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McConnell lands Atlanta

G

gr8oldies

Mike McConnell's midday show is now on live in Atlanta at CC's WGST, replacing Toledo transplant Denny Schaeffer. This puts him up against WSB's Neal Boortz. It's the first live clearance for McConnell in a decent sized market so far.
 
This is good news. I was happy to hear about it last week when they fired most all of the GST staff. I will still have to plug in the XM though to hear the Cincinnati news at the top of the hour.

The only problem with McConnell finally being on in a decent sized market is that no one can hear the freakin' station! Atlanta metro is much bigger than Cincinnati but I am sure that at any one time, Cincinnati's potential audience is bigger than Atlanta's due to the poor reception of GST. Pick up an Atlanta map - you can't pick GST up very well outside of the 285 loop. In fact, I can get WLW down here better from 6p-6a than I can get GST anywhere in town at anytime of the day!
 
I'd think 50kW at 640 would get WGST out pretty wel, but I'd have to look p the pattern. Obviously, the flea power night status is a joke.
 
As much as I used to like McConnell, I don't see him winning in any way against Boortz. Not with the caller base that Mike's sysdicated topics seem to draw. You can only bring in a certain caliber of caller with 'pet peeves', 'stupid criminals', and other 'white man whining' topics.
 
deltadave said:
This is good news. I was happy to hear about it last week when they fired most all of the GST staff. I will still have to plug in the XM though to hear the Cincinnati news at the top of the hour.

The only problem with McConnell finally being on in a decent sized market is that no one can hear the freakin' station! Atlanta metro is much bigger than Cincinnati but I am sure that at any one time, Cincinnati's potential audience is bigger than Atlanta's due to the poor reception of GST. Pick up an Atlanta map - you can't pick GST up very well outside of the 285 loop. In fact, I can get WLW down here better from 6p-6a than I can get GST anywhere in town at anytime of the day!
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But WGST's signal is good during the time McConnell will be on. I've never had a problem hearing the daytime signal anywhere in or around Atlanta. I've even heard it south of Macon and east into South Carolina.
 
Very Interesting. Didn't know I could see a pattern online anywhere. Also didn't realized they pulled the power back at night.

I do pick it up better during the day - but not much. I live 30 miles west of the airport in Atlanta and I pretty much lose decent reception about 15 miles out.
 
WGST's signal is excellent in the day hours. I've driven all over the state in the dayparts and it comes in clear as a bell. Nighttime however it is a piece of crap. They have to power it down to protect KFI, the Class A station on 640 kHz.
 
jcs said:
Is Mike still going to be on 700 WLW in the mornings?

???
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Mike is slowly but surely cornering the blue-collar/daytime trucker niche market.

I've never before witnessed such a dumbing down of a talk-show.
 
McConnell in syndication ? Come on........ he's not even the best host on WLW.

Mike is certainly talented, but - prior to Furman's abrupt departure - he was, in my mind, The Big One's 3rd best talker behind Billy Cunningham and the FurBall.

Boortz will POUND McConnell in the ATL.
 
FatElvis said:
McConnell in syndication ? Come on........ he's not even the best host on WLW.

Mike is certainly talented, but - prior to Furman's abrupt departure - he was, in my mind, The Big One's 3rd best talker behind Billy Cunningham and the FurBall.
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So what you're saying is he's not even the best host on WLW, but in fact, he's the SECOND best. I'd think that's a good thing. He's syndicated on weekends, so Clear Channel has a track record to go off of. It's similar reasons that I hope KFI's Bill Handel is syndicated on weekdays at some point.

gr8oldies said:
Boortz has had a multi-year head start.
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Plus, Boortz is based in Atlanta, so he's done local gigs. I don't think anyone expects Mike to pound Neal, but do well enough to hold his own against him.
 
But anyone who has heard McConnell over the years, including his early WLW years, would have to admit that when he went into syndication and removed himself from local callers its all gone sour.

Pet peeves, Stupid Criminals, Earth Czar, and Debunking theories no one cares about (by reading off questions from a list someone has given him) get tiresome after awhile.

Mike used to be the best talker at WLW, but not any more.

I think he is catering to the 'lowest common denominator' listener now.
 
Aren't most of the callers still from Cincinnati? I haven't gotten to listen enough to know if KKK Ken, Nan or tha African American conspiracy lady whose name I can't think of still call on a daily basis...sometimes they were entertaining, sometimes not.
 
What's going on with Denny Schaeffer? I thought the guy was great when he did fill-ins for Glenn Beck. The cadence and the pacing of his show is really a lot like Rush's show in his early days. Basically, his show is paced like a Top-40 DJ in the 1970's. I hope they find someplace else for him.
 
gr8oldies said:
Aren't most of the callers still from Cincinnati? I haven't gotten to listen enough to know if KKK Ken, Nan or tha African American conspiracy lady whose name I can't think of still call on a daily basis...sometimes they were entertaining, sometimes not.
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You hear them sometimes, but I think Mike is instructed to act like they are pretty much a new caller or to not let on that they have been talking with him for years.
 
brian65 said:
gr8oldies said:
Aren't most of the callers still from Cincinnati? I haven't gotten to listen enough to know if KKK Ken, Nan or tha African American conspiracy lady whose name I can't think of still call on a daily basis...sometimes they were entertaining, sometimes not.
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You hear them sometimes, but I think Mike is instructed to act like they are pretty much a new caller or to not let on that they have been talking with him for years.
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Wow we now have talk show host conspiracy theories. Nan, KKK Ken still call the show and now with the expanded audience both from XM and Atlanta we get other nutjobs calling the show, like the guy who said Mike should be talking about Jesus.

Don't really hear Mike acting like regular local callers are new to the show but he does try to avoid local topics. The right thing to do would be to take the local topic and make it national though I'm sure some CC VP or consultant would say I'm wrong.
 
To be fair, I did hear Mike do just that with the case of the boy who was left in the closet to die by the foster parents..a story that actually didn't get any national coverage that I'm aware of.
 
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