livingfruitvirus said:
Several Clear Channel shows are like that. Both of Todd Schnitt's (aka MJ Kelli) shows in Tampa are syndicated the same way. So is Dan Sileo out of Orlando, and the Monsters from Orlando before they lost all their affiliates. Sean Valentine out here in California is syndicated to six or seven other radio stations in the west. Recently Elvis Duran from WHTZ and Paul and Young Ron from WBGG in Miami have been adding stations. None of the shows that CC syndicates like this have network-wide advertisements either. The local stations get all the time.
You are right, Virus, although for a long time, Valentine was the afternoon guy at KIIS and they patched his interviews together with a little VT and made it a morning show. I lived in Cleveland, where he's on WAKS, at the time, and followed it more closely then. It has to be done somewhat similarly now, because his morning show on Star had a co-host, and his show now on MyFM doesn't start until 9am on the east coast. Maybe you could fill me in.
I think the idea here is that all of these shows aren't really "syndicated" in the traditional sense, in which the goal is as many clears as possible. The goal is a mostly intra-company simulcast arrangement for cost-cutting purposes. Schnitt may be decent, but you can't tell me WIOD and WFLA couldn't afford their own afternoon talents that would be just as good. CC figures that since 99% of regular listeners don't know (or care), they might as well save the cash. Also, like Schnitt and Dan Sileo, I do think we'll see more regional "syndication" in the future, but it won't be for the purpose of attaining a huge national audience... shows like these were never intended to leave Florida (or fill-in-the-blank).
While we're on the topic, John and Ken's "weekend" show is also heard on KSTE/Sacramento, where, just like Armstrong and Getty do a "show" on KFI with patched together material from their morning show, J&K use the interviews they recorded earlier in the week for their pre-recorded Saturday show on KFI and throw in a liner or two saying KSTE to make it sound local. Bill Handel, who is truly syndicated, pre-records Handel on the Law, but it airs a week late because he does a special local-sounding version for KFI which is then edited with national intros and phone numbers for affiliates.
BTW, for Will, the fact that WW1 reps AAR doesn't mean that much. They do it because they get paid. Jones and Jones MediaAmerica also rep and sell inventory on over 100 national shows.
