Re: "Only in Cleveland"--Local Talk's Woes
> > > This brings something to mind I have thought for a long
> > > time..How WTAM, with such great potential as a local
> voice
> >
> > > for Cleveland, and, to a lesser extent, all of NE Ohio
> > just
> > > sits there with its 50,000 watts just wasting away. It
> > > could have been the KDKA, KMOX, WJR, WGN or WBZ of
> > > Cleveland, as it were. Just a really sad situation In
> My
> > > Opinion
>
> As much as I typically agree with you, I have to dissent
> here.
For the record, TimL wrote that paragraph above, not me. I hope you do still agree with me most times though.
> What is the issue? Too much sports? WTAM is serving a
> sports-crazed market with local sports talk. Hey, it's
> better than Mike & Mike! Trivisonno does so much better than
> Jeff & Flash and the rest of PMD talkers of days gone past
> because his schtick is very Cleveland. Maybe that's
> insulting, but it's true. Add staples Rush and Coast, and
> you're left with midmornings, which CC talkers WISN, WGST,
> etc. have turned local again, but if you have a decent show,
> why? Thing is, Jerry Springer is not a decent show.
The problem isn't too much sports--I agree that Cleveland is a big sports town, with great fans (despite what Trivisonno says). The problem is that the sports vs. public discussion of local events (or even national ones from local hosts) proportion is skewed WAY off. More of this argument is below.
> Compared to WSB, a flamethrower, heritage station, and
> legend, WTAM should win a giant award! WSB has a three hour
> local morning show, five hours of that boring drone Neal
> Boortz, three hours of CLARK HOWARD, Hannity one-hour
> delayed, Savage one-hour delayed, and then replays the same
> crap from 10p-5am. They fired their only local nighttime
> talker for a replay of Clark Howard?! How about WABC, who
> refused to replace Steve Malzberg with local talk
> overnight... this is market #1, isn't it? But they cheaped
> it out and picked up Coast. Just like they cheaped it out
> with Laura Ingraham in the evening when they could have been
> local. And don't even get me started with WOR...
>
> > Rush can be excused--he's almost ubiquitous, and even the
> > big guys you name run or have run him. But most, if not
> > all, of them are local in AM Drive, local in mid-mornings,
>
> > and local in PM Drive, not to mention whatever they add
> > after 6 or 7 pm.
>
> A lot of great stations are syndicated in middays. For
> years, WABC. Presently, KFI and KABC. Not that they're great
> anymore, but KLIF has Beck. Personally, I don't see a need
> for unproven Jerry Springer, who wouldn't even stumble over
> the Talkers list it were posted on the hotel room door of
> one of his hookers. While I haven't seen the numbers, WHLO's
> performance since adding Beck had gone up. You're right on
> the mark on Mr. Metheny... talk doesn't really matter,
> especially on the only station in town (see: boring shows
> that get ratings on WGN, KTAR, KMOX, etc.)
My issue is that Cleveland has three "talk" stations (WTAM, WHK, WERE sometimes), of which only one of them is offering ANY local talk of any kind. But instead of going for a syndicated show, which we know Metheny is willing to drop (he dropped Beck, so he's open to it regardless), why not play to where EVERY STATION, NOT JUST TALKERS, IS WEAKER: local talk. There's really no place on the dial in Cleveland for discussion and argument about local issues, or hot-button national issues from local hosts. Triv has perfected the art of "ok, you can have 15 seconds on this local issue, then I'll say my piece for two minutes--which probably includes gambling--then a couple commercials and oops, traffic's late". There's hardly any back and forth, and no discussion: it's everyone saying what they can in as fast a time as possible before you get hung-up on. And there's no argument development, because you can't develop in 15 seconds.
Besides that, take Triv's show, the only local talk show--given two topics, Cleveland school levy failing or the Cleveland Indians bad play on a given day, what will Triv do? Baseball, because that's what he purportedly knows. So, by the selection of talk hosts and the selection of syndicated programming, local issues are essentially cut out of the debate.
Maybe this comes about because of the C-Town line up of CC stations: only one AM, and a Big One at that. Cincinnati has a whole station, the biggest one, devoted to local, live talk, with the syndies on the regional 5kw. You mean to tell me that Cincinnati has more stuff to talk about than Cleveland? I doubt it.
I guess all I'm saying is that WTAM should have more of a public interest tinge to its talk programming. Dumping Beck has turned out to be a mistake ratings-wise (from what we can tell now); but when Springer fails, how about finding some local talent to replace him?
> > WTAM does have a great newsroom, local 24-hours. But even
>
> > that is depleted from its once-mighty days just at the end
>
> > of the last decade, let alone the Ed Coury/Charles
> Aug/Beth
> > Fisher, etc. halcyon days of the early-mid 90s. Then the
> > newsroom was feeding ONLY one station, not three/four in
> the
> > cluster, plus three/four nationally.
>
> You have to admit that CC's big talk stations all do 24/7
> news, a rarity among other corporate stations and certainly
> among the few remaining locally owned stations. The
> paytoileteers at Salem will NEVER do live, local news
> outside of morning drive, if that. Nor will any of the other
> corporate stations.
No doubt, and no argument. Salem has live, local news all throughout the daylight hours--but farmed out to Metro. For that reason I do give CC props.
