heard there was some talk of RKO going all local with the following schedule: 6-10, 10-2, 2-6. This would have given Carr 4 hours (though maybe not the 4 he wanted, but he wouldn't have been preempted) and WRKO fewer shows to promote which may be more efficient (?). It's the model Wolfe has in place on WEEI - perhaps he was trying to replicate it.
I guess it would depend on who they could get locally who would do better than Limbaugh. I couldn't see them scrambling the entire schedule over concern about the last 1/2 of Carr's show being preempted by the Sox. Firstly, preempting the last half hour of Howie's show for the Sox certainly didn't create a detectable disturbance in the Force. It's always been somewhat of a throwaway, the tail end of an hour segment which let him get back to strictly local issues which wouldn't work on the network affiliates. Second, sweeping Howie's audience into the Sox pre-game is not exactly a bad idea, programming-wise.
Because the Limbaugh contract is 12-3, it couldn't be done.
Since only Imus depended less on callers than Limbaugh, if this is the case, it must be to simplify national Limbaugh sales, and keep the rates up by guaranteeing he doesn't get bumped to evenings. Plus Limbaugh at noon in the East, especially the Southeast, is sort of a tradition (remember the 'Limbaugh Rooms' which blossomed back in the early 90's? Although I assume the rooms are mostly gone, listening to Limbaugh over a sandwich is probably still pretty common.) WRKO has problems enough without fixing things which aren't broken.
If people thought that Carr's audience was going ballistic over those last 1/2 hour preempts (which I think was somewhat, shall we say, overstated, especially by Carr), the flack over moving, or eliminating, Limbaugh, the most popular syndicated host in the country, from a slot he's held down for years would have been something to behold. Moving or eliminating Limbaugh to save a half hour of Carr would seem a pretty lopsided trade, at least in my mind. Be that as it may, radio program hosts bitching about 5 minutes of preemption is a time honored tradition (Brudnoy turned it into an artform.) I'm sure some folks really thought that Carr was truly bent out of shape by the ballgame conflicts, but unless they were prorating a cut in his pay, which they weren't, you can bet that Howie was out the door at 6:30 clicking his heels.
Given that, I was a little surprised that they didn't go back to 6-9,
I think they wanted to get more than 3 hours out of Finneran. And, unless things have changed since I was actively in the biz, AMD is usually sold as 6-10, not that that would be a determinant. But, if Finneran eventually turns in okay numbers, they can sell that last hour for more with him in it than not, and avoid a lot of the wheeling and dealing and narrowed rotation hassles that drive sales managers, salespeople, and traffic managers nuts.
However, since Finneran/Feinburg seems to work pretty well,
Yep, caught a little of that myself. Sounded like a pretty decent team to me, and probably did to all but the most thirsty Kool Aid drinkers. Not exactly the Right-Left combo you previously mentioned, but different enough to make it interesting.
I would bet that they'll stick with 6-10, get Avi Nelson or similar to 10-12 (maybe he's game for a shorter time slot since he does so many other things), Limbaugh 12-3, and fight like hell to keep Carr.
Agreed. All good ideas, although, if Carr goes away, I'd give Nelson (or a similiar familiar name brand) a shot at Severin in PMD and roll the dice with somebody new in the less important 10-12 slot, since Limbaugh's probably less dependent on his lead-in than the average program, and you run less risk of tanking the rest of your schedule if you make a mistake in late morning.
Whatever, it will be an interesting summer and spring in Boston radio, well worth the price of admission for radio fans.
Regards,
TSB
