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M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
What are the odds 820 could become a full service news station like WCBS or WINS? They should do local programming instead of just feeds of opinion shows.
D
Don62
Guest
MsMusicRadio said:
WWBA does two times as many local shows (9 a.m.-noon; 9 p.m.-11 p.m.) as their competition, which doesn't haven't any local call-in shows during the day.
WFLA is totally syndicated 9 a.m. - 5:00 a.m., or 20 hours a day.
Since an All News format is very expensive; and this economy isn't in the best shape right now, I would say the odds are slim and none.MsMusicRadio said:
I would be happy if 820 could just have a morning and afternoon drive, news block and maybe an noon news block.
New York is very lucky to have two News stations and I'm surprised that, that has lasted this long.(especially since they both owned by CBS)
I would be estatic if 1010, Seffner (owned by CBS) would even simulcast sister station WINS 1010 except for a morning and afternoon drive time news block; since they've tried nearly everything else w/o much success.
To the best of my knowledge there is not one all News station in Florida, certainly not in the major markets.
Back in either 2002 or 2003 WFTL - 850 in West Palm Beach attempted to be News most of the day and that lasted all of a month or two, before they started slipping in talk shows,
If I want all news at least on the national and international scene; I go online for WCBS when I'm on the internet or in the car or not on the internet, catch the BBC on XM.
DRT
How does the Tan-Talk Network factor into this mix? 
I'm sure it's just an oversight.
I'm sure it's just an oversight.
D
Don62
Guest
I love this.
Dan York this a.m. just said, "The people at Crap Ch. are biting their nails. You know they are."
Great to have some real competition, not a monopoly that the smug and greedy owners (not on-air talent) over there on Gandy have enjoyed. They've had a free ride, thanks to some clever and monopolistic signal sales. That free ride is likely over.
Dan York this a.m. just said, "The people at Crap Ch. are biting their nails. You know they are."
Great to have some real competition, not a monopoly that the smug and greedy owners (not on-air talent) over there on Gandy have enjoyed. They've had a free ride, thanks to some clever and monopolistic signal sales. That free ride is likely over.
The people at CC are not inclined to sweat over stuff like this. Moving to 820 was a great move, but it's only part of the puzzle. Finding the right programming mix is going to be the real challenge. Live and local is good, but it has to be live and local that can get and keep listeners. If the live and local programming is second rate, the signal strength won't matter. Mark Larson is a plus, Shayna Lance and Roger P. Schulman can be the base for a competitive news operation (WDBO in Orlando is a good model for how to build a strong news team without breaking the bank), but they can't do it by themselves.
WWBA is in very much the same spot as the Tampa Bay Rays. If they spend some money judiciously and don't fall into the trap of throwing money at the station and expecting immediate results they have a chance to make an impact. Would be competitors for 970 have constantly fallen into the traps of either trying to compete on the cheap or throwing money around like drunk sailors and overextendeing their finances.
CC sweating? Nah. Watching with interest? You bet.
WWBA is in very much the same spot as the Tampa Bay Rays. If they spend some money judiciously and don't fall into the trap of throwing money at the station and expecting immediate results they have a chance to make an impact. Would be competitors for 970 have constantly fallen into the traps of either trying to compete on the cheap or throwing money around like drunk sailors and overextendeing their finances.
CC sweating? Nah. Watching with interest? You bet.
Big deal. They don't offer anything that FLA doesn't offer. Larsen is a pro but so are Jack and Tedd. When it comes to right wing talk, nobody can beat Rush. Miller and Bill-o are hacks.
In other words- why should a 970 listener turn the dial?
In other words- why should a 970 listener turn the dial?
D
Don62
Guest
Easy... WWBA offers a real talk format. One that lets listeners call-in to its shows, om the mornings, while FLA fills up its schedule with satellite blather.John Waywoods said:
A novel idea and something FLA offers zero of weekdays.
Bill981 said:
Actually, the station did broadcast as a daytimer on 800 kHz until around 1985, back in the days when they were a country station, WRFA. From 1972 (its sign on) until some time after becoming WRFA, the station was a religious station, WSST. They moved to 820 in order to broadcast at night, for staying at 800 would interfere with Windsor's CKLW.
D
Don62
Guest
Most of the audience may not call in, but at least they can hear local calls and local content, unlike Beck, Limbo, Schnitt and Hannity, where it's all national.Parttimer said:
Radio, after all, is supposedly a more local and more interactive medium.
Or 1 % call in and 99 % listen. Or 0.1 % call and 99.9% listen. There are all kinds of industry rules of thumb about the caller-listener ratio.
The point they all miss is that local talk radio, as opposed to national syndicated, allows particular callers to get on more frequently and thus become stars of a sort in the public mind. This phenomenon has been anathema to most consultants in talk radio for 20-plus years, and they have employed and encouraged every call screening mechanism imaginable to stamp it out.
I disagree with their conclusions that turning the "caller universe" into one bland creamy peanut butter sea of "dittoheads" or sycophants makes the medium more appealing. I think one of the hallmarks of local talk radio in the 80's was the cranks -- known by name or city -- you would hear commenting on and often disrupting the host's finely tuned agenda -- some of whom became hosts themselves. In this day and age of tight budgets, it amazes me that PD's (what few are left) and consultants look down upon "personalities" that cost them nothing -- above and beyond the phone bill!
If I were them, I'd look at "caller radio"... no host, just callers and a board op to dump profanity. A caller stays on till someone else calls and bumps him/her.
One of America's legendary AM news/talkers, KDKA in Pittsburgh, is live and local 5A-6P. Most of it is awful. The callers on the air are rambling old geezers or outright idiots. While they are #2 in the market 12+, their demos are as bad as WDUV's. They have a 1-share 25-54 middays (so it's getting about the numbers WWBA gets. In fact WWBA might be doing better 25-54). And KD is already on a 50kW signal that they have occupied for almost 100 years. (Then they run Boortz and O'Reilly on delay at night).
They are being pounded 25-54 by CC FM News/talk 104.7. Local DJ-turned-conservative-host Jim Quinn does mornings, then it's Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, a local sports show, and Michael Savage, as well as Pirates baseball. A freind of mine who was the RVP/programming for the market put this on about 5 years ago, the station had no heritage, had 20 different formats, and in the 3 years before the switch had been Smooth Jazz, Jammin' oldies and Urban AC. It came from nowhere and is winning big time. (and if you're wondering how they got Rush, KD had him, and Boortz on 104.7 was beating him, but CC pulled a power play because they knew pulling him from KD would be nearly fatal). They also took the Pirates from KD.
So WWBA can put more callers on, but the numbers won't get better because of it, and they might get worse.
They are being pounded 25-54 by CC FM News/talk 104.7. Local DJ-turned-conservative-host Jim Quinn does mornings, then it's Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, a local sports show, and Michael Savage, as well as Pirates baseball. A freind of mine who was the RVP/programming for the market put this on about 5 years ago, the station had no heritage, had 20 different formats, and in the 3 years before the switch had been Smooth Jazz, Jammin' oldies and Urban AC. It came from nowhere and is winning big time. (and if you're wondering how they got Rush, KD had him, and Boortz on 104.7 was beating him, but CC pulled a power play because they knew pulling him from KD would be nearly fatal). They also took the Pirates from KD.
So WWBA can put more callers on, but the numbers won't get better because of it, and they might get worse.
D
Don62
Guest
That FM sounds like a cookie-cutter right-wing AM with a sports show but on FM.Parttimer said:
Interesting how Quinn isn't that well known, even in his market.
I was listening to Hannity a week or so ago (Nothing else was on where I was driving).
Hannity took a call from Pbgh, "the home of Quinn..."
The caller, a woman, seemed perplexed.
"Who?" she asked.
Hannity repeated but the caller, who supposedly listens to Hannity's affiliate, had no idea.
I don't know anything about Quinn other than Hannity's frequent references to him.
There can be no doubt that KDKA coasted on its reputation and things like the Pirates for years if not decades. If the conservative-syndication loving audience has all gone over to FM, then maybe it's time to target another audience -- perhaps the liberals.
I've listened to some of KDKA's programming online and I didn't hear "idiot" callers, unless you consider everyone with a conservative position an idiot, and not even I am ready to make that assertion. I heard some concessions to the local environment -- like the conservative host who said that he departed from the conservative playbook in supporting labor unions. The programming still sounds regimented and screened in the way most talk radio does now, and I think it would take some time to transition into the kind of wide-open talk that, for example, Tampa or Miami used to host in the 80's. But if they wanted to give the call screeners the day off and blow the doors open, KDKA might get a little more interesting.
For those of you who are disappointed in current talk radio, and feeling defeated by corporatism, I would urge you to become a crank caller -- yes, a crank caller -- to your favorite (or least favorite) show. Much of the energy of Tampa radio in the 70's and 80's derived from people who were determined to DERAIL whatever track the host was on. Find Lionel's calling rules ("Always insult the host. Always be the first caller and set the tone...") and employ them. Only YOU can save talk radio!
Don62 said:
That's not a good barometer. There are some people who followed Rush from KD and stay around for Hannity. However, Jim Quinn was a Top-40/hot AC guy on KQV, WTAE and B94 from the 60's to the 90's. He then went into the conservative talk mode, first on a rock station (he wanted to do the show and they needed a morning guy), and 104.7 considered him essential to getting off the ground.
It's also possible that she wasn't listening to 104.7. 1170 WWVA from Wheeling, WV is 50kW and puts a good signal over the southern half of the market.
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