Re: KTLK Fixable, on Life-Support or DOA
I'm a former news-talk production director and program director
who's been watching and listening to AAR since it stumbled into
America's media consciousness and reading this board for about a
year.
Being a former news-talk production and program director (who's now back in music radio), I can't help but watch with interest what AAR and stations like KTLK have done. From 1990-200, I worked for WGR Newsradio 55 in Buffalo, which was consulted by Critical Mass Media and the esteemed Randy Michaels, who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg, NY. It was at WGR that I became familiar with the Clear Channel talk radio stylebook. Love it or hate it (as many do), revere it or dismiss it, the style book was interesting and as informative and
as the McLendon, Q or Drake stylebooks that were developed for CHR.
In the ten years that I worked for WGR (owned first by local broadcasters, then sold to Keymarket, River City, Sinclair Television and eventually Entercom), WGR had a pronounced conservative lean. What a surprise, ehh? More surprising that some politicians would call and ask how I, a registered
democrat, could tolerate such drivel. Yet WGR drew listeners from both sides of the
aisle because it was entertaining and it had a rock n' roll, spontaneous attitude. It had to, it up against WBEN, the established news-talker that was largely
50 to 60+.
While the WGR talk show hosts weren't anywhere near as extreme as what might be heard in NY and LA, they were nonetheless opinionated. The WGR news department was objective and aggressive, and the station had a sports affiliation with the NFL and NHL, which helped bring in different listeners and non-exclusive cume.
Let me also say, we were far from a perfect radio station. We had plenty of warts. Oh, and so this doesn't sound like a friggin' resume, I was anything but the perfect PD. "Mistakes," as Frank sang, "I made a few..." Some people though I'd lost my mind when I hired
Ron Dobson from KSTE to do middays and was one of the first PDs in the country to put on John & Ken when they were doing syndication. I thought they were entertaining and half nuts.Their show ran 6-10 p.m. here. It started slow but was building respectable numbers when J&K walked away from syndication to do mornings at KABC. It also helped that they actually
knew where Buffalo was... having worked in Elmira and Ken having graduated from the University at
Buffalo.
WGR was flipped to sports after it was purchased in 2000 by the competition (Entercom) which owned WBEN, I got my free pass to the beach and returned to Classic Rock and production where I've been ever since.
AAR has made many mistakes along the way and they don't need to be catalogued in this space because most of us radio geeks are familiar with them, regardless of our political
leanings.
From what I've heard, AAR needs to become more entertaining... as
entertaining as it is ideological. The AAR line-up is talented, but for the most part, the only personality that has the radio smarts and passion is Randi Rhodes. She knows the drill, and knows how to work the push-pull of talk radio. The rest of the AAR line-up could learn something just by listening to Rhodes' show and having a PD or producer point out what she's doing and how she's doing it.
KTLK? I live in Buffalo, so I won't presume to know anything more than what I read in the trades, on this board or hear on the mp3's my brother, who lives in LA, sends me. Buffal is yet to sign on a progressive talker, but it's only a matter of time until Ed Schultz and Jerry Springer show up on one of Entercom's two music AMs that now turn less than a 2 share.
From what I've heard, KTLK seems to need some balls to the wall attitude. Yeah, some serious promotion wouldn't hurt, either. It needs to be entertaining, more than political. At this point, you're probably poised to flame away with something like
<font face="book antiqua">"what the hell would a rube from Buffalo know about Los Angeles..."</font> and you'd likely have a point. I'm just saying that the station needs the fire, passion and entertainment attitude that guys like John & Ken, sports pimp Jim Rome, Ed Schultz and some of the established conservative bring to their shows. It wouldn't hurt to have some younger people on the air like Rhodes and it could only help to have people with brains and radio production savvy.
Yeah, you're right.
<font face="book antiqua">"If only it were that easy, dude, you wouldn't be working in Buffalo!"</font>
It's not like I'm the first guy to think and write it. If only it could be done.
If you'll excuse me, I'll post this and head out to shovel the five inches of snow we got last night.
