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What happens post IMUS??
- Thread starter OC3
- Start date
Since WABC-770 carries Imus, I would think that when he retires from radio, that Cumulus will launch a new syndicated morning show for not only WABC, but for all of it's talk stations as well.
I hope not. The show is pathetic. Even on the promos for it, he's incoherent and mumbling like a codger in a rest home. The promos, one would assume, are the best parts of the show. IF that's all they can come up with...
Listen to an aircheck from the 80's from Imus, it's scary how bad he sounds now. Guess that's what all that hard livin' does to you.
Imus sucks. People say he's much different now than before he was fired from MSNBC and WFAN, but he's wasn't good then either.
B
Bob1370
Guest
If WABC also throws in the towel once and for all, by going all-syndicated, they're essentially killing talk radio (exclusive of sports talk) as a commecially viable format. And it's needless--a much better approach with little risk and far more potential for real reward is at hand.
The old formula of right wing national rant is clearly losing steam. Somethng live, local and witty will take over the market if anyone's willing to do it, and it won't cost any more than fielding a lineup of second-tier national acts.
Howard Stern keeps talking about bailing out of satellite when his contract is up, or even beforehand, because of promises he says sirius/XM have broken. He literally has the money to BUY WABC and build a whole lineup of edgy talkers around him. In the absence of anything interesting from any other direction, he could make things truly exciting. Not saying he wil;...but if he does, I wouldn't bet against him.
The old formula of right wing national rant is clearly losing steam. Somethng live, local and witty will take over the market if anyone's willing to do it, and it won't cost any more than fielding a lineup of second-tier national acts.
Howard Stern keeps talking about bailing out of satellite when his contract is up, or even beforehand, because of promises he says sirius/XM have broken. He literally has the money to BUY WABC and build a whole lineup of edgy talkers around him. In the absence of anything interesting from any other direction, he could make things truly exciting. Not saying he wil;...but if he does, I wouldn't bet against him.
WABC will have to contemplate life after Imus, Rush and Sean. With CCs acquisition of WOR, WABC could be in big trouble. If Cumulus wants to run a 50 kW non-D AM in market #1 exclusively off the bird, they are going to need talent to rival what they're losing. We all know Cumulus isn't going to invest the $$$ to take its news/talk AM stations local. A move to FM wouldn't help WABC at all.
By acquiring WOR, CC has dealt a major blow to WABC and Cumulus.
By acquiring WOR, CC has dealt a major blow to WABC and Cumulus.
Bob1370 said:
I used to like Howard a lot more, but his work ethic these past few years is pretty sad. Three shows a week? Come on. If he bought out WABC, how often do you think he would actually appear on the air? Every other Tuesday, unless it's cloudy? My theory on Howard lately is that he truly has grown tired of radio and is looking to branch out and become more of a general media personality, hence the gig on America's Got Talent. Look for him to get his own reality show on A&E or some other cable channel sometime in the future, that's my prediction.
...Howard's work ethic is hardly the problem here. If the cheap ba$tard$ at SiriusXM wanted to pay him his price for a five-day week, he'd do it. Anyone who thinks Howard would want to tangle with the Federal Communications Corruption again by buying any terrestrial station, WABC included, is living in Fantasyland...almaniac27 said:
As far as Life After Imus .....
Imus was always the square peg for WFAN. His brand of mischief, effective or popular, is just that now at WABC -- a non sequitor.
Morning shows traditionally have been the square pegs, when you think of it. Those people are paid big money to be zany, or edgy, or professional dispatchers (Jim Kerr, Don Cannon, Scott Shannon, Gene Klavan) just to get your A out of B. The rest of the day could be lunch requests, or car-tunes, or 15 million songs in a row or live dog fights. Mornings are out-of-whack, have been curiously effective for decades, and should continue to be something that makes you go 'huh?'
After Imus left, WFAN elected to stay edgy in the morning with Boomer and Carton, and they succeeded somewhat. Still, after those two leave the air to go home, the other 20 hours or so of the station bear little resemblence to the morning drive.
Perhaps WABC would do well to reunite Curtis & Kuby. If that falls through, hire Gambling away from WOR. Whatever the decision, it makes sense -- it always did make traditional sense -- to make morning drive between 90° and 150° off the remainder of the day's focus. Can heir apparent Geraldo provide that contrast plus be compellingly entertaining?
Heck -- people are looking for work, or will be. What about the idea of WABC rotating part-time, square-peg, big-chimes superstar morning hosts and paying them scale or per diem? A semi-retired Imus on Monday .... Geraldo on Tuesday ..... Curtis & Kuby on Wednesday .... Gambling on Thursday .... Stern on Friday .... Micky Dolenz or David Lee Roth or Scott Farrell on Saturday .....
Imus was always the square peg for WFAN. His brand of mischief, effective or popular, is just that now at WABC -- a non sequitor.
Morning shows traditionally have been the square pegs, when you think of it. Those people are paid big money to be zany, or edgy, or professional dispatchers (Jim Kerr, Don Cannon, Scott Shannon, Gene Klavan) just to get your A out of B. The rest of the day could be lunch requests, or car-tunes, or 15 million songs in a row or live dog fights. Mornings are out-of-whack, have been curiously effective for decades, and should continue to be something that makes you go 'huh?'
After Imus left, WFAN elected to stay edgy in the morning with Boomer and Carton, and they succeeded somewhat. Still, after those two leave the air to go home, the other 20 hours or so of the station bear little resemblence to the morning drive.
Perhaps WABC would do well to reunite Curtis & Kuby. If that falls through, hire Gambling away from WOR. Whatever the decision, it makes sense -- it always did make traditional sense -- to make morning drive between 90° and 150° off the remainder of the day's focus. Can heir apparent Geraldo provide that contrast plus be compellingly entertaining?
Heck -- people are looking for work, or will be. What about the idea of WABC rotating part-time, square-peg, big-chimes superstar morning hosts and paying them scale or per diem? A semi-retired Imus on Monday .... Geraldo on Tuesday ..... Curtis & Kuby on Wednesday .... Gambling on Thursday .... Stern on Friday .... Micky Dolenz or David Lee Roth or Scott Farrell on Saturday .....
Ultimajock said:
The people subscribed to hear Howard more than three days a week.
...and we do. A lot of us who listen to Howard 100 were not living in markets where Howard was heard in the years when he was making his legend, and/or having to put up with the insufferable overselling of the show's spot sets (15-minute spot breaks??!?) by his terrestrial affiliates when we were. The Tapes presentations are every bit as worth listening to for me as the live stuff...TTalkradio1 said:
Did I see a suggestion to put David Lee Roth back on the air?
Oof.
Oof.
Yeah ya did, Guy. Me just doing some free association ; it's not my money. 8)
The Stern debate a few posts back put another factor in mind -- the PPM methodology. To my knowledge Stern never got litmus'ed via that system. It's forever moot as to whether he'd have shown up the same, lower or higher.
In any instance, it's logical that any talent search for a Don Imus successor would benefit in part by determining how PPM-accessible the candidate is. Morning Drive remains the launch point. And the official Arbitron evaluation is no longer Howard Stern's Oldsmobile, pardon the magic-mix metaphor.
The Stern debate a few posts back put another factor in mind -- the PPM methodology. To my knowledge Stern never got litmus'ed via that system. It's forever moot as to whether he'd have shown up the same, lower or higher.
In any instance, it's logical that any talent search for a Don Imus successor would benefit in part by determining how PPM-accessible the candidate is. Morning Drive remains the launch point. And the official Arbitron evaluation is no longer Howard Stern's Oldsmobile, pardon the magic-mix metaphor.
You don't think that a broadcaster as talented, media (especially radio) savvy and with almost 40 years in the business, much of that at #1 could adjust to PPM??
The bigger point is that why, at almost 60, would Stern, or anyone, want to go back to FCC guidelines and being dumped every 5 minutes so the show sounds chopped up? I sure wouldn't do that if I were in his shoes. His ego may be big, but the common sense portion is bigger.
The only reason Imus is there is because of the name recognition and history of "Imus". But the show is a shadow of what it once was, and that wasn't the greatest radio to begin with. When Howard was on in mornings, Imus was lucky to get a 3 share.
By the way, to all those saying "then WABC would be all syndicated" the Imus show IS syndicated. Why, I don't know. Why it's on TV, that's an ever greater mystery. Who wants to wake up and watch some guy who looks like he's melting while falling asleep with a big floppy cowboy hat mumble through a radio show??? There was never anything visually interesting about the Imus show.
The bigger point is that why, at almost 60, would Stern, or anyone, want to go back to FCC guidelines and being dumped every 5 minutes so the show sounds chopped up? I sure wouldn't do that if I were in his shoes. His ego may be big, but the common sense portion is bigger.
The only reason Imus is there is because of the name recognition and history of "Imus". But the show is a shadow of what it once was, and that wasn't the greatest radio to begin with. When Howard was on in mornings, Imus was lucky to get a 3 share.
By the way, to all those saying "then WABC would be all syndicated" the Imus show IS syndicated. Why, I don't know. Why it's on TV, that's an ever greater mystery. Who wants to wake up and watch some guy who looks like he's melting while falling asleep with a big floppy cowboy hat mumble through a radio show??? There was never anything visually interesting about the Imus show.
B
Bob1370
Guest
"the PPM methodology. To my knowledge Stern never got litmus'ed via that system. It's forever moot as to whether he'd have shown up the same, lower or higher."
Probably neither lower nor higher...one thing that came out from years of PPM measurement, is that while music formats have sometimes seen their fortunes change drastically since PPM replaced the diary method, spoken word formats (news, talk, sports) seem to have been the format family LEAST affected by the change in methodology. Stern's numbers pre-PPM would be a pretty good predictor of how well he'd do now, although his core audience may be a little older now than it was when he left conventional radio a half-dozen years ago.
Probably neither lower nor higher...one thing that came out from years of PPM measurement, is that while music formats have sometimes seen their fortunes change drastically since PPM replaced the diary method, spoken word formats (news, talk, sports) seem to have been the format family LEAST affected by the change in methodology. Stern's numbers pre-PPM would be a pretty good predictor of how well he'd do now, although his core audience may be a little older now than it was when he left conventional radio a half-dozen years ago.
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