Mike Sheridan made an interesting observation. The "elderly" are, indeed conditioned to listening to AM..especially at night. Do you have any idea how much available cash these folks have in reserve? They will spend it...and it's a boatload.
Do you remember Herb Jepko's Nite Caps show? For a long time it was on KSL, out of Salt Lake City, then went to Mutual for a time. That was a compelling little program. Herb raked in the money for a good long time...Something like that style of show..with light hearted conversation coupled with the MOYL musical fare would do well on so many of these night signals. And heck, the stations can have the programming..one could clear many many markets with millions of potential listeners. How could that not be viable? There was a great guy in Tampa Bay at WDAE when I was there..Don Beckman..he did just that..and of all the personalities on that station (including Gary Burbank, Johnaton Greene and others) at remotes, they all wanted to meet Don.
The "elderly" in pain could be in the market for pain relief products. Retirement homes, reliable banks, reasonable car insurance, personalized gifts, cruise packages, bus trips, even all night psychics would be able to buy time...
Hell I'd do it..who do I call at Dial Global or whoever it is? I'm up all night..I have an 800 number, and ISDN..I can round up a batch of Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Les Paul records..I have a phone hybrid..even a delay unit for those foul mouthed old bast*rds when they ge to gabbing about thier days in the service...I would love it.
Also..might be advantageous to provide the audio via a simple Direct TV or dish network system, and just let the affiliates pick up and use the programming anytime they want...just let the providers know when they ran it, and what market.
No..it's not sexy, and it wont get any groupies..nor will it net the jock a bar tab, or free tee shirts..but, C'mon there MUST be some money in this age bracket.