Right around that same time, the Yankees won three successive World Series. By 2012, they got old and expensive.
The same thing could be said about talk radio. It's time to bring in new blood. Talk radio needs an Aaron Judge.
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Michael Savage #1 on WABC 12+
- Thread starter TTalkradio1
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Right around that same time, the Yankees won three successive World Series. By 2012, they got old and expensive.
The same thing could be said about talk radio. It's time to bring in new blood. Talk radio needs an Aaron Judge.
With good reason: new bottle, same old whine.
Andy Dean, for example, had nothing new or unique to offer. OK, he replaced phrases like, "Caller, you're on the air ..." with cool stuff like, "Hey man waz up, you're on the air ..." delivered with a nasaly voice that might have fooled advertisers into thinking they were reaching the coveted demo. Or not.
But now the AM political shows are all starting to age out.
That's right, which is why the replacement for political talk will be difficult to find, and take a while to build.
And also why most stations aren't anxious to start the process.
Any ideas what that replacement might be? Liberal talk? Celebrity/show biz talk? Comedy? Have you heard anyone in the business even speculate on what sort of programming might work after the right-wing talk audience becomes too small and too elderly for even the bottom-feeder advertisers to bother with? Would a show like Howard Stern's, with a younger host, still work on terrestrial radio, given the neutering its talk would have to undergo to meet standards for OTA radio?
I like Volume on SiriusXM.
I think it's all been tried, and the key will be the host, not the topic or format. Stern proved that when he left, and they tried to replace him. No one does what he does.
I think if a company or station finds someone who is immediately likable, they can do anything they want.
Truthfully, the way to find the next talk show star is to do what radio did 30 years ago, and that's listen to the high personality people in music radio, and see if they could exist without playing music. That's how Stern and Imus extended their careers beyond music radio. There is someone in morning or afternoon drive right now who might be able to attract an audience as a talk show host. A lot are trying with podcasts.
General/lifestyle talk is the purview of morning radio on otherwise music stations. There doesn't seem to be a way to do that outside of mornings. Beats me what new talk format could show up. The "Hot Talk" stations that were anchored by Stern died the minute Stern went satellite. Could you take sports talk formatics to news? Maybe. I think that's what Orlando's Real Radio does. Younger folks are getting their spoken word audio fix on podcasts and that's going to be a problem for radio.
But imagine if a podcast star got a daily talk show, and you could INTERACT LIVE with that podcast star.
The music industry is finding the next big superstar on reality TV and YouTube. Use new media to feed traditional media.
I remember a half-dozen or so years ago when Regis Philbin called it a career, they were giving on-air tryouts to a variety of men to co-host with Kelly Ripa. One of them was a YouTube star from here in Connecticut -- outgoing, openly gay, celebrity-obsessed -- who had a show called "What the Buck?" Can't recall his name, but he got his on-air tryout and apparently made a favorable impression, but the producers eventually went with a safer, more conventional choice: a personable, straight ex-football player with high name recognition in the No. 1 market, Michael Strahan.
The thing about podcasting is the audience for even the greatest "stars" is pretty small. Adam Carolla, who obviously has a long past with traditional media, attracts around 700,000 downloads per episode, according to PodcastOne. If you slice an audience that size up into just the segment that lives within the contours of WABC, you might as well be hiring a "star" from Topeka.
It is only in aggregate that podcast listening is substantial.
It is only in aggregate that podcast listening is substantial.
Exactly right. Some people are engaging and entertaining, some aren't. And people from other fields of entertainment can't necessarily translate their talent into compelling talk radio. Thankfully that trend seems to be diminishing.
I think the "replacement" for today's talk radio doesn't need to be something completely different, such as hot talk, lifestyle talk, etc. The genre, after all, is "News/Talk" which used to mean discussing issues surrounding the headlines without adding a political spin to all of it. There's a place for political talk but it doesn't need to be so dominant.
That's correct, and that's why one uses a different yardstick. Like taking a successful host from (as you suggest) a radio station in Topeka and putting him on WABC. Podcasting vs on-air is push vs pull. One to one vs mass media. But if someone is willing to do the work to download a podcast, that's an indication of a certain amount of passion for the particular talent. The audiences are not comparable. But what the talent does, in terms of coming up with a topic and supporting it for a certain amount of time, is.
I bring this post back up after hearing Savage continue to berate his demise on WABC and in just a few weeks starting, what he calls, the next revolution in radio. That answer is a podcast. I do not see how he will draw more listeners in NYC than on WABC. His podcast may allow him larger numbers across America as he is on in just a portion of the markets.
This is a puzzling time for talk radio. Numbers, as many on here have stated on other posts, are fairly strong and Talk is still a winning format. But, the demo is basically too old for ad buys, etc. Then we have seen all the talk about The Breeze format. So suddenly here we are at an interesting point in time. The older demographic is basically dropping off for the obvious reasons and the teenagers and those in the under 30 demographics are not engaging radio like the previous decades. How can a PD actually win at WABC? You have to evolve. Yet there is no one strong enough to draw a huge audience in the time frame allowed to produce results. You cannot bring back the lost stars. You cannot really alter the format enough to keep what you have, that is fading and bring in what needs to be there, which is not interested in listening. How do you actually recreate something like WABC and keep your job?
This is a puzzling time for talk radio. Numbers, as many on here have stated on other posts, are fairly strong and Talk is still a winning format. But, the demo is basically too old for ad buys, etc. Then we have seen all the talk about The Breeze format. So suddenly here we are at an interesting point in time. The older demographic is basically dropping off for the obvious reasons and the teenagers and those in the under 30 demographics are not engaging radio like the previous decades. How can a PD actually win at WABC? You have to evolve. Yet there is no one strong enough to draw a huge audience in the time frame allowed to produce results. You cannot bring back the lost stars. You cannot really alter the format enough to keep what you have, that is fading and bring in what needs to be there, which is not interested in listening. How do you actually recreate something like WABC and keep your job?
Not sure exactly why he's berating WABC. The press release announcing Shapiro made it sound as though he approved this change. He wanted to lessen his daily workload, and this was a way to do it. If I'm WABC, and I have a syndicated host berating my station, I drop him immediately, rather than wait.
They're banking on Shapiro, who is much younger, and has a strong fan base built with his web site. The bad news is the current demo finds that he talks too fast. He may lose that older demo, and then have to wait for younger people to find him. But yes, the talk format needs to start developing new talent to replace those who are looking to retire. Salem is replacing Michael Medved with Sebastian Gorka. Not sure if that's an improvement.
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The old line AM talkers have a serious challenge. Among other things lines, politics has divided along age lines. In a YouGov poll published this week, 58% of those under 45 told the pollster they "strongly" or "somewhat" disapprove of President Trump, and only 14% said they "strongly approve". And I would bet the figures are far less favorable to the President in the WABC coverage area.
The problem is, there is very little evidence that putting talkers on WABC who are less fawning over POTUS would do anything to increase audience. Even if a liberal talk format became a hit, it would take a long time to get there, causing ratings to fall off a cliff during the interim.
And of course, politicians and politics change. Maybe the next Republican president will be more appealing to people who don't qualify for social security.
The problem is, there is very little evidence that putting talkers on WABC who are less fawning over POTUS would do anything to increase audience. Even if a liberal talk format became a hit, it would take a long time to get there, causing ratings to fall off a cliff during the interim.
And of course, politicians and politics change. Maybe the next Republican president will be more appealing to people who don't qualify for social security.
Of course they've already fallen off the cliff without making such a drastic change.
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