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The Bull Fires Two-Thirds of "New" Morning Show
- Thread starter RoddyFreeman
- Start date
So I guess the management at iHeart Atlanta figures that they can make more money with lower ratings and lower talent expenses. I get sub 100 markets avoiding talent expenses but last time I looked Atlanta was a top 10 market.
Which makes it a plum for national advertisers. It's why Cumulus bases two national shows here.
Who says anything about lower ratings? Since WKHX launched Kincaid & Dallas in November 2019, The Bull is now on morning show #3. iHeart doesn't only put on Bones because it is cheap (you know they still have to pay syndication fees), but rather because it succeeds and produces ratings and revenue in many of the markets it airs in.
I will bet a cup of Burger King regular coffee that he is costing the Bull a lot less than the salaries they were paying. Is who ever is hiring the Bull's morning show still with iHeart?
Will Atlanta count as a new clearance for Bones? The Bull has been airing the nighttime version of his show.
True, Kincaid & Dallas has been clobbering The Bull in mornings. And Bones producing ratings and revenue could be part of the decision. But the multi-market nature of this suggests it's not the primary motivation.
When sister station Power 96-1 replaced what was a pretty good local morning show with Jubal, playing tracks from his prior day show, my interpretation was that iHeart was throwing in the towel spending money trying to compete with The Bert Show and decided to just run things as inexpensively as possible, as well as help amortize the cost of Jubal's show. But that's just an opinion.
I think that iHeart has been slowly moving to the model used in much of Europe and the Americas where formats are national with no local content or modification. A first step is to consolidate music as much as possible and then start unifying talent-based shifts.
However, in order to keep the chart reporting status of each station, they will have to keep music decisions local. Otherwise they will lose impact with the music charts, and therefore the record labels and music industry.
The company had a round of layoffs and in multiple markets the determination was to get rid of Country morning talents. Most of the "publicly" released names came from Country. That was the only multi-market part of this as those were the positions determined in each market. In Cleveland they cut one member of the morning show and moved the PD to middays. In Waco, they cut a guy that was there 30+ years after his co-host died last fall instead of rebuilding a new show around him.
But in Grand Rapids, they cut 1/2 the morning show and still haven't launched Bones. Each regional SVP/Programming making decisions on different timelines. Not a corporate decision.
Not new but better. That's really what this is in all the markets. Running it after 7PM is pretty useless.
That's certainly true, but when a media buyer is looking at a list of markets where the spots will air, that's not really reflected.
That's why I say "as much as possible". However, I think at some point if we find true national formats that the music charts will have to accept a "network" instead of individual stations and base it on the total audience numbers of a whole bunch of combined stations. That would retain the record label importance for the company, but centralize all programming.
So if you are buying a show and not the local station, that show might run in a variety of time periods?
They already do, with Music Choice and the various Westwood One national music formats as reporters. The problem is they have less impact.
Correct but there will be an aggregate increase in the overall audience. At least in the short term.
Yes, I believe that's the case with virtually all network and syndicated shows. For example, here in the Atlanta market, WSB runs Hannity's first hour from 3-4PM and then the second and third hours from 10PM to midnight.
IMHO: WSB keeping Hannity is questionable. They have Shelley Wynter who covers the Republican talking points, backs Trump, and actually allows opposing views on his show. An extra hour of Von Hessler would be a lot more entertaining.
Without any ratings or contract info: I would move Von Hessler 3 to 6 Wynter 6 to 9 and if they have to keep Hanity, 9 till midnight.
Without any ratings or contract info: I would move Von Hessler 3 to 6 Wynter 6 to 9 and if they have to keep Hanity, 9 till midnight.
Sorry to digress, since iHeart is putting "all their Country eggs in Bobby's bracket" can and should they buy insurance on him and his vocal cords.
I'm sure both they & he are insured. But like most of these shows, it's an ensemble cast. If one changes, they still have the other members. The Kidd Kraddick show has continued for ten years after Kidd's death. Still highly rated on iHeart's KISS in Dallas.
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