LYNN CULLEN AND TOM HARTMAN

[MsMusicRadio]

ANYBODY HAVE A CLUE IF ANY STATION IN THE METRO AREA COULD PICK THEM UP? IT'S BREAKING MY MOTHER'S HEART. SHE IS A SHUT-IN AND LOVES LIBERAL TALK

 

[argentarius]

As of this morning, Lynn said she had nothing in the works. With the demise of 1360, "maybe" a low powered local will pick up some syndicated progressive talk, hoping to find a niche. I wouldn't hold my breath though. Best bet for mom, is to get her a cheap pc with a broadband connection and set her on WCPT820 Chicago's website. They have a fantastic progressive lineup all day: Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Thomm Hartman, Rachel Maddow, and Mike Malloy. or KTALK in LA which carries some of the above plus Randi Rhodes and Alan Colmes. Beyond that, start contacting KDKA and other local stations, and ask them to add Lynn and other progressive talkers. If enough people do this, maybe somebody might give it a shot. Trust me, mom is not the only one heartbroken around here.

 

[Biz Listener]

How can you be so cruel, so heartless? That poor woman said that her mother really misses hearing liberal talk, and how do you respond? You tell her to listen to progressive talk instead.

What an evil, cruel and mean-spirited thing to say! If the old lady wants to hear liberal talk, why not give her advice on how she can listen to liberal talk instead of pushing progressive talk on her?

You must belong to that political party that hates people.

 

[Snafu]

Lynn is a survivor in a cruel business if nothing else. Maybe I don't completely agree with her 24/7 but I admire the fact that she's come back again and again and again. Maybe she has a couple of months downtime in her future (which isn't all that bad a thing in a high pressure business like this) and something happens in 2009. Stranger things have happened. Ask the guy who used to be the PR Director for the Kansas City Royals.

 

[Biz Listener]

Lynn is a survivor in a cruel business if nothing else. Maybe I don't completely agree with her 24/7 but I admire the fact that she's come back again and again and again. Maybe she has a couple of months downtime in her future (which isn't all that bad a thing in a high pressure business like this) and something happens in 2009. Stranger things have happened. Ask the guy who used to be the PR Director for the Kansas City Royals.

I don't know. She went from a high profile position on television to a demotion to the radio station owned by the television station, to a weaker, lower-rated radio station. She's been a survivor, that's for sure. But her survival has been to grab lower rungs of the ladder each time she makes a transition. Maybe she can get Muggins to sponsor a brokered show for her on 660.

 

[jasper933]

Just wait and get Sirius XM with an a la carte package. Most of Sirius left is good to listen. They only thing Sirius left is lacking is Rhandi Rhodes.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Biz- Was Lynn going from WTAE-TV to WTAE-AM really a demotion?

I recall seeing (and hearing) her do them both at the same time circa 1989-90.

Also, I'm not sure trading a few minutes of TV time for your own daily, three-hour talk show on a very respected station is a demotion.

 

[Biz Listener]

Biz- Was Lynn going from WTAE-TV to WTAE-AM really a demotion?

I recall seeing (and hearing) her do them both at the same time circa 1989-90.

Also, I'm not sure trading a few minutes of TV time for your own daily, three-hour talk show on a very respected station is a demotion.

I always thought of radio as a step below television, careerwise. I don't know if she made more money when she moved from being seen on television to being heard on the radio. If the move to radio came with a raise, then I guess it would be a promotion. And I do recall her being on both at the same time for a while, though I thought that was more of giving her one last chance to demonstrate she was good enough for the big leagues of television before being permanently demoted to the minor leagues of radio.

 

[talkjim]

"Biz- Was Lynn going from WTAE-TV to WTAE-AM really a demotion?

I recall seeing (and hearing) her do them both at the same time circa 1989-90.

Also, I'm not sure trading a few minutes of TV time for your own daily, three-hour talk show on a very respected station is a demotion."

I filled in at WTAE shortly before Lynn was hired, and while I was not at all privy to the details of Lynn's hiring at radio, my bet is that your scenario, Pratte, is closer to reality than the one put forward by my good friend Biz.

Biz, I have a challenge for you: just once write a post here in which you express an opinion without demeaning someone. It can be a cruel world out there, but I don't think it's really as bad as you would have us believe.

 

[Biz Listener]

Biz, I have a challenge for you: just once write a post here in which you express an opinion without demeaning someone. It can be a cruel world out there, but I don't think it's really as bad as you would have us believe.

OK, how about "Mark Madden doesn't sweat much, for a fat guy".

Please tell me how my suggestion for a new music format for either KDKA or 92.9 in the KDKA thread "demeaned" anyone. Or how my mentioning that someone else said that KDKA was having transmitter trouble demeaned anyone?

 

[MsMusicRadio]

WTAE AM was once a major player and is even called "legendary" on Jeff Roteman's pages.

 

[Biz Listener]

WTAE AM was once a major player and is even called "legendary" on Jeff Roteman's pages.

So, I was told, was WCAE once upon a time. So was WWSW. Once upon a time, all of the AM stations in town were major players. Once upon a time, WDTV Channel 3 was the only television station in town.

None of that matters now. When Cullen moved to WTAE Radio was about the time when AM radio's slide down the tubes into irrelevance was just starting to pick up speed. Not that her demotion to radio caused that slide, but they did happen at about the same time.

As for being called "legendary" by Jeff Roteman, I've noticed that he has a tendency to regard pretty much everything that happened on Pittsburgh radio that he mentions on his website as "legendary". Getting called "legendary" by Jeff Roteman isn't all that noteworthy an accomplishment.

Which is not to say that Roteman's website isn't a really a fine website and an interesting treasure-trove of of valueable information about the days of Pittsburgh radio when everything was "legendary".

 

[MsMusicRadio]

WCAE brought Dick Blanchard to Pittsburgh and signed off at 2:30 AM. WWSW actually gave KDKA a run for the money as an MOR station with a four hour block of classical music at night. Of course we need to remember the truly legendary WQXI and Simon Trane. And didn't the Drake format get a dry run on WAKE? How legendary can you get

 

[Biz Listener]

WCAE brought Dick Blanchard to Pittsburgh and signed off at 2:30 AM. WWSW actually gave KDKA a run for the money as an MOR station with a four hour block of classical music at night. Of course we need to remember the truly legendary WQXI and Simon Trane. And didn't the Drake format get a dry run on WAKE? How legendary can you get

Huh?!?!

I was talking about the Golden Age of radio, which was long before I was born, and before radio degenerated into Top-40 crap. The Golden Age of radio was when radio was the number 1 mass media in the nation, before there was a television in every home. The Golden Age of radio ended in the mid-1950's, when the Top 40 DJ's inherited the wreckage of what had once been an important medium.

 

[talkjim]

"When Cullen moved to WTAE Radio was about the time when AM radio's slide down the tubes into irrelevance was just starting to pick up speed."

Congratulations on yet another falsehood, Biz. Cullen moved to WTAE Radio at just about the same time Rush Limbaugh and numerous other syndicated and local hosts were REVIVING AM radio with shows focused on current events. Prior to that time, there were certainly issue-based shows, but there was also a lot of talk blatantly focused on post-65 demos, q&a's with Social Security experts, and shows that probed such world-altering topics as to how to get the fleas out of the kitty. I know all this well, because I was working in the business then, and continue to do so today.

To utilize your own words in a more correct light, Biz, it is actually your posts which are "sliding into irrelevance".

 

[Biz Listener]

Cullen moved to WTAE Radio at just about the same time Rush Limbaugh and numerous other syndicated and local hosts were REVIVING AM radio with shows focused on current events.

I was not aware that Limbaugh was on more than one station per market. I didn't realize that having one station avoid losing that many listeners constituted have the entire AM band revived.

 

[Parttimer]

His success nationally encouraged more AM stations to make a serious run at news/talk programming, adding local hosts and people like Sean Hannity. To an extent, that success also dovetailed into the proliferation of sports talk stations. Otherwise, the sentiment was that as music failed, brokered programming was going to be the only avenue left. That certainly did not save every station but some did prosper where they otherwise would have been out of business.

Now that the next generation has technologically left AM behind in favor of FM, satellite and personal media players, AM is again faced with some of those challenges, but Limbaugh did help to start a wave that got another 15 years of viability out of the AM band.