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Westwood 1 to syndicate Kevin & Bean starting Monday
- Thread starter SuperRadioFan
- Start date
There goes the local flavor of the show 
it is a shame good news for westwood 1 bad news for los angeles.
it is a shame good news for westwood 1 bad news for los angeles.Why is everyone reporting it all of a sudden? It's been going on for nearly a month now! The stations in Reno and Bakersfield have been playing "Best of Kevin & Bean" segments every morning. I have a feeling more stations are going to pick up on this and K&B are soon to be the Ryan Seacrest for alternative stations in the mornings.
hotpatrick2004 said:There goes the local flavor of the show
Exactly. Why does every successful, well-rated, local show want to be
syndicated? (We'll ignore Ryan Watercress for the moment. :
)So does this mean instead of "7:16 on KROQ" will it now be "16 past the hour
on Kevin & Bean radio (insert local drop here)"?
And what about the El Lay local/live factor? Is the show now going to begin
at 3am PT for the oh so important east coast, and screw the home market?
Will El Lay get a delayed broadcast for much or all of AM drive?
Closed circuit for Kevin Weatherly--I know you have a great track record as
a PD, but why ruin this long-time top morning show in the #2 market?
Will Lisa May *ding!* read local traffic for all of the affiliates?
More than most, Kevin & Bean is all about local. They make fun of the other KROQ jocks. They talk about Channel 4 news people. They reference the Lakers, the Kings, the Dodgers. They talk about the entertainment biz in way that L.A. folks would understand, but the rest of country wouldn't. They center so much of their show on local events, like K&B singles parties, Weenie Roast, etc.
In other words, K&B is big because they're local, local, local. Will they strip that away once they go national? I sure hope not.
By the way, so much of their humor is also about themselves. Do you have to get rid of that when you enter a new market, and listeners don't know that Kevin's got a bad memory, Bean has weird hobbies, etc.?
In other words, K&B is big because they're local, local, local. Will they strip that away once they go national? I sure hope not.
By the way, so much of their humor is also about themselves. Do you have to get rid of that when you enter a new market, and listeners don't know that Kevin's got a bad memory, Bean has weird hobbies, etc.?
All excellent excellent points!! Reminds me of the experiment that bombed- the John & Ken syndication show. Remember how that worked out for similar reasons as Doctah just mentioned.
When it comes to destroying a morning show and a radio station via syndication, the blockheads who came up with that anything-but-intelligent idea for both Steve Harvey & Rick Dees certainly had their priorities screwed up, and the results were totally predictable.
But then that's been the case for radio for well over a decade.
But then that's been the case for radio for well over a decade.
Two words: Howard Stern
Marv-L.A. said:
Say what? Steve Harvey has one of the most listened to daily syndicated morning shows in America.
Doctah said:
At the start, if you read his book or saw the movie, he was just any other guy trying to make it. He even worked at one station with less facilities than where I had my first experience. There are tons of syndicated to one degree or another (by number of markets) morning shows out there. I think most people here are concerned about losing an LA show.
The truth is that we are in precarious and uncharted waters on the economic scene. Broadcasters like all other business are going to have to try and cut expenses in ways that are not going to appeal to a lot of us who celebrate what we consider the golden age of radio. What that is will be defined by when we became aware of and / or became involved in radio. But the facts are that we (the collective we of society) have allowed what once was a localized operation owned by smaller entities to become a conglomerate of relatively few owners operating at a national level. While consolidation had certain advantages under a more robust economy it also had the counter effect of bringing down the whole when economic conditions got tight. Instead of saving your one station in the market you now have several in a cluster and those clusters are replicated all over.
So syndication and tracking, which all of us hate to one degree or another will become the norm and it will only get more prevalent as time marches forward.
Harvey is indeed a very successful syndicated host, but it was syndication which destroyed his show's ratings and frequently top-rated AM drive English language program in LA @ KKBT; talking about local issues went out the window, and listeners headed for the exits.
Stern did very well in some markets, and not so well in others; he was certainly more the exception than the rule, although there were some markets where he was an also-ran, which is certainly something that other syndicated hosts have also experienced in various markets.
Stern did very well in some markets, and not so well in others; he was certainly more the exception than the rule, although there were some markets where he was an also-ran, which is certainly something that other syndicated hosts have also experienced in various markets.
Stern at his height was always local. Local for New York. He would talk about his life in New York and it felt like you were eavesdropping. And let's face it, New York is exciting and has an aura. Just like Los Angeles. Ryan Seacrest capitalizes on that, and now even Radio Disney is capitalizing on that. If K&B do that, instead of trying to go generic (which I think they were last time they were on in Fresno), they should do great.
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