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MikeShannon914
Guest
OK, so we now know for certain, per AllAccess, who talked to Tyler and Keri, that there will indeed be a changeover to WBAP-FM come Monday morning, that WBAP-AM will be simulcasted (and apparently in "double mono.") LibertyNT confirmed with the FCC that the call letters have been changed. I'll have to assume that the entire Platinum staff was blown out and not relocated within the company, in true classless style.
(Strange that the traffic reporters weren't ever officially told, and apparently the on-air staff at WBAP wasn't told until this morning...but of course, who'll be called on first to ram the new change down the listeners' throats ad nauseum for the next 6 months?)
Here's my question: Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks (PRN) is who syndicates Limbaugh and Hannity. In another market, Clear Channel removed Limbaugh and Hannity from a non-CC station and started up their own local talker featuring the Pathetic Pair. So, let's say you're Clear Channel, and you want to use 'owned' properties like Limbaugh and Hannity to start up a talker at, say, KEGL? Although there would be legal wrangling, what's to keep them from stripping the pair away from WBAP? What CC might spend in legal fees would be recouped by not having to pay clearance fees and spot tradeouts to have the pair on their own station. And it's not like Citadel can afford an attorney these days, anyway. (Unless they can do a tradeout with Cordell & Cordell.) :
Which, if that happened, would leave a GAPING hole in WBAP's programming, and would likely put them on par with perennial ne'er-do-well's KLIF and KSKY. Stockholders who've complained about the worthlessness of Citadel properties would get a shocker when the one station that's propping up the whole company right now lost their two prime properties. And if you want to play that scenario out, you could surely blow out 90% of the news dept after that, and I'm sure some other familiar heads would roll. They would no longer be in the budget. (And I certainly know that feeling for myself, thank you very much.)
And why CC hasn't done the same already with their Delilah, moving her to a CC station locally, is beyond me.
Yes, I lived through the Howard Stern/KEGL era, heard him explain it all ad nauseum, and know all about what the TALENT wants, which is to be on a station NOT owned by your own syndicator, because there's ultimately more 'spot' money there for the talent. But with the radio rules forever rewritten now, and with corporate greediness, and with management only concerned with self-preservation, and with corporate trying to find any possible way to save a buck on programming--there's every incentive to try to reel back those syndicated shows and play them 'in-house', so to speak.
(Strange that the traffic reporters weren't ever officially told, and apparently the on-air staff at WBAP wasn't told until this morning...but of course, who'll be called on first to ram the new change down the listeners' throats ad nauseum for the next 6 months?)
Here's my question: Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks (PRN) is who syndicates Limbaugh and Hannity. In another market, Clear Channel removed Limbaugh and Hannity from a non-CC station and started up their own local talker featuring the Pathetic Pair. So, let's say you're Clear Channel, and you want to use 'owned' properties like Limbaugh and Hannity to start up a talker at, say, KEGL? Although there would be legal wrangling, what's to keep them from stripping the pair away from WBAP? What CC might spend in legal fees would be recouped by not having to pay clearance fees and spot tradeouts to have the pair on their own station. And it's not like Citadel can afford an attorney these days, anyway. (Unless they can do a tradeout with Cordell & Cordell.) :
Which, if that happened, would leave a GAPING hole in WBAP's programming, and would likely put them on par with perennial ne'er-do-well's KLIF and KSKY. Stockholders who've complained about the worthlessness of Citadel properties would get a shocker when the one station that's propping up the whole company right now lost their two prime properties. And if you want to play that scenario out, you could surely blow out 90% of the news dept after that, and I'm sure some other familiar heads would roll. They would no longer be in the budget. (And I certainly know that feeling for myself, thank you very much.)
And why CC hasn't done the same already with their Delilah, moving her to a CC station locally, is beyond me.
Yes, I lived through the Howard Stern/KEGL era, heard him explain it all ad nauseum, and know all about what the TALENT wants, which is to be on a station NOT owned by your own syndicator, because there's ultimately more 'spot' money there for the talent. But with the radio rules forever rewritten now, and with corporate greediness, and with management only concerned with self-preservation, and with corporate trying to find any possible way to save a buck on programming--there's every incentive to try to reel back those syndicated shows and play them 'in-house', so to speak.
