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"Obama 1260" progressive talk in DC- bites the dust

D

Don62

Guest
I can't find a good link on this but have heard the news from several on the radio.
Apparently, the owners decided to switch formats.

Big Eddie is supposed to move to another AM talker.

Interesting how "Obama talk" won't make it in D.C.
 
Talk radio of all stripes performs pretty anemically in DC compared with the rest of the country. Look at how WMAL underperforms other talkers in similar markets. Washington also has the Philadelphia problem: a huge all-news station stunts talk radio's growth.

A conservative talk station with Sean Hannity went dark -- not changed formats, went dark -- in Charlotte NC. A new report says the number of talk radio stations has actually fallen in the past year. Does that mean conservative talk is on the ropes?
 
Don62 said:
Interesting how "Obama talk" won't make it in D.C.
Click to expand...

It was "Obama 1260" during the election season and the conservative talk station owned by the same people was "McCain 570." WWRC (1260) has a terrible signal and has never done well with any format. Meanwhile, progressive talker KPOJ in Portland (OR) is doing better than ever, ranking fourth overall and disproving the myth that liberals won't listen to progressive talk. It does it with a good place on the dial (620), a decent signal, and a good local morning show.
 
New owners in DC are the Redskins--Dan Snyder, a big Republican, so it's no huge surprise. WWRC had been a Clear Channel property and, like in most of their markets, they tossed lib-talk on their worst stick. 1260 has trouble reaching their own parking lot.

They're putting Schultz on WTNT between Laura Ingraham and Monica Crowley. Anybody want to put money on how that'll work out? LOL!!!!!

WMAL's problem as a conservative talker is that DC is a huge liberal/Democrat market. The District voted 93% for Obama and most of the suburban counties (Fairfax & Arlington, VA and Montgomery & Prince Georges, MD) were above 60% for the Dems. But ABC (pre-Citadel) had a huge stake in Rush & his clones--on WABC, WLS, et cetera--and tried for decades to ram in down DC's throat.
 
johnnyu said:
Gee, I can remember when 1260 was a real radio station. Johnny Holliday was the morning man .
Click to expand...

Yeah, John, so do I. And there was nothing wrong with WWDC's signal. In AM's heyday, 1260 was one of Washington's three big sticks with 5-kw fulltime: 630, 980 & 1260. The sleeping giant on the DC dial--570--never did wake up, held in abeyance by its Classical format.

But the rest were all too small, too suburban, or daytimers--and FM was just a rumor. Well into the seventies, it was just WMAL, WRC and WWDC.

Land around DC has become so expensive, and rebuilding AM rigs--especially directionals--has become so expensive, that 1260's succession of owners these past few decades have consistently chosen not to renovate the technical plant and instead have allowed it to deteriorate to a point where the signal just gets lost in the noise.

Maybe they need one of us old-timers to testify that, yes, 1260 was indeed a real radio station...
 
So "Obama 1260" is going business talk. I wonder what they're gonna call it, "Bernanke 1260"? ;D
 
1260 is an awful signal, and business talk won't get any better ratings. My guess - they'll broker time on it, and make money that way.

Not only is 1260 rumored to be an even worse signal performer than its facility should be, it's a non-starter in the Northern Virginia growth part of the market.
 
I just find it hilarious that a radio station wraps itself around the flag - I mean OBAMA - and hits the bottom.
If such a station can't succeed in the "age of Obama and love and peace..."
 
smedge2006 said:
Talk radio of all stripes performs pretty anemically in DC compared with the rest of the country. Look at how WMAL underperforms other talkers in similar markets. Washington also has the Philadelphia problem: a huge all-news station stunts talk radio's growth.
Click to expand...

Note that CBS owns both KYW and WPHT...
 
For those judging the success or failure of the exiting format:

You basically could give away gold bars on 1260 24/7 and have few takers.

The station has cycled through numerous formats since its "glory days", back when much of the DC market was still within its signal range. It even served as a second (mostly syndicated) sports talk outlet to WTEM. NOTHING WILL WORK on that signal in 2009. NOTHING.

The business format will give them a chance to try to broker time, and make money that way. Period.
 
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