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Why Doug McIntyre will once again fail on morning radio

In short, McIntyre in the Morning WITH (not AND) T-Rae will fail because it simply is not entertaining, is not informative, is not interesting, is a sloppy program, has breaks that do not flow and are not natural, has topic segments (if you can call them that) that are more promo or repetitive than "compelling" (as KABC aspires to, per exec to me last year). It sounds like 1985 small market talk done on the cheap. Complaints about coffee, etc. Many promos. 8-10 straight minutes of commercials (if I had one on there it would cancelled immediately - clustered commercials bad news). A morning financial report (Verizon sponsored) that never appeared and simple smoothness, friendliness, continuity just is not there. And now Doug's loud ranting commentaries. Clearly without any planning, he has taken to ranting the past few mornings. And arguing. He ranted (free form) about something in the five o'clock hour and argued and talked over his own guest, Steve Roberts of ABC News, during the next half hour. For no reason.

In fact the show has no reason for being and this long-time KABC observer has a stomach too weak for the new nonsense. The prior nonsense was bad enough.

Doug's bumper music was fine and blended in well during his old Red Eye stint. And I like the music he selects. Would love to get his music library on the air. But it does not work drive-time. And the argument that bumper music is a turn-off to those who may not share the same tastes in music types, I think, wins.

And, yes, a comparison to KFI does not work. A better comp is, in fact, and was posted, to KRLA and the old KIEV. From a programming sense, KABC again falls short.

Start over. Old habits are hard to break. KABC is making it easier, however. Maybe those of us who remember what KABC once was and could be again will come back in time.
 
youngsag said:
In short, McIntyre in the Morning WITH (not AND) T-Rae will fail because it simply is not entertaining, is not informative, is not interesting, is a sloppy program, has breaks that do not flow and are not natural, has topic segments (if you can call them that) that are more promo or repetitive than "compelling" (as KABC aspires to, per exec to me last year). It sounds like 1985 small market talk done on the cheap. Complaints about coffee, etc. Many promos. 8-10 straight minutes of commercials (if I had one on there it would cancelled immediately - clustered commercials bad news). A morning financial report (Verizon sponsored) that never appeared and simple smoothness, friendliness, continuity just is not there. And now Doug's loud ranting commentaries. Clearly without any planning, he has taken to ranting the past few mornings. And arguing. He ranted (free form) about something in the five o'clock hour and argued and talked over his own guest, Steve Roberts of ABC News, during the next half hour. For no reason.

In fact the show has no reason for being and this long-time KABC observer has a stomach too weak for the new nonsense. The prior nonsense was bad enough.

Doug's bumper music was fine and blended in well during his old Red Eye stint. And I like the music he selects. Would love to get his music library on the air. But it does not work drive-time. And the argument that bumper music is a turn-off to those who may not share the same tastes in music types, I think, wins.

And, yes, a comparison to KFI does not work. A better comp is, in fact, and was posted, to KRLA and the old KIEV. From a programming sense, KABC again falls short.

Start over. Old habits are hard to break. KABC is making it easier, however. Maybe those of us who remember what KABC once was and could be again will come back in time.
Click to expand...

Let me get this straight. The way to improve KABC is to get rid of what you refer to as Doug McIntyre's 80's-style show and replace it with what "those of us who remember what KABC once was" back in the 80's. That's some logic. :D

In fact, it's just as logical as Steve Roberts refusing to agree with Doug that Romney's "I like firing people..." line was taken out of context. I don't blame McIntyre for being frustrated with that interview.

BTW, for someone who hates the show so much you seem to be spending quite a bit of time listening! ;)
 
Response to WADIO: Yes. I confess. I have been involved and listening to talk radio here in Los Angeles when the late Larry McCormick let me in the old KLAC studios on weekends. Then producing/screening. Working in newsroom. Going out on assignments for news. Learning and soaking up all the knowledge I could from the great radio talk stars of the times. I CONFESS! I have been hooked on talk radio and the format for decades. I know what great talk radio can be and was once. The crown jewel for decades was KABC. At KLAC and later with KGIL and KIEV, we sought to be as good as KABC. At KLAC we did not quite make it. At KGIL and KIEV, in those days we never could.

Yes, sir. Been hooked on Los Angeles talk radio since I could ride a bus to the station. And I earned my pay. I would have paid them for the experience. I learned from the best what great talk radio can be. And I learned at KABC which graciously allowed me to produce public affairs pilot/tryout shows for the then-ABC radio net and local ABC stations. And some aired across the nation.

Remember my post: I commended Doug in the above post and others on being a great radio guy. Absolutely wonderful on Red Eye. But this ain't working.

And no. Of course not advocating a return to 1980s. Not at all. But that's what Doug's show is doing as I say, in my opinion, seemingly, "on the cheap."

I advocate making the important drive-time period "compelling" (KABC exec to me last year) for now: 2012 and beyond. Make it informative to listeners now. Entertaining to people and advertisers (with big checkbooks) now. Make it so that no one would think of passing a morning without stopping by KABC for a long time. Better yet, make it so compelling that one would not leave the 790 spot for they would have no reason to do so.

I do suggest the obvious: smoothness, friendliness, sound happy to be at the station, happy to be with the audience. Easy. Easier: As I said in another post --- take calls. A talk station taking calls and having dialogues. Call me old fashioned, sir. Take calls regularly in the morning.

And get a newsroom. A real, functioning newsroom. KLAC had 8 field cars for news. And newspeople on the field in them. And it had full, live, local newscasts with the best committed newspeople I have ever seen. I have been involved in talk radio and in news across the country since Larry McCormick, Joel A Spivak, and others (Whittington) gave this then-young kid a break. A lot of breaks. I think I know what works. I surely know what does not work. Yelling at a guest never works (and not giving the guest a fair chance to respond surely does not work - not to mention rude). Never taking calls at a talk station does not work. Reading the paper on the air is just a quick replacement for not working and planning.

It is, I think, fairly much a given that Cumulus doesn't want to make a major investment to challenge KRLA, let alone KFI. Just look at the meat-axe they took to KGO. But, man, even inexpensively, is it not too much to request that they try to turn the Titanic around? They put McIntyre back where he failed once before. Took an excellent Red Eye program that was his to own forever and do well with and killed it off to a strange replacement and put him back here. They put the also failed Larry Elder back playing his old song afternoon drive. Put Tilden, who is really 1980s radio at night where even he is miserable.

KABC can come back. I hope it does.
 
youngsag,

I can't comment on the new "McIntyre in the Morning with Terry-Rae Elmer" show in the specific context of KABC since I'm on the East Coast and haven't heard very much of KABC over the years (I did sometimes listen to Marc Germain, Mr. KABC, overnights.) I'm sure KABC, like WABC, has become a shadow of its former self over the years. However, McIntyre's new show is so far superior to anything currently on WABC that I just don’t get your objections.

Over the past couple of years my wife and I became huge fans of McIntyre’s Red Eye Radio. We’d often talk in the morning about things we happened to wake up and hear during the night. When we went on car trips I’d bring along enough hours of the show to keep us company, and we found that he’s even more entertaining when you’re fully awake!

But throughout the run of Red Eye Radio I always had the uneasy, somewhat sad feeling that the guy was way to good to be stuck in overnights and that he wouldn’t be there for very long. Guess I was right, but the return to KABC mornings isn’t what I expected, nor did I think Cumulus would be brainless enough to put a trucking show on a station in Manhattan!

During the Red Eye run, Doug also hosted the local 5-6 am “we talk the news” hour on WABC. It was awful – a cluttered mess that gave him no time to develop his thoughts – he was only able to throw in some one-liners. I recommended Red Eye Radio to lots of folks but always advised them to NOT judge Doug McIntyre by the local hour.

That said, my wife and I are thoroughly enjoying McIntyre’s new show, listening live sometimes between 8 am and noon, or catching up with the podcasts over the weekend. I haven’t even bothered to check out Geraldo on WABC because I find myself glued to KABC during those hours.

While I agree with you that Doug was great overnights, I think he’s actually better on the new show. He sounds happier and seems to enjoy the banter with T-Rae, and John Philips at the end of the show. (We don’t get any show transitions like that here because neither of our only two talk stations has two live local shows back to back. Count your blessings!)

Yes, the commercial load is heavier. Yes, he doesn’t take as many phone calls. Yes he rants from time to time. Yes, Bill Handel is tough competition. Yes, KFI has a stronger signal, a better lineup the rest of the day and no infomercials on the weekends. But none of that, at least to me, takes away from the fact that McIntyre’s innate ability to entertain and new show is thoroughly enjoyable.

And again, I need to quibble with your statement regarding Steve Roberts:

Yelling at a guest never works (and not giving the guest a fair chance to respond surely does not work - not to mention rude).
Click to expand...

Please go back and re-listen to the podcast. Doug gave Steve plenty of time to respond. He then asked Roberts did he not agree that the Romney quote was taken out of context. Instead of agreeing that the quote was taken out of context but that Romney has made other statements that could be construed as meaning the same thing, he simply said, no, he disagreed with Doug. Ridiculous! He deserved to be yelled at. ;)

Time will tell how the show does in the ratings. One thing’s for sure, talk radio in LA, even on KABC, is a heck of a lot better than what we get in NY. Long live Internet streaming!
 
youngsag said:
They put the also failed Larry Elder back playing his old song afternoon drive.
Click to expand...

I am convinced that KABC cannot come back.

Let me give you another example, This afternoon during the 3:00 pm hour John and Ken were talking about an ordinance being pushed by Viaragosa and his puppy Charlie Beck that would stop LAPD from impounding cars of people caught driving without a license. This would directly have an impact on the LA listeners. There is an upcoming public forum and they were sharing the details of that. I was curious to see what local and relevant issue Larry Elder was talking about. I tuned over. He was talking about the incident of Henry Louis Gates being arrested in Massachusetts in June of 2009 and how Obama came to his defense. It was unbelievable at the insatiable obession Larry has with Washington politics. How does this story help any current LA listener in 2012? I couldn't wait to get back to John and Ken.

Around 5pm I tuned back to Larry hoping he was talking about local issues. But I was wrong. He was talking about Obama collecting more money from Wall Street than any other President. Once again the obession with Washington politics is amazing.

It is no secret that KABC is close to dead last in the ratings and yet the hosts think they are not to blame for the pathetic ratings. It's everything else, the weak signal, the economy or the scheduled times of the hosts as Jack Silver so brilliantly put it.

Some helpful advice to Jack: It is your hosts that are the problem.
 
McIntyre is in my estimation the best talk host in LA, and that's not just because I tend to agree with him 90% of the time, he's smart, articulate, and quick witted. I'm being a loyal listener and letting things settle in but at this point I'd have to say that while Doug is a much better host, Handel is still a better "show". Most of this has to do with staffing and budget, Handel has a crew who are actually far more interesting, informed, and funny than Handel is. Here's my unsolicited advice to the Mcintyre producers:

1) Slow down. Terri-Rae Elmer is a top newscaster but she seems to be rushing to get through her three or four sentence stories and when she rushes she sounds (ok, this is sexist) a little shrill.
2) Slowing down may mean less actual news stories, which is fine with me. They're already doing top and bottom of the hour news, but then they seem obligated to do another recap of headline stories coming in from the top of the hour break. I'd rather hear them pick one or two and have a longer discussion (frankly I don't tune in to get my full slate of news anyway, I tune in to hear Doug comment). Doing that extra slate of stories gets them so locked into format that there isn't much time to enjoy either Doug or Terri-Rae as personalities. Do news at the top and bottom, and then do deeper comment on a key story or two when you come back in.
3) I may be in the minority here but keep the jazz/standards intros, just vary them even more than you are now (like on Red Eye). Contrary to the first poster, they don't take up too much time and they separate McIntyre from other shows. The Gordon Goodwin number works as a theme and the rest is stuff that is almost always worth hearing (although someone must have told him to cut back on the Jack Sheldon--he played him all the time on RedEye)
4) Bring in Nathan Baker or (if he didn't have his own show now) John Phillips more often. Creating more of a Handel "crew" atmosphere would help and McIntyre is terrific on his own but he's even better riffing with someone who is witty and funny in their own right. Terri-Rae doesn't quite fill that spot (yet) and she may just be more comfortable being the voice of reason when the guys start to misbehave (kind of her role on John and Ken)
5) More calls. Not for the callers, but Doug is a great conversationalist and debater--under the current format he gets little opportunity to get into a respectful argument with anyone, or to really take on a topic for more than five minutes.
6) I'm still on the fence for the Friday Les Siegel movie reviews. It was funny the first time but since he doesn't seem to like anything and doesn't really say much about the movie other than it sucked, it's starting to lose it's appeal.
7) Totally agree with the first post about the commercials...I'm getting the sense that the ad buys are cheaper on KABC because there are more of them and the products are generally a little less "major brands" than elswhere (although we haven't quite hit the male enhancement product level yet)

Doug is a phenomenal broadcaster when he has enough room to expound and to interact with others. The show is good, it can be better. Slow down, let him have fun, and let the listeners enjoy. And KABC, get an advertising budget...Facebook is great but more than one billboard in the whole city would help.
 
Great post, ftracy3! I agree with literally everything you say.

I'm also a loyal McIntyre listener -- I miss him on Red Eye so I listen live on the Internet when I can and to the podcasts for catchup. Doug is an incredible talent and I think he sounds happier in the new show.

I've noticed that hours 3 and 4 are basically a repeat of 1 and 2 so to your point, maybe if they paced the show better, the first three hours could be non-repeating with the fourth hour as a "best of" the first three.
 
Doug just may be the top radio talent in Los Angeles right now. I find him far more entertaining than Handel who I never listen to anymore. I would prefer hearing Doug without a sidekick but that is a personal preference.

It would be great to see Doug pickup the morning show ratings but it will take time.
 
McIntyre sucks! If you think he's the best radio talk host LA's got, talk radio in the valley is in DEEP trouble!! His frequent tendency to call attention to himself in an interview, instead of giving the listener what the want is quite annoying! Can't wait to see what his PPM ratings are!
 
The notion that McIntyre is the best broadcaster on Los Angeles talk radio is impossible to swallow. The show is awful. It is sloppy. McIntyre and Elmer not suited to one another. And the idea of bringing the insipid Nathan Baker on the air would add extreme insult to injury. Did you ever hear Baker and Phillips together? Ugh. The idea is terrible.

One thought that with time the show would do better. That they would establish a flow for the show. And that the hosts would be at ease with each other. But I think McIntyre is best a solo act. What I wonder about is this: How is it that he was so good, so entertaining, so relaxed on his overnight Red Eye and now is just the opposite? Does not seem like the same broadcaster, does he?

P.S. I agree with earlier post re: Jack Sheldon bumper. Brilliant KABC management must have told McIntyre to lose Sheldon and put on more traditional, so to speak, music. So many commercials (you can take a long nap and a commercial block would still not be over, or go shave - the commercials will still be on!) that it is somewhat hard to justify bumper music - the time being so short.

Conclusion: The chances for the success of the show still exist. Below 50%. Maybe if they let McIntyre be himself, let Ms. Elmer stop the fake giggling, they may have a show. But they must cut the commercial clutter. It is cheap and lowers show quality. At least until people begin to tune in to the show in decent numbers.
 
I don't know Doug. Just a quick comment on bumper music. The smartest :10 seconds any talk show uses is the bumper music. It sets a mood, a tempo, an excitement for the content. A good producer will feel the dialogue and set the mood every in/out. Using the same bumper mx every break, MAJOR tear-gas to an ADD audience. :-*
 
Let me alter prior post: The chances of Doug McIntyre's morning disaster on KABC decline daily. Firtst, have you noticed how fast both he and sidekick Elmer speak? Speed it up. Maybe people won't pay attention. Could it be?

But this did it for me: 6:52 a.m. (or so) today. Bumper: "After You're Gone." Then Doug immediately chimes in with "horrible" or "terrible" Houston death story interviewing some ABC entertainment reporter somewhere. If meant to be funny, it wasn't. If unintentional, makes you wonder about show prep. My proposition is that they do no show prep of any sort. Indeed, one gets the feeling that as soon as the show ends they scramble quickly to leave the station. Real quick. Like rats jumping from the Titanic.

This is still horrible, dysfunctional, impossibly sloppy talk radio for this large market or one of any size. If this is good talk radio, as asserted by another poster who lives in NYC, then we who yearn for excellent local talk radio have a lot about which to be unhappy. Like Tilden's "Local, Live" night show. "Local, Live" and "Lousy."

After loyalty extending back decades to KABC and those stations (KLAC, KGIL, et al) which sought to emulate and win the ratings war but never could (KFI the obvious exception): Good bye, KABC. I'm done. As should the "live, local" hosts (and sidekicks) there now. (Though am reluctant to state the latter given that no one wants anyone to hit the unemployment lines in this horrific economy). So, KABC people: Get it together. I'll read about you but surely won't listen. Hello, Sirius! Oops, time to renew. KABC is a good reminder to renew now.
 
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