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It Took Longer Than Expected But Bye, Bye Talk 1200

B

bobbailey

Finally I can stand on top of the mountain and say I told you so.....my sources at CC Boston were right after all. That "ratings king" Jeff Katz is hitting
the road...Big Surprise....!!!!! Good luck to him getting another on-air job in this market...he should have known better to uproot his whole family for this
pipe dream.
But I am sure he received quite a settlement from CC and won't be bellying up to the unemployemnt office any time soon.
I do feel bad for the other employees that lost their jobs yesterday from the news department with Angela Anderson and George Brown to Jay Severin to the
board ops.
My sources at 10 Cabot Road say that an announcement will be made by mid-week as to what the new format will be and they are thrilled that an extra handicap spot will
be available in the parking lot in the mornings.
Stay tuned.
 
Where have you been? This is old news. Not sure why you hate Jeff, nice man, wish him the best. Maybe he goes back to Charlotte or who knows where, but I hope he finds something.

The format may last another week or two or maybe beyond depending on whether or not they can place
the other shows elsewhere.
 
I for one am glad Bob was right this time. CC gave Conservative Talk a chance but at the end of the day the audience for far right propaganda is not limitless, when you basically hear the same thing on other outlets, Talk 1200 never gave people a good reason to switch.

People on the Jeff Katz FB page kept asking "what is going on?" Why the switch? I wondered if these people ever read a newspaper or went on a site other the the Blaze or The Daily Caller. Did any of them realize that Talk 1200's audience was only slightly better or at times lower than some of the College radio stations?

I am happy Katz is out of work temporarily Since he has his name calling act down cold once he learns the names of the local politicians in another market he will be back doing what some people would think is a parody of wing nut radio.
 
People are reading too much into the right wing part of talk 1200. The bottom line is that it was on a signal that nobody knew about or bothered to sample. That to me was the biggest hurdle for the station. It wasn't like a station that had an audience flipped to conservatalk, it was a station that most people never knew was there. And in Boston, most people that listen to AM don't go past 1030 on the dial, there isn't much past there to listen to unless you're a: Devout Catholic, kid (Radio Disney) or are fluent in Spanish.

If the same format had been on a signal like RKO or 96.9, it would still be there.

It's not going to flip to libtalk either... there's a format that even in liberal towns like Boston doesn't do well because most of the hosts are flops. If they can find a "Rush for the Left" then maybe, but that person hasn't come along. They all tend to be about as light hearted as funeral procession, and I don't know why. The worst one is that Amy Goodman on Democracy Now... my GOD has that woman ever laughed at anything or even smiled in her life??????
 
WNTIRadio said:
It's not going to flip to libtalk either... there's a format that even in liberal towns like Boston doesn't do well because most of the hosts are flops. If they can find a "Rush for the Left" then maybe, but that person hasn't come along. They all tend to be about as light hearted as funeral procession, and I don't know why.
Click to expand...
I find Stephanie Miller plenty amusing (though she can dwell on certain subjects a bit too long) and expect that she would gain some traction on a half-decent signal, and with reasonable promotion. At least she understands that the show needs to be entertaining, and has bits, banter with her mooks, and guests rather than a droning monologue like some lefty talkers. Ed Schultz is less of a draw, but he should do OK with the working men and women...
 
But that's one show... how do you fill the rest of the schedule??

I'm not against the idea--it's a business and if it can make money, then put it on. So far though, there's slim pickins (no relation) for entertaining liberal talk.

Air America almost had the right idea, their failure was trying to sell the ENTIRE network at once to stations instead of syndicating each show and letting the market decide which ones were the successful ones. They need to brush up on that they hate, capitalism, before they have a successful network of shows.
 
Just curious . . . Is this the first time Clear Channel has had a major market format flop? They own some mighty big AM stations that are on, or near, the top of the ratings heaps.
 
Technically you could say the 1200/1430 simulcast of Air America, 2004-06.

They may not stay talk but if they do and want to keep it comp.-sat. run I could see: Imus, Beck,
John Gibson, Hannity, Andy Dean (in his natural time slot 6 p ET), Levin, and either Bohanon or
Redeye. Naturally they want to keep it on the cheap and clear the CC shows (other than Rush and
C2C that go to RKO). Or yeah who knows, Spanish, true oldies or whatever. (Would they take a chance
on progtalk? Guessing not but who knows. CC does offer Randi Rhodes...my hunch says no)
 
I guess 1200 was one too many talk stations in Boston. With the demise of WODS, running Scott Shannons True Oldies Channel would fill a void..but then again, it's on AM and how many listeners would they get? I would love to hear a live,local 50's 60's based oldies format, but that is just wishful thinking.
 
benale said:
I guess 1200 was one too many talk stations in Boston. With the demise of WODS, running Scott Shannons True Oldies Channel would fill a void..but then again, it's on AM and how many listeners would they get? I would love to hear a live,local 50's 60's based oldies format, but that is just wishful thinking.
Click to expand...

That's for sure, no advertising agency would come within a hundred miles of that station. Oh, well ... life -- and music on radio -- is for the young and sellable.

I think 1200's big problem was that it was being pitched to listeners who already were entrenched on AM, largely on WRKO or WBZ. Unless they lived in MetroWest, 1200 was a frequency they'd never listened to and, if they had, the signal was weak and the programming bland and ultra-local. CC managed to get the signal competitive in Boston and put up a few billboards, but dragging entrenched 680 and 1030 (not to mention the sports talk on 850) listeners to a whole new frequency strikes me as a battle that was never going to be won.

With fewer and fewer radios and radio-like devices even including the AM band, I would think CC would do what it knows best and roll out a lineup of angry conservative talk for a few years then either sell 1200 to a brokered-ethnic outlet or just pull the plug for good.
 
Who knows, though maybe someone can pay 1200 some $ to get a couple prog talk shows on..they could do some conserv talk shows but some lib ones too (as Dan S pointed out on boston prog talk yahoo group). CC may not want to make it liberal talk but if they can get $ from it by accepting brokered time... ?

>>angry conservative talk

Now now, let's not forget some angry liberal talk shows might make it there too :)
 
CTListener said:
I would think CC would do what it knows best and roll out a lineup of angry conservative talk for a few years then either sell 1200 to a brokered-ethnic outlet or just pull the plug for good.
Click to expand...

After all the money they just poured into relocation and upgrade, highly unlikely (in terms of “just pulling the plug”). ;)
 
The signal is everything. Probably the most south I got 1200 was Milton. And thats a huge chunk of listeners in Bristol and Plymouth County to leave out to try and comepete with the other talkers. (Even though 680's signal blows in SE Mass too). Anybody with real Boston radio sense knows, if your going to compete in the Boston market and wanna play with the big boys, you need the coverage from North to South in Eastern Mass

I just think that 24 right wing radio just doesn't work in a market like boston (as much as the Herald and Clear Channel pretend that it can work here). What is your main audience for shows like Rush, Beck and Hannity? 50+ white folk and the demographic is becoming irrelavant now. The whole talk radio scene sucks. Take it from someone in there early 20's working in the radio business and always asking people in my demographic there listening tendacies and nobody listens to AM or Talk except for....WBZ. For the news/traffic/weather.

I feel if you can put a good tag team of a liberal and conservative show together it can and will work if you get the right hosts but I think for theses stations to be serious...you need the FM band. I know all you AM junkies out there will hate me for saying that but this is the way of the industry now...unless your WBZ...it's not gonna work.

Someone I know over there in Medford is getting the sense it'll be Fox Sports Radio full time....we'll see....
 
NERadio2007 said:
What is your main audience for shows like Rush, Beck and Hannity? 50+ white folk and the demographic is becoming irrelavant now.
Click to expand...

There's plenty of anti-Obama, anti-liberal, anti-networks sentiment -- both rational and irrational -- to go around, and it's not limited to the old.
 
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