Oldies Cat said:
You should do your homework. The "juggernaut" on WTKS was Howard Stern doing mornings- the Monsters (used to be midday, now of the mornings) and Phillips in the afternoon do well but they are not the perennial #1 25-54 they were 5 years ago. They did come into the Top 5 this latest book and are doing better after a couple of pretty rough years in the Stern aftermath.
(p.s.: WLTM no longer exists in Atlanta- they've been WUBL for most of this year, the year 2007).
I'm very aware of WTKS-FM's history with syndication, but I don't recall Howard's ratings being that much larger than the Monsters have been in the past couple years. I'd be interested to know his numbers.
And 96.7 WLTM is what I was referring to. They just moved frequencies. They still exist, albeit on a weak signal; the weakest of the CC cluster in Atlanta.
Elephant said:
You should also do some homework on McConnell. He's on live in two large cities, Cincinnati and Atlanta. The Atlanta station is going nowhere and is getting killed by WSB. He's on tape in some large markets, but in the evening or overnight.
I know he's on in Atlanta live. He and Mark Levin and the WSJ This Morning were added when Clear Channel pushed out a bunch of local hosts (Tom Hughes, Denny Schaffer, Kim Peterson), and later the station restored a local morning show (Randy and Spiff, formerly of 94.9 WLTM now WUBL). And yes, the big Whisbee is certainly killing them. WSB is where Neil Boortz and Clark Howard made their names, and Hannity was a local star taken from WGST upon syndication, and his ratings continue to impress. WSB is the heritage blowtorch, and it would be a huge challenge for any talker in Atlanta to beat them now. Especially a station with as weak a nighttime signal as WGST's.
I like Mike's show, but the way it is now it looks like he'll soon be back to local only. There's just so much competition in the late mornings slot, and even though he can be tape delayed, but that's not a good sign when the vast majority of your stations delay your broadcast. I brought up WTKS-FM originally because it reminds me of WLW. The stations have their local superstars, and some of them have tried to get syndicated from that station, and for whatever reason they don't succeed outside their local market. It almost feels like a curse.