Re: WSMN / Gene Burns

[Brian Vita <brian_vita@cssinc.com>]

At 11:29 PM 2/11/00 -0500, SteveOrdinetz wrote:

>Maybe Imus' poor showing is more a reflection of Imus himself and not
>necessarily to do with his switching stations...listener fatigue may be
>setting in.  His numbers were down on our local affiliate, too.  You can
>only listen to so much about his kid and the ranch.  Someone also ought to
>tell him no one really cares about Clinton's sexual follies anymore.  Maybe
>he needs some fresh material.

I haven't heard anyone say that Imus' bad numbers are a result of being on 
WTKK.  The reason that WEEI was less than enthusiastic to renew him was 
because his numbers had been in a decline for a while.  He used to have an 
interesting show but its turned into an infomercial for his book, his ranch 
and Auto Body Express (or whatever his brother's company is).

The point that I and a lot of others made back in August/September is that 
they were building an entire format on this already eroding 
foundation.  They grabbed the Imus show and then quickly scrambled to fill 
out the broadcast day.  As a result they have a schedule build around 
secondary level programs, the type that are usually found on a AM daytimer.

The other point that was made is that talk, as a format, had already peaked 
nationally and all of the syndicated/network shows were already losing 
numbers.  Stern, Rush, Dr. Laura and others were losing market 
numbers.  The comment that I had made at the time was that they were taking 
a finite sized (and shrinking) market and just recutting the pieces a bit 
smaller.  While WBZ seems to be immune, WRKO, WEEI (both old and new) and 
other talkers in the area have watched their overall numbers drop.

The sweeping new format of "Hot FM Talk" turned out to be more the fantasy 
of some overpaid consultant and less of a viable product.  Given its 
current showing, wasting a major market FM signal on it is corporate 
malfeasance (any GM stockholders out there?).

I think that the future of talk is to stay on AM but to supplement it with 
Internet feeds.  I listen to NAC and talk in both my office and car 
depending on my mood and what's available in a given market.  If I can't 
find content on one or the other that interests me, on goes the tape.  I've 
had WTKK on in my office but the content is what I call "blahblah" talk and 
boring.  I'd put on WRKO and WBZ (even WMEX) but I can't get AM in my steel 
and concrete bunker.  If they were on the web, I've got DSL so it would be 
no problem.

In the next month or so I plan on phasing out the FM tuner in my office and 
replacing it with a PC with an MP3 Juke Box and a Real Audio type streaming 
audio player.  I'll load it up with CD's and plug in the DSL.  If I find 
something that I'm in the mood for on the web in either talk or NAC, I'll 
listen.  When it gets boring, on goes the streaming audio.

Brian
--Brian T. Vita, President
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