Whoever Pops FM Talk First In Atlanta, Wins

[ajhenderson]

Let's not confuse Free FM with all of FM Talk. It wins with O& A, Toucher & Rich (Boston), Some dayparts in Chicago. FM Talk in Seattle is very big, and I can give you lots of other markets. Lots of syndicators are already putting many of their shows on FM. Laura Ingraham, Stephanie Miller etc.

Umm... no FM talk in Seattle. And no more FM affils for Stephanie Miller, either. Laura Ingraham gets mediocre ratings on AM in most cases; why would she appeal to a less forgiving, younger FM audience?

 

[mouthoff]

Seattle: Bob Rivers - KZOK, BJ Shea - KISW. Check out the numbers. These are talk shows, and they both do extremely well.

 

[evnlee]

Seattle: Bob Rivers - KZOK, BJ Shea - KISW. Check out the numbers. These are talk shows, and they both do extremely well.

Bob Rivers? the parody song guy? How does that qualify as 'talk'?

 

[wooder]

Talk is not just a show that is currently on talk radio. It's any show that doesn't play songs (parody songs don't count, except that they're generally not funny). Rivers is most definitely a talk show, though.

 

[atlantascum]

With out a doubt a FM talk station would work well in Atlanta as long as entertaining hosts without a political agenda are hosting the shows. Many names continually float around on this board who at one time had shows that received attention and ratings. Some of these people would probably work for marginal income. If a FM station would take these out of work hosts, offer them thirty thousand a year, take it or leave it, give them bonus's based on ratings, the format could work, and work well. The press that this would generate would bring lots of listeners in to check out someone they used to enjoy in the past. Ratings could be big. The problem is the pd's. They don't have a clue.

 

[DaDeacon]

Re: Whoever Pops FM Talk First In Atlanta, Wins !WRONG

Sorry the format of intelligent talk in Atlanta will not work not as long as the right wing nuts on wgst and & wsb still sit and blab. Now i'm not saying left wing talk BUT real funny or edgy don't play in teh sticks i.e where every Atlanta program director thinks we live. Sorry you're just wrong on this one.

 

[ajhenderson]

Seattle: Bob Rivers - KZOK, BJ Shea - KISW. Check out the numbers. These are talk shows, and they both do extremely well.

Bob Rivers? the parody song guy? How does that qualify as 'talk'?

There are no talk STATIONS. Every market has an FM show that talks. As to BJ Shea, he's on KISW because they wanted to keep him after they blew up... um, the old FM talk station.

 

[wooder]

If a FM station would take these out of work hosts, offer them thirty thousand a year, take it or leave it, give them bonus's based on ratings, the format could work, and work well. The press that this would generate would bring lots of listeners in to check out someone they used to enjoy in the past. Ratings could be big. The problem is the pd's. They don't have a clue.

The PD's are not the only ones without a clue. Apparently you are too if you think Eric Von Hessler, Larry Wachs, Jimmy Baron, Steve Barnes, or even South Side Steve would work for $30K. Based on what I've read about industry salaries, you'd have to add a 1 (or even a 2) to the front of that number for any of them to even consider it.

 

[ajhenderson]

Why not just have a reality-show-type station? Each interested listener can host a shift for a day, with the best one for the week getting $50 and a return visit? You could be live and local from 5a-10p for $1,000 a month!

 

[jimbag]

If a FM station would take these out of work hosts, offer them thirty thousand a year, take it or leave it, give them bonus's based on ratings, the format could work, and work well. The press that this would generate would bring lots of listeners in to check out someone they used to enjoy in the past. Ratings could be big. The problem is the pd's. They don't have a clue.

The PD's are not the only ones without a clue. Apparently you are too if you think Eric Von Hessler, Larry Wachs, Jimmy Baron, Steve Barnes, or even South Side Steve would work for $30K. Based on what I've read about industry salaries, you'd have to add a 1 (or even a 2) to the front of that number for any of them to even consider it.

....or even a 3.

 

[atlantascum]

Eric is the only one listed above that has the ability to host a talk show on his own. The others could not do the job. And as far as SS goes, give me break, the idea of him hosting a show is really funny. The so called talent you have named are all recently fired ratings failures. The sad part is that there are pd's out there that will give them the money you say and they will get the same numbers all over again that got them thrown out the door, except SS, he is just a sidekick and will never be more than that.

 

[mouthoff]

Who was it that said 'Give 'em 30k a year?? Were you joking? Okay, try this: Ask the stations to pay no salaries, but cough up 30% of whatever they bill for a respective show. I think you'd have a better chance of seeing Brittney Spears in a longterm marriage.

 

[atlantascum]

If you were to ask any of the hosts listed in this post very few would work on a base of 30k plus bonus's. Let's say we pay them 30k guarantee up to a 1 share for the year. Then for every share over a one share they get 20k bonus per book. If they were to receive a 6 share on average for the year, what would that come up to? I would say over 400 thousand per year. The problem is the hosts want a guarantee because they know they don't have the ability to earn it. Sad but true. Any host that knows his ability would jump at this opportunity.

 

[wooder]

So you think a person would "jump at the opportunity" to base virtually their entire salary on an antiquated, highly flawed system (Arbitron) that favors certain demographics by nature?

 

[TowerBuzz]

Let's not confuse Free FM with all of FM Talk. It wins with O& A, Toucher & Rich (Boston), Some dayparts in Chicago. FM Talk in Seattle is very big, and I can give you lots of other markets. Lots of syndicators are already putting many of their shows on FM. Laura Ingraham, Stephanie Miller etc.

FM Talk isn't an option. It's going to happen. The right mix of talent is going to win big. The right mix of music is going to go away faster than an ex Brittney Spears husband.

Scooter for starters Toucher adn Rich are not doing FM talk, they are still playing music, not much but they're still playing music. Plus they're not winning, they are not a ratings magnet, not yet. The show is corny non edgy and very self congratulatory (lots of yuck yucks at their own jokes, I mean BIG TIME). It is not a big show as you want to keep telling people it is. While you're at it Opie and Anthony at least numbers speaking are shadows of their former selves, they're not the phenom they were supposed to have been in new York yet either. They'll win eventually but it is not the immediate fix that all the suits assumed it would be. Toucher and Rich have to get some numbers in Boston before there is any talk of syndication, even to Atl where they're known.

 

[nightmanager]

If other posts here are to be believed, then it's already been done -on HD radio. WSB has an HD feed of AM750, WABE has the NPR feed on one of their HD channels, and 790 has sports or whatever it is they carry.

Maybe these don't count because they're HD and not plain old FM, but at least these are already on the air rather than just discussions about what-if talk lineups.

And while you're at it, which station in Atlanta do you think is the perfect station for this first step?