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Saturday Night Syndicated Wasteland

OhioMediaWatch said:
Even if smaller/medium market stations aren't carrying sports PBP, many of them fill out their weekend schedules with FSR, ESPN and SNR.

It's much easier to "plug in" a continuous sports radio network feed, which is otherwise compatible with your other weekend programming, than it is to affiliate with a new 3 hour talk show...even if that's generally compatible with your weekday programming.

Am I right, Ian? :)

Yeah, that's right. Many stations do what comes easy, despite that not being the best programming choice. Not that signing new show is hard work - but it is work.
 
Batchelor seems to alternate between having one of his financial cohosts fill in on Saturday, or he does recorded (but fresh) interviews, mostly with authors of history books.

Unlike other shows where the host says nothing and is just vamping until the next break, every minute of his show is non-stop content.

Part of the answer of how he is able to generate 24+ hours a week of high density content is he knows a lot. There is no substitute for that. If he has a guest (like this week) who is discussing the failed attack by the American Navy in 1779 in Maine, he doesn't need to read up on it. He's been there and knows the history of the battle.

John is using a Macintosh for his editing and production. His guests are generally on Skype. He uses a Kindle to read the many books that discusses on the show. His shows are available on every major podcast outlet for free without commercials.

He also seems to have a lot of contact with people from the Hoover Institute - they probably provide some of the material he uses.

Back in 2008 during the collapse of Bear Stearns and then Lehman, John was right their discussing CDOs and Credit Default Swaps, the unraveling of GM and Chrysler. Not reading headlines from Drudge, but talking to people who knew what it meant and what was likely to happen next - and having a probing conversation, not paraphrasing a preproducted segment written by someone else.

Keep it quiet. The only thing Citadel could do for this show is to screw it up by bringing in consultants. I just wish it was on a few hours earlier so more people would be aware it is there.
 
SRGuide said:
The only live syndicated shows on the weekend with traction are Kim Komando who does her show Saturday morning before the sports get started, and Bill Cunningham late on Sunday evening after the sports are mostly over (the former Matt Drudge time slot).

What about Leo Laporte's show?
 
We air free Talk Live and I think it is Good Original Programing for the weekend. If its Topical I would rather run Fresh shows if its non topical like pet and car shows than I will go with that over rush reuns
 
SRGuide said:
Batchelor seems to alternate between having one of his financial cohosts fill in on Saturday, or he does recorded (but fresh) interviews, mostly with authors of history books.

Unlike other shows where the host says nothing and is just vamping until the next break, every minute of his show is non-stop content.

Part of the answer of how he is able to generate 24+ hours a week of high density content is he knows a lot. There is no substitute for that. If he has a guest (like this week) who is discussing the failed attack by the American Navy in 1779 in Maine, he doesn't need to read up on it. He's been there and knows the history of the battle.

John is using a Macintosh for his editing and production. His guests are generally on Skype. He uses a Kindle to read the many books that discusses on the show. His shows are available on every major podcast outlet for free without commercials.

He also seems to have a lot of contact with people from the Hoover Institute - they probably provide some of the material he uses.

Back in 2008 during the collapse of Bear Stearns and then Lehman, John was right their discussing CDOs and Credit Default Swaps, the unraveling of GM and Chrysler. Not reading headlines from Drudge, but talking to people who knew what it meant and what was likely to happen next - and having a probing conversation, not paraphrasing a preproducted segment written by someone else.

Keep it quiet. The only thing Citadel could do for this show is to screw it up by bringing in consultants. I just wish it was on a few hours earlier so more people would be aware it is there.

Batchelor does an excellent show. It's unfortunate that they seem unable to sell all his network inventory and stations end up getting "barter PSAs."

mescutia said:
SRGuide said:
The only live syndicated shows on the weekend with traction are Kim Komando who does her show Saturday morning before the sports get started, and Bill Cunningham late on Sunday evening after the sports are mostly over (the former Matt Drudge time slot).

What about Leo Laporte's show?

Leo's show is in the heart of play-by-play feeds. He runs 2-5 Eastern and his show is live. I believe Komando's show is canned, as are many weekend talk shows like The Money Pit and Handel on the Law, both of which have a lot of clearances. Gary Sullivan does well for himself too. He runs Saturday and Sunday mornings live.

Don C said:
I'll second the Batchelor comments. The guy is sharp. He isn't syndicated, though, is he? If not, he should be.

He is indeed syndicated under the WABC Radio Syndication banner. Most affiliates pick and choose what shows to run, but only WABC and a station in Carbondale, PA run every hour of every show. KABC Los Angeles delays the show into overnights and clips a few hours each night. WLS Chicago only runs 2 hours of the Saturday show. WTKK Boston runs the last 3 hours of every night. There's a bunch of other affiliates too. XM Radio 158 plays the show on weekends, but not weekdays.
 
mescutia said:
What about Leo Laporte's show?

Leo basically gets the CC stations which are not already running Kim Komando. But Kim has a decent number of CC affiliates, including a couple of their talkers around here.
 
DoubleC said:
We air Free Talk Live and I think it is Good Original Programing for the weekend...

I like how the words "Good Original Programming" are all capitalized - not to be confused with the "other" GOP... :D
 
The choices for syndicated talk on Saturday nights keep getting worse. Now WestStar's "The Other Side" is leaving syndication this summer.

As mentioned earlier in this thread there are a select few options:

Citadel's "John Batchelor Show" 9p-1a ET - his website claims it's a live show, but posters here say it sounds like recorded interviews with authors
TRN's "Science Fantastic" 5-8p ET - they claim it's live, but posts here say it's all prerecorded nowadays
TRN's "Finding God in Physics" 8-11p ET - listed as live - does this show actually take calls? The show title sure doesn't sound like a caller-oriented program.
"Baldwin/McCullough Radio" 9-11p ET - live

and of course my show, "Free Talk Live" 7-10p ET - live

Besides those, is there anything else out there in the syndicated world that is actually live on Saturday nights?
 
FTL_Ian said:
"Baldwin/McCullough Radio" 9-11p ET - live

What in the world is "Baldwin/McCullough Radio"? Who puts it out, and who airs it?

I believe Allen Hunt was live 7 days, but I'm not sure of that. Of course, he's going away, syndication-wise.
 
Hunt used to be live on Sats, but quit that when he expanded to weeknights. He did keep doing his Sunday show live though, so Hunt was one of the few who did radio live six nights per week. He's done on 5/31.

Baldwin/McCullough Radio is a.k.a. "BMX Radio" http://www.baldwinmccullough.com/

I've never listened, but I think they are distributed by a religious network known as "American Family Radio". Their site claims hundreds of affiliates, virtually all of which are in the non-comm frequency range.
 
FTL_Ian said:
I've never listened, but I think they are distributed by a religious network known as "American Family Radio". Their site claims hundreds of affiliates, virtually all of which are in the non-comm frequency range.

Yeah, I saw that. They have some other stations in the mix as well - their biggest clearance is Salem talk WNYM/970 in the NYC market - but their affiliate list is chock full of the AFR Talk relays.

We don't get the show here either way...our Salem talker (WHK/1420) doesn't carry it, and it doesn't seem to have widespread clearance on the Salem stations. And, well, thankfully, AFR has no translators up here in Northeast Ohio. They've got a handful around Columbus.

And "Baldwin" is the Least Successful Baldwin Brother in the acting world... Stephen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baldwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baldwin#Religious_activism

In 2008, Baldwin teamed up with conservative talk-radio host Kevin McCullough to put together a Saturday radio show called "Baldwin/McCullough Radio". As of April 18, 2009, the show airs on more than 213 stations and in more than 400 cities across the US, and worldwide on Sirius 161 and XM 227[15] Baldwin appears weekly on the show from the broadcast studios in New York City, as well as from various locations around the US when he is traveling for other business purposes.

I wonder how many of those 213 stations (or whatever it is now) are the AFR Talk translators?
 
Totally speculating here, but do you think they are buying time at Salem's WNYM so Baldwin can go there to do the show?
 
FTL_Ian said:
Totally speculating here, but do you think they are buying time at Salem's WNYM so Baldwin can go there to do the show?

I'd almost bet on it, and Baldwin would certainly have the money to pay for that himself. Though he has apparently used Skype for remote audio from other places...I listened to part of last week's show after it came up in this thread, and he was Skype-ing in from London.

I assume any weekend programming on Salem stations is brokered, except for replays of the company's own weekday shows (and the Fox News Radio shows like John Gibson and Tom Sullivan), which are there basically to fill unsold hours.

"BMX" gets a couple of other Salem clearances, like on their Orlando talker.

ETA: The show's affiliate list has WORL/660's logo, but I can't find the show on that station's online schedule.
 
Bob Brinker has a good show (MoneyTalk). It used to clear in Detroit on WJR on Saturday Nights but has been replaced by Larry Kudlow. He's not bad, but I prefer Brinker. The CAR show is good on Saturday mornings as is The Mutual Fund Show.
 
Moneytalk, when it aired on Saturdays, was 4-7 PM ET/1-4 PM PT. It only aired in evenings if the affiliate delayed it.

Kudlow's show is actually live 10 AM-1 PM ET now, I believe. I believe Brinker's Sunday show is still 4-7 PM ET.
 
OMW, thanks for your attempts to keep this thread on topic. So, back to my original question: Am I missing any other syndicated Saturday *night* programming? I'm pretty sure my earlier post was all there is.
 
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