Re: Dick Morris on WPHT 1210
Obviously WPHT has been hurt by the departure of its principle star, Michael Smerconish. The current PD said some negative things about Smerconish as he left, about his evolution to someone who's now left-of-center.
Clearly the folks at CBS Philadelphia can't seem to grasp the concept that Philadelphia has never, repeat NEVER, given good ratings to an all-conservative Talk station. When WWDB was a successful talk station, it always had a variety of hosts, liberal, centrist and conservative, but never an All-Conservative-All-The-Time format. Despite that history, WPHT's PD has made it clear he wants conservative hosts and only that.
I commend WPHT for going all-local, getting rid of Rush and his syndicated friends. But to replace them with local guys who are simply going to parrot Rush's opinions without Rush's skills as an entertainer makes no sense. While Rush, Beck and Hannity are chewing the furniture over the big stories of the day, bashing Pres. Obama non-stop on 106.9, the WPHT hosts are trying to mix local and national topics, with the same conservative zeal.
The other day, a host was complaining that legally you may not buy liquor in another state and bring it into Pennsylvania. In his mind this is a big liberal scandal, to control where you buy booze and make sure you pay Pennsylvania taxes. Wow! I'm sure that doesn't happen in conservative states. Has anyone ever been arrested for buying a few bottles of vodka in NJ and bringing them into Pennsylvania? How silly.
Even with Rush, Hannity, Beck, etc. and even with the fidelity of FM, WWIQ is only a few notches ahead of WPHT. They're both doing poorly. Hit the button between WWIQ, WPHT and Salem's WNTP. It's all super conservative in a liberal city surrounded by three fairly liberal states.
But I don't foresee WPHT giving up Talk or CBS selling it. I'd imagine they make enough money from clearing CBS commercials in Market #8 (even though they don't run CBS News most of the time) and Phillies games to keep it afloat.
