The Salem News/Talk station in my area has 100% national talk shows during the weekdays. I noticed that a top news story here on R.I. is the hiring of a major local talent for their Dallas station. How many Salem news/talk stations have 5 day a week local talkers on? Is this a trend for them or just for particularly or potentially lucrative markets?
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Local Salem talk
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
For more than a year, Salem's 50-kw NYC AM, WNYM, 970-The Answer, has been running former WABC morning host Curtis Sliwa in morning drive, currently from 7-10-AM, and also, teamed up with a co-host, from 5-pm until 7-pm. Sliwa is best known as the energetic founder of the Guardian Angels.
WNYM, apparently, doesn't subscribe to Arbitron ratings so it's hard to tell specifically how Sliwa has done in the ratings. However, the station does encode, so, until recently its cume showed up in the NY Market PPMs with an average weekly audience of about 150,000. So, that's about one out of every hundred people in the New York market tuning in once a week, while top rated music stations get one out of three.
But, the good news is that in recent months, Salem hired former WABC program director Phil Boyce to oversee programming for all its spoken word stations. He's got a great reputation, and nowhere to take the Salem talkers but UP.
WNYM, apparently, doesn't subscribe to Arbitron ratings so it's hard to tell specifically how Sliwa has done in the ratings. However, the station does encode, so, until recently its cume showed up in the NY Market PPMs with an average weekly audience of about 150,000. So, that's about one out of every hundred people in the New York market tuning in once a week, while top rated music stations get one out of three.
But, the good news is that in recent months, Salem hired former WABC program director Phil Boyce to oversee programming for all its spoken word stations. He's got a great reputation, and nowhere to take the Salem talkers but UP.
I'd bet that Salem syndicates Sliwa in the near future to its stations.
I believe he has been in the past.
While syndication is possible, there are reasons it's not likely. Sliwa has been syndicated before, but that was late at night, and he's now doing drive-time both AM and PM.
The attempt to make him appealing in NYC is to have him do a local show, and focus on local NYC issues. He does "urban grit" well. Topics like crime and corruption, police, mafia, local politics, local celebrities etc. He also sounds real "New York City" with a very noticeable accent that one veteran NYC broadcaster described as "1950s cab driver." That "sound" adds to his reality and local appeal in NYC, but it probably wouldn't be appealing to a morning drive audience in Middle America.
Salem already has a syndicated "generic appeal white middle America" morning drive host, Bill Bennett. The dismal NYC ratings may prove that potential listeners in the politically very "Blue" WNYM signal area aren't attracted to that "middle America Red State" format presented by Salem's network talk show lineup, and Sliwa's "urban grit" local talk isn't likely to be the least bit relatable for Salem's listeners outside NYC who are used to an entirely different tone of partisan talk.
To make Sliwa sound like the others on the Salem roster would be to take away the local appeal that the NY station so sorely lacks througout the rest of its broadcast schedule.
John....
After having a very successful run at KLIF, (which of course, sealed my Fate there...) John Peroyea, the Salem Regional VP here, went to the wall for me and gave me a chance to again work for a real Broadcasting Company. If it hadn't been for John, and the True Broadcasters at Salem Corporate in Camarillo, I'd probably be working on my next career.
I'm happy to see that our company is bringing "....operat[ing] in the Public interest as a Public Trustee..." back to our beleaguered Industry.
So, to answer your question...in my view, Salem isn't pursuing a trend as much as an evolution. While the Salem Radio Network provided most, if not all of the On-Air programming for their O&O's, they still provided live, local Off-Air presentations with Senators, Governors, and Major Newsmakers, hosted by National Salem Stars, on a regular basis in the Markets they operate in.
So with the opportunities presented by the epic management meltdowns of Citadel/Cumulus, there's a new Major Broadcast Group moving to the front....Salem. And I'm proud to be one of the Live & Local Hometown Personalities who are a part of it.
Jon-David Wells
The Wells Report
660 AM The Answer
Dallas/Ft. Worth
After having a very successful run at KLIF, (which of course, sealed my Fate there...) John Peroyea, the Salem Regional VP here, went to the wall for me and gave me a chance to again work for a real Broadcasting Company. If it hadn't been for John, and the True Broadcasters at Salem Corporate in Camarillo, I'd probably be working on my next career.
I'm happy to see that our company is bringing "....operat[ing] in the Public interest as a Public Trustee..." back to our beleaguered Industry.
So, to answer your question...in my view, Salem isn't pursuing a trend as much as an evolution. While the Salem Radio Network provided most, if not all of the On-Air programming for their O&O's, they still provided live, local Off-Air presentations with Senators, Governors, and Major Newsmakers, hosted by National Salem Stars, on a regular basis in the Markets they operate in.
So with the opportunities presented by the epic management meltdowns of Citadel/Cumulus, there's a new Major Broadcast Group moving to the front....Salem. And I'm proud to be one of the Live & Local Hometown Personalities who are a part of it.
Jon-David Wells
The Wells Report
660 AM The Answer
Dallas/Ft. Worth
Since you brought it up....I'll shamelessly plug myself.
Salem's KRLA (Los Angeles) and KTIE (Inland Empire) have live, local talk in AM drive, 6-9 AM M-F!!!
I replaced Glenn Beck on those two stations. That's not a shot at Beck, that's just how it went down.
Also, Salem just added the great Mark Davis to KSKY, weekday mornings 7-10 AM. So let's see...they have live hosts in markets #1, 2, and 5. And some other stations, too.
Phil Boyce and the great Salem team are doing amazing things. Glad to be part of the family.
Heidi Harris
KRLA/KTIE
Salem's KRLA (Los Angeles) and KTIE (Inland Empire) have live, local talk in AM drive, 6-9 AM M-F!!!
I replaced Glenn Beck on those two stations. That's not a shot at Beck, that's just how it went down.
Also, Salem just added the great Mark Davis to KSKY, weekday mornings 7-10 AM. So let's see...they have live hosts in markets #1, 2, and 5. And some other stations, too.
Phil Boyce and the great Salem team are doing amazing things. Glad to be part of the family.
Heidi Harris
KRLA/KTIE
Let's not forget Mike Buck who has a local morning drive show on Salem owned KHNR 690 in Honolulu after he was a layoff victim at CC owned KHVH 830 back in October of 2011, where he did the PM drive time show.
umfan said:Salem owned WDTK AM 1400 in Detroit is starting a program June 11th with veteran Detroit talker John McCullough.
This could be a trend of Salem adding local content in its larger markets.
I haven't had the opportunity to listen to John's show yet, but according to the station's website, his show is only an hour long. Should be expanded to three hours. Same with Jonanthan Kinloch's show, which is also only an hour long. Hugh Hewitt can be aired time delayed and Lars Larson, which is already time delayed, can also be pushed back.
Thought's on that type of program schedule?
As much as I think it' good and actually important for Salem Communications to have some strong local content, I still would not want them to drop some of their key national programs. My favorite of talker, not just on Salem stations, but overall, is the mature and thoughtful DENNIS PRAGER. He's not a big blow-hard, and backs his opinions with facts. Then there is MICHAEL MEDVED. He relishes taking calls from those who disagree with him. That makes for good radio. These wonderful hosts need not be pushed off to the side.
One possibility could be to air John McCullough live from 6-9am EST, keep Mike Gallager, Dennis Prager, Mike Medved, and Hugh Hewitt on Live at their current times, air Jonathan Kinloch from 9pm-12 midnight EST, and have Bill Bennett aired on delay (same with Lars Larson).
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