"Syndication is the New Local"??

[smedge2006]

The self-serving sub-head of an article on the Radio and Records website about talk radio in the '08 election season.

Self-serving because, of course, R&R and the other trades get big money selling ads to syndicators.

I remember the quote from Roy Masters' kid who runs TRN... local stations are just "battleships" in a mighty syndication fleet... of course satellite radio and the internet are aircraft carriers and ICBMs.... ;D

Has anyone ever expressed sentiments like this, OUTSIDE of syndicators and highly consolidated, centralized station owners (as in below link):

http://media.salemwebnetwork.com/SWN/WGUL-AM/LocalImages/WGUL_mediakit.pdf

Everybody knows we stopped caring about our communities sometime after 1988...

 

[dave388]

it is sad the communitys get forgot about, however there is a few shows that are syndicated (savage for one) that I do like.

in my honest opinion syndication ain't bad. its just overboard.
daytime should really be community radio, and leave the syndication shows to evening and night.

 

[greenboy]

I never knew that Roy Masters' family ran TRN I always thought that Roy was syndicated by them. Do they own TRN?

 

[Phil Boyce]

Smedge...you took the article in Radio and Records Online out of context. If they allow me to post it here, then you might want to read the entire piece because it is pretty good:

Super Bowl Sunday approaches, a day that holds a unique place in American culture as one of the last communal events the country has. With media fragmentation well rooted and content choices increasing exponentially, few things capture the collective consciousness of the nation as this game does. Another communal event is the presidential election—and for sure, this format is in the middle of it.

"This is kind of the Super Bowl of news/talk coming up this summer," Clear Channel senior VP of news/talk programming Gabe Hobbs says. "We better not drop the ball."

With primary season swinging into gear, news and talk stations across the country are already knee-deep in covering the 2008 election. From local to national, talk to news, there are many ways to cover the biggest political event in America.[EDIT]

When it comes to presidential elections, everybody gets a vote. Who sits in the white house IS a local issue on main street and the corner diner. Just visit one, and you will hear those same issues discussed that are discussed on the campaign trail. This does not mean stations should not hire strong local hosts....they should. It does mean that syndicated hosts can capture the excitement and imagination of a presidential campaign and make it sound and feel locally relevant to listeners from Fargo to Fayetteville. The article is not suggesting that stations should abandon local programming. That would be a foolish mistake. In fact it is not even about that. Just wanted to set the record straight. If they take down the article I posted here, you can find it at

http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRWebSite/

pb


[EDIT-post truncated because originating material is copyrighted.]

 

[jimwalsh2001]

The thing that strikes me about talk syndication is how mediocre much of it really is: for every Rush or Hannity, you have a dozen hosts or are at best competent journeyman types, at worst, second, or even third-string Rush wannabes.

If Live 'n' Local radio is on the way out, it's not be because the syndies are better...