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Mike Huckabee starting a new talk show - would WDEL drop Jensen?

M

MikefromDelaware

I've read that in April Mike Huckabee will be launching his own national radio talk show during the same noon-3pm M-F time slot as elRushbo.

Obviously WILM the station across town, as a CC station won't jump ship and air Huckabee as Rush's show is provided by CC's Premiere Radio Network.

I could see WDEL airing Huckabee and dropping Rick Jensen's show (my guess is his show gets beat by Limbaugh in the ratings), but Allan's midday newscast is at noon and has tons of local spots and my guess is a ratings getter for WDEL. I doubt WDEL would drop Jensen to air Huckabee on a hour delay from 1pm to 4pm as WILM did years ago with Rush. So WDEL probably isn't in the running for Huckabee's new show.

So that leaves Philadelphia radio. Maybe 1210 WPHT in Philly or 990 WNTP in Philly would make a switch to the new Huckabee show when their current syndicated talk show's contract expires.

There is one other possibility, 106.9 (Family Radio WKDN) has been sold and its been rumored the new owners would make their Philly market FM station into a news station to compete with Philly's AM KYW newsradio. However, maybe 106.9 will use the new Mike Huckabee Show too, so maybe their format mostly news/traffic/weather like KYW, but also some talk and Huckabee's show would be a great way to get listeners to notice a new news/talk station and to find it on FM where talk isn't usually found.

Personally, I think Mike Huckabee would be a breath of fresh air in terms of conservative radio talk show hosts. I've watched his Fox TV show a few times and even when I didn't agree with him, I've enjoyed his show. His demeanor is very pleasant. He doesn't rant, like elRushbo. Make no mistake about it, Huckabee's a conservative, but he's a nice conservative that moderates and maybe even some liberals might enjoy listening to a whole lot better than the usual rants, sarcasm, and constant sniping that seems to be the fabric of conservative talk radio. Huckabee's TV show is an entertaining program. Maybe on his new radio show, he'd play a recorded song from his "Little Rockers Band" that appears on the TV show or even get a few guys and do some live music as he does on TV. It's a great way to make the show a better entertaining experience.

Here's the link with the story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/rush-limbaugh-mike-huckabee-radio-show_n_1354910.html
 
I sure wouldn't. WILM did that there first time around with Rush. Aired Allan's news and ran Rush on one hour delay. Not successful. When they brought Rush back, Allan was moeved to 30 minutes ahead of Rush. He jumped to WDEL. Huckabee is not going to be a bigger draw than Jensen.
 
Well as I said originally, that leaves one of those three Philly spoken word stations, 990 WNTP, 1210 WPHT, or the new 106.9 Merlin radio.

I would think WNTP would jump at the chance as I'd guess that Huckabee would be a bigger draw than Prager at noon. I'd move Prager to 9am and dump Gallagher, or air Gallagher at night and drop some even lesser known show. I could see the Huckabee show on 106.9, but the rumors seem to be a news only format.
 
Chris Carl: Thanks for getting to the bottom of this whole thing.
We appreciate your candor as well as your brutal honesty. Hey
man, WDEL rocks!
 
I can't see much enthusiasm for the Huckabee show on any station that isn't already satellite 24/7. Yeah, the show might be up 990's alley. But it won't be coming to any talk station looking for real ratings -- certainly not 1210. And certainly not on the Merlin FM, or any other FM north of the Mason-Dixon line. Even Rush -- hard-core conservative that he is -- is a more contemporary performer for East Coast tastes than Huckabee (whose style is more vanilla, with appeal more limited to the south and midwest).
 
Old Number 7 has it exactly right.

And whenever this kind of discussion comes up here in Radio-Info.com, people tend to forget a couple of significant factors:

WDEL, and stations like it - striving to be "live & local" much of the time - have little incentive to take on additional syndication. No ratings advantage, and they lose all those local avails for spots.

Furthermore, if a station is sports-intensive - carrying a lot of play-by-play - an additional consideration has to be spot compensation. Does the network offering that national talk-show require the station to make up commercials pre-empted when the station is carrying play-by-play? If it does, that creates additional hassles, and can create a commercial glut outside. The same situation, in the event a traumatic news story occurs (9-11) and the station carries hours and hours of all-news network coverage (complemented by local fill-ins, of course!)
 
Huckabee brings an additional problem. Both Rush and Hannity had been in other markets before they went to WABC and then to syndication. WABC tried bringing Joe Scarbough and his side-kick to radio on a show following their tv gig. Aired 10 til noon between Imus and Rush. Horrible. Did not work at all. Huckabee is on tv. No record of major success in radio. Let's hear what he can do in Little Rock or Atlanta. Then send him out on the bird, if it has worked.
 
I can see Huckabee being picked up by some key stations but put on at a different hour, such as evenings or nights. I can also see Huckabee neing picked up by the 'fringe' stations such as WCHE or WNPV. Hes going to have to start at the little places and work his way up just like Rush did. But it will be interesting to see if anyone does dump Rush for Huckabee.
 
Saw Huckabee this morning on Fox. Instead of sitting down daily for a three hour radio show, he needs to be out jogging for three hours! He has definitely put the weight back on!
 
The problems for Huckabee are starting right out of the gate. In order to get him clearence in NYC, the syndicator - owners of WABC - are having to buy time on WOR. They will air him 8-10pm. So already, he is out of prime time in the number one market.
 
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