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Radio One Black Network

A

azenergyfan

Guest
What are your thoughts on this new network starting up? I hear its only going to air from 10am-7pm and will include Rev Sharpton and Two Live Stews. Does anyone have any info if they will be including news breaks at top and bottom of the hour? Just wondering what your thoughts are and how successfull you think this may or may not be.
 
> What are your thoughts on this new network starting up? I
> hear its only going to air from 10am-7pm and will include
> Rev Sharpton and Two Live Stews. Does anyone have any info
> if they will be including news breaks at top and bottom of
> the hour? Just wondering what your thoughts are and how
> successfull you think this may or may not be.

Race-baiter Al Sharpton? Yuck.

We've had black talk in Miami before -- in the 80s on
graveyard station WMBM (1490).

WVCG (1080), which has been brokered/ethnic for years,
will carry this.

In its better days, WVCG
had been classical (1960s) and later oldies (1980s).

<marquee>73s from 954, former WVCG fan</marquee>
<P ID="signature">______________
Prairie Home Companion Coming To Miami in Feb! South Florida Radio Pages (since 1995)</P>
 
> What are your thoughts on this new network starting up? I
> hear its only going to air from 10am-7pm and will include
> Rev Sharpton and Two Live Stews. Does anyone have any info
> if they will be including news breaks at top and bottom of
> the hour? Just wondering what your thoughts are and how
> successfull you think this may or may not be.

Here in Cleveland*, it'll air starting Monday on Radio One's WERE/1300, a station which has mostly aired brokered programming. Oddly enough, that means the new programming is basically the highest-profile programming WERE has aired in years. It's one of the market's historic talk radio stations, going back into the 60's and 70's.

It looks like Radio One is making a go of it here, hiring local radio/TV vet Ronnie Duncan (WOIO/19 - WUAB/43 - WKNR in its 1220 days) to do a live and local morning drive show. And Sharpton's certainly a "name" (even if it's basically in the same vein as Air America's Al Franken when it comes to radio). The "Stews" are also a name, and popular in mainstream Atlanta afternoon drive radio.

* - I say that with an asterisk, because WERE's signal is basically inaudible down here in Akron. It's an old-line 5000 watt AM that doesn't cover parts of the suburban market these days. But for the urban talk format, that may or may not matter.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Radio One and the new WERE-Cleveland

> > What are your thoughts on this new network starting up? I
> > hear its only going to air from 10am-7pm and will include
> > Rev Sharpton and Two Live Stews. Does anyone have any info
> > if they will be including news breaks at top and bottom of
> > the hour? Just wondering what your thoughts are and how
> > successfull you think this may or may not be.
>
> Here in Cleveland*, it'll air starting Monday on Radio One's
> WERE/1300, a station which has mostly aired brokered
> programming. Oddly enough, that means the new programming
> is basically the highest-profile programming WERE has aired
> in years. It's one of the market's historic talk radio
> stations, going back into the 60's and 70's.

Also note that WERE's new slogan, "The People's Station," isn't that big a change from current positioner "People Power WERE" - coined in the early 70's by legendary PD John Webster. ("People Power" was revived in the late 90's when WERE switched to brokered programming on a full-time basis.)

The Radio One Network will have TOH newscasts via the upstart "Syndication One" service. WERE will have local newscasts in the morning and (I presume) the afternoon directly from their downtown Cleveland studios - not from Metro.

Here's Radio One Network's lineup:
10am - 1pm: Michael Eric Dyson
1pm - 4pm: Rev. Al Sharpton
4pm - 7pm: 2 Live Stews

Dyson's show was announced last week. He's a noted author, professor and minister, and has filled in for Tavis Smiley on his NPR show.

> It looks like Radio One is making a go of it here, hiring
> local radio/TV vet Ronnie Duncan (WOIO/19 - WUAB/43 - WKNR
> in its 1220 days) to do a live and local morning drive show.

That alone is startling here in Cleveland. Aside from the FMer's, the only local AMD shows on the AM dial are WTAM/1100's Bill Wills (more of a news-tx-wx-wheel show heavy on ads) and WEOL/930's Les Sekely (which is in the western suburb of Elyria!).

Every other major AM station has piped in syndicated programming (Jim Quinn on WHLO-Akron, "ESPN's Mike & Mike" on 50KW WKNR/850, religous crud on 50KW WHKW/1220, or infomericals that are on WERE currently.)

> And Sharpton's certainly a "name" (even if it's basically
> in the same vein as Air America's Al Franken when it comes
> to radio). The "Stews" are also a name, and popular in
> mainstream Atlanta afternoon drive radio.

WERE's OM, interestingly enough, has good credentials himself.

Jim Davis has done nothing but program highly successful stations (WBBG/1260, WRMR/850 and WCLV-WRMR/1420) albiet in the standards format. Ironically, Jim lost his job at WRMR when Salem bought 1420 and converted it to all-satellite conservatalk WHK - and will lose a live air shift of standards music on WERE come Monday.

A person like Jim is what WERE actually needs. WHK, on the other hand, has been on autopilot with the reactionary-thinking Mike Luczak - and they ain't going anywhere. Stop if you've read all this before...

> * - I say that with an asterisk, because WERE's signal is
> basically inaudible down here in Akron. It's an old-line
> 5000 watt AM that doesn't cover parts of the suburban market
> these days. But for the urban talk format, that may or may
> not matter.

WERE's signal is serverly constricted to the west of Cleveland (co-adjactent channels WOBL/1320-Oberlin, aka "Casper" by it's highly directional signal; and WDTW/1310-Dearborn) to the south (WMVO/1300-Mount Vernon; and WDPN/1310-Alliance) and to the east (WELW/1330-Willoghby)

The good news: the best parts of WERE's signal are in the heart of Cleveland, including the eastern side already well-served by sister station WJMO/1490, the dominant (and only 24-hr.) gospel station in the market. And has been for years.

An urban talk WERE very well could succeed, if programmed and marketed right.

- Nathan Obral
 
Re: Radio One and the new WERE-Cleveland

> The Radio One Network will have TOH newscasts via the
> upstart "Syndication One" service. WERE will have local
> newscasts in the morning and (I presume) the afternoon
> directly from their downtown Cleveland studios - not from
> Metro.

As per the Julie Washington article in the PD the other day, they'll at very least have an in-house news voice in morning drive with Gregg Anthony, who was one of the finalists for the gig given to Ronnie Duncan.

Good move, IMHO. For a format like this, which would presumably need some credibility and want to pay attention to its target audience, a Metro cast that's the same as the ones on WHK/WKNR wouldn't work.

> Every other major AM station has piped in syndicated
> programming (Jim Quinn on WHLO-Akron, "ESPN's Mike & Mike"
> on 50KW WKNR/850, religous crud on 50KW WHKW/1220, or
> infomericals that are on WERE currently.)

Or syndicated libtalker Bill Press on WARF down here, though he was actually exclusive to 1350 in his early weeks. ;)

> A person like Jim is what WERE actually needs. WHK, on the
> other hand, has been on autopilot with the
> reactionary-thinking Mike Luczak - and they ain't going
> anywhere. Stop if you've read all this before...

No comment. I don't know if Mr. Luczak reads the N/T board, but I've already gotten enough nasty E-Mail from him to last a month...

But you're right...Jim's a good radio guy and has some sense of what the station needs to do. He'll have more to work with besides brokered talk, as well... especially with a live/local AM drive show.

> The good news: the best parts of WERE's signal are in the
> heart of Cleveland, including the eastern side already
> well-served by sister station WJMO/1490, the dominant (and
> only 24-hr.) gospel station in the market. And has been for
> years.
>
> An urban talk WERE very well could succeed, if programmed
> and marketed right.

Right on all points. It's by definition a niche format...Radio One has made no bones about their intent to superserve the African-American talk audience. But the above, combined with some non-target demo interest in hosts like Rev. Sharpton or even Ronnie Duncan, and they could at least do respectably.

They aren't about to knock off WTAM or even whatever "Mike and Mike" get on WKNR, but they could surprise some people...if they execute it right.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: Radio One and the new WERE-Cleveland

> The Radio One Network will have TOH newscasts via the
> upstart "Syndication One" service. WERE will have local
> newscasts in the morning and (I presume) the afternoon
> directly from their downtown Cleveland studios - not from
> Metro.

Wow - a station that fades in eastern Avon Lake when in rains in the afternoon doing local news without the "help" of Metro; can we send Jim over the Broadview Heights?

> A person like Jim is what WERE actually needs. WHK, on the
> other hand, has been on autopilot with the
> reactionary-thinking Mike Luczak - and they ain't going
> anywhere. Stop if you've read all this before...

Blowing up what seemed to be a relative cash cow for a new format that will take time to build. My question still lingers: how much of the brokered stuff lands elsewhre and how much goes by the wayside?

Hopefully the format is executed this way in the other markets.
 
WERE-Cleveland and perhaps a taste of WLIB?

> > The Radio One Network will have TOH newscasts via the
> > upstart "Syndication One" service. WERE will have local
> > newscasts in the morning and (I presume) the afternoon
> > directly from their downtown Cleveland studios - not from
> > Metro.

Perhaps they should hook up with AAR's news service and consolidate the two services, with the diverse staff at WLIB/AAR NYC, and remove the branding from each service.

> As per the Julie Washington article in the PD the other day,
> they'll at very least have an in-house news voice in morning
> drive with Gregg Anthony, who was one of the finalists for
> the gig given to Ronnie Duncan.

Gregg Anthony, formerly of WWWE fame. What's he been up to the last ten years?

>

With the money that's going to be flowing out of the downtown studios of WERE, would they consider doing as WLIB/NY recently did in clearing the way-off-format Satellite Sisters in order to bring in cash? "It's the Stews, followed by Glenn Beck, making his triumphant return at 7! But only after Premiere's check clears." Perhaps even AAR could strike a deal to clear one or two shows on 1300 at night. Perhaps that will get a ball or two rolling.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by KJCB on 01/26/06 04:13 AM.</FONT></P>
 
WZZK 1320 (soon to be WPSB) Birmingham also an affiliate

> What are your thoughts on this new network starting up? I
> hear its only going to air from 10am-7pm and will include
> Rev Sharpton and Two Live Stews. Does anyone have any info
> if they will be including news breaks at top and bottom of
> the hour? Just wondering what your thoughts are and how
> successfull you think this may or may not be.
>

Cox Radio Birmingham plans to relaunch WZZK as "The People's Station of Birmingham" on January 30th:

http://www.al.com/movies/birminghamnews/bcarlton.ssf?/base/entertainment/113792515564740.xml&coll=2

I usually have my issues with Radio One's dealings, but they've got a pretty nice lineup here. I'm still surprised WOL's Joe "The Black Eagle" Madison isn't involved somehow, though. Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson aren't your traditional 'radio' people, but they've definitely got something to say. And the need for a melanin-infused sports talk show is almost as overdue as this venture towards urban-focused news/talk itself; having streamed their local Atlanta show, "The Stews" are the real deal.

Promote their shows and the stations on which they air fairly (cross-promoting them on Urban ACs is a must)and they've definitely got a shot at making something out of this venture. <P ID="signature">______________
"I have the feeling about 60% of what you say is crap."--David Letterman underestimates Bill O'Reilly</P>
 
Re: WERE-Cleveland and perhaps a taste of WLIB?

> With the money that's going to be flowing out of the
> downtown studios of WERE, would they consider doing as
> WLIB/NY recently did in clearing the way-off-format
> Satellite Sisters in order to bring in cash? "It's the
> Stews, followed by Glenn Beck, making his triumphant return
> at 7! But only after Premiere's check clears." Perhaps even
> AAR could strike a deal to clear one or two shows on 1300 at
> night. Perhaps that will get a ball or two rolling.

Right now, they're moving at least some of the daytime brokered shows into nights and weekends. If those folks decide they don't wanna pay for post-7 PM and weekend time when they were getting weekday clearances...who knows?

The four hour 1-5 PM block was the brokered standards music (with WERE's own Jim Davis as one of the hosts), which was put on shortly after 1420 flipped to talk. It won't be staying. That's 4 hours a day that is not moving.

I doubt Premiere is interested. I'm not sure if ABC is interested in buying time on any station outside of one in NYC. AAR? Do they have the money? Is it true that they're dropping a million or two a year a piece in NYC, LA and SF? WLIB is a known brokered deal, and separately from a certain Mr. Maloney's blog, I've heard that KQKE/960 is also brokered by AAR.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Urban Talk Network's Chances of Success

> I usually have my issues with Radio One's dealings, but
> they've got a pretty nice lineup here. I'm still surprised
> WOL's Joe "The Black Eagle" Madison isn't involved somehow,
> though. Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson aren't your
> traditional 'radio' people, but they've definitely got
> something to say.

Sharpton will get listeners into the tent because of who he is and his name, though his radio skills are not really known. (Shades of Al Franken, no?) The Rev. did do a Sunday talk show on WLIB/1190 NYC, in hours not programmed by Air America (and which I believe dates back well before the AAR LMA).

I'd never heard of Dr. Dyson until his name came out this week in connection with the radio gig. But I saw him, of all places, on Fox News Channel tonight... as a guest of Bill O'Reilly. The placement is even odder when you consider that I don't really log a lot of time with FNC in its talk hours, ditto with CNN's non-straight news shows.

He held his ground pretty well, and seemed very sharp in that limited exposure. If he can get the radio mechanics down at some point, he's got a shot.

> And the need for a melanin-infused sports
> talk show is almost as overdue as this venture towards
> urban-focused news/talk itself; having streamed their local
> Atlanta show, "The Stews" are the real deal.

And they, oddly enough, mirror AAR's Randi Rhodes in the very same time slot... in that they're experienced radio hands with performance in mainstream talk radio. The "Stews", as I recall, recently celebrated pretty high numbers in PM drive on sports talker WQXI/790 there...as I recall, they may have even won their time slot in some demos.

It's almost like Alfred Liggins looked at AAR and said, "we need a big, nationally known name with little radio experience, an intellectual and a entertaining show with name radio hosts in PM drive". (Well, aside from the interjection of one Mr. Springer into AAR's lineup down the road.)

:D

I just wonder if the new network will run into the same non-radio-people growing pains that AAR went through (aside from the Stews). The difference here - an established radio company (with lots of experience in urban talk) is at the wheel.

Again, as I said, it's obvious Radio One is superserving their African American listeners with the format, but done right, it could get the same kind of numbers of crossover listeners that their black-oriented music stations get.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: WERE-Cleveland and perhaps a taste of WLIB?

> AAR? Do they have the money? Is it true that they're
> dropping a million or two a year a piece in NYC, LA and SF?
> WLIB is a known brokered deal, and separately from a certain
> Mr. Maloney's blog, I've heard that KQKE/960 is also
> brokered by AAR.

I don't think that anti-AAR crusader Maloney is even suggesting that AAR is "dropping" that much -- I didn't watch his latest appearance on O'Reilly and don't waste my time by reading blog rants, but as I understand it he's claiming that AAR is SPENDING that much. There's a difference. And if KQKE is "brokered" by AAR, why does KQKE have so much non-AAR programming, including two local morning shows and Ed Schultz?
 
Re: WERE-Cleveland and perhaps a taste of WLIB?

> I don't think that anti-AAR crusader Maloney is even
> suggesting that AAR is "dropping" that much -- I didn't
> watch his latest appearance on O'Reilly and don't waste my
> time by reading blog rants, but as I understand it he's
> claiming that AAR is SPENDING that much. There's a
> difference. And if KQKE is "brokered" by AAR, why does KQKE
> have so much non-AAR programming, including two local
> morning shows and Ed Schultz?

Simple - AAR is paying for whatever hours their programming runs. Now that they have "Will and Willie" for three hours in late morning drive, that's three less hours they're paying for (ditto with Mr. Schultz's afternoon program).

The figure Mr. Maloney mentioned - roughly $250,000 a quarter - roughly jibes with what I've heard from other sources.

When I say "dropping" in my earlier message, I did mean "spending".

I'm not saying that AAR won't succeed (or will)...the numbers just seemed a bit out of whack for what you'd expect in radio, frankly. I don't think even Rush's producer makes as much as a half-million a year, and he makes roughly $25 million a year with a long-established, successful program.

Again, this is all assuming Brian's figures are accurate. The one I've heard (the KQKE brokering) is pretty much the same in his accounting. I don't know where he got his numbers, though.

My point comes from a centrist/financial angle... unlike Jones Radio and program owners P1 (Schultz) and WYD (Stephanie Miller), AAR seems to like a gold-plated operation, which may not be advisable at this stage in their development. When Rush started in 1988 nationally, EFM Media wasn't buying his WABC clearance, and wasn't paying him $25 million a year. As far as I know, EFM did traditional barter from day one, and his eye-popping salary only happened after his show exploded in popularity.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
WABC, Rush and the changing economy of talk radio

Originally WABC did not carry Rush's syndicated show. Rush did a two hour local show on WABC and then a two hour national show (WABC did take some "best of" segments from the national show on weekends). Syndication spots from the national show also ran during Rush's local show. And, as part of the deal, WABC provided production facilities.

Rush's show was originally traditional barter. Jacor started charging stations in the mid 90's once the show was established. Of course, Rush pretty much had the field to himself starting out. It's a different world now: There is more syndicated talk product available (conservative, progressive, sports, advice) than any market can possibly clear. There's Rush, maybe Hannity and then the dwarfs (a lot more than seven dwarfs fighting for clearance in this case). Talk radio has become like the supermarket. There's not enough shelf space and talk show syndicators, like package good manufacturers, have to make deals to get on the shelf. It's not just AAR paying for clearance. This is how the business works now. But it also means that when an AAR program (or any talk show) adds a station, there is more than public interest or station interest at work.


>
> My point comes from a centrist/financial angle... unlike
> Jones Radio and program owners P1 (Schultz) and WYD
> (Stephanie Miller), AAR seems to like a gold-plated
> operation, which may not be advisable at this stage in their
> development. When Rush started in 1988 nationally, EFM
> Media wasn't buying his WABC clearance, and wasn't paying
> him $25 million a year. As far as I know, EFM did
> traditional barter from day one, and his eye-popping salary
> only happened after his show exploded in popularity.
>
> -OA
>
 
Re: WERE-Cleveland and perhaps a taste of WLIB?

I believe I read that Rush started at $125,000 a year as an independent contractor with EFM. The only compensation for the WABC show was the use of the studios to produce the national show. I've heard about extensive credits, including writers, on some AAR shows. What radio talk show needs writers? All that's needed is the host and producer/call screener.<P ID="signature">______________
Have a Happy New Year!
http://www.thebig8.net/have_a_happy_new_year_with_cklw.mp3</P>
 
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