Springer Gone?

[b344077]

Found in today's Chicago SunTimes:

The status of Jerry Springer's Chicago-based radio talk show is up in the air, with changes coming to Air America Radio. Virtually every time slot is in flux at the liberal talk network. Air America Radio airs here on Newsweb Corp. progressive talk WCPT-AM (850).

 

[fred flintstone]

Please, God. Let is be true.

Will AAR have the good sense to leave the slot open since (more and more) stations are going with Steph any way? Probably not.

While they are at it, they might as well let morning drive die, too. Stations in larger markets that haven't done so already will have an incentive to develop a local show. Those who want to take "the easy way," can pick up Bill Press. The show's not that great (although it wasn't as bad as Maron/Reilly or Reilly/Maddow). Maybe with a few more clearances, they can upgrade the production team, and the on-air product.

Maybe if AAR concentrated on shows that actually are doing OK - or have a chance to do OK - they could see Black in, rather than their current policy of being a mile wide and an inch deep.

 

[FightingIrish]

Here's the link to Feder's column:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/feder/cst-fin-feder22.html

Springer's show is not that strong, IMO, and they have been losing out to Miller and various local shows in that difficult time slot.

Not sure what AAR is doing as far as filling their pre-Franken shifts. Riley is leaving the network, Maddow is moving to evenings, and Seder is up in the air. I wonder if they're thinking of putting Thom Hartmann in the late morning slot (he's currently doing that shift on KPOJ - perhaps he'll tone down his busy schedule and combine both his local Portland show and his midday syndicated show into one. It wouldn't be insanely difficult.

The problem with these shifts is that morning drive on the East Coast (6-9ET) is the graveyard shift for the Mountain and Pacific time zones. 9-12ET is morning drive in the west, and many stations in that part of the country run either Miller or established local shows (like San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Denver). Tough time slot to get clearances.

I doubt AAR will leave those shifts completely blank, but who knows?

 

[dampier]

"Virtually every time slot is in flux"? I am not sure what that means, since Franken, Rhodes, and Malloy are not moving anywhere. Springer's show in many markets is being dumped for the far better Stephanie Miller, which is fine with me. Interesting that there is speculation Maddow is moving to evenings. That sounds like some sort of re-engineered Majority Report. I think Maddow and Seder together would be quite a team, although Winstead from Unfiltered Days was even better. Maddow in the morning is too early for me.

I think the host to watch will be Thom Hartmann, who seems to be heard more and more on AAR as a fill-in host. His show has been improving, and I've been noticing. His command of facts (and his ability to give them in depth) is probably his biggest asset, probably more so than any other AAR host, rivaling Sam Seder. I just wish his show was more entertaining. His guest hosting for Randi these last few days illustrates that. His knowledge of global affairs is better than Randi's (who put her foot in it when she said that the governments of Lebanon and Syria (!) were "elected"). Randi usually doesn't stray too far away from the topics she understands, for this very reason. Hartmann understands the history more than any other host I've heard, but his show and humor is... not so much.

He will not replace Franken, Rhodes, or Malloy, but I can see his show going national very soon. (Tip: Replace the "straight out of Boise" theme tune and continuity announcer... ick).

 

[fred flintstone]

Are You All Nuts!

Some of you "networkcentric" people just don't get it.
You talk as if Hartmann would walk away from morning drive on the strongest-performing progressive talk station in the country without a second thought.
He'd be dumb to consider it.
Clear Channel would be dumb to allow it.
A move like this would likely cripple one of the few stations which demonstrate to the industry that the progressive format can work and is viable.
Maybe you think Hartmann could do a national show in the Stephanie/Springer/Unfiltered slot and people in Portland would keep listening to Hartmann doing a national show in AM drive (and not even notice the difference). Right! Maybe your attention spans are too short to recall that Big Ed Schultz did so well as a local host in Fargo that he got a national show (for a time he continued his local show, too). Big Ed's station (Clear Channel's KFGO) has since dropped his syndicated show because even in Fargo, people could tell the difference - and stopped listening. Yes, Randi has managed to put it off in West Palm but it ain't no sure thing - and besides were are talking here about morning drive in Portland.
Morning drive makes or breaks a station. A station either makes a profit in morning drive or it stays in the red. It builds a core (P1) audience in morning drive, or it doesn't have one.
And no syndicated host has the presence in any market that a successful local morning show host has.
But some of you think doing a syndicated show is cool (of course, Hartmann already does one). Some of you are impressed with station counts. Some of you think AAR should put on money-losing shows on just to make it "easy" for latch-key, weak-stick stations. So go ahead. Provide more Maloney-fodder.

 

[kaufcom]

Re: Are You All Nuts!

Some of you "networkcentric" people just don't get it.
You talk as if Hartmann would walk away from morning drive on the strongest-performing progressive talk station in the country without a second thought.
He'd be dumb to consider it.
Clear Channel would be dumb to allow it.

If Hartmann was offered a syndicated slot of AAR starting Monday, he would be out of his contract with KPOJ by Friday.

 

[fred flintstone]

Re: Are You All Nuts!

If Hartmann was offered a syndicated slot of AAR starting Monday, he would be out of his contract with KPOJ by Friday.

And on what do you base this supposition?

Then again, he was dumb enough to take a syndication deal with AAR in the first place. He'd have been better of taking the route Steph and Big Ed.

 

[ajhenderson]

AAR should offer shows around the clock for the "latch key" stations because station counts do matter, and the amount it costs to pay a non-name host (ie Joe Blow from Spokane, not Jerry Springer) whose shows gets poor clearance is negliable. You'd think based on the pathetic affiliate list of the likes of Lars Larson or Rusty Humphries that they'd get cancelled, but they're on in enough Bozemans and Ann Arbors to justify their relatively small compensation.

 

[fred flintstone]

AAR should offer shows around the clock for the "latch key" stations because station counts do matter.

Matter how? To whom?
To political groupies who know nothing about radio and who think, "Wow 86 stations!." Small market, low power AMs with negligible numbers make AAR - more importantly, make progressive talk radio - look like loser. Real broadcasters don't want to flip. Real advertisers - by that I mean national ad agencies, not the P-I bottom-feeders - don't want to buy.

Anybody notice, no flips lately. No major markets added. Clear Channel appears to have backed off. They've flipped some stations but not to progressive talk. Randy Michaels walked away from WLIB. P1, WYD and Jones have no new entries. AAR will kill progressive talk through incompetence. The only thing AAR is good at is drawing attention to its own incompetence.

And WW1 (Lars Larson) or TRN (Rusty Humphries) aren't dumb enough to make themselves look ridiculous by crowing about affiliate counts for individual shows. What works economically for a syndicator does not necessarily work for a company trying to present itself as a "network" with a line-up of "name" hosts. A syndicator offers a multiple shows being fed at the the same time. A syndicator offers multiple feeds of one show. A syndicator offers shows to multiple stations in one market. Syndicators provide stations with a menu of options. Syndicators make it easy for stations with program directors - as opposed to latch key stations. It all ads up (station clearances and ad exposure). AAR has one-line, one station per market, one show per daypart - all its eggs in one basket.

 

[b344077]

It is possible for AAR to modify it's business model to reflect what you say.

I happen to live in the Chicago area and therefore I listen to WCPT. WCPT carries Maddow, Springer, Franken, Schultz, Rhodes (delayed) and rides the AAR net on their website post-Denver sunset. They carry two hours of the "best of" of Miller and Hartman on Saturday. While the station is well run on-air, the lack of a local personality and the station being a day-timer limits their potential and so limits AAR's potential, I think, in many markets.

It may be possible for AAR to become stronger if they behave more like a syndicator than a network. They might be able to place individual shows on stronger signals in some of the cities that do not carry AAR and improve clearances in cities that carry the network. As an example, I find it to be implausible that Pittsburgh does not have an AAR affiliate.

 

[clbuck]

Well, stick a fork in Springer, he appears to be done. Sam Seder's Majority Report is going to move to Springer's timeslot soon:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/08/23/failure_is_an_option/?page=3

Most listeners had never heard of Seder, whose ``Majority Report" was promoted this week to the midmorning slot -- 9 a.m. to noon -- on more than 70 stations across the country, including New York and Los Angeles. (Inexplicably, Air America's Boston affiliate broadcasts the show from 1-4 a.m.)

It's sort of weird that it's in the past tense, but it sounds fairly official. However, I don't think it'll air in Los Angeles, because Stephanie Miller currently airs in that timeslot on KTLK.

 

[dampier]

Well, stick a fork in Springer, he appears to be done. Sam Seder's Majority Report is going to move to Springer's timeslot soon:

It's sort of weird that it's in the past tense, but it sounds fairly official. However, I don't think it'll air in Los Angeles, because Stephanie Miller currently airs in that timeslot on KTLK.

It won't air in a LOT of markets where Stephanie is running. I don't think Majority Report gets better just because it is moving. I don't see this as an improvement, especially if they were simply looking to get more clearances.

 

[clbuck]

You're right about MR having clearance problems, especially with Stephanie Miller affliates, and West Coast affiliates with a local morning drive show (like KPOJ with Thom Hartmann).

But there's a potentially even bigger problem with the new schedule: with Randi going to a 3 hour show, it's going to cause some headaches for the affiliates who carry Schultz live, and Rhodes on a 3-hour delay.

Simply put: what are they going to put on at 9 PM ET? Two hours of Maddow delayed by 3 hours, and Malloy on a 1 hour delay? One hour of Maddow delayed, and Malloy live? An hour of whatever show will air at 9 PM ET (currently unknown)?

 

[FightingIrish]

They could just run an hour of whatever AAR puts on prior to Malloy.

That leaves two time slots left to fill (and yes, I know you think AAR should just air static in those time slots, Mr. Flintstone, but I doubt it will happen). Let's just assume they plan on filling those slots. Wonder if they'll just move Springer's ailing show to morning drive ET just to fill it and get him more affiliates? Or do they put in a weekender like Laura Flanders?

This isn't opinion, just speculation from a keyboard jockey.

 

[Scribbler]

What Flintstone always ignores is that the full Air America lineup is carried on XM and on an Internet stream -- both delivery methods that are winning more and more listeners every day.

 

[fred flintstone]

Huh? I am aware of both. I mostly listen to progressive talk programs via Internet audio. But I thought we were talking about here about AAR's line-up changes in relation to local radio stations. So, how is XM or Internet audio relevant to that and what's your point?

You seem to ignore that Air America Radio is NOT carried on Sirius Satellite Radio. For it's first 15 months, the full AAR schedule was carried ONLY on Sirius. Then AAR management - in a move for which they have yet to provide a satisfactory explanation - screwed those listeners who had subscribed to Sirius and purchased receivers in order to listen to AAR by making a deal with XM to pull AAR off Sirius.

You also ignore that Sirius was able to recover and put together a progressive talk line-up without AAR.
Bill Press
Alex Bennett
Thom Hartmann
Lynn Samuels
Ed Schultz
The Young Turks
Stephanie Miller

You ignore that Bill Press, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller can be heard online.
You also ignore that Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz can be heard on most AAR "affiliates" (in both cases, heard line on more stations than carry the program AAR feeds live opposite each).
And you ignore that three markets currently have AAR-free progressive talk stations.
Non-AAR progressive talk programming is winning more and more listeners each day (hopefully, enough to keep AAR from completely discrediting the progressive talk format).

 

[ajhenderson]

"But there's a potentially even bigger problem with the new schedule: with Randi going to a 3 hour show, it's going to cause some headaches for the affiliates who carry Schultz live, and Rhodes on a 3-hour delay. Simply put: what are they going to put on at 9 PM ET?"

Rerun the first hour of whatever's in PMD at 6pm since 3+ hour TSL is pretty much non-existant in the daypart

 

[kaufcom]

A syndicator offers multiple feeds of one show. A syndicator offers shows to multiple stations in one market. Syndicators provide stations with a menu of options. Syndicators make it easy for stations with program directors - as opposed to latch key stations. It all ads up (station clearances and ad exposure). AAR has one-line, one station per market, one show per daypart - all its eggs in one basket.

The liberal radio distribution model is completely different than the strategies employed by talk radio syndicators (virtually all right-wing talkers). With few exceptions, there is only one liberal talk station per market. There are usually two to five non-liberal talkers per market. That makes it easier to employ the syndication model. Ultimately, the syndication model is good for syndication companies, but bad for stations. That's why Rush is on over 500 stations and can be heard or muliple stations in most markets.

 

[kaufcom]

And you ignore that three markets currently have AAR-free progressive talk stations.
Non-AAR progressive talk programming is winning more and more listeners each day (hopefully, enough to keep AAR from completely discrediting the progressive talk format).

It's not easy being the big guy on the block. In spite of their problems, (and there are many) AAR still programs 80% of the shows on liberal stations. No other syndicator even Premiere has clearances accounting for more than 20%.

 

[FightingIrish]

What Flintstone always ignores is that the full Air America lineup is carried on XM and on an Internet stream -- both delivery methods that are winning more and more listeners every day.

AAR gets a lot of listeners via webstream. They've consistently ranked in the Top 10 of most listened-to stations on the web:

http://wmetrics.andomedia.com/home/templates/wcmt_template.asp?articleid=36&zoneid=3

Keep in mind that that's only from the official AAR stream. Does not take into account individual affiliates' streams.

Huh? I am aware of both. I mostly listen to progressive talk programs via Internet audio. But I thought we were talking about here about AAR's line-up changes in relation to local radio stations. So, how is XM or Internet audio relevant to that and what's your point?

You seem to ignore that Air America Radio is NOT carried on Sirius Satellite Radio. For it's first 15 months, the full AAR schedule was carried ONLY on Sirius. Then AAR management - in a move for which they have yet to provide a satisfactory explanation - screwed those listeners who had subscribed to Sirius and purchased receivers in order to listen to AAR by making a deal with XM to pull AAR off Sirius.

You also ignore that Sirius was able to recover and put together a progressive talk line-up without AAR.
Bill Press
Alex Bennett
Thom Hartmann
Lynn Samuels
Ed Schultz
The Young Turks
Stephanie Miller

You ignore that Bill Press, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller can be heard online.
You also ignore that Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz can be heard on most AAR "affiliates" (in both cases, heard line on more stations than carry the program AAR feeds live opposite each).
And you ignore that three markets currently have AAR-free progressive talk stations.
Non-AAR progressive talk programming is winning more and more listeners each day (hopefully, enough to keep AAR from completely discrediting the progressive talk format).

XM evidentally gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. Otherwise, I'm sure they'd still be on both Sirius and XM. XM paid a lot for exclusivity, along with their own channel and remote studio facilities.

Interesting thing about Sirius Left. That channel has been around longer than AAR. A few years back, they got most of their programming from the old I.E. America network, with Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann, Peter Werbe and others. They kept it going somewhat even after I.E. went belly-up by hiring their own exclusive hosts like Bennett and Samuels, and adding Schultz and a few lesser-known shows like the Turks.

There's almost enough talent out there to start a second 'left' channel, and they probably should. There's even another upstart liberal network out there - Head On Radio (though they're basically an internet station):

http://www.headonradionetwork.com/

Not overly familiar with them, but Guy James is pretty good.