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WKNR Programming Changes

Tim said:
Hey, it'd be great to have two excellent sportstalk stations here. This is great for us as sportstalk fans. I for one hope that happens!
Click to expand...

I have never wished the demise of WKNR, with the fervency of some others on various message boards. If you've ever been to cleveland.com's Listening Party, the WKNR detractors here are mild by comparison.

I've heard the "Hammer's Dad got him a job by giving CK money" rumor, which may or may not be true, but IT DOESN'T MATTER (I've talked about it here, but have not put it on the blog for obvious reasons). He's there, he has some role, and he'll probably have that role as long as Good Karma owns the place.

I am not terribly enamored of Aaron's style. Bratty might indeed be a good way to describe it. But he does play a role on tRBS, "the contrarian", and there are actually folks who understand that and are OK with it, i.e. they "love to hate" Aaron, and listen.

I have relatives, all non-radio people, who tell me this. One female relative is very much a P1 for WKNR and for tRBS, she's said this. One male relative - same thing. He realizes that Aaron may not be all that great of a radio personality, but he plays his role.

Does the fact he got a magic carpet money ride through NYU and through the Good Karma empire mean anything at this point? Well, not really. It's Craig's place, and he calls the shots. It is funny, though, that Craig and Aaron sound like they could be brothers.

The only thing that will change anything Aaron Goldhammer-related on WKNR, aside from CK selling the place or Hammer committing a major crime, is competition...and now, we're seeing that. It was one thing when WKNR was up against the talk behemoths...it's another to have substantial in-format competition.

Tim said:
P.S.: A side comment...I wonder if WTAM feels any of the heat? (obviously they are mostly talk, not sportstalk, but just wondering....).
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I've consistently heard basically a major yawn out of Oak Tree. They aren't even remotely concerned.

If the ratings show that Adam and Dustin are taking a bite or two out of Triv and/or Alan Cox, well, that'll be another matter. But the reaction out of Oak Tree right now is mainly non-existent.

The monthlies will be out in a week or so, right? My gut is telling me that 92.3 will perform higher than expected. But it's way too early.
 
DToTheJ said:
kmt said:
...Major market controversial radio talent will tell you that people say they don't listen or that they hate the show, but they do listen...
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Case in point:

The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes a day. The average Howard Stern fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.
How could this be?
Answer most commonly given: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
All right, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
But… if they hate him, why do they listen?
Most common answer: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

;D
Click to expand...

You must own the movie!
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
Tim said:
Hey, it'd be great to have two excellent sportstalk stations here. This is great for us as sportstalk fans. I for one hope that happens!
Click to expand...

I have never wished the demise of WKNR, with the fervency of some others on various message boards. If you've ever been to cleveland.com's Listening Party, the WKNR detractors here are mild by comparison.

I've heard the "Hammer's Dad got him a job by giving CK money" rumor, which may or may not be true, but IT DOESN'T MATTER (I've talked about it here, but have not put it on the blog for obvious reasons). He's there, he has some role, and he'll probably have that role as long as Good Karma owns the place.

I am not terribly enamored of Aaron's style. Bratty might indeed be a good way to describe it. But he does play a role on tRBS, "the contrarian", and there are actually folks who understand that and are OK with it, i.e. they "love to hate" Aaron, and listen.

I have relatives, all non-radio people, who tell me this. One female relative is very much a P1 for WKNR and for tRBS, she's said this. One male relative - same thing. He realizes that Aaron may not be all that great of a radio personality, but he plays his role.

Does the fact he got a magic carpet money ride through NYU and through the Good Karma empire mean anything at this point? Well, not really. It's Craig's place, and he calls the shots. It is funny, though, that Craig and Aaron sound like they could be brothers.

The only thing that will change anything Aaron Goldhammer-related on WKNR, aside from CK selling the place or Hammer committing a major crime, is competition...and now, we're seeing that. It was one thing when WKNR was up against the talk behemoths...it's another to have substantial in-format competition.

Tim said:
P.S.: A side comment...I wonder if WTAM feels any of the heat? (obviously they are mostly talk, not sportstalk, but just wondering....).
Click to expand...

I've consistently heard basically a major yawn out of Oak Tree. They aren't even remotely concerned.

If the ratings show that Adam and Dustin are taking a bite or two out of Triv and/or Alan Cox, well, that'll be another matter. But the reaction out of Oak Tree right now is mainly non-existent.

The monthlies will be out in a week or so, right? My gut is telling me that 92.3 will perform higher than expected. But it's way too early.
Click to expand...

I have no problems with "contrarian" types on talk shows, and Aaron in small doses is tolerable.

But when he basically took over the show (almost making it like Rizzo was his sidekick), that's when it became just too much (especially when paired with Fedor).

Under normal circumstances, when a show starts wearing out it's welcome. it gets tweaked/changed/overhauled. But, due to the connections, nothing changed, and it took 92.3 The Fan breaking a 2x4 over their heads for them start to get the hint.
 
How's this for a theory,,,

Rizzo in PMD this week is to see how that daypart shows up in the weeklies, with him instead of R&R.

KNR is probably afraid to blow up middays (yet) but may be willing to do so if Rizzo in PMD seems to be a ratings winner.
 
I understand the contrarian role. Someone like Colin Cowherd plays that perfectly and his show is entertaining, even if I disagree most of the time.

Whatever these guys do on Rizzo's show just does not work. It's not entertaining.
 
I understand what you're all saying as well, and it's not that I 100% disagree with you...I'm just trying to provide some input from outside the radio-hobbyist-professional-message board world.

Competition may indeed force some adjustments, but right now, it's probably hard to quantify if Hammer has a negative influence - directly - on the ratings.
 
Rizzo went off on critics of RBS at the end of the show today.

Among the rants...

1. He laid into Buckeye fans jumping down Aaron's throat by claiming that not everybody's an OSU fan (especially people from outside the state borders) and that "we (the fans) need to get out of our Ohio cucoons and deal with it".

2. He dropped an "If you don't like it, change the G. D. channel" bomb.

3. He claimed that callers/e-mailers were only "1%" of the listening audience and "weren't indicative" of the true pulse of things.

4. He said ratings weren't the end-all be-all, and the true definition of success was all the advertising partners he had.

5. He laid into people who prefered more "homerism" by claiming "For the last 15 years, sportstalk in this town has sucked! We tried it your way, and now we're doing it ours...you don't like it, too bad!"

6. And he claimed "the other guys have 15 different guys trying to do this, and they can't touch me".

Oh where to begin...

1. Criticism of OSU is fine, especially when deserved. I'm a Buckeye fan, and I'll take my lumps. What Aaron does is just complete over the top, contrived, almost cartoonish hatred. (the old wrestler playing the gimmick theory).

2. Translated..."It doesn't matter what you think, and if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the @$$ on the way out!" Way to treat potential users of your advertisers' products there Rizzie.

3. That sounds like something out of the CK playbook. It's almost like Craig scripted that for him.

4. Spoken like someone who's been knocked off the pedastal a bit. Oh and don't forget those 2 for 1 discount deals you give your clients when they put ads on 1540.

5. Gee, in the last 15 years what has been the only full time sports talk station in town...why it's WKNR (with KNR 2 riding in the back seat)! Way to (whether intentional or not) throw guys you work with (especially KNR lifers Brinda and Roda) under the bus there, T.

6. Was that a swipe at Talking Heads there Rizz? Obviously poking fun at the first week when Jeff Phelps was getting his contract sorted out, and Andy Baskin had several different fill-in co-hosts. Could they be getting into your head a bit there, Rizz?

I think there is no doubt that some collars are getting tight at the Galleria.

They're obviously reading all the message boards (Hell, they read one of Nathan's tweets on the air the other day), and can't take what Nate, OMW, me, and numeorus others on here are saying about them.

The Fan is exploding out of the blocks, "Bull and Fox" are taking the city by storm, and you just know "Talking Heads" is taking a bite out of their ratings, and they just don't know how to handle someone coming into their sandbox, kicking sand in their face.

So they (in the form of Rizzo) lashes out at critical callers, e-mailers, listeners, and bloggers.

92.3 is getting to them, make no mistake.

This was kind of a Phil Savage "F You, go root for Buffalo" moment there from the minority owner of Good Karma Broadcasting.
 
vjm

thanks for the report.......tight collars causing interuption of flow of blood to the brains at galleria......trust fund radio at it's best
 
I'm no radio professional but I've been listening to Cleveland radio since the days of Pete Franklin, Merle Pollis and Gary Dee. I used to be a regular listener to tRBS and I still like Tony Rizzo but for the last year or two the only time I'd tune into the show was the morning after a Browns game (92.3 made even that unnecessary). I could blame Aaron Goldhammer (and Fedor) for making me tune out but instead I'd prefer to thank them, I'm a much more balanced and informed individual because of them being on KNR. The first time I heard Diane Rehm's voice I thought she was the female version of the crypt keeper but her show runs more or less in the same time slot as tRBS and I've come to respect her and her show. NPR may be something like a liberal mecca but she dumps callers for calling members of the tea party "tea baggers." That and the fact that she offers up considered opinions from qualified experts and it all makes her pretty much the diametric opposite of the hammers and fedors of the radio world. Which is exactly what I'm looking for in a radio personality.

LeCharles is out at KNR? That one hurts. He was far from being a polished radio professional but I really enjoyed his show. I figured with enough time and some constructive guidance he'd could have developed into something quite special. Perhaps he still can, just not on KNR.
 
Wow.

I said it earlier in this very thread...LeCharles and Je'rod don't have one thing at the Galleria, a *real* program director to develop their show.

And now, no LeCharles.

Wow.
 
I wonder if The Fan does anything with LeCharles.

I can't see them changing anything in the weekday lineup right now, but maybe he can have some role.
 
I really doubt you see LeCharles over at 92.3.

For one thing, this may be one of the few times I'll side with WKNR Managmement on anything. LeCharles stated there were changes going to be made to his show and he wasn't accepting. Now this is pure speculation on my part...But I think maybe someone at WKNR wanted to start acting like a PD/Manager and start coaching the young/inexperienced "talent" like LeCharles and he wasn't willing to listen.

I really don't know what other changes could have been proposed that would illicit such a sudden departure. Unless maybe he has some larger (out of market) offers.

As for Riz's rant...Didn't hear it...But have heard similar blow ups from him. WKNR struggles with large egos. Egos that quite frankly haven't earned the right to be as large as they are. I don't know how much of a ratings dent 92.3 has made, but I do know they are making a solid run/raid on sponsors. And they also have a setup wehre there is more then one show to advertise on. Who knows how much of 92.3 sponors bought anything but RBS and were forced to buy other programs.

Should be an interesting few months. Hopefully 923 can make some tweeks to get even better. And who knows, maybe Karmizen will now realize that he doesn't have a captive audience.
 
There are changes being made to just about everything WKNR does these days, and that's no indication that there is actually someone coaching or trying to adjust LeCharles.

He made some comment on his Twitter feed that there would be some sort of change in composition of the show...here, let me find it:

https://twitter.com/#!/LeCharlesBent65/status/119550393045880832

@LeCharlesBent65
LeCharles Bentley
Goodluck to my boys @xsandospros like my family. Some changes are being made to show I'm not cool with. WE came up TOGETHER. Details to come
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What does THAT mean? Were they dumping Je'rod, or splitting the pair?
 
Phydeaux said:
LeCharles is out at KNR? That one hurts. He was far from being a polished radio professional but I really enjoyed his show. I figured with enough time and some constructive guidance he'd could have developed into something quite special. Perhaps he still can, just not on KNR.
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Nobody at KNR had the balls ( excuse the pun ) to critique this former jock about how to perform in the world of show business.
 
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