microbob said:
55WKRC is down to a 2.9 running the tired Conservative syndicated talkers. WLW is still doing well with The Reds. Oklahoma City is getting its Sixth Sports talker on a FM signal. Maybe The Fan doesn't need ratings to survive?
I posted some thoughts about the decline of talk radio on the Columbus board. I had a few ideas I thought I'd throw around here as well:
1. Local and interactive is what's missing, IMO. WHIO still makes it work because they have an active news department, but stations like KRC are on auto-pilot and remind me of those old automated stations out in small towns in the 1980's which were really boring to listen to. Is there any way to change the format of these shows so there is some local participation? Good luck getting through to Rush Limbaugh, but maybe they could cut away a few times a half hour to a producer taking a local call in studio? Could you alternate between Rush and local callers every 5 minutes?
2. I really like the way Ken Broo mixes in 80's Pop music and talks about the song and the bands during his weekend show. I not only like his musical tastes, but these diversions make an otherwise boring show during a sleepy time of the day (for generating callers) seem to move along a little faster. More hosts should do this ... but don't bore us with rock or alternative. Just some good old-fashioned high-energy pop with a beat will make the show move. That's what Rush does for his bumper music. I wonder if this might make talk shows sound a little livelier.
3. I have an idea when it comes to voice tracking. Even some of the larger Clear Channel stations like WNCI (I think) have only two local shows a day with the rest of the day being voice-tracked and I think it just plain stinks.
I'm wondering if voice-tracking is a sound concept, but it's being done in a bass-ackwards manner. Instead of having just two (or however many) local shows, should stations go back to live talent most if not during all of the day?
... But before you start screaming at me about how this can't be done for economic reasons, hear me out because I have a different twist on this subject.
What if you have took all the stations in a local cluster or over at least a couple of nearby cities that might have a similar affinity when it comes to sports teams (that is, if you don't have enough music stations in a particular cluster). You could continue to do unique morning shows on each station in a cluster (as is mostly the case today) and maybe an afternoon show if the station is important enough.
I would have live, local talent the rest of the day, but I would do it in such a way where you would have the same voice heard on all stations in the cluster at other times of the day. Maybe you could use computer technology to create a "delay" in order to stagger the "live" (or close enough to being live) segments so it runs in proper sequence with song endings and whatnot.
It seems to me that a local announcer talking about the fireworks on four or five stations simultaneously is a lot better than someone from a far away place. At least it would sound like someone is there with you in the car, rather than someone from Philadelphia sending out prerecorded sound files.
Best of both worlds. You would have both the live/local element AND you would have the cost savings.
Would this work?
