What's Going On with Miami Talk Stations?

[Gregg]

Why is the English-speakiing audience in Miami so uninterested in talk radio? In the last couple of years, Miami has lost TWO of it's Anglo talk stations and the talk leader, WIOD, has fallen to its lowest ratings in memory.

Yet in the last ratings, I counted SIX Spanish-language talk stations. Latinos want to talk but English-speakers just want to shut up and listen to music?

In the January ratings, WIOD, the talk station with Rush, Hannity, Beck and six hours per night of Coast to Coast, only managed to rank at #13... and with the Univision stations not encoded, the real number would likely be around 16 or 17. And recently 940 WINZ flipped from Progressive Talk to Sports and before that 1360 WKAT flipped from the Salem talk line up (Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Mike Gallagher, etc.) to Spanish Religion. Salem has their conservative talkers in most large and medium markets around the U.S., including Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Sarasota. There are no other English talk choices other than NPR WLRN or pulling in a West Palm Beach market talk station.

Meanwhile, if you want to listen to talk in Spanish you can choose from 670 WWFE, 710 WAQI, 1020 WURN, 1140 WQBA, 1210 WNMA or 1260 WSUA. Or if you like Sports, you can choose three English sports stations... 560 WQAM, 790 WAXY or 940 WINZ.

Does this make any sense? OK, Miami has a 47% Hispanic population and 20% is black. And much of the Anglo population is retired. But don't empty-nesters especially like talk? The #12 market only has ONE English talk station?

And with such a large retiree population in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, there's no Adult Standards station? 1550 WRHC is listed as a Spanish Standards station, and I'm sure other Latin AM stations aim music at the older Cuban and Hispanic audience... but not for English-speakers? WLYF is a great Soft AC but they still have to stay mostly in the 25-54 demo. Tampa has WDUV, a very soft 60s, 70s, 80s station and it's often #1 in that market and #1 in the 35-64 demo. Fort Myers' #1 station is Easy Listening WAVV. And there are AM standards stations all over Florida.

But poor market #12 has only one talk station and no standards stations. The grandparents in Que Pasa USA have plenty of stations aimed at them. But the Golden Girls have nothing to listen to.




Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Hockeyfan]

You failed to mention WNN with Steve "Mr. Ego" Kane as Neil used to call him with their what, 50 watts that you can't even pick up in all of Broward County. Yes, talk radio in non-Hispanic South Florida is a dying breed.

 

[smedge2006]

Where to start? The great tragedy about the fall of South Florida Anglophone talk radio is that it fell from such a great height.

In the early 80's, the combined shares of WIOD, WNWS, WINZ, and the sometimes fourth news-talker (sometimes WKAT, sometimes WGBS) was often in double digits. Neil Rogers was in his prime, of course, but there were so many others. What's more, Miami talk radio had a style of its own, more edgy, more confrontational, more raw than just about any other market.

One facet of Miami talk radio in its heyday helps explain its fall today. Miami talk radio in the 80's was overwhelmingly liberal, the outcries about increasing immigration notwithstanding. Most of the immigration back then was Cuban-American, and that group was overwhelmingly conservative. The people who were conservative in Miami were the immigrants -- the Anglos were the liberals. It's the reverse of what you might have found in Southern California at about the same time. At the same time, syndication was trending more conservative. As the Anglos headed north, the huge audiences for local talk dwindled and it became less attractive. Conservative syndicated talk found its way in but the natural audience for that syndication didn't speak the language. For years, Miami was one of two top-20 markets where Rush Limbaugh did not dominate talk ratings. (SF was the other.)

Consolidation also affected Miami in a unique way. Before Clear Channel, there was Bud Paxson, who had become a devout evangelical and was determined to impose his value stamp on the stations he acquired. That meant muzzling Neil Rogers at any cost. He succeeded in getting rid of Neil even though it meant blowing up WIOD to make it happen. Bottom line, Miami's audience is different and cookie-cutter conservative talk doesn't work in So Fla, but ownership refuses to give Miami English-speakers something more representative of their outlook.

 

[SportsDotCom]

Where to start? The great tragedy about the fall of South Florida Anglophone talk radio is that it fell from such a great height.

In the early 80's, the combined shares of WIOD, WNWS, WINZ, and the sometimes fourth news-talker (sometimes WKAT, sometimes WGBS) was often in double digits. Neil Rogers was in his prime, of course, but there were so many others. What's more, Miami talk radio had a style of its own, more edgy, more confrontational, more raw than just about any other market.

One facet of Miami talk radio in its heyday helps explain its fall today. Miami talk radio in the 80's was overwhelmingly liberal, the outcries about increasing immigration notwithstanding. Most of the immigration back then was Cuban-American, and that group was overwhelmingly conservative. The people who were conservative in Miami were the immigrants -- the Anglos were the liberals. It's the reverse of what you might have found in Southern California at about the same time. At the same time, syndication was trending more conservative. As the Anglos headed north, the huge audiences for local talk dwindled and it became less attractive. Conservative syndicated talk found its way in but the natural audience for that syndication didn't speak the language. For years, Miami was one of two top-20 markets where Rush Limbaugh did not dominate talk ratings. (SF was the other.)

Consolidation also affected Miami in a unique way. Before Clear Channel, there was Bud Paxson, who had become a devout evangelical and was determined to impose his value stamp on the stations he acquired. That meant muzzling Neil Rogers at any cost. He succeeded in getting rid of Neil even though it meant blowing up WIOD to make it happen. Bottom line, Miami's audience is different and cookie-cutter conservative talk doesn't work in So Fla, but ownership refuses to give Miami English-speakers something more representative of their outlook.

Well said. The other problem is that there are no real political talkers here anymore. No one good. Only tired old talkers who end up working for Steve Lapa and no one listens to those dial positions anyway.

 

[JayR]

Where to start? The great tragedy about the fall of South Florida Anglophone talk radio is that it fell from such a great height.

In the early 80's, the combined shares of WIOD, WNWS, WINZ, and the sometimes fourth news-talker (sometimes WKAT, sometimes WGBS) was often in double digits. Neil Rogers was in his prime, of course, but there were so many others. What's more, Miami talk radio had a style of its own, more edgy, more confrontational, more raw than just about any other market.

One facet of Miami talk radio in its heyday helps explain its fall today. Miami talk radio in the 80's was overwhelmingly liberal, the outcries about increasing immigration notwithstanding. Most of the immigration back then was Cuban-American, and that group was overwhelmingly conservative. The people who were conservative in Miami were the immigrants -- the Anglos were the liberals. It's the reverse of what you might have found in Southern California at about the same time. At the same time, syndication was trending more conservative. As the Anglos headed north, the huge audiences for local talk dwindled and it became less attractive. Conservative syndicated talk found its way in but the natural audience for that syndication didn't speak the language. For years, Miami was one of two top-20 markets where Rush Limbaugh did not dominate talk ratings. (SF was the other.)

Consolidation also affected Miami in a unique way. Before Clear Channel, there was Bud Paxson, who had become a devout evangelical and was determined to impose his value stamp on the stations he acquired. That meant muzzling Neil Rogers at any cost. He succeeded in getting rid of Neil even though it meant blowing up WIOD to make it happen. Bottom line, Miami's audience is different and cookie-cutter conservative talk doesn't work in So Fla, but ownership refuses to give Miami English-speakers something more representative of their outlook.

Well said.

I second that.

 

[RatchetUp]

I agree the glory days for Miami radio were post-boat lift. Those were wild radio times. The decline actually began by the early 80's, as some stations flipped to spanish or brokered, and really began to slip when WINZ dropped it's all news approach and went thru many tweaks and wholesale format changes, including going back to all-news st one point. WIOD held on with its much heralded Rick and Suds/Neil/Phil Hendrie line-up. Problem was, with great numbers, Cox couldn't make money on the station and sold it for a shockingly low price. If a station with good numbers, and an almost all live and local line-up couldn't make it in 1995, how can one do it in 2010? Face it, Miami is one son-of-a-bitch tough market for English talk on AM. Has been for a long time.

Anyway, comparing 1995 numbers to 2010 is a waste of time, especially for AM news/talk, where the audience has aged. This means the new Men 25 - 54 is actually Men 35 - 64. You'll find many news talk stations doing poorly - barely in top 10 or 15 - 25 - 54, but often top five 35 - 64 and that can make a station some serious money. I bet WIOD is doing just fine in that demo.

 

[smedge2006]

WIOD held on with its much heralded Rick and Suds/Neil/Phil Hendrie line-up. Problem was, with great numbers, Cox couldn't make money on the station and sold it for a shockingly low price.

IOD was a one-of-a-kind station in the early 90's and I wonder if the Cox mentality couldn't stomach its success. As in "we prefer 300-song FMs that can be thoroughly robotized." IOD's then sister-station in Tampa died when the sweet white-gloved salesladies who sold the soft AC rebelled at selling the likes of Rogers, Bob Lassiter, and assorted other edgy personalities. That station flipped format weeks after edging out the Tampa Limbaugh station in 25-54.

Anyway, comparing 1995 numbers to 2010 is a waste of time, especially for AM news/talk, where the audience has aged. This means the new Men 25 - 54 is actually Men 35 - 64. You'll find many news talk stations doing poorly - barely in top 10 or 15 - 25 - 54, but often top five 35 - 64 and that can make a station some serious money. I bet WIOD is doing just fine in that demo.

But sooner or later, they'll be off the demo cliff with no one to replace them. At least not as long as talk programmers and station owners refuse to accept that Miami is not Peoria (and come to think of it, a lot of Illinois towns that are little more than corn silos have more local talk then Miami these days).

 

[davideduardo]

Most of the immigration back then was Cuban-American, and that group was overwhelmingly conservative.

Immigrants are not "Cuban American" but just Cuban. Their kids are Cuban American. And Cubans arriving more recently don't tend to be conservative.