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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE ALL FEM TALK NETWORK?

  • Thread starter fred flintstone
  • Start date

F

fred flintstone

Guest
A few month back, Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda announced they were starting an "all female, all talk" radio network. Since then, it's been pretty quiet. The good news is "Greenstone Media" has avoided the kinds of stumbles that brought so much early attention to Air America Radio. The bad news is they have not been getting much attention at all.

Their website talks about the operation and its programs in the present tense, but it's not clear whether they are actually up and running.

And there is no indication that I have found that they have signed up any stations. (Anybody know about this?)

This morning, The New York Times Sunday Magazine published an interview with Steinem, "All About Eve: Questions for Gloria Steinem". Steinem provides few specifics but says her new network is NOT a female version of AAR:
They are very Washington-directed, very argumentative. What we are doing is more populist, centrist and community-oriented.
Click to expand...

Apparently, despite Steinem's and Fonda's past political involvement, the new network will focus on lifestyle issues and strive to be "lighter and more entertaining" than AAR and other political talkers.

Programs listed include:
Lisa Birnbach (The Official Preppy Handbook) - Late morning
Rolanda Watts (former syndicated TV talker; Oprah wannabe)
Two Women Aloud (A couple of White chicks sitting around talking - or arguing) - PM Drive
The Radio Ritas (three women complaining) - AM Drive

Apparently, Steinem and Fonda will not be part of the network line-up. Too bad. They might be interesting.
 
Greenstone Media

Greenstone Media has been rehearsing in real-time for several months. Although early affiliates (stations in Albany NY, Hartford CT, and Jackson MI) are already clearing some shows, "launch" is still yonder. Most radio debuts are timed to roll-out at the NAB Radio Show. This year's is later this month in Dallas.

Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda will be among glitterati at a Greenstone launch bash in NY on September 12.

Steinem got a standing ovation in Minneapolis in July, keynoting The Conclave. In an address titled, “Broadcasting...as if Women Mattered,” she suggested that one reason for iPod’s unprecedented success is that it offers “refuge for weary women from the yelling and conflict of Talk radio.” Women are turned-off by what she termed the “verbal prize fights” are such Talk radio business-as-usual; and she decried “the idea that you need conflict to interest the audience. Conflict produces anxiety among women...and many men.” In her view, Talk radio needs to be “less about what’s debatable, and more about what’s doable.”

Read her entire speech at http://members.aol.com/cookeh/Conclave-Steinem.pdf

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
A key section of Steinem's speech:

Bless public radio – so endangered now by Congressional efforts to censor or de-fund -- but we’re not going to be just a woman’s version of that. We’re going to be much funnier, more populist, more news-you-can-use.

Bless Air America, too – so needed to balance the rightwing take-over of commercial talk – but we’re not going to be Air America female either. We’re much less about what’s debatable and much more about what’s do-able – not from the top down but from the bottom up.
 
Another poster a few days ago compared talk radio to pro wrestling, which may be even more apt than a comparison to boxing.
Conservative and liberal political talk radio not only preach to their respective choirs. They wrestle with the designated devil for the entertainment of the choir. And the match is always fixed and the host always wins.
The appeal of political talk is eroding (except among the choirs).
I suspect the women Gloria and Jane talk to are not the only people tired of it.
The kind of people disposed to progressive political views tend not to like such conflict either.
Setting aside the issue of whether public radio represents political bias, public radio is not conflict-based. This may be a big part of the reason why public radio news-talk stations do better consistently than commercial progressive talk stations.
There is also evidence that people outside the choirs are getting tired of politics, too.
Lifestyle Talkers like NJ101.5 have a broader base of "water cooler" topics.
And I suspect anybody who can reinvent WOR for today's money demos will do well, too.
 
FEM LIB TALK NETWORK NOW STREAMING - ON IN FOUR MARKETS

Reuters is running a story today on this new network.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/media_nm/media_greenstone_women_dc_3 said:
Click Here
Click to expand...
.
The article says the network has stations in Jackson, MS., Hartford, CT., Flint, MI., and is coming on in Albany, NY.
No satellite yet.
The network show's are now being streamed at Greenstone Media's Website.

Coincidentally, Bryon Malloney is saying that AAR's possible bankruptcy may provide an opening/opportunity for this fem lib-talk network (by the same logic, for Syndication One's Black lib-talk network). That assumes AAR ceases operation in any form and its programming disappears (not likely).
 
Ch 155 carries fem talk.
It does not carry this network or any of its individual programs.
 
To paraphrase Ms Steinem, the world needs an all female talk network like a fish needs a bicycle.
 
Leading Conservative Journal Begs To Differ

Julius Caesar Salad said:
To paraphrase Ms Steinem, the world needs an all female talk network like a fish needs a bicycle.
Click to expand...

Here's what the National Review (William F. Buckley's magagazine) says:
A women-centered radio network isn’t a bad idea: Lots of successful media outlets specifically target women, from sappy television romances on Lifetime and Oxygen to family-centered morning shows and magazines. The new all-women creation, Greenstone Media, follows a similar model. It endeavors to be entertaining as well as informative, and relate to women’s everyday challenges with family and work. Steinem told Reuters that the network has a “different spirit,” will offer “more community” and show “respect for different points of view,” instead of “constant arguing.”
Click to expand...

Of course, I can see how some people would not take to the idea of a talk network without "constant arguing."
 
Gee, Flintstone, don't you read what is said before replying. I said nothing about whether or not a woma's talk network would be economically viable. I only said that there was no need for it. It would be a sonic luxury item, profitable for its purveyors despite being fundamentally useless.
 
Scott, for one who claims to be a capitalist, you don't seem to appreciate the impact of a network being "economically viable."

Viable means they can make money.
To make money, they have to sell spots.
To sell spots, they need an audience and numbers.
To get an audience, they need people listen.
To get people to listen, people have to find some value in the programming.
In marketing terms, that's a need (as in "find a need and fill it").

[EDIT]



[EDIT=ad hominem attack]
 
To get people to listen, people have to find some value in the programming.
In marketing terms, that's a need (as in "find a need and fill it").

But in marketing terms, "need" can be a perception, not a reality. There are countless products being sold that are pure, unadulterated luxuries. There are products that serve no useful purpose, yet people enjoy owning them. There was no need for Pet Rocks™, but people bought them because they liked them. There is no need for aromatherapy candles, but people buy them anyway because they like them. There's no need for magazines like Maxim or Stuff, but guys will buy them to look at pictures of large breasted women in bikinis. There is no need for an all woman's radio network, but some people will listen to it anyway, unless it's done as badly as AAR.

See, you forget the advertisers adage, which is "make 'em think they need it whether they do or not, and they'll buy it."

BTW, keep on insisting that I'm Scott. In fact, if you're so convinced that I'm Scott, go ahead and post what you think my last name is as well. It won't bother me any, but the real Scott will probably go ballistic and get your behind banned from here.
 
Radio_Realist said:
But in marketing terms, "need" can be a perception, not a reality. There are countless products being sold that are pure, unadulterated luxuries. There are products that serve no useful purpose, yet people enjoy owning them.
Click to expand...

In marketing, perception IS reality.

And the term "needs," comes from Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, in which physiological/biological needs are at the lowest level.
 
Greenstone to launch on Entercom Station in Greenville, South Carolina

Reliable inside sources say Entercom is ready to throw in the towel on their hybrid Country/Christian format. WGVC listeners tuning in on November 1st will be surprised to hear their "Positive Country" format has been replaced by left-leaning, although not overtly political, talk.

For years, WORD programmers and air personalities have bemoaned the handicap of being on a dual AM that does not quite cover the metro, yet delivers decent but not great ratings. They have long felt that if they were on FM, they could do much better. All suggestions that WORD be moved to an FM station have been rejected by previous managers.

I wonder what longtime WORD AM Drive air personality Russ Cassell will have to say about losing out to Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda's network. ;)
 
you think they could get ads galore ...femine hygene product and menopause pills etc O Windfreey does well and ellen degenerous
 
Well, for better or for worse, here it is. Greenstone's newest affiliate streaming at http://www.1063wgvc.com.
Greenville, SC, home of Bob Jones University.

I don't get it but, hey, that's just me.
 
Looks like a successful list of affiliates. I hear an LPAM in Yakima might be next.

50kW WVIE-A/Baltimore is running an all-women station to combo sell with WCBM, home of Rush and Hannity. With Ingraham and Tammy Bruce as well as the rest of the typical women's talk (nothing from Greenstone), they've achieved a nice 0.0 share, well worth flipping from the mid-2s they had before.

"“respect for different points of view,” instead of “constant arguing.”"
Of course, if someone leaves the toilet seat up, there's suddenly a desire for constant arguing.
 
KJCB said:
"“respect for different points of view,” instead of “constant arguing.”"
Of course, if someone leaves the toilet seat up, there's suddenly a desire for constant arguing.
Click to expand...

LOL! Don't get me started!

The whole "respect for different points of view" idea is very noble and all that. In the end, though, it ends up sounding like NPR only not as exciting. :)

Seriously, I think talkradio is misunderstood. It may be seen by some to be loud and ugly, but the format is driven by passion. You're not going to do it entirely with cume.

Trying to feminize talk radio by civilizing the discussion strikes me as being on a par with trying to clean up pro wrestling by dropping the crude antics and substituting meaningful dialogue between the combatants.
It will be civilized but it won't be wrestling and no one will see it.
 
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