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KTRH & Glenn Beck

B

bayou_city_bob

KTRH's conversion to the standardized Clear Channel News/Talk lineup is complete.

Today, I saw an ad on KTRH.com promoting Glenn Beck, weekdays 9a-11a, starting February 2nd.

I guess this was expected, but I thought KTRH would have been able to avoid having to put Beck on after he bombed on KPRC.

I wonder if the combined billing of KTRH & KPRC is better now, then it was 1, 2 or 5 years ago before the constant tinkering of the lineups-- the elimination of most long-form newsblocks from KTRH-- and the elimination of many local host slots on both stations??
 
Sometimes I wonder if CC is testing their ideas at KLVI in Beaumont and then implementing them at KTRH. KLVI switched from Dr. Laura to Glenn Beck a couple of months ago in the 9 - 11 slot and if nothing else, maybe this is the standard CC template for their news / talk stations.
 
I'm glad they're doing it. I freakin' love Glenn Beck!

I'm sure the extended morning news on KTRH is great and all, but it's just not my thing. Every time I tune in, they're doing some sort of lifestyle interview with someone I could really care less about.
 
longform interviews work well when you dont have staff to cover real news.
 
Didn't KTRH get better ratings when they did all news all day? Of course, as others pointed out, they had to pay for a larger news staff back then ...
 
bayou_city_bob said:
KTRH's conversion to the standardized Clear Channel News/Talk lineup is complete.

Today, I saw an ad on KTRH.com promoting Glenn Beck, weekdays 9a-11a, starting February 2nd.

I guess this was expected, but I thought KTRH would have been able to avoid having to put Beck on after he bombed on KPRC.

I wonder if the combined billing of KTRH & KPRC is better now, then it was 1, 2 or 5 years ago before the constant tinkering of the lineups-- the elimination of most long-form newsblocks from KTRH-- and the elimination of many local host slots on both stations??
Click to expand...

glenn has *bombed* his way to the #3 show in the country and has a new show on fox. he must really suck.
 
It is possible to be huge in one market and bomb in another.
I believe the earlier poster for referring specifically to Beck's results or lack thereof at KPRC-AM.
 
Didn't KTRH get better ratings when they did all news all day? Of course, as others pointed out, they had to pay for a larger news staff back then ...

KTRH has never done "all news all day." It's always carried news blocks morning and afternoon, with local feature and call-in shows in between. For a time in the 70s and 80s they did an extended newscast that included sports and weather at noon. At night -- 7pm till 10pm -- there was a three hour general interest local call-in program that evolved into a sports call-in show at some point in the late 70s.

The key word in those preceding sentences was "local." ALL the call-in programs were local, with local hosts. I was one of them.

Yes there was a large news department, and there was also a large staff of call-in hosts, producers and call-screeners. They could afford a payroll that big because the station was top rated and making a ton of money.
 
FilioScotia said:

Yes there was a large news department, and there was also a large staff of call-in hosts, producers and call-screeners. They could afford a payroll that big because the station was top rated and making a ton of money.
Click to expand...

Of course, this was in the days before Clear Channel's purchase of KTRH.
 
fredcantu said:
It is possible to be huge in one market and bomb in another.
I believe the earlier poster for referring specifically to Beck's results or lack thereof at KPRC-AM.
Click to expand...

Beck also pulled abysmal ratings on CNN Headline News before he jumped to Fox. Perhaps he'll pull better on that network.
 
Sorry, Tim, not "abysmal."

Headline News is generally the lowest-rated in prime time among the top five cable news networks, but Beck didn't do any worse than Nancy Grace, with both of the shows pulling an average of about half-a-million viewers 25-54. They had a much bigger audience overall. Grace's show still remains popular, with the audience growing.

Beck's audience was steady and he has a devoted viewership. Working with CNN, I got the impression that Beck made CNN management nervous...

He'll undoubtedly do better on Fox because it's the highest-rated network in prime time, with will be good for Beck's prestige, even if he isn't in prime time.

And Fox does some nice promotional buildup, so it'll be easier for KTRH to get the word out about Beck's new time period.
 
stan said:
Sometimes I wonder if CC is testing their ideas at KLVI in Beaumont and then implementing them at KTRH. KLVI switched from Dr. Laura to Glenn Beck a couple of months ago in the 9 - 11 slot and if nothing else, maybe this is the standard CC template for their news / talk stations.
Click to expand...

It looks like this may be a new mandate from the C.C. Corporate headquarters. C.C. is taking Glenn Beck back
from some of the non C.C. radio stations that picked him up after they were dropped by C.C. stations a couple
of years ago. For example, a couple of years ago, the most popular station(WTVN) here in Columbus, Ohio dropped him from his 9:00AM to Noon time slot for a live and local talk show. They then offered Glenn Beck a spot on a weaker signal sister station. Glenn Beck refused the offer and went over to the competitors radio station. More on this from a article two years ago. Click here and scroll down:

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/01/05/20070105-B1-00.html

Glenn Beck is now going back to his old 9:00-Noon time slot on WTVN. Personnel, I didn't think WTVN would
want to bring Glenn Beck back because they would then have to sacrifice three hours of local talk programing.
After all, two years ago, there was a lot of hype about bringing a LIVE and LOCAL show to WTVN in the morning by dropping Glenn Beck's show. Now I find it hard to fathom that WTVN would want to drop three hours of local programming from their schedule to carry Glenn Beck becase they have traditional been big on
local content for their talk shows.

What dose this have to do with Houston and KTRH you ask.? I find it hard to fathom that KTRH is dropping two hours of local news to carry Glenn Beck. I don't think this decision is being made on a local level. After all, Houston is a major market and most major market have full time local news departments.
 
I find it hard to fathom that KTRH is dropping two hours of local news to carry Glenn Beck. I don't think this decision is being made on a local level. After all, Houston is a major market and most major market have full time local news departments.

You must not be from around here. KTRH isn't dropping two hours of local news or local programming for Glenn Beck. The time slot in question here is 9am till 11am, and KTRH is only switching from whatever syndicated talker it now has in that slot to carry GBeck, also syndicated. KTRH's AM and PM news segments are not affected.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're way off in assuming that most major market stations have full time local news departments. Not if Clear Channel has anything to say about it. Houston had news departments everywhere you looked until CC started buying up stations and closing news departments. Now, CC's KTRH staffers provide newscasts for the other CC stations.Non CC stations that still carry local newscasts are buying them from the Metro Networks, the newscast outsourcing firm.

From more than a dozen full time news departments 20 years ago, Houston is now down to just two. That's right -- there are now only two full time news operations in the Houston market. There's KTRH, but it's only a pale shadow of what it was 20 years ago. Most of its good personnel have moved on or been laid off.

And there's KUHF Houston Public Radio, which currently has a full time paid staff of seven reporters and newscasters, all former commercial reporters and anchors who have found new life and new careers in public radio. Most of them came to public radio from KTRH.Everybody at KUHF says public radio is a completely different world, and they wouldn't go back to commercial radio for all the tea in China.

Houston was -- at one time -- a big, energetic, lively, busy and competitive radio news market. You could find local news up and down the dial. And it was fun to work here. Those days are long gone. Thanks Clear Channel.
 
A New Year apology

I am responding to my own posting -- see the preceding post -- so I can apologize for the snotty way I responded to gabigley1. It didn't seem that way when I wrote it, but it sure does now, in the cold, gray light of dawn.

My apologies Mr Bigley1. Your posting deserved a bit more respect than my response appears to show.

If you don't live in or near Houston, there's no way you could know how horribly CC has destroyed the Houston radio news market.

I hereby resolve to be more circumspect in my postings in these spaces.
 
I'm soooo happy to have Glenn back live. I will have a real quandry, however, between him and Laura Ingraham. At least now I can hear Laura live and 1 hour of Glenn at 3:00.
 
FilioScotia said:
I find it hard to fathom that KTRH is dropping two hours of local news to carry Glenn Beck. I don't think this decision is being made on a local level. After all, Houston is a major market and most major market have full time local news departments.

You must not be from around here. KTRH isn't dropping two hours of local news or local programming for Glenn Beck. The time slot in question here is 9am till 11am, and KTRH is only switching from whatever syndicated talker it now has in that slot to carry GBeck, also syndicated. KTRH's AM and PM news segments are not affected.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're way off in assuming that most major market stations have full time local news departments. Not if Clear Channel has anything to say about it. Houston had news departments everywhere you looked until CC started buying up stations and closing news departments. Now, CC's KTRH staffers provide newscasts for the other CC stations.Non CC stations that still carry local newscasts are buying them from the Metro Networks, the newscast outsourcing firm.

From more than a dozen full time news departments 20 years ago, Houston is now down to just two. That's right -- there are now only two full time news operations in the Houston market. There's KTRH, but it's only a pale shadow of what it was 20 years ago. Most of its good personnel have moved on or been laid off.

And there's KUHF Houston Public Radio, which currently has a full time paid staff of seven reporters and newscasters, all former commercial reporters and anchors who have found new life and new careers in public radio. Most of them came to public radio from KTRH.Everybody at KUHF says public radio is a completely different world, and they wouldn't go back to commercial radio for all the tea in China.

Houston was -- at one time -- a big, energetic, lively, busy and competitive radio news market. You could find local news up and down the dial. And it was fun to work here. Those days are long gone. Thanks Clear Channel.
Click to expand...

I got confused because it seem like the morning news block runs from 5:00AM to 11:00AM M-F. Click here:
http://www.ktrh.com/pages/schedule.html

You are right, I should have known better because CC has reduced their news dept for many year. Haven't lived on Houston for over twenty years. When was the last time KTRH has a fully staffed newsroom? Also,
was Joe Izbrand the last News Director they had? I know Joe from my childhood days growing up in San Antonio.

Now the big question, can Houston support a full time all local news station?? Dose anyone remember the old ALL NEWS KEYH radio from 1975 to 1979??
back in 1969.
 
KEYH's studio was on the Southwest freeway somewhere between Kirby and Weslyan. Across the freeway was KLYX, an Easy Listening MOR hybrid station. In 1975 the station became an affiliate of the NBC national "News and Information Service" NIS. This aired from 1975 to the end of the service in early 1977. KLYX is considered the 1st all news station on the FM band.It was ahead of it's time. Eventually, it would become KMJQ.
 
Chuck Tiller said:
In 1975 the station became an affiliate of the NBC national "News and Information Service" NIS. This aired from 1975 to the end of the service in early 1977. KLYX is considered the 1st all news station on the FM band.It was ahead of it's time. Eventually, it would become KMJQ.[/b]
Click to expand...

Good memory, Chuck. Yes, I recall listening to KEYH and I heard KLYX when they were airing NBC's "NIS." But as for them being the first all-news FM that honor may go to a station in New York (or maybe it's a shared bit of history); NBC opted not to air the format on their flagship WNBC 660 but put it on their re-named "WNWS-FM" instead. The launch date, according to some archived stories I've seen, June 18, 1975. That, FWIW, was a Wednesday and hell, no I didn't remember it. I used a day/date calculator. ;D
 
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