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Opinions on WRKO...

A.V. Wallah said:
Please note the title of the thread is "Opinions on WRKO". I have offered mine, in a semi-serious fashion.

When you post your own thread on "What would you do if you owned WRKO (besides drinking heavily)?", I'll be certain to give the wide berth it deserves. Now if you're through junior-moderating, I bid you good day.
Click to expand...

I'm not junior moderating...I'm engaging in discussion. You know..back and forth?

I asked you a question, and you apparently would rather just throw bombs....than add anything substantive.


Good day to you sir!
 
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MRBIboredop said:
what is any AM in this market worth?

IMHO there are only 3 good signals ( and I use the term loosely) in the market, 680, 850, 1030.

The rest are rim shot, signal hampered, dolla a holla stations.

WEEI AM 850, now running ESPN, near zero showing in any book, are they making enough to keep the transmitter on and the tower lights lit? The taxes on the tower location? (are they alone on that farm or is there di-plex going on)

What would you put on that station? I can't think of anything.

WRKO... the station is sinking faster than the Titanic, weekend is all paid shill programming, the best show they will have is Barry Armstrongs Financial Exchange, Kuhner is an idiot, Carr is their bread and butter..and the bread is stale.

They have NOBODY in the wings to replace Howie, the plan for McSreech to be his designated fill in fell apart as soon as it was announced... Feinberg? I don't even know what he is up to these days but it seems WRKO is done with him, and besides he would have to drop 100 IQ points to be able to relate to Howies core audience..assuming they stick around at all.

what's next? ESPN Desportes?

Value? not a lot



WBZ AM, only news/talker in the market, great signal, ranks high in the PPM, high labor costs, facing being the last station of any importance on the AM band in Boston... problem is that the younger demographic is not going to news radio anymore, news is internet based if they care at all, weather on the 3's...we have an app for that... traffic... shows up on my GPS or navigation app, no need to tune in anymore. Still has value... and will stay on AM until 104.1 0r 103.3 completely tank and there is no format to put there....

What do you do with any AM station?
Click to expand...

Howie will still be in WRKO lineup. Just not in their office.
 
Unregistered said:
Howie will still be in WRKO lineup. Just not in their office.
Click to expand...

Then you know something the rest of us don't, because everything I have heard is Entercom declined to pick the show up.

There were conditions Howie would not agree to, and you can quote me on this because it came straight out of Howie's mouth, one of the sticking points was WRKO wanted some control over the show and Howie said NO. He is adamant that this is his venture and WRKO is not going to dictate the format, sound, or flavor of it.

I may run over to Two Guy's on Saturday and say hello, I am out of smokes at the moment and could use a good cigar.

If I do get to see him I will get an update for the rest of us radio junkies.

And it is no secret Barry Armstrong is renting him studio space, Howie will maintain an office in the same building apart from Barry's operation. He will be doing more broadcasts from Florida, using the Newsmax studios, once his last daughter has moved out I expect to see him do the show from Florida a lot more often. And that info was straight from Mrs Carr's mouth
 
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Indeed...and let's just say it was a good thing Howie had his seat belt on the other day...

I don't know if WUFC could pick him up money-wise, etc. (I was talking on FB with Bryan Berner and suggested it...) Who else in town would carry him? There is WCRN and
there is streaming. iHM prob wouldn't disrupt the biz programming Bloomberg is doing on 1200/94.5-HD2. And of course departing WRKO means the end of Howie
on WEEI-FM HD2.

The guy from Maine mentioned in the Bangor news article will not just be co-producing with Sandy,
he'll also be the primary fill in.
 
raccoonradio said:
I don't know if WUFC could pick him up money-wise, etc. (I was talking on FB with Bryan Berner and suggested it...) Who else in town would carry him?
Click to expand...

The whole point of this venture was that the station would pay for the program, right? Let's face it, the Talk format is not in great shape...and besides WRKO, I can't imagine another Boston station paying him for the program.

If you were WUFC...Would you continue to run Hannity (for free)...or pay to carry Howie?

WUFC probably thinks Hannity has more of a chance of performing better without Howie on the air.

$.02
 
Agreed..and when someone called in to
accuse Howie of being ancient in that
respect he said he's a good 20 yrs away
from 'mistaking the gas pedal for the
brake'.
He's got a full head of white hair
and turns 63 in Jan. Better hire
a driver, Howie, just in case.

If a bunch of advertisers would be
willing to advertise on WUFC,you
could see Howie there..but as with
RKO he wants a bunch of network
advertisers..how many local ads
would there be time for? Howie
could get listeners but it comes down
to ad time.
More and more people are listening
online..TuneIn and iHeart..can still
get Howie fix.
 
One year from now posters will be posting- " What ever happened to Howie Carr...?"
That goes double for WRKO !
 
I put a bug in the ear of WUFC GM Bryan Berner but not sure if they'd be able to afford Howie (WRKO said no to Howie offer; control of show, hard cash, ads). WUFC's
sister station WILC in Laurel MD is changing back to Spanish but he said that was beyond their control, LMA agreement etc and they hope to launch stations elsewhere.
Would adding Howie get them ratings and money? (...Remember when 1510 added the likes of Eddie Andleman, IIRC, and Mikey Adams?)

The signal maps on radio-locator.com show the ranges, as usual take with a grain of salt or quite a few grains, of WCRN, WUFC, etc. Then there are the various apps
that will carry Howie. He has roughly 15 stations carrying him (again, that's 15 times the number that Jerry Williams had...) We shall see after 11/17 how many he
has--more? Less?
PPM ratings and the economy have killed off a lot of talk stations (like WXKS AM, WTKK, and prog talk is very rare across the nation at least on commercial radio) but there
is still some audience. WRKO actually went up in some demos like the 6 plus we get to see, but they have less competition than before. Now (after a radiothon and
a week of fill ins for Howie) once they rid themselves totally of the Fried Clam Man (in a way they have already), what will they get with "the Kuhner man", brokered
biz talk (that's pretty well done from what I hear), Rush, The-Successor-to-Howie, Levin, etc, what will they get? Back after this from Geritol.*

*--"Remember, friends, Serutan is Natures spelled backwards", ads used to say. My late father joked
that Geritol spelled backwards was "Lotireg"--"lotta rig"..
 
Jerry Williams did not need 15 stations to be a success and Number 1 in his prime.15 stations and Howie Carr will still be a backwater, second rater.
raccoonradio said:
I put a bug in the ear of WUFC GM Bryan Berner but not sure if they'd be able to afford Howie (WRKO said no to Howie offer; control of show, hard cash, ads). WUFC's
sister station WILC in Laurel MD is changing back to Spanish but he said that was beyond their control, LMA agreement etc and they hope to launch stations elsewhere.
Would adding Howie get them ratings and money? (...Remember when 1510 added the likes of Eddie Andleman, IIRC, and Mikey Adams?)

The signal maps on radio-locator.com show the ranges, as usual take with a grain of salt or quite a few grains, of WCRN, WUFC, etc. Then there are the various apps
that will carry Howie. He has roughly 15 stations carrying him (again, that's 15 times the number that Jerry Williams had...) We shall see after 11/17 how many he
has--more? Less?
PPM ratings and the economy have killed off a lot of talk stations (like WXKS AM, WTKK, and prog talk is very rare across the nation at least on commercial radio) but there
is still some audience. WRKO actually went up in some demos like the 6 plus we get to see, but they have less competition than before. Now (after a radiothon and
a week of fill ins for Howie) once they rid themselves totally of the Fried Clam Man (in a way they have already), what will they get with "the Kuhner man", brokered
biz talk (that's pretty well done from what I hear), Rush, The-Successor-to-Howie, Levin, etc, what will they get? Back after this from Geritol.*

*--"Remember, friends, Serutan is Natures spelled backwards", ads used to say. My late father joked
that Geritol spelled backwards was "Lotireg"--"lotta rig"..
Click to expand...
 
But RKO's signal only carried so far back then...and now there's online too.

Number of bestselling books Jerry had? (By him...not about him...)
How many national talk shows did Jerry host? (Howie has done Levin, D. Miller and for a time did shows via ISDN line for KFI) Though Jerry did bounce around to
different markets. Even Hartford.

Yeah, Jerry was good, but I like Howie better. Jerry was Elvis. Howie was/is The Beatles (even though he'd disagree with me perhaps, preferring the Stones...)
Good night, and good luck, good night to you and yes thanks Jerry for helping to make Howie possible.
 
That CRN map is bogus. Going home after work from Natick, 830 is stronger than 680, but by Needham it's pretty much unlistenable.
 
Howie has been and will always be a second stringer. He can just preach to the choir of right -wing reactionaries. Jerry has more talent than Howie could every hope to have. When Howie dies - not to soon we all hope - we wil NOT be writing about him 11 years after his death as we all do about Jerry Williams
raccoonradio said:
But RKO's signal only carried so far back then...and now there's online too.

Number of bestselling books Jerry had? (By him...not about him...)
How many national talk shows did Jerry host? (Howie has done Levin, D. Miller and for a time did shows via ISDN line for KFI) Though Jerry did bounce around to
different markets. Even Hartford.

Yeah, Jerry was good, but I like Howie better. Jerry was Elvis. Howie was/is The Beatles (even though he'd disagree with me perhaps, preferring the Stones...)
Good night, and good luck, good night to you and yes thanks Jerry for helping to make Howie possible.
Click to expand...
 
Omnibus said:
Howie has been and will always be a second stringer. He can just preach to the choir of right -wing reactionaries. Jerry has more talent than Howie could every hope to have. When Howie dies - not to soon we all hope - we wil NOT be writing about him 11 years after his death as we all do about Jerry Williams
Click to expand...

Politics aside...right now Howie is a "first stringer".... And that doesn't take anything away from the great Jerry Williams who was most certainly a trailblazer.

However, Howie is the most popular newspaper columnist in Boston.

He is the most popular local talk-show host.

11 years after his death, his books will still be on the shelf at the public library....and those will still be the "go to" authority on the legacy of Whitey Bulger.

Howie has a lot of negatives for sure. However, Howie has played his cards right and handled his career pretty well in the changing world of talkradio (as did Jerry). Talkradio in general is not what is was back in Jerry's day. AM radio is not what it was in Jerry's Day.

But we know the rant: "Anything/anyone conservative is baaaaad. Anything/anyone liberal is 'a breath of fresh air'"

Same old song.
 
TAlk?

Same old song.

Not really. Not if you don't expect something different and I certainly do not. Talk is over for me and has been for years. It's for the old (or old at heart).
I hear a little sports stuff but I rewally think of that as more informational. If it isn't about the Sox or Pats I get rid of that too.
 
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