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WPHT shake up

Beck and Hannity are going to land somewhere in town. I wonder where.

This is a big investment in re-localizing by CBS. Local programing from 6a-noon, local show from 3p-4p, local guy doing a syndicated show from 4p-7p.
 
I would think WNTP would go after Beck and Hannity.

The evenings on WPHT still have to be filled. Are Bernie Herman or Susan Bray available???
 
This is the Big Story on Action News.

I don't think Salem would pull their own shows to accommodate Beck and Hannity, especially since the tone of those shows is so different from Salem's kinder, gentler, more Christian approach.

I do think Clear Channel will consider - seriously consider - moving those to FM.

I also think that if they do, they will pull Rush from the Big Talker.

Of the local Clear Channel FM stations, 104.5 is the obvious candidate to flip. This would give a boost to WXPN's numbers. But WISX and WUSL are not much stronger in overall ratings. We don't have the demos and ad revenue data to look at and Clear Channel does.

Also putting Premier's conservative talkers on FM will put a major dent in the audience for Clear Channel's Wilmington AM talk station. One of the factors which forced that station drop Rush in the 90s was WWDB-FM picking up Rush.
 
This is a heck of an opportunity for WNTP to go after Beck and Hannity. Wonder why PHT is making this change? I guess they are going for a more left leaning slant with Smerconich
 
Don't you suppose that CCU/Premiere upped the ante for airing these shows and CBS simply balked? Would Salem pay the same price that CBS thought was too high? My guess would be only if they (Salem) thought they could bring in enough new business to make more money than they would have to pay Premiere for the shows. If the numbers don't work for Salem, then look for CCU to flip an FM to talk.

CCU will probably have better luck with talk in Philly than they are having here in Boston. Here, CCU has two very successful FMs and one AM recently upgraded to 50 kW-U that was languishing running music en Espanol. They flipped the AM to conservative talk (Rush Radio) and it is probably doing better revenue-wise than it was doing with the SS music. But my guess is that, so far, the bottom line is probably worse. The talk is more local than the SS music was, so it costs more. And Limbaugh used to bring in $$$ from Entercom, which was carrying him on WRKO. Now the money for Limbaugh, Beck, Noory and others goes from one CCU pocket to another. Maybe the accountants know how to make it look as though the bottom line has improved, but I doubt whether it really could have improved.
 
Let me get this straight: WPHT is going from an all-syndicated 12-hour period from 6 AM to 6 PM, to over half of it being local? Is Grace Blazer back in the building?

waymar said:
Wonder why PHT is making this change? I guess they are going for a more left leaning slant with Smerconish...
Click to expand...

I don't know... Which way does Chris Stigall (PHT's new morning host effective 2011) lean?
 
DToTheJ said:
Let me get this straight: WPHT is going from an all-syndicated 12-hour period from 6 AM to 6 PM, to over half of it being local? Is Grace Blazer back in the building?

waymar said:
Wonder why PHT is making this change? I guess they are going for a more left leaning slant with Smerconish...
Click to expand...

I don't know... Which way does Chris Stigall (PHT's new morning host effective 2011) lean?
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Stigall

He's conservative. I haven't heard the guy before so I don't know if he's bombastic.
 
Could anyone see Greater Media taking 950 talk and leaving the sports to 97.5? I thought someone said a while back they may have heard a talk show on 97.5's HD-2? Maybe a trial to see how it sounded?

Who knows, but it's just a thought.
 
No, Grace Blazer is still in Boston (as of Thursday, 11/18 @6:00 pm), making a mess of 969 FM Talk here. It has an impressive signal from atop a skyscraper in mid-town, and even uses promos to announce its reach ("From Newburyport to Southbridge, we're 969 FM Talk"), but it's barely keeping pace with a pathetic AMer (WRKO 680) that's losing its grip more and more every day.
 
MattParker said:
This is the Big Story on Action News.

I don't think Salem would pull their own shows to accommodate Beck and Hannity, especially since the tone of those shows is so different from Salem's kinder, gentler, more Christian approach.
Click to expand...

I can see it. Salem has cleared Beck on their conservatalkers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Lancaster CA and Washington, DC (the last one came after CBS dropped Beck from their WHFS/1580, with no ratings to speak of and a marginal signal during the daytime hours). Plus, Hannity is on Salem's conservatalker in Denver.

WNTP picking up both shows sounds very doable.

MattParker said:
I do think Clear Channel will consider - seriously consider - moving those to FM.

I also think that if they do, they will pull Rush from the Big Talker.

Of the local Clear Channel FM stations, 104.5 is the obvious candidate to flip. This would give a boost to WXPN's numbers. But WISX and WUSL are not much stronger in overall ratings. We don't have the demos and ad revenue data to look at and Clear Channel does.

Also putting Premier's conservative talkers on FM will put a major dent in the audience for Clear Channel's Wilmington AM talk station. One of the factors which forced that station drop Rush in the 90s was WWDB-FM picking up Rush.
Click to expand...

Also very doable. Clear Channel operates said FM talkers (usually dubbed "Rush Radio") typically with local hosts only in morning drive. Sometimes in afternoons too. These station usually are set to either poach existing AM talkers that CC doesn't own... KDKA/1020 comes to mind.

Here, WPHT just gave the #2 and #3 top syndie hosts away on a silver platter. Something big is probably going to happen, and soon.
 
A question from a complete outsider in Virginia. Is there a large demand for conservative talk radio in a metro area like Philly? Is it possible that Beck and Hannity would have problems getting carriage if the "CC flips an FM to talk" option doesn't play out?
 
Ok, so basically Smerconish is deciding to focus on his midday program airing from 12pm-3pm. WPHT obviously doesn't want to get rid of Rush because of his ratings. So they decide to tape-delay Smerconish's national program from 4PM-7PM, with a local Philly hour live from 3PM-4PM.

The move that confuses me the most is dropping Hannity. Why not just move him to 7-10 or something? And, why go for tape-delay in afternoon drive even if it is Smerconish?

I do like that the Big Talker is moving toward more local talk. But tape-delay in afternoon drive just seems like a recipe for disaster. I do actually think this will help Smerconish's national program because he can focus on one three hour show. But I don't understand why this station would do so much for the cameleon Smerconish.
 
newhampshiredude said:
Ok, so basically Smerconish is deciding to focus on his midday program airing from 12pm-3pm. WPHT obviously doesn't want to get rid of Rush because of his ratings. So they decide to tape-delay Smerconish's national program from 4PM-7PM, with a local Philly hour live from 3PM-4PM.

The move that confuses me the most is dropping Hannity. Why not just move him to 7-10 or something? And, why go for tape-delay in afternoon drive even if it is Smerconish?

I do like that the Big Talker is moving toward more local talk. But tape-delay in afternoon drive just seems like a recipe for disaster. I do actually think this will help Smerconish's national program because he can focus on one three hour show. But I don't understand why this station would do so much for the cameleon Smerconish.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that if Hannity moved to the 7-10 slot, Phillies pre-emptions every night during baseball season would have forced him off the air anyway. I will venture a guess that CBS DID offer that option to Premiere, and Premiere refused to play ball (pardon the pun).

I do find it interesting that Beck was dumped; after all, Glenn designated WPHT as his "flagship" back in 2003 or so, and broadcast from Philly before starting the TV venture with HLN in early 2006.

And isn't Smerconish WPHT's longest-tenured host? I remember him doing a 5p-7p show shortly after the launch of what was then "Talkradio 1210" in 1998...
 
blue67ccm said:
A question from a complete outsider in Virginia. Is there a large demand for conservative talk radio in a metro area like Philly? Is it possible that Beck and Hannity would have problems getting carriage if the "CC flips an FM to talk" option doesn't play out?
Click to expand...

Rush does quite well in the ratings...I would imagine Hannity did pretty well in the afternoons.

I think the only issue regarding local carriage is who in town could afford the Premiere package?

WNTP -- content running the Salem talkers for the most part. They have tried Mark Levin and Savage live and now Savage is just run at 3 AM, with Levin axed from the lineup altogether. They seem more "natural" of a fit at the surface but in general

WPEN -- possibly could do it...what would they do in the AM drive?

Other than that, you're looking at pea shooter AM stations or WIP...the only way 'IP "flips" is if they move 'IP to FM full time.
 
Salem might accept shows from Premiere (at the expense of their own syndicated shows) if persuaded they could make more money that way. Salem, contrary to scripture, believes in serving both god and mammon (not necessarily in that order). That would probably probably mean Premiere would have to sweeten the deal (waive all or some of the fees stations normally pay, provide some compensation).

Clear Channel/Premiere will have to ask themselves if the company can make more money with FM talk than with the current music format on any one of their FM stations and putting their two (or three shows) on FM will impact billings of those shows. Given that pulling Rush from 1210AM would effectively cripple the station (at least for the time being - new talk shows take a while to establish themselves and the station would mostly have to re-build its audience), the new FM talker would likely become the number one rated talk station and therefore, the number one billing talk station.

If Clear Channel/Premiere goes for broke, they will pull Rush and put all three shows on FM. And 1210 doesn't have a prayer if they just try to do local versions of the shows they have lost. They will need to reinvent themselves and do something different. Me, I'd be calling Walt Sabo (assuming he doesn't have contractual obligations that make him unavailable).
 
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