MikeShannon914 said:
I dunno...AM skews so much older these days (average age 56) and it's a tough sell to get younger listeners to go from surround sound down to AM scratchiness and, gasp, MONO. The station also treaded on forbidden waters, since "we Texans" seem to require only ultra-conservative talk that tells us exactly what to think, and anything outside of the conservative viewpoint these days comes off as unfocused and a "catch-all" for any other non-conservative opinion. Using the term "progressive" instead of "liberal" was a good idea, but it just didn't spell ratings success.
Even the northeast newspapers and magazines have admitted in articles in recent months that the stereotype of Texas being "ultra-conservative" is overdone. The fact that Houston is the largest city in the country with an openly gay mayor and that the majority of elected folks in the largest counties in the state -- Dallas, Harris, Bexar, Travis -- are Democrats would seem to make it obvious that not everyone in Texas is an ultra-conservative.
If the reason progressive talk radio fails in a market is because the people there won't stand for anything non-conservative, why does progressive talk not work in almost every market it is in -- including places like Los Angeles -- and not just Dallas?
910 struggled, too, with progressive talk, and they were all automated...at least Rational understood the "outdated" term, "live-and-local." Me, I think taking a page out of the Limbaugh playbook is not the way to bring the non-conservatives together...and that's what Rational was getting with the syndie programming from Air America and NovaM--loudmouths who were just as vile about THEIR opinion as Rush is about his. Progressives are softer-hearted by nature, and maybe a day full of shows like Ron Reagan's would have been less offensive and more palatable to such an audience. But there's no shock value to a Ron Reagan, and sometimes a show like that gets tedious and boring. I still think that, if programmed and sold properly, a politically-moderate station might have some level of success.
The irony is KXEB had far more listeners than Rational ever had.
The old KXEB 910 was getting about a half a share in the overall ratings before it was sold and format changed from the Air America line-up. KMNY got a 0.1 twice and not enough to register in any other month. Considering KXEB had a weaker signal and covered less of the population than KMNY did, it was far more successful than Rational was. (KXEB's ratings were similar to what KTLK Los Angeles gets now...and KTLK's transmitter is located in Los Angeles, not rim-shotting).
But Rational took a turn away from politics and into more of that "lifestyle" programming when Pugs and Kelly and Dick Hunter became available. And it did work to some degree...some of the disenfranchised, ex-KLLI listeners gravitated over to 1360, and the station actually showed up in the mainstream ratings for the first time since 1976 when the station was still the former FW powerhouse, KXOL. But hitting #50 is nothing you can take to potential advertisers, and I'm sure Rational was never able to get the rates they wanted to charge. And P&K's and BDH's presence changed the focus of the station. I'm betting that drove away some of the original, progressive audience there, but hey, there's bills to pay, and the other benefit to P&K/BDH is that you'll get the station NOTICED.
KMNY didn't show up in the ratings in the latest PPMs.
If the feelings in your post are shared by the folks that run Rational Radio, they are just as bad as the corporate owners: it couldn't be what they put on the air, it must be the audience at fault (in this case, stereotype everyone in Texas is a backwoods conservative). Since Air America/KXEB had listeners and the difference between that progressive talk station and KMNY is the line-up, perhaps the issue was Rational's line-up?
