WHAM juggles weekday line up as of Oct. 23 with the Cumulus launch of Savage

[Ed Trefzger]

Per WHAM1180.com:

Limbaugh clears live for the first time since in Rochester since he was on WYSL way back in the day. Hannity is live for two hours. Bob Matthews gets a third hour. Savage returns to WHAM. Glenn Beck is gone completely.

5:00-8:30a: Chet Walker
8:30-noon: Lonsberry
noon-3:00p: Rush
3:00-5:00p: Hannity
5:00-6:00p: 5 O'Clock News hour
6:00-9:00p: Bob Matthews on Sports
9:00-midnight: Savage
12:00-1:00a: the other hour of Hannity
1:00-5:00a: Coast-to-Coast AM

Running Hannity on delay either at 8 p.m. or after Yankee baseball and running Beck on delay at 11 p.m made little sense since they are topical shows that get old in a matter of hours. (Talking about the lead up to a debate after it happens is not very compelling.)

 

[Bob1370]

Not trying to tell them how to program their station, but do they really think they'll have any easier time selling Savage to advertisers than they did when they carried him before?

They've got to think about how salable their inventory is to local advertisers and how many clients are willing to pay good $$$ to send out a negative or angry vibe to listeners. Isn't that why they dropped him in the first place?

Evenings are NOT--or at least shouldn't be, from a business point of view--a throwaway time , but a sales opportunity....

 

[therealjm12]

Like him or not, Savage attracts an audience. Yes, angry old white guys, but still there is a population out there that listen to him. I believe WYSL was running him for a while under his former syndicator. I'd be interested in knowing if they got a bump in their ratings because they did carry him. No, he doesn't attract women 18 -35 (or men either) but he does attract men 35+, mostly +. So it could make a difference in the ratings 12+ Monday - Sunday. He has been #1 in many markets in the evening hours (total audience) for what ever that's worth.

 

[SirRoxalot]

I don't get the 8:30 AM time for switching from Walker to Lonsberry. Why not let the morning show go until 9:00 AM?

 

[TheBigA]

I don't get why any Clear Channel station would want to put money in the pockets of Cumulus. Makes no sense to me, unless they have a quid pro quo with Rush. But here's a station dropping a Premiere talk show to carry one from Cumulus.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

I don't get the 8:30 AM time for switching from Walker to Lonsberry. Why not let the morning show go until 9:00 AM?

Fair question. Could it be the CC decision makers believe morning drive in Roch is over and out by 8:30? Perhaps they want to give Lonsberry a 30 minute jump to talk about the big story of the day.

Moving Rush to 12-3 in real time was an easy trick. Earlier, I speculated that Limbaugh, airing from 12-3 p.m. on 107.7, which gets into just enough diary zip codes in the Rochester Metro to create a stone in WHAM's show, could have siphoned just enough listening from WHAM. CC talk programming maven Daryl Parks (the pride of Lackawanna) noted on a Facebook post that he was in Rochester and Syracuse a few weeks back, so it's likely the changes were formulated at that time. However, as another poster noted, it may be WHAM's overall programming content that accounts for the station's downtrend rather than the line-ups.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Once again WYSL gets hosed.

The station was the first to air Rush Limbaugh in the Rochester Metro Market. WHAM, with its 50kw signal, took Limbaugh away from WYSL.

Then WYSL airs Michael Savage, and history repeats itself.

It appears that Bob Savage has the intelligence to come up with decent programs and the copy-cats at Clear Channel steal them away.

So what's next WHAM; try to steal Quinn and Rose away from WYSL to replace Chet Walker?

 

[Savage]

No worries, VOR. We enjoyed having Savage for eight months; it was nice having the program but not essential. CC cut a deal with Cumudel for Rochester and Syracuse simultaneously. We offered live clearance plus FM to the network, which essentially forced live clearance on WHAM.

We did have some client objections to Savage, but nothing that was a big deal, and no cancellations. All we had to do was adjust some spot rotations to keep their spots out of 9pm-Mid. We had a spate of listener complaints when we lost Savage, but that's all over now. It was all very odd, because WHAM unceremoniously dumped Savage in January, and then spent the next six months badgering TRN to get him back.

BTW: WHAM was forced to clear Rush live since Entercom brilliantly started running news/talk on 107.7's simulcast. Why listen to Rush on IBOC-strangled hiss-o-matic 1180 when you can hear him live on FM in most of the Rochester market?

Now, the good news: we've signed Glenn Beck! Watch for a new WYSL lineup coming soon!

(If I had to choose between Savage and Beck....well, I like the way this turned out......) 8)

 

[Bob1370]

"Like him or not, Savage attracts an audience. Yes, angry old white guys, but still there is a population out there that listen to him."

But how many advertisers are interested in reaching the "angry old white guys" demo?

Now I'm on record saying some of the 55-64 demos are underappreciated and can still be a lucrative target for good ad campaigns. But we're talking a pretty rigid subset of that demo, and of the 65+ demo, which have become well known for INflexibility...and I gather from Bob Savage's comments above that HE doesn't miss Michael Weiner's presence on his schedule a whole lot...