WMNY

[MsMusicRadio]

Anybody know if WMNY is sydicating locally produced shows nationally and if so, who is doing the syndicating? Premier? Westwood One?

 

[fromtheinsideout]

They only have a handful of locally done shows, Ron Morris' two pet projects, George Almasi's Polka Review and Birds and Nature with Scott Shalloway so I can't imagine anyone wasting their time syndicating anything WMNY offers.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

So Ron Morris isn't about to start a national sydicated panoply of shows to multiple cities?

 

[fromtheinsideout]

He may want to, it would certainly fit his ego, but the simple fact of the matter is the format doesn't draw flies here. Consistently pulling a .1 or .2 is far from what anyone would want to shackle their station with. Renda keeps him because he pays to be on the air, I suppose if he went around the country offering to buy time on numerable stations there would be stations in those markets equally willing to cash his checks, but that would be a far stretch from suggesting someone like Westwood One or Premiere would pick this up as any sort of marketable programming.

 

[Parttimer]

He may want to, it would certainly fit his ego, but the simple fact of the matter is the format doesn't draw flies here.

Or anywhere else.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

Rumor in the Feminist community has it that Ron Morris (who I don't know) wants to fill Lynn Cullen's time slot with a money program geared toward women. Think this could work?

 

[Parttimer]

Depends what your definition of success would be, if ratings are involved it's a long shot at best. But they might be able to sell the time slot, which is all they care about.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

The rumor has it they want to syndicate

 

[Savage]

Much in the same way every U-S Senator looks in the mirror every day and sees a "future President," every radio talk host who has ever said into a live mic, "go ahead, caller," sees/hears a potential Limbaugh or Larry King.

I've never met a radio talker with any talent or an "act" who didn't "want to syndicate."

It happens about as often as that high school hoops standout making it to the NBA.

 

[Parttimer]

Turn on 660 or 1550 sometime and hear the stuff that's "syndicated" to those stations.

 

[fromtheinsideout]

Ron Morris has been talking about wanting to syndicate since Jerry Bowyer was at the station. The simple fact of the matter is that he has to buy time in this market just to be on the air, so unless he plans on buying time everywhere syndication isn't going to happen. He may want another show on in Cullen's old slot, but the fact of the matter is that his selling management on the idea of an all business format is now the creation of his problem, the programming is so awful that almost anything, including infomercials selling the latest medicinal cure-all, would be an improvement.

That being said, even if a new show were an improvement, that doesn't mean anyone will hear it. What few listeners WMNY had when they were doing talk have all but been chased away at this point and there is no way Renda will spend any of their own money promoting a new show on a station with no listeners. The last time they spent any significant money at all was way back when they did their bus sign advertsisng campaign like a decade ago. Neil Boortz even had to buy his own billboards, so unless Ron Morris wants to also shell out the money for advertsing an unproven commodity in a new show, a show that would be a niche of a niche (women who are also business oriented) to start with, it will just be like his other shows, vanity projects and little more. He may think he is good, but the body of evidence out there would seem to reflect differently on that point.

 

[MsMusicRadio]

My inside scource tells me that WMNY is going big time soon. They insist that :

1) Signal strength doesn't matter cause they are going to use the internet stream and cell phone reception to saturate America.

2) That the poor showing on PPM is not accurate and they have a much bigger audience.

3) Niche audiences are the future

Thoughts?

 

[CaliRadioGuy]

My inside scource tells me that WMNY is going big time soon. They insist that :

1) Signal strength doesn't matter cause they are going to use the internet stream and cell phone reception to saturate America.

2) That the poor showing on PPM is not accurate and they have a much bigger audience.

3) Niche audiences are the future

Thoughts?

MsMusicRadio: I sometimes get confused by your posts but I think you are right on target with niche audiences being the future. I only argue that people who want to listen to business talk would listen to it on satellite radio rather than static 1360 that has poor reception compared to other AM stations. My idea for 1360 would flip it back to talk but tailor it to a local community that can hear it clearly and do those hometown things such as high school football games, local political town talk, and non-political things like KDKA used to do. I think a good example to compare it to would be like Butler, Pa's WISR. I think they should focus on being the anti-KDKA and focus on KDKA's weakness of not tailoring to the local scene as it has become more of a syndicated operation. But then again, I may have no idea what I am talking about and is why I don't work in the radio business.

 

[Boss Radio]

If Ron Morris is such a cutting edge entrepreneur, why is he buying time on an obscure AM station with a crappy signal? What is innovative about that? That's 1958 stuff.

1. So is everyone else. There are already hundreds of stations streaming and people ignore almost all of them.

2. That's what everybody with bad numbers has said about ratings since they started, no matter what the methodology.

3. OK, if Morris can saturate America with the web and cell phones, why can't everyone else, including the big operators and the people who sell "you can do it" books? Suddenly there are 300 signals all competing for the same niche audience. Is Morris going to do it better than everyone else, and promote it more effectively so that his station prevails? Nothing in his history indicates that.

 

[Parttimer]

Ms MMR, this is just like 1340 in Clearwater.... they sell this as "unlimited potential" and really all they're looking for is a few people who are willing to pay to get behind a mic. They're selling time, not selling results.

 

[hypwr]

I will sometimes listen to WMNY when they carry the Bloomberg programming. However, later on they have some huxters trying to sell South American mining stocks to the gullable. Reminds me of the Boiler Room stock sellers of the 40's and 50's. Why not take your money and throw it in the Mon River.

 

[fromtheinsideout]

My inside scource tells me that WMNY is going big time soon. They insist that :

1) Signal strength doesn't matter cause they are going to use the internet stream and cell phone reception to saturate America.

2) That the poor showing on PPM is not accurate and they have a much bigger audience.

3) Niche audiences are the future

Thoughts?

I am sure Ron Morris uses those arguments when he is looking for investors to finance his shoddy product, but there is little in the realm of common sense behind these arguments. For instance it is hard to argue that they have a bigger audience yet insist that niche audiences are the future. You either have an audience or you don't. Either you are getting people to listen or not. Are they even competitive in their target demo?

Ron Morris likes to think he is better than he is, which serves Renda quite well because it means he keeps ponying up bucks to be on the air, otherwise that signal wouldn't generate any revenue at all. Ron Morris's ego serves Tony Renda's pockets quite well in that regard. We have already seen one of Ron Morris's ventures into the internet with Talkshoe, which he believed would revolutionize podcasting, which it didn't.

 

[Parttimer]

We have already seen one of Ron Morris's ventures into the internet with Talkshoe, which he believed would revolutionize podcasting, which it didn't.

You mean like Maxwell Smart had?