The "De-Clawing" of Talk Radio (was "Rush and Dr. Laura")

[ASchinella@aol.com]

Good points as always Paul. Let me just chime in to say that Limboob's ratings
are down in some markets but up and steady in almost all of the others. Losing
stations is a big thing to him because it almost never happens and a few times
in the past year, stations in small markets have dropped him. 

This big controversy was prompted by Talkers Magazine's Michael Harrison's
almost giddy ranting that that Limboob was being dethroned from first in
listenership to third, behind Stern and Dr. Loudmouth, and was eventually
proven to be sort of a falsehood, as Limboob's numbers had increased according
to numerous radio surveys [It is assume that the Predator in Chief's intern
flings have caused a bump. Check out Talker's site for all the sordid details
as well as a pretty amusing give and take between Harrison and one of
Limboob's henchmen.]

Now, with that said, I would disagree a little with the perception that
political talk is down. Political talk has all but single-handedly been
removed from the airwaves! It has nothing to do with good or bad ratings. As I
have said before, Jerry Williams was moved to weekends and replaced by taped
Dr. Loudmouth and ratings have gone down in that time slot since Williams
shelving. Same for everything in the "Schlock (ie Hot) Talk" nonsense
programming at WRKO: Ratings are down, Ad revs are down (except for Howie
Carr, who's numbers remain high.)

[As a quick side note: I hear that the Two Dips Dipping actually have better
ratings than the Ayn Rand brainwashed Chuck Adler, but his numbers were so
dismal that there was probably nowhere to go but up. Also, as much as I like
Tai, anyone who listens to him and his guests talk to themselves with almost
no callers for hours have got to wonder how long he can last. Even Adler got
phone calls!] 

The replacement of political talk for "Schlock Talk" is a nationwide phenom as
I have heard from many people in the business. The political talk shows,
granted a lot of Limboob clones, have either been removed from the air or de-
clawed in context of their topics. Gone are the continuing discussions of
policy and here are the supermarket and traffic gripes. The main motivation
behind this change has less to do with the "so called good economy" and more
to do with radio consultants and AM's obsession with FM demographics. Radio
consultants have been telling AM's, quite falsely across the board, that they
can compete with FM stations for that prized 25-54 share if they dumb down the
programming and remove the activist nature of political talk (WRKO's Jeff
"Blatz" Katz calls this "saving talk radio" -sic- ). Unfortunately, with a few
exceptions, what most AM programmers are finding is lower ratings AND, and
here is the important thing, lower ad revenues. And with all the various
programming choices of FM, how can AMs really compete? And where did the older
audience (or "political junkie" audience) go when the talk station changed or
when a few stations were consolidated into one? That is the question. I
suspect that they shut off the radio and from the continuing complaints heard
by older/longtime WRKO listeners to Jerry William's show about the terrible
state of WRKO, I would guess that is what is happening. A strange part of this
is that  I hear that WBZ's nighttime ratings are way up (could that by why
WRKO has been running a lot of nighttime anti-Bruds promos Tai: 'We don't do
authors!' ?). So who says that quality political talk can't make money or get
ratings? 

Sorry for the length, 
Tony

------------------------------