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Where is the Center

Why is MSNBC the lowest rated talker on TV?

It doesn't matter. Maybe because of all the jail shows they run. In any case, all three cable news networks are in trouble. Their audience is aging and dying. Soon, they'll change to reality show channels or repeats of network shows.
 
As Reagan said, there you go again. The Obama administration has two years left. Who will you blame when he's gone? As I said, the Congress makes sure he can't do a thing, and in the meantime, the corporate owners are doing all the work. Nobody has to silence talk radio. Once the audience goes away, it'll silence itself.

I don't know - you guys are still blaming Bush almost six years later. Mr. Pen and a Phone has some big plans I hear. Congress doesn't make sure he doesn't get anything done - Obama doesn't understand that he doesn't control the situation and he needs to negotiate. Hence the "pen and a phone" comment. The Congress was elected just like him, but that doesn't seem to matter.
 
It doesn't matter. Maybe because of all the jail shows they run. In any case, all three cable news networks are in trouble. Their audience is aging and dying. Soon, they'll change to reality show channels or repeats of network shows.

Yep it's the jail shows. Has nothing to do with the hate talk from the Apology Network, or the fact that many who share their "everyone is a victim of the white man" views don't watch political TV - and apparently listen to progressive talk radio either.
 
I can tell you firsthand why, as I had a front row seat to it in some large and major markets throughout the 90's:

Management periodically had some good ideas as to not going down the hyper-partisan political ideology road. The problem ALWAYS was, they never had the patience to see it through. Younger, more energetic and entertaining current events talk was the way to go, especially on FM. You're gonna take inital heat for some books during any transition, and even though that was expected, when the poop finally did hit the fan, it was often to much to bear, so they went to the default programming.

Some, particularly CBS, did come up with a grand plan at one point: Howard Stern clones 24/7. They were mostly terrible and it was a major setback for the movement to stay away from the kind of talk we see dying today.

Yep it had nothing to do with zero listeners and therefore no sponsors. It was all because of a lack of patience. Those broadcast executives sure a dumb bunch aren't they?
 
Yep it had nothing to do with zero listeners and therefore no sponsors. It was all because of a lack of patience. Those broadcast executives sure a dumb bunch aren't they?

Not necessarily dumb, just scared of any transitional ratings loss and impatient.

You're so preoccupied with this ideological BS that you think we're talking about progressive talk instead of wingnut talk. That's NOT the case.

You're also just ignorant of what happened, so you're inaccurately speculating.
 
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I said it was a lack of listeners - never said anything about progressive anything yet somehow you twisted that to mean something else.

Doesn't matter how many listeners. What matters is money. And with an aging demographic, there's no money in it. That's it.
 
Doesn't matter how many listeners. What matters is money. And with an aging demographic, there's no money in it. That's it.

I've seen lots of stations in this format do just fine. What they have is a mixture of GOOD local hosts and the first tier syndicated hosts. You can't make money with guys like Lars Larson on the syndicated side and a guy who parrots the national hosts in the morning.

People have been saying the exact same things you've been saying since the early 90s. It's slowing down now, sure. But that's because there are a million different places to get content anymore and stations can't get away with subpar hosts.
 
Doesn't matter how many listeners. What matters is money. And with an aging demographic, there's no money in it. That's it.

He was talking about attempts at middle of the road talk and I said there were no listeners. In your view, it appears any form of talk radio is dead no matter what the flavor is. You will be dead before it is gone and I don't even know how old you are.

Any discussion of what exactly will replace talk radio that will be more profitable, especially on the big market AM sticks? Still no answers on that, and until there is a more profitable alternative talk radio isn't going anywhere.
 
He was talking about attempts at middle of the road talk and I said there were no listeners. In your view, it appears any form of talk radio is dead no matter what the flavor is. You will be dead before it is gone and I don't even know how old you are.

Any discussion of what exactly will replace talk radio that will be more profitable, especially on the big market AM sticks? Still no answers on that, and until there is a more profitable alternative talk radio isn't going anywhere.

There will always be some sort of spoken word content on the air and whatever replaces radio. Always. Maybe that content will go back to being lifestyle talk like Bruce Williams. I certainly wouldn't mind that one bit. Maybe it'll go back to being Hot Talk if we can stop the professional outrage industry from telling us how to program stations. Maybe it'll be sports talk. Who knows? But there will always be a job for guys who are good at talking on the radio. What will change is there will be less jobs for the guys who aren't as good.
 
I'm a little surprised he knows how to SPELL chihuahua. Yer in Amurrica now boy, talk Inglish.

I thought the same thing, lol. The best part is, he insists that he put me on "ignore" since as we all know, -- cannot handle disagreement very well, so they lock themselves in a bubble where they just confirm each others delusions. I'm on "ignore", but he keeps reacting to my comments anyway. . lol
 
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Any discussion of what exactly will replace talk radio that will be more profitable, especially on the big market AM sticks?

KFI, WLW, and WGN are successful because they have all local hosts who entertain and don't focus on the national political rant. They're doing fine. The EIB stations are all getting 1 shares in LA and San Francisco. Obviously not a good idea.

The bigger problem is there are fewer and fewer AM stations in the Top 10. The few that are left are all news in major markets. But the format isn't a real solution, as we've seen in Houston and Atlanta. So it just means a continued long slow death of AM. In some markets, it's all gone. In others like Detroit or Philly, there's a faint heartbeat. The combination of format and platform is a deadly one-two punch.
 
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Except for all the corporate welfare. Close to $100 billion worth a year. Shhhhh.....don't tell anybody.

$100 billion is a tiny amount if you look at the national GNP.

It's about half the annual sales of one company, apple. Or 1/5th the annual sales of Exxon.

It is, in fact, only a bit more than the free cash that Apple had accumulated through last year until they decided to declare a special dividend distribution to shareholders.

And that money not only paid corporate income tax at the high US rates, but it will be taxed again as dividend income by the recipients... true double taxation.
 
May I add to your list WCCO in Minneapolis/St. Paul?

There are several more that combine local hots with occasional syndicated fare, ranging from WSB to KOA to WWL.
 
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