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Philly looses it's only local talkradio morning show

Q

qtpieislit

As Michael Smirconish launches his morning show into syndication and realizes by his own admission ‘his professional dream’, he leaves Philly purely in it’s wake. Is not, that just slightly disingenuous to hear a diatribe how nothing will change and we here in Philly will barely notice any difference at all. HUH? That’s just a liiiittle too condescending for me, and measurably inaccurate considering that in the last month or so as he syndicated into 1580/Morningstar MD, those subtly changes, and I say that facetiously have, have brought him a plump 50% wholesale decline in the Philly ratings in just one book. And you can’t blame all that on Phillies baseball. Maybe he thinks that no one in Philly would have noticed, or maybe even cared. We’ll, we noticed. So much for the lowest common denominator theory.

Does he or anyone really believe that Dial Global will be content with feeding Moline Illinois banter about the Mummers Parade or CB West? Think you'll hear about city council elections, or last Sunday’s drive through Chester, Burlington or Montgomery County, or Joe Vento describing his Philly cheese steaks or John’s Italian water ice at 7th and Christian. How ‘bout an interview from Michael Klien describing the latest local TV news anchor meltdown or a Dan Gross quote describing the latest Steven Starr restaurant opening, or the latest political bust. How’s that going to play in Piedmont North Carolina? Don’t think you’ll be hearing that very much with syndication. Me just thinks hearing about the weather calamity or bottlenecking in the Delaware Valley or comparable silly fodder will deliver a pure basic tune out in parts beyond. And it’s going to be a Morning show at that. Topical Philly anything is not going to excite anyone in Omaha Nebraska or Blue Grass Kentucky. We’ll maybe the Jersey blueberry farm report, but short of that, nada. The only thing that will work in syndication, that will even interest any established marginally successful stations is your intensely innate current sterilized topical content. And that leaves all the great Philly point of reference purely in the dust. Hearing him devote today’s show to saying thank you for everything is strangely like hearing him say goodbye Philly. It was nice knowin' ya.....Keep in touch now, here.

And local terrestrial radio plant’s another foot into the ground.
 
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the many allusions to all things Philadelphia have already started to disappear with the start of the simulcast of his morning show on 1580 in Washington.

CBS has been running an ad on several of their radio station streams promoting his show, and anyone from Philly who hears the clips being sampled in these ads ("Who broke the yellow chair?") would think he was emasculated, at best.

As long as he's doing two shows, the least he could do is bring his morning show back to its Philly roots, and focus on national items on his new afternoon show.
 
He's doing the syndicated show from noon-2 in his "home studio" according to the Inquirer. Is that were he does his morning show? Or is the 9a-noon block time for him to commute from WPHT back home?

This 5a-2p schedule is not something he's going to want to keep doing for very long. Sooner or later, he'll give up one or the other.

And no, it doesn't make any sense for him to do two shows where both are syndicated. WHFS-AM in DC has been airing Smirconish and O'Reilly since it launched. Maybe they take Smirconish in O'Reilly's slot and plug something else in in the morning. This would leave him back to being local in the morning.

Rumors have been flying that WJFK-FM flips to sports in the new year. Maybe Mike O'Meara, who hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire since Don Geronimo retired, moves to mornings on AM 1580.
 
It'l be interesting to see how Smerconish pans out. I've heard 1580 up here on the car radio during critical hours whenit was still WPGC. Quite a drop at night for this station to 270 watts from 50 kW daytime. And loose does not equal LOSE. What folks ge t for being too lazy for spell checking.....
 
I am Philly born and bred and always laugh at how the old school guys don't understand how the business is changing and how people really don't care about "local" anymore. All people need in the am is the "weather" so they know how to dress. City Council votes and the latest 3 alarm fire make for good "action news" lead stories because we can see that row home burning, but local radio doesn't matter.

Let me point out that I'm in my late 50's, so I've been around since the days of WIBG, WFIL and when am radio was local and dominant and the on-air talent mattered. Just listen to the FM dial and see how many shows are pre-packaged satellite feeds and how the Ryan Seacrests and voice tracked shows are taking over. It's called economics. Why does Philly need 5 soft rock stations which keep flipping names and playlists every few months? Not because of the "talent" introducing the same tired songs, but because B101 has been the dominant station since it was "easy 101" and everybody wants a piece of that pie.

I tell young people to stay away from their goals of becoming a radio DJ. In fact, staying away from any radio career is probably a good move for any young college student. Look at some of the legendary Philly local talent and have they have fared as the business evolved. Most of the great news people have been phased out because companies didn't need a news presence anymore. Even KYW is going cheaper and leaner and no one notices because no one wants to spend the money to compete anymore. Same thing with DJ's. All of the local greats are pretty much gone and I believe the only guy left standing from the old WFIL days of top 40 in the early 70's is Tony Bruno, who went from news to sports to syndicated host and now broadcasts out of LA to places like 950WPEN in Philly.

Guys like Smerconish have been able to make the jump to radio simply because the old talk guys are too old to stay current or fresh and anyone with enormous talent who happened to be a broadcaster first, lawyer/doctor or media creation second, want to do syndicated radio to make the most money.

If you're a local talent who obviously has no chance of syndication, you accept your spot and salary and live happily ever after like Howard Eskin, Angelo Cataldi and the few music talent who make big dollars in Philly. Isn't is amazing that the highest paid local talent work at WIP and yet sports talk goes virtually unnoticed on these boards? Guys like Booker and other Q102 guys move on to New York or LA, most others drift from job to job like Glen Kalina and a washed up Danny Bonaduce and John De Bella.

Radio keeps changing and guys on these boards always seem so concerned about which station flips to some other rock or ac format or which signal is stronger and sadly, none of that really matters in todays sad state of broadcasting

There are the few 7-figure local talents in most big local markets, but sadly, the days of "big time local talent" working in what we used to proudly call "Big 4" are long over.
 
DToTheJ said:
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the many allusions to all things Philadelphia have already started to disappear with the start of the simulcast of his morning show on 1580 in Washington.

CBS has been running an ad on several of their radio station streams promoting his show, and anyone from Philly who hears the clips being sampled in these ads ("Who broke the yellow chair?") would think he was emasculated, at best.

As long as he's doing two shows, the least he could do is bring his morning show back to its Philly roots, and focus on national items on his new afternoon show.
Click to expand...

It's not just the lack of Philly-centrism but I think the show has gotten more sophomoric in the last few months...less talk about politics and news and more "guy talk". If I want guy talk there's O & A on XM, Danny Bonaduce on YSP, or Cataldi on WIP.
 
Sam...you are so spot-on it hurts.

The one thing that I learned about radio is that it's ALL about being local. Sure talk-shows like Rush and Hannity, etc...are national and ideology drivin. That's fine and there is room for that.

But there IS nothing more important that NOT just the weather, but the local stuff about Grey's Ferry almost igniting 11 years ago. Local stuff like how come I-95 is crumbling.. Local stuff like the current economy and how it is affecting people all over the Del. Valley. THOSE kinds of things are what PEOPLE talk about. They don't sit and pontificate about national political agendas when they are having their Geno's steak sandwich. They're lamenting the officer who was killed by some sick turd. They're talking about the Phillies and how they made us all feel GOOD for the first time in a long while.

So when THAT is missing from THE local talk station, ya might as well turn the xmitter off. Let just a handful of signals stay on the air all broad...excuse me... NARROW casting to a handful of political junkies and people who don't ride Septa to work. I hope these companies realize what they are doing.

I heard MMR this morning, and they were talking about long bus rides that kids have to take to get to school. THAT is local and THAT is what people REALLLLY care about. So maybe PHT will be moot soon. Talk WILL morph to FM inevitably. Maybe it IS time to bring back WWDB-FM. Or something LIKE it. But not the T & A talk that was on YSP. REAL adult conversation with REAL people talking and calling about REAL stuff.

Ironically this is what me and my former partner Hilarie Barsky were doing in '97 when PHT first came on as a talker. We were laughed at by some, but turns out we were RIGHT. The ratings weren't there then because Imus was the lead-in (and before that Fred SHERRRRRRRRRRRRRMAN talked for an hour about stocks. Great if you're appealing to 70 year old guys in their underwear, but NOT good to attract 40 year old guys listening at work, at home or in the car.) Nice guy, but no ratings grabber. Our shows numbers went up every hour we were on because we TALKED about LOCAL stuff most of the time..in a way that was relateable. When someone figures that out again, Philly will have another winning LOCAL radio station whether on AM or FM.

Ok...next caller...
BE BIG!
Big Jay
www.bigjayandanita.com
 
I think that talk radio in Philly really has went away since WCAU and WWDB-FM went off the air. They were better talk radio stations than WPHT.
 
I hope the pressure of performing for additional stations will force and inspire Michael to do a better show and not be so concerned about striking a cable news deal.

I think as it stands now, the radio show is just "ok" and I know he has more talent than is currently being presented in the morning on PHT
 
Philly still does have a local talk radio morning show..."Radio Times" with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY-FM...

Don't discount that, at least...

-Jefferson
 
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