Why has the South never been fertile ground for news-talk?

[evnlee]

Is there actually any data behind the original premise in the first place? Also, last time I was in the south, all the TV anchors sounded exactly like the TV anchors in Dayton, OH.

Good point: perhaps the 'Southern Drawl' isn't accepted in a N/T radio format, because the institutions that teach the medium discourage it, and basic mimicry~ meaning people who read news on radio want to 'sound' like those TV anchors?

 

[Radio_Realist]

"perhaps the 'Southern Drawl' isn't accepted in a N/T radio format,"

There are many different accents that are authentic to the South. The former Confederate States are home to a wide range of accents, including the drawl you refer to, plus some accents that are as "posh" in their own way as BBC English. By way of example, consider the accent that Val Kilmer used when he played the part of Doc Holiday in the movie Tombstone. That accent was unquestionably Southern, yet it was also dignified and as upper crust sounding as the accent of a Boston Brahmin.

Or, consider Billy Graham's accent. There is no question that it is Southern, yet it's hardly a drawl.

For that matter, the current and most recently former Presidents of the United States, along with the Democrat candidate in the 2000 election, all had Southern accents that could hardly be called "drawls".

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I've worked in "the south". Not really the "deep south", but close enough for a Yankee from Ohio.

In my market, there were a couple of "southern gentlemen"-sounding types on the air. Not a deep accent, but clearly in line with the usual local cadence.

But by and large, my experience was like gr8oldies mentioned. The local TV anchors could have been at home in Ohio. As for us, almost everyone OUTSIDE the studio area had some sort of local accent, and almost everyone who worked INSIDE the studio area did not.

TV and radio are businesses where people move around the country. Even if someone in the southern U.S. is locally educated and trained, they're trained not to sound like that. What Seattle or Los Angeles TV station would hire someone with a thick southern accent?

All of that aside, I don't think much of it has to do with the accents, or the premise that Southerners are just dying to listen to people who do talk shows who sound like them.

I think the biggest problem with commercial talk radio not catching on as much in the South is the stations. I get the idea that many bigger signal heritage stations which could have flipped to talk didn't do so nearly as early as stations elsewhere in the U.S. did, particularly the Northeast and Midwest.

BTW, I'll second the observation that NPR/non-comm news/talk does very well in some Southern markets. In my old market there, the class C blowtorch NPR affiliate is very popular, and has even spawned a separate news/talk service.

 

[Radio_Realist]

"the premise that Southerners are just dying to listen to people who do talk shows who sound like them."

I also think that premise is wrong. I totally agree that Southerners are "just dying to listen" to people based on their accents. On the other hand, I think that when give a choice between a talk show host who sounds like a Yankee carpetbagger and some other form of radio programming, then enough Southerners will choose the alternative to make the South a less than "fertile ground" for Yankee sounding news-talks.

Exaggerating someone else's idea to absurd lengths to make it sound absurd even if it is actually reasonable is a weasel's way of disagreeing with someone.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Realist, I don't know if you're just one of those types online who comes "loaded for bear", ready to knock off anyone you think is trying to make you look bad, but I wasn't honestly trying to do so.

I still basically disagree with what you just said, though. I don't think the "Yankee carpetbagger" factor is as significant as you make it sound, even to the degree you think it is in play. Southerners listen to people from all over America with all sorts of accents on the radio.

I don't think it's a primary factor in the "lower" adoption of news/talk formats in the South, though I'll concede it may be more so in the smallest of cities there. I'm not talking larger markets even like a Greensboro, for example...I'm talking small market radio, basically.

One thing, though...there may be a special "bond" if the guy on the radio "sounds like us". Take the case of now-very-much-in-trouble New Orleans host Vince Marinello, where people coming to grips with him being accused of murdering his wife keep saying that to the newspaper.

On the whole, though, I think this speaks more to iconic long-time personalities than the South's adoption of talk radio. I don't think that talk radio would have caught on fire in mid-sized Southern cities any faster if they'd featured less "Yankees".

 

[Radio_Realist]

"I don't think the "Yankee carpetbagger" factor is as significant as you make it sound, even to the degree you think it is in play."

This is how significant I think it is. I think that if you get 8 out of every 100 people to tune you in, that's a ratings success. If you get 4 out of every 100, that's a ratings failure. I think that of those 4 listeners out of every 100 in the South that are the difference between success and failure, one of them would be more likely to tune in a local news/talk program if the local host sounded local.

That's why I said that having local hosts who sound local is one factor in improving the results of the news/talk format in the South. Replace a local news/talk host in the South who is getting 4 out of 100 listeners with one who doesn't sound like a Yankee carpetbagger, and everything else being equal, you'll now pull 5 out of every 100 instead of only 4.

That doesn't mean that there still aren't other things that can be done to improve results even more. That only means that getting local hosts who sound local is one of the things that can be done to improve results.

 

[evnlee]

"I don't think the "Yankee carpetbagger" factor is as significant as you make it sound, even to the degree you think it is in play."

This is how significant I think it is. I think that if you get 8 out of every 100 people to tune you in, that's a ratings success. If you get 4 out of every 100, that's a ratings failure. I think that of those 4 listeners out of every 100 in the South that are the difference between success and failure, one of them would be more likely to tune in a local news/talk program if the local host sounded local.

makes sense. 8)

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

That doesn't mean that there still aren't other things that can be done to improve results even more. That only means that getting local hosts who sound local is one of the things that can be done to improve results.

Point well taken, and I get what you're saying now.

I think some talk stations in the south keep this in mind when hiring folks like, say, Mr. Marinello in New Orleans. But in his case, though his faint local accent seems to resonate with some folks with him being "one of their own", it seems to be more his general background and knowledge of the air, and his popularity as a local TV sportscaster for two decades, which are the driving forces.

I'm not sure I agree that getting hosts who "sound local" is even a big enough factor to nudge a station from marginal status into being more successful, but I get your point. It's one of many factors.

 

[gr8oldies]

Andy Fuhrman (sports talker on WLW) seems to be pretty successful in Cincy and Northern kentucky with his pronounced New York accent.

 

[keys2]

An interesting thread for this Buckeye who has lots of ties to the south. My vote goes first to the fact that there is a lack of big signals in the south. And even the lower frequency regionals struggle with poor ground conductivity and directional nighttime signals. Come to think of it, even many of the 50k sticks reduce power and/or have tight directional patterns at night....WOKV, WBT, WPTF, WLAC. Both WOKV and WBT struggle to reach portions of their fast growing suburban counties at night. WBT had to add an FM in the southern corner of the Charlotte area to compensate for the poor AM night signal.

Another factor could be that southerners tend to be more friendly, laid back, and less argumentative. The combative nature of talk radio may not be as riveting to those raised in the south.

 

[fred flintstone]

Southern Blow Torches

Class I (50,000 watt clear channel) AM stations in the South (or with daytime coverage areas including areas in the South).
Doesn't seem to be a shortage of strong signals. Of course, given the triangular shape of North America, much of the South and most of these stations are West of the Appalachians. At night, these stations cover most of the country between the Appalachians and the Rockies. Not all are news-talk. WSM, home of the Opry, plays classic country. So does KWKH, Shreveport (once home of the Louisiana Hayride, an Opry competitor). The rest are news-talk (or some variation).

650 WSM, Nashville
700 WLW, Cincinnati (incl: KY)
750 WSB, Atlanta
820 WBAP, Ft. Worth
850 WHAS, Louisville
870 WWL, New Orleans
1080 KRLD, Dallas
1090 WBAL, Baltimore (incl: S. MD, VA)
1090 KAAY, Little Rock
1110 WBT, Charlotte
1120 KMOX, St. Louis (incl: S. MO, Little Egypt)
1130 KWKH, Shreveport
1140 WRVA, Richmond
1170 KFAQ, Tulsa
1170 WWVA, Wheeling
1200 WOAI, San Antonio
1500 WTWP, Washington (incl: VA)
1510 WLAC, Nashville
1520 KOMA, Oklahoma City
1530 WCKY, Cincinnati (incl: KY)

 

[DougD]

Re: Southern Blow Torches

KOMA 1520 is a joke. It sounds/ sounded like someone who has no programming experience programmed it.

While it's almost entirely syndicated talk, shows are dropped at will. Very little consistency. And the owners weren't dedicated enough to support morning talent. That area was discussed thoroughly on the OKLAHOMA board.

The owners would have been better off keeping the legendary calls and moving it even to an automated REAL OLDIES or at least 60s oldies format. It likely would have generated more interest than in an already overcrowded News-Talk town.

Class I (50,000 watt clear channel) AM stations in the South (or with daytime coverage areas including areas in the South).
Doesn't seem to be a shortage of strong signals. Of course, given the triangular shape of North America, much of the South and most of these stations are West of the Appalachians. At night, these stations cover most of the country between the Appalachians and the Rockies. Not all are news-talk. WSM, home of the Opry, plays classic country. So does KWKH, Shreveport (once home of the Louisiana Hayride, an Opry competitor). The rest are news-talk (or some variation).

650 WSM, Nashville
700 WLW, Cincinnati (incl: KY)
750 WSB, Atlanta
820 WBAP, Ft. Worth
850 WHAS, Louisville
870 WWL, New Orleans
1080 KRLD, Dallas
1090 WBAL, Baltimore (incl: S. MD, VA)
1090 KAAY, Little Rock
1110 WBT, Charlotte
1120 KMOX, St. Louis (incl: S. MO, Little Egypt)
1130 KWKH, Shreveport
1140 WRVA, Richmond
1170 KFAQ, Tulsa
1170 WWVA, Wheeling
1200 WOAI, San Antonio
1500 WTWP, Washington (incl: VA)
1510 WLAC, Nashville
1520 KOMA, Oklahoma City
1530 WCKY, Cincinnati (incl: KY)

 

[Radio_Realist]

"Andy Fuhrman (sports talker on WLW) seems to be pretty successful in Cincy and Northern kentucky with his pronounced New York accent."

Yeah, that's true. But Cincinnatti is on the southernmost border of the North, not exactly deep in the heart of Dixie. And, as you say, he's a sports talker. Sounding like a Yankee carpetbagger might not play that well in the deep south when talking politics, but sounding like a New Yorker talking about sports in the Midwest on the cusp of the South is something else again.

 

[fred flintstone]

I understand where you're coming from. You're trying to push older threads where you were embarrassed off of the main page, and came up with a semi-plausible sounding excuse.

Here it is, back at the top of the page.

I'm not embarassed. Like your favorite talk show host I don't necessarily believe everything I post and I post things to get a response. Just like you, too.

For the record:
I am not a fan of Southern culture (as many Southerners are not fans of Yankee culture, as you implied). I think the lower acceptance of the talk format in many Southern markets points to significant differences between regional cultures.
I support the right of secession. I support the right of self-determination of nations (one of Virginian Woodrow Wilson's 14 points). And I think the "Union" would be better off had the CSA remained independent. Most of the problems today can be traced to bringing the Confederacy forcibly back into the Union.
I think regional differences (not just north-south) are more dramatic and more significant than most give them credit for being. I think the US should be broken up (along the lines outlined in Joel Garreau's excellent and insightful book, "The Nine Nations of North America").

 

[herbiedradio]

There are many generations of Southerners that grew up on Ludlow Porch (WSB), Henry Boggan (WBT, now deceased), to a lesser extent Buddy D (WWL, now deceased). All of these were Southern gentlemen that had conversational talk with no yelling or screaming or in-your-face action. John Hancock (WBT) has mellowed over time into that type of radio.

An interesting thread for this Buckeye who has lots of ties to the south. My vote goes first to the fact that there is a lack of big signals in the south. And even the lower frequency regionals struggle with poor ground conductivity and directional nighttime signals. Come to think of it, even many of the 50k sticks reduce power and/or have tight directional patterns at night....WOKV, WBT, WPTF, WLAC. Both WOKV and WBT struggle to reach portions of their fast growing suburban counties at night. WBT had to add an FM in the southern corner of the Charlotte area to compensate for the poor AM night signal.

Another factor could be that southerners tend to be more friendly, laid back, and less argumentative. The combative nature of talk radio may not be as riveting to those raised in the south.