Salem's News Talk format

[Surfer]

I'm curious if anybody thinks that Salem's News Talk format has a chance of succeeding? It seems to me that Salem's not interested in being market dominant. They are interested in being market mediocre (sp?). I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this?

 

[FightingIrish]

The network will survive as long as Salem's ego allows it to.

From what I've heard, the talk programming is not very profitable (if at all), and is subsidized by their religious formats.

 

[fred flintstone]

I'm curious if anybody thinks that Salem's News Talk format has a chance of succeeding? It seems to me that Salem's not interested in being market dominant. They are interested in being market mediocre (sp?). I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this?

It depends on how you define success.
Ratings success? Clearly not.
Success in syndication program sales? No.
Success in national adverting sales? Not really.
Success in advertising sales on local stations? Maybe some.
Success in achieving political influence? No.

Setting aside political considerations. I think some of their shows are well done, certainly better than other second string conservative talk (Gallagher, O'Reilly, Liddy) and on a par with most progressive talk. They don't have big stars so talent costs may not be excessive. Turnkey networks (and the stations which carry them) succeed by keeping costs down; they don't need huge ratings to show a profit.

 

[KeithE4]

I'm curious if anybody thinks that Salem's News Talk format has a chance of succeeding? It seems to me that Salem's not interested in being market dominant. They are interested in being market mediocre (sp?). I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this?

Salem's interested in making a profit from an evangelical-christian/socially-conservative agenda. They don't seem to be interested in directly competing with de-facto Republican Party mouthpieces Limbaugh and Hannity, although they share the same views in most cases.

It doesn't seem to matter to them if they're the third-rate talkers in most markets.

They certainly want to make money, but only on their own terms and with their own agenda. In many (most?) markets where they own 2 AMs, one carries the Salem Talk Network (or whatever they call it) and the other is a pay-for-pray station.

 

[FightingIrish]

I'm curious if anybody thinks that Salem's News Talk format has a chance of succeeding? It seems to me that Salem's not interested in being market dominant. They are interested in being market mediocre (sp?). I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this?

Salem's interested in making a profit from an evangelical-christian/socially-conservative agenda. They don't seem to be interested in directly competing with de-facto Republican Party mouthpieces Limbaugh and Hannity, although they share the same views in most cases.

It doesn't seem to matter to them if they're the third-rate talkers in most markets.

They certainly want to make money, but only on their own terms and with their own agenda. In many (most?) markets where they own 2 AMs, one carries the Salem Talk Network (or whatever they call it) and the other is a pay-for-pray station.

There's quite a few Salem talk stations carrying Michael Savage. I just don't picture him as being an 'evangelical-christian'.

 

[fred flintstone]

Salem's interested in making a profit from an evangelical-christian/socially-conservative agenda. They don't seem to be interested in directly competing with de-facto Republican Party mouthpieces Limbaugh and Hannity, although they share the same views in most cases.

It doesn't seem to matter to them if they're the third-rate talkers in most markets.

They certainly want to make money, but only on their own terms and with their own agenda. In many (most?) markets where they own 2 AMs, one carries the Salem Talk Network (or whatever they call it) and the other is a pay-for-pray station.

There's quite a few Salem talk stations carrying Michael Savage. I just don't picture him as being an 'evangelical-christian'.
[/quote]

It appears Salem's station/cluster managers do have some latitude in what they carry, and Salem does appear to want their stations to make money. I think it would be fair to say the network serves the stations more than the other way around. In Chicago, for example, they just dropped Bill Bennett in AM to do a local show. LA is also local in morning drive. And in many markets stations pull out of the network for Savage and/or Ingraham (from TRN). In New York, where Salem has two AM stations, one did carry programs from the company's news-talk feed but currently both are running pay to play preachers. They have an agenda but the bottom line appears to be the bottom line.

 

[ajhenderson]

Just because their goal is the bottom line doesn't mean they have a good plan to get there. Luckily they've already built their money-making stable of stations and now just get to screw around.

First off, LA is NOT local in AMD, it's Laura Ingraham. Maybe 92 years ago when Mark Larson was on the KRLA/KRLH IE simulcast, or when listeners were treated to Larry Marino's skills, but not anymore. Completely off the bird, unless Dennis Prager's "success" at KABC a decade ago still makes him viable locally. His mediocre ratings are the best on the station and hence makes him viable only for the puppets on Brand Ave. in Glendale.

Savage OTOH somehow works well with their audience, and is on because Salem is for some reason in bed with TRN's Laura Ingraham (probably because Ed Atsinger wishes he was).

Also, having N/Ters allows Salem to attract a more mainstream type of brokered program, both local and national, for its completely pay-for-play weekends, for which they charge (and get in many cases) rates well beyond what the time is worth.