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John Catsimatidis Will be Acquiring another Station

I don't know about lots of listeners or very high ratings, but the show must be doing well enough for it to remain on WABC after all these years.
That is a very good point. If the show does as well as other shows on that time period, an owner would want to keep it. Individual shows are evaluated for how the fit, how they sustain listenership and how they ad va ríete within the format. This one seems to meet those criteria.
 
It appears that Frank Morano may be heading in that direction also. He's mulling a run for NYC City Council, for a Staten Island district currently held by a term-limited Republican, Joseph Borelli–which would mean goodbye to "The Other Side of Midnight".

According to this campaign website, he intends to make known his final plans very soon. Not only are there filing and fundraising deadlines to be met, his affiliates like WGN, KMOX and WCCO need to decide what they're gonna do if he does leave.
Now, I'm hearing inside info that Morano will continue to do The Other Side of Midnight while campaigning for NYC City Council–but only for his affiliates outside of New York. WABC will not carry the program in this scenario.

I have my doubts this will last. Not that Morano is a credible candidate anyway, but this ego-driven decision to maintain an overnight radio show and run for elected office simultaneously will come to a head eventually.
 
I have my doubts this will last. Not that Morano is a credible candidate anyway, but this ego-driven decision to maintain an overnight radio show and run for elected office simultaneously will come to a head eventually.

Much of Morano's program could be pre-recorded. He has a standard litany of guests on his show, some of which he takes callers for, others not. He would have to eliminate the call-ins from listeners (e.g. the Dr. Sky segments would have to be recorded with Frank basically interviewing him) and the 4am hour where is usually all call-ins w/ the exception of the segment with Noam Laden and Brian Kilmeade.

I do not know details of Frank's syndication... for example, the 4am hour tends to be local stuff, so would that hour be syndicated? I could easily see Frank scaling back to 1-4 with prerecorded material, and Noam taking over the 4-5 slot.

Frank has been very involved in various aspects of politics in NYC for a while, so IMO he is a credible candidate, unless you know something I do not.
 
Frank has been very involved in various aspects of politics in NYC for a while, so IMO he is a credible candidate, unless you know something I do not.
He's more of a political activist/rabble-rowser than someone who has spent time working in the trenches, like the guy he wants to replace. He is also a conspiracy theorist, which is something we need a lot less of in elected office.
 
Much of Morano's program could be pre-recorded. He has a standard litany of guests on his show, some of which he takes callers for, others not. He would have to eliminate the call-ins from listeners (e.g. the Dr. Sky segments would have to be recorded with Frank basically interviewing him) and the 4am hour where is usually all call-ins w/ the exception of the segment with Noam Laden and Brian Kilmeade.
We had a local host who did this as he got older. His show was a 10pm-1am call-in, but he gradually reduced the number of calls from listeners (which were reducing in quality as social media took over, and the number of prank calls that made it to air was increasing) and increased the guests, interviews and even started playing a bit of music, and the calls disappeared altogether. After a period, it turned out he was pre-recording the whole thing in the daytime.
 
We had a local host who did this as he got older. His show was a 10pm-1am call-in, but he gradually reduced the number of calls from listeners (which were reducing in quality as social media took over, and the number of prank calls that made it to air was increasing) and increased the guests, interviews and even started playing a bit of music, and the calls disappeared altogether. After a period, it turned out he was pre-recording the whole thing in the daytime.
If these sad-sack talk show hosts would understand that the crank callers and weirdos are what make the show engaging and funny to listen to. But they're more interested in propaganda than entertainment.
 
I used to love the overnights with Jay Marvin on WLS, he would get some "interesting" callers and depending on his mood could just go off on them. Wasn't very "polite" but made for some seriously fun radio.
Gene Burns used to do the same thing on KGO, bate them and then reel them in. Gene was a libertarian but not a doctrinaire one. It made for some great radio, because these callers were so predictable and so damn stupid.
 
I used to love the overnights with Jay Marvin on WLS, he would get some "interesting" callers and depending on his mood could just go off on them. Wasn't very "polite" but made for some seriously fun radio.

Gene Burns used to do the same thing on KGO, bate them and then reel them in. Gene was a libertarian but not a doctrinaire one. It made for some great radio, because these callers were so predictable and so damn stupid.
This is one of the reasons I like listening to Ben Maller on Fox Sports Radio - he'll have some drunk call in at 3 AM and ask, "Is this Ben Maller?" and he'll say, "No, Ben just stepped out for a smoke, this is Bill Miller!" Another good one is when someone asks if Ben can hear them and Ben says, "Not at all"
 
This is one of the reasons I like listening to Ben Maller on Fox Sports Radio - he'll have some drunk call in at 3 AM and ask, "Is this Ben Maller?" and he'll say, "No, Ben just stepped out for a smoke, this is Bill Miller!" Another good one is when someone asks if Ben can hear them and Ben says, "Not at all"
I might have to get a better radio in order to pick up the Fox Sports Radio affiliate in my locality. It's a 5 kilowatt regional rimshotter, but yeah that's pretty much the reason my talk radio listening now is mostly sports shows.
 
I might have to get a better radio in order to pick up the Fox Sports Radio affiliate in my locality. It's a 5 kilowatt regional rimshotter, but yeah that's pretty much the reason my talk radio listening now is mostly sports shows.
Same, I'm not even that into sports, but if it's late at night and I want to hear a human voice on the radio, I'm happy to listen to sports yap and callers, there'll be something mildly interesting on, some pleasant people and light-hearted chat, and it's intensely preferable to political ranting. I wonder how many sports radio listeners, especially at night, are like me, people who just want to hear chat but not political chat.

Everything is politics these days on talk radio - I miss the days of the old non-political radio talk show, where they'd weave around all sorts of subjects through the night.
 
When WLIB was off the air for a few days, I heard Fox Sports Radio booming in loud and clear on 1190 kHz just before sunset, from WTSD in the D.C. area. It made me think WLIB was back on, and that's what they had changed their format to!
 


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