• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Part 15 Progressive Talker in Atlanta

Situations like this make it very obviousl that someone who does not understand broadcasting is trying to get into it. What don't people in general understand? If there is money to be made in a format, it will be on the air. Milliwatt transmitters are about as far as he'll ever get with this.
 
If there is money to be made in a format, it will be on the air.
Click to expand...

That used to be true. What has changed is....

1) consolidation, which has encouraged a no-risk strategy

and

2) the loss of a "middle class" of radio station ownership, leaving a few fat cats and a lot of skinny kittens that end up taking the easy money because they don't have the resources to stick with a format.

Talk radio is by its nature a format that takes time to build. It took the better part of ten years for KABC, the first talk station in the world, to turn the corner of profitability. You can't get a read on a totally new spoken-word format in a year, or two, or even three. If someone had bought WRNG a year in and decided he liked hearing cuckoo bird calls better, the world would never had heard of Neal Boortz. The big guys mostly refuse to take risks and the small guys can't afford to -- or if they do, they have to bail out to people who have money and no sense, and want to use the station as their personal IPod to play the sounds of the Georgia walking warbler.

So no, tain't necessarily so, not in 2008.
 
smedge2006 said:
If there is money to be made in a format, it will be on the air.
Click to expand...
That used to be true. What has changed is....
1) consolidation, which has encouraged a no-risk strategy
Click to expand...

You just proved my statement with that point. Do you honestly think that if there were money in the "progressive" format, Clear Channel wouldn't have already jumped on it and started screwing it up? The problem is, and you made a point of this in the rest of your statement, is that the big radio organizations don't take time to cultivate formats anymore. If it does not make money in the first two quarters that it's on the air, they dump it. They also do not cultivate talent. Which is why we wind up with some of the lame announcers (NOT jocks) that we have.
 
I have not heard this station yet, as I am in a different area of the country, but part 15 integrated with a well thought out internet campaign and streaming could easily be the difference these people are looking at.

Today the bomb shelters, tomorrow satellite.
 
smedge2006 said:
A local activist plans to start what appears to be a Part 15 station. Can't believe there isn't a no-ratings AM in the metro willing to give this a shot. What happened at 1690 was a disgrace.

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0343.html
Click to expand...

Why was what happened at 1690 a disgrace? An engineering firm got that license and put the station on the air with the sole intent of selling it. The firm put Air America on as a placeholder but did not try to sell local commercials.

A year later, consistent with the business plan, the engineering firm sold 1690 for $12 million dollars to a local guy who purchased it to put his format on. A format change would have happened no matter what the previous format had been. It was his $12 million, and he bought it to put his format on it. Why is that disgraceful?
 
Clear Channel has had more liberal talk stations than anyone else, and we the largest supporter of Air America.

FYI and all that stuff...
 
I'm surprised that everyone's favorite 50kW station, WGUN, hasn't given liberal progressive talk a try.

Either there is NO, NADA, ZIP, ZILCH market for progtalk, or...

Which is a shame. While I disagree with most commie ;) prog viewpoints, they deserve to be heard. And Randi Rhodes isn't that bad.

Now, from that link, this was funny:

Air America nearly escaped bankruptcy in 2007, but despite being purchased by new owners, Atlanta did not re-establish a local affiliate because right-wing Clear Channel Communications owns most of the market, Sander Bellman, East Cobb County activist and a colleague of Sinton's wrote in a 2007 email obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

Anybody want fries with that whopper? ::)

Either this guy is so deluded as to think that, but for ideology, someone is going to dare to put progtalk on an FM signal (although it might pull more share than the Bull ;D ), or "most of the market" consists of WGST and that other CC daytimer AM out of Hogansville (another one of those southside stations that no one listens to ;) ).

The words "Clear Channel", "owns", "Atlanta", and "market" generally do not belong in the same sentence. Although you could write "Cox and Radio One pwn CC in the ATL market".
 
smedge2006 said:
Can't believe there isn't a no-ratings AM in the metro willing to give this a shot. What happened at 1690 was a disgrace.
Click to expand...

There was a time when there were some radio stations that some people could buy for "pocket change". Based on some transactions in the last five years and some listings with brokers, you have to be the kind of person where "pocket change" in your neighborhood is Five to Twenty Million Dollars.

People do not leave 5 to 20 millions dollars sitting around for two to three years eating up more pocket change in operating loses to see if something is going to catch on unless they are really attached to some philosophical oddity. People like me and you who may own some philosophical oddity may not have that kind of pocket change because our philosophic oddity drives our life, rather than Warren Buffet financial philosophy driving our lives.

Just sit tight for now. If the guy can generate some sparks with his Part 15 "Flying Lawn Chair" he may be sitting on the right park bench the day someone with "pocket change" also decides to sit on a park bench and enjoy the philosophical scenery.

In the meantime, Atlanta is NOT a pocket change market.
 
Does anyone know where Air America ranks on the list of XM channels?
 
Channel 167 - AIR AMERICA RADIO
Aqh: 7200
AQH rating: 0.00
Cume: 109600
Cume rating: 0.04 :eek:
 
The Beave said:
Channel 167 - AIR AMERICA RADIO
Aqh: 7200
AQH rating: 0.00
Cume: 109600
Cume rating: 0.04 :eek:
Click to expand...

How is that compared to their other talk channels?
 
DashRiprock said:
Why not be honest and call it a "liberal" or "left wing" talker. Progressive is an insurance company.
Click to expand...

I guess that depends on whether you want to have an intelligent discussion, or if you prefer to let this degrade into a sophmoric food fight.

In contrast to the major force in talk radio today, there are people who are moderates, people who are centrists, people who are progressives. people who are unidentified independents, people who a left of center, people who are left-wing, people who are liberal, people who are liberation theology folk, people who are libertarians, and people who are marxist and communist.

There are those of us who are very disappointed with the level of discussion in this country. Either you buy into the Limbaugh/Hannity/Cheney/Norquist Neo-Conserative line of thinking, OR you area a left-wing, communist, pinko liberal. Black and white. One or the other.

Some of us are very disapointed that discussion in this country is sinking into that gut-bucket lack of intelligence.

If the guy is a progressive, let him be. Treat him with a little bit of dignity, Pleeeeease! If the guy thinks he can define a blend of talk radio that is progressive as opposed to one of the other shades of gray, discuss it with him. It won't hurt. Much. ;D
 
The Beave said:
kyscott said:
The Beave said:
Channel 167 - AIR AMERICA RADIO
Aqh: 7200
AQH rating: 0.00
Cume: 109600
Cume rating: 0.04 :eek:
Click to expand...

How is that compared to their other talk channels?
Click to expand...

bottom 2
Click to expand...
I'll bite. What's on the very bottom?
 
WLW News/Talk and Fox News/Talk are tied for the cellar.
 
DashRiprock said:
Why not be honest and call it a "liberal" or "left wing" talker. Progressive is an insurance company.
Click to expand...

Is it me, or is the girl that does the Progressive spots hot? I think her name is Flo.
 
GRC: I hear what you’re saying, but I just disagree with liberals using the term "progressive" to describe their political ideology. Who says their positions more progressive than conservatives or libertarians?

kyscott: The girl in the commercials is kind of interesting…
 
The Beave said:
WLW News/Talk and Fox News/Talk are tied for the cellar.
Click to expand...

I liked listening to WLW when Gary Burbank was still on the air. I can hear them pretty well down here in Louisville, but not having to fight the static was nice.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom