WWZN's Peter B. Collins to end show

[raccoonradio]

When WWZN started to air two progressive talk shows last Dec--Jeff Santos and Peter B Collins--it was looking promising; a third, syndie show was to air starting in Jan. But that show never came to pass and for a couple weeks, the Santos and Collins shows were not airing due to a contract dispute. Then Santos came back and it was said the Collins show would return after all the March hoop madness.

Now it won't return at all. It is going off air (from its west coast base)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Save_progressive_radio_boston/message/6125

(note re: right-wing stranglehold in the post--would that include TV, too? If there were a right wing stranglehold
there wouldn't be the likes of Keith Olbermann, etc.)

 

[DanStrassberg]

(note re: right-wing stranglehold in the post--would that include TV, too? If there were a right wing stranglehold there wouldn't be the likes of Keith Olbermann, etc.)

Who sponsors Olbermann and Maddow on MSNBC? I don't have cable so I can't watch. Do they have sponsors? Or is the network driven enough by its obsession with Fox's higher ratings that it is willing to carry the Progressive shows regardless of a lack of sponsors as a way of carving out a niche for itself?

Clearly, in radio today, anything that doesn't pay for itself pretty quickly doesn't survive.

 

[raccoonradio]

Cable TV can find sponsors for shows from Olby to Hannity, Maddow to O'Reilly, and both liberal and conservative talkers have found niches. Radio, progressive talk hasn't been as lucky--and it doesn't
help that these days are getting rough for talk radio of any type (local or syndie) with ad dollars
drying up (prob drying up a bit on TV side too)

But yes maybe they aren't as patient in waiting...

 

[trojanrabbit]

(note re: right-wing stranglehold in the post--would that include TV, too? If there were a right wing stranglehold there wouldn't be the likes of Keith Olbermann, etc.)

Who sponsors Olbermann and Maddow on MSNBC? I don't have cable so I can't watch. Do they have sponsors? Or is the network driven enough by its obsession with Fox's higher ratings that it is willing to carry the Progressive shows regardless of a lack of sponsors as a way of carving out a niche for itself?

Clearly, in radio today, anything that doesn't pay for itself pretty quickly doesn't survive.

Yes, they do have sponsors, though off the top of my head I can't say who they are. My free time is so limited it can only be devoted to one show, and that's Stephanie Miller. Olbermann & Maddow collect on my TiVo and go away.

Also remember that at least one cable company (Comcast that I know of) moved MSNBC to the digital tier while keeping Fox & CNN in the basic analog tier, so any audience comparison you make has to be made with that in mind.

 

[raccoonradio]

It cost Collins $5,000 per month to put the show on the air. While there were some advertisers and
some contributors it wasn't enough.

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2009/03/peter-b-hangs-up-microphone.html

Collins said he needed to get into big markets, and be on over 20 stations. He said he tried to do a deal with Air America but adds that AAR's recent move to put Montel Williams on "in the Thom Hartmann time slot, (which) tells us that Jerry Springer’s flameout was just their first attempt to retread a tabloid TV host as a “progressive” radio host."

 

[raccoonradio]

And now, an effort to keep Collins show alive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Save_progressive_radio_boston/message/6141

 

[raccoonradio]

...and I notice a post on that yahoo group saying a lot of what's happening with talk radio has to do with
a certain _Democratic_ president who signed a bill... (that'd be the 1996 Telecomm bill, right, to allow
companies to own a lot more stations?). You know the guy...husband of the secretary of state. Oh
death where is thy sting!

 

[SonicOverload]

it's true... one of the biggest disappointments I had with Clinton, among many