smerconish always seems to fall just short of the national platform he clearly wants. He has been in the running to host several cable TV shows, but has to be content with commentary and fill-in for Chris Matthews. It is a little ironic that he decries extreme viewpoints, but he keeps kissing up to Matthews who certainly isn't moderate.
I suspect that a big impetus to go to satellite is that his syndication was mainly second and third tier markets - and - there is likely to be a big shake-out at his home base, WPHT.
I think his contention that there is little room for moderation and civility on radio is correct. However, Smerconish always seems to fall just short of the national platform he clearly wants. He has been in the running to host several cable TV shows, but has to be content with commentary and fill-in for Chris Matthews. It is a little ironic that he decries extreme viewpoints, but he keeps kissing up to Matthews who certainly isn't moderate.
I suspect that a big impetus to go to satellite is that his syndication was mainly second and third tier markets - and - there is likely to be a big shake-out at his home base, WPHT.
Savage said:Good grief...here we go again. :
"It's over for conservative talk!!!"
We were one of the first four affiliates of a former KQV jock (Jeff Christie) in 1988. Within four months of his debut, Rush was being derided as a sensationalistic, opportunistic knee-jerk neo-Nazi and _________________ (fill in your favorite pejorative here.) HE WON'T LAST, we were told. 24 years ago. I was there.
Interactive talk, mostly conservative/libertarian, has been one of the few bright spots and growth areas in our industry for about.....TWO decades now.
None of which addresses the question of whether listeners are tiring of the programming.
Boss Radio said:
And based on the ratings at stations like WPGB, WFLA in Tampa, and WDBO in Orlando I think that answer is yes.
I enjoyed Rush years ago.... then still defended him after he lost his edge.. but now I find him to be a tired caricature of his former self. As Smerconish said in the article, the format is too old, too white, too male, too angry these days.
Glenn Beck was hugely entertaining and very funny in his days in Tampa before syndication. Frankly that show gave very little hint of a conservative point of view, and his bits sounded like the Greaseman's old stuff from DC without Grease's constant off-color themes. Wish the climate would let him go back to that sort of show....
Time for new blood and new ways of doing talk....
Smerconish was as conservative as they come until 2008. If you read his books, he was at least as far right as Limbaugh or Savage. Then, he openly campaigned for Obama, reading his autobiography on the air over the course of weeks. No wonder Obama agreed to do an interview on his show. Smerconish is, it turns out, not so much a conservative, as an opportunist who made an overnight 360 degree change in his views.
kaysguy said:
Which begs the question: Today... who defines what is a conservative. One can make a pretty decent debate point that Democrats today observe more conservative traits than does the "base" of the Republican party. Back in the days when Richard Lugar was a school-board member in Indianapolis, and the mayor in Indianapolis, I was quite familiar with the man. Interviewed him on the air multiple times. If I were writing a dictionary piece on "conservatives" I would possible put Lugar's picture with the dictionary entry.
But today's Republicans have decided that Mr. Lugar does not fit their definition of a conservative.
So tell me how we go about deciding if Smerconish WAS conservative, and deciding if Smerconish is CURRENTLY conservative, or if he was EVER conservative.
We're having this big hullaballoo about "Who is Smerconish" and in the process we seem to be demonstrating that we really don't know much about who WE are.
With regard to Smerconish's career in the media, ideology has not been the main driver - ambition has. He is above average in talent, but way above average in scrambling. He graduated from Lehigh University, as I did. During the (different) times we were there, it was highly ambition driven. If your skills weren't tops (and mine aren't) you learned to work hard and be opportunistic. Another poster used this term for Smerconish and it fits well. He has been opportunistic in his relationship with Obama, Specter & Matthews to advance his career, not their ideology. And if it advanced their agenda, that was OK with him.
I listened for years before and after his embrace of Obama. My impression of his positions:
National security, support for military personnel and police - conservative
Taxes and deficit spending - in favor of reducing govenment expenditures, especially waste in defense & entitlement as well as a major tax overhaul - moderate/conservative
Social issues - very tolerant of values that are more liberal than his own - moderate
Hard left liberals probably find him easier to take than hard right conservatives, even though he skews conservative, and the liberal/moderate radio audience has not proven strong enough.
As he tried for national exposure, his radio program became more political with attempts at focus on popular culture. I'll bet that he is disappoined and worried that his national syndication performance has been tepid. Philadelphia home base WPHT may be spiralling down, so in satellite he is seeking safe harbor and one more run at a national cable TV hosting gig.
I listened for years before and after his embrace of Obama. My impression of his positions:
National security, support for military personnel and police - conservative
Taxes and deficit spending - in favor of reducing govenment expenditures, especially waste in defense & entitlement as well as a major tax overhaul - moderate/conservative
Social issues - very tolerant of values that are more liberal than his own - moderate
Hard left liberals probably find him easier to take than hard right conservatives, even though he skews conservative, and the liberal/moderate radio audience has not proven strong enough.
As he tried for national exposure, his radio program became more political with attempts at focus on popular culture. I'll bet that he is disappoined and worried that his national syndication performance has been tepid. Philadelphia home base WPHT may be spiralling down, so in satellite he is seeking safe harbor and one more run at a national cable TV hosting gig.
And the ratings you guys are looking at to TRY and make your point are post-election numbers which, for conservative talk stations are always lower than before the elections.
Also, some of the stations you're talking about have recently fired a number of local news reporters and anchors and are not providing the level of local news coverage they once did. Good local news coverage is ESSENTIAL for the success of a talk station. Ask just about anyone who's worked in the format.
Me thinks there's a lot of wishful thinking being expressed here.
Also, some of the stations you're talking about have recently fired a number of local news reporters and anchors and are not providing the level of local news coverage they once did. Good local news coverage is ESSENTIAL for the success of a talk station. Ask just about anyone who's worked in the format.
Me thinks there's a lot of wishful thinking being expressed here.
Jason Roberts said:
Never has anyone ever bundled up what you just wrote that I can remember! That is a jewel of a thought. It would be interesting, in view of that thought, to check out some of the stations that have done well or reasonably well with liberal talk.
In so many markets, particularly in the era of the Air America effort, the "experiment" has been to take some dog of a station that can't seem to find a workable format, and put some syndicated liberal talk on the station. 6 months or a year later, they throw in the towel, proclaiming: "Well that didn't work, did it."
If we have here a valid observation, then comes the question: Can a station create a news presence out of thin air at the same time they begin liberal talk and hope for traction, or do they need some time to establish their credibility as an honest-to-goodness news/journalism outlet and THEN add liberal content?
Has anyone profiled "talk radio listeners" to see what other traits they exhibit? Are talk radio listeners normally "news junkies"? There is something gnawing around inside me that says conservative talk radio listeners will not necessarily be avid news junkies. That same gnawing around in there says that a higher percentage of liberal talk listeners would exhibit signs of being news junkies. Nothing scientific there. Just sitting here trying to psycho-analyze people I am familiar with.... which is far too small a sample to be meaningful and accurate.
Silkie said:
That is a great answer.... in theory. It may be YOUR value system and you may be following it to the "N-th degree".
Unfortunately, when you look at today's current events, it is obvious the people who are beating their chests most vigorously and yelling the loudest: "WE are THE Conservatives in America. The rest of you jerks need to get out of the way and let US do it right!" have no comprehension of what you just wrote. If fact, many of them say it in unison with you.
But think about it. People who claim to be Conservators of the Constitution are figuring out every way how they can to deprive certain groups of people from voting.... or gerry-mander districts so some citizens have a value-less vote.
People who claim to be Conservators of the Constitution are figuring out every way they can to get the government into our bedrooms and tell us what we can do in there, and who we can and can't do it with.
People who claim to be Conservators of the Constitution are figuring out every way they can to stack the tax system in favor of some people, and dump the cost of running civilization on other people.
People who claim to be Conservators of the Constitution are daily throwing sand in the gears of the legislative process to the point that the concept of "self government" gets ground into grit and dust along with the gears of the process.
YOU may indeed be a Conservator of the Constitution.... but many of our fellow citizens who CLAIM that they are Conservatives don't seem to have the foggiest idea what the Constitution is saying to us. As a country, we all wander down the road, confident in the idea that the Constitution means what "I" want it to say.. and I don't really want to hear what "YOU" want it to say.
So, is this on topic for our thread? Probably. The END or the FUTURE of Conservative Talk depends on the people SAY they are conservative "getting some religion" on the subject, and start walking and talking like conservatives.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
Have to agree with FM Hertz that the news on WPGB is just awful, pathetic, not even worth
doing at this point. Would I sit through an hour of Tradio or Ask The Phlebotomist waiting
around for KD's newscast? Doubtful. My radio has a dial and I know when the news is coming on.
I'm not listening to conservative talk that much myself nowadays. Why?
Because the voters have spoken, and what you see is what we're gonna get
for the next 4 years., regardless of my personal feelings about it. It's just not
worth getting all riled-up over all the things I don't agree with every day. Doesn't
mean I've turned them off forever.
As far as Smerconish is concerned, obviously a guy who's mad that he can't make as
much money as Limbaugh, so he's taking his ball and going to XM.
doing at this point. Would I sit through an hour of Tradio or Ask The Phlebotomist waiting
around for KD's newscast? Doubtful. My radio has a dial and I know when the news is coming on.
I'm not listening to conservative talk that much myself nowadays. Why?
Because the voters have spoken, and what you see is what we're gonna get
for the next 4 years., regardless of my personal feelings about it. It's just not
worth getting all riled-up over all the things I don't agree with every day. Doesn't
mean I've turned them off forever.
As far as Smerconish is concerned, obviously a guy who's mad that he can't make as
much money as Limbaugh, so he's taking his ball and going to XM.
S
stevensonair
Guest
Why is the assumption that he's "mad" about it? Maybe he just wants to take the opportunity to move off of AM radio, which is a slowly dying platform for any view.
I'd think conservatives would support Smerconish pursuing his paycheck however is lawful and he deems appropriate for his personal goals. The negative reactions to this move make no sense.
I'd think conservatives would support Smerconish pursuing his paycheck however is lawful and he deems appropriate for his personal goals. The negative reactions to this move make no sense.
F.M.Hertz said:
Except for several years WPGB was beating KDKA handily with the same news policies in place at both stations.
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