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Smerconish Leaving For Satellite Radio

There must be more to it than that. What does he care what his "brethren" think? In fact, talk radio is moving more in his direction -- "Angry is Over."

I'll miss his show. I go out of my way to stream it at night since it's not in the NY area anymore. This is a blow for terrestrial talk radio.
 
I think they have not been his "brethren" for a long time. If you followed his trajectory, what happened at WPHT is that Smerconish was their anchor talent, tho his day job schedule only allowed him to broadcast the 6-9 AM slot. Then this minor syndicated guy from Tampa got picked up for 9-noon. He moved to Philly and did a mix of commentary, humor, satire, talk and quickly left Smerconish in the dust. That guy was Glenn Beck.
All of a sudden it was Beck who was the star. He got a TV show on CNN/Headline. He was picked up by Fox News and turned the dead zone 5 PM slot into a contender, leaving MSNBC in the dust. He got smart and branded himself with books - fiction and nonfiction - stage shows and public events, and people bought and attended. He was even nice enough to have Smerconish guest host for him on the CNN show a few times. Beck became a star while Smerconish, who was the conservative voice on 1210 was pretty much the local talent he had been years before. Smerconish tried to brand himself with a few books and a book club, but nothing really took off. As a conservative in a field of conservatives and libertarians - Beck, Rush, Hannity, Gallagher, Ingraham, Dennis Miller - he was small potatoes. And the current slot is not taking off, not because of PHT but because he is up against Rush, and in some markets Beck.
So there really was no place for Smerconish to go but to break left. He publicly supported Obama in '08 and that lost him a lot of the local audience. He started showing up on MSNBC. He recast himself as an "independent" but listen to any three of his shows and you know where he is - with the people who gave him the visibility and platform he wanted, and they were not conservatives.
As a host, he is okay. A little too much "me" - too many stories are brought back to what they have to do with him, what happened when he had a similar experience, etc etc.
 
What is he talking about? Satellite radio's days are numbered. Once streaming to cars happens (GM says 2015 for factory installed) satellite radio can pack their bags.

I think that as mentioned his move to the left hurt him. He forgot to check the success rate of progressives in talk radio back in 2008
 
koolestcat said:
Satellite radio's days are numbered. Once streaming to cars happens (GM says 2015 for factory installed) satellite radio can pack their bags.
Click to expand...

As a great philospher once said to me: "Everybody has to be somewhere. Everywhere I go.... there I am!"

O.K. Let's assume factory installed streaming happens no, make that begins in 2015. How long before there are enough cars on the road to make it fully a viable delivery system?

What do you propose Smerconish do between now and then? Set up a stand to sell pink lemonade? Grow organic potatoes.

Everybody has to be somewhere. Why not be on Satellite Radio for the next two or three years... or maybe five or six... or maybe NINE!

The big political topic today is "income distribution". What percentage of the listening public is ready (and able) to "belly up to the bar" and pay for enough wireless internet to make it such a dominant media form that it overnight wipes out satellite radio, and maybe A.M. while it is at it.
 
Typical move for Sirius. The staff there hasn't gotten raises in years, half the channels sound like crap, and they sign another "name" with no chance of success.
 
MC said:
Did Dr Laura's move work out??
Click to expand...

She's still there and getting paid. Did I mention my friend that was the de facto second mic on a major show and had to quit because they wouldn't give him a $5k/year raise to help offset the cost of his 3 hour daily (each way) commute?

If anyone thought the new management would run things any differently, here's your answer. They're not. All they care about is signing "names" and nothing about the quality of the product or morale of the staff.
 
Well, I don't know about anyone's friend being denied a raise. But Sirius/XM does employ a LOT of people... maybe more than 200 if you count everyone. I guess they have a budget and your friend's job was budgeted for a certain amount. I'm not sure I could get my boss to give me $5000 more based on my commuting distance.

I like Sirius/XM. I subscribed for Howard but I listen to several channels of music and several Talk channels as well. I figured out when Stern first moved there it would make more sense to be a lifetime subscriber for $499 than to pay a monthly fee. After 38 months, the service is free. Maybe Stern will complain and threaten to leave till he signs another contract, just as he has done for decades.

Getting back to Smerconish, this makes sense for him. WPHT 1210 has seen its ratings plunge down to #22 in Philadelphia. AM Talk stations are having a terrible time in most large markets. He probably will move to NYC where he can easily fill in for Chris Matthews on MSNBC when he's off. And that's also the home of Sirius XM.

My regret is that Smerconish is one of the few non-partisan syndicated Talk hosts. Only Jim Bohannon sort of fits that catagory, although he was clearly pro-Romney in the last election. But most of the time he simply interviews his guest and only talks about his own feelings if he has no guest. While Bohannon leans right, Smerconish leans left but both could be enjoyed by people all over the political spectrum.

Geez, didn't Talk Radio originally not take sides? Hosts might make their feelings known a bit, but could be moderate or lean one way on one topic, another way on another topic. I know Rush changed all that. But does EVERY host have to be either All Conservative or All Liberal?
 
Gregg said:
Geez, didn't Talk Radio originally not take sides? Hosts might make their feelings known a bit, but could be moderate or lean one way on one topic, another way on another topic. I know Rush changed all that. But does EVERY host have to be either All Conservative or All Liberal?
Click to expand...

Yes, they must lean. It's in the Bible. Hezekiah 3:13.
 
Gregg said:
Getting back to Smerconish, this makes sense for him.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Cash in before the hammer comes down.

And the "non-partisan" stuff is an act. Either that or the Rush clone he played for years before doing (as I saw someone refer to it) the "reverse Dennis Miller" was an act. Either way, he's disingenuous at best.
 
ProducerGuy said:
And the "non-partisan" stuff is an act. Either that or the Rush clone he played for years before doing (as I saw someone refer to it) the "reverse Dennis Miller" was an act. Either way, he's disingenuous at best.
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That is an interesting selection of words.

Is it possible for a talk radio person or a commentator (radio,tv or print) to be "ingenuous"?

Is in disingenuous on our part to have an expectation that they be ingenuous?

I expect my minister to be ingenuous. I expect my spouse to be ingenuous... at least in her relationship and connection to me.

Talk radio folks and all sorts of commentators are in the business of "herding cats" otherwise known as 'the political animals' that have chosen to be part of the process we call self government.

If you are going to be a talk radio person, a political columnist, at TV talking head... and you are going to try to make sense of the "un-herdable cats" who make up the political process of begging and pleading with VOTERS to let them play their games, how can ANYONE in this daisy-chain of information be ingenuous when apparently THE VOTERS, the CITIZENS are demonstrating via the ballot box and the straw polls and the primary process that VOTERS ARE DISINGENUOUS?
 
Good point. It's POSSIBLE for a host to be ingenuous. Unfortunately it's not common. It's obvious which ones are "true believers" and which are putting on an act. A better way to describe Smerconish is that he switched his "act" midstream.
 
on the person with the long commute...boy with the cost of housing in urban areas, or gas and transportation... it is getting really cut throat out there. If you want a radio job, get a dodge van out in the parking lot and a gym membership to take a shower... no kidding... I cannot believe what people are up against. Smerconish should do well if he taps into the struggling middle class issues.
 
None of us can get into Smerconish's head. Personally I don't think it's an act. People do change their views over time. Rush and Sean may well have changed their views over the past couple of decades but for them it's too risky to change the format.
 
wadio said:
None of us can get into Smerconish's head. Personally I don't think it's an act. People do change their views over time. Rush and Sean may well have changed their views over the past couple of decades but for them it's too risky to change the format.
Click to expand...

When I read the last sentence you wrote, I come away with the idea that maybe you suspect that down deep Rush and Sean have changed their views in the direction that maybe Smerconish has changed.

Let me offer this possibility: Rush and Sean started out a bit more centrist but quickly learned how to put on the "rigidly Right" ACT because it seemed to play well with the audience. Is is possible that if Rush and Sean have changed their views, their "internal Clock" or internal compass if you please, has indeed changed.... farther and farther and farther to the right.

Who is the REAL Rush? Who is the REAL Sean? Does it even matter?

Who is the real Smerconish? Does it even matter?

Which brings us to the question of the day as framed by so much of Talk Radio:

Who is the REAL Thomas Jefferson? Does it matter?

Who is the REAL James Monroe? Does it matter?

Who is the REAL Ben Franklin? Does it matter?

We will probably never know the answer to any of my questions by listening to the radio.
 
MC said:
on the person with the long commute...boy with the cost of housing in urban areas, or gas and transportation... it is getting really cut throat out there. If you want a radio job, get a dodge van out in the parking lot and a gym membership to take a shower... no kidding... I cannot believe what people are up against. Smerconish should do well if he taps into the struggling middle class issues.
Click to expand...

Radio isn't going to solve those problems. Smerconish (or anyone else) would be better off doing a show that takes the listener away from those problems for a few hours. We have enough blowhards trying to solve the world's problems over the air as it is. None of them will make a bit of difference in the end.
 
Smerconish should do well if he taps into the struggling middle class issues.
Click to expand...

The struggling middle class could struggle a bit less by not spending the extra $15/month on entertainment. ;) Personally I'll settle with what's left of ad-supported media in order to save a few bucks.

Smerconish will vanish into Satellite's black hole as others have -- unfortunately.
 
KCSB or something like that, the UC Santa Barbara campus radio station archives some of Hannity's early shows. He has a guest on that talks about gay people or something. I think Hannity avoids "social issues" and sticks with foreign policy, the budget, size of government, repub good, dem bad, etc. the gay, abortion, stuff seems to be downplayed. He did go to the Bunny Ranch however.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x307547
 
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