Talk America Founder Tom Star Dies

[scott@saloway.com]

Talk America was purchased by IDT Corp, the telphone company, in 2001
and moved from Las Vegas to Newark, NJ. Over the following two years,
IDT removed most of the brokered and lifestyle programming and moved
into more political talk. In 2003, the name was changed to Liberty
Broadcasting, to reflect the more conservative attitude of the network.

Earlier this year, IDT sold Liberty Broadcasting to BusinessTalkRadio,
which rebranded the network as "Lifestyle Talk Radio" and reintroduced
much of the lifestyle programming IDT had eliminated.

IDT continues to own and operate a talk station in Washington DC, WMET,
which was the home for several of the political talkers (Linda Chavez,
JD Balart, Shmuley, Geoff Metcalf) that BTR didn't want for its new
network. As of today, only Linda Chavez and JD Balart remain. 

Chuck Harder was taken off Liberty Broadcasting/Lifestyle Talk Radio
this past winter by BTR. Doug Stephan remains. 

Scott 

(former Talk America board op and Liberty Broadcasting Ops Manager)


Scott Saloway
General Manager
WSIA-FM
Broadcasting Live From The College of Staten Island

radiotony <radiotony@comcast.net> wrote on 04/27/2005, 02:44:52 PM:
> Talk America had offices in Canton, and I believe one other South Shore town 
> before moving to Las Vegas.
> I talked to him once about doing a satellite show - I believe it was in 1994 
> or 1995 and it seemed like he ran a legit operation.
> But at $200 an hour for air time and no sponsors, it wasn't going to happen 
> for me.
> However, later, I heard from some others who weren't happy that Star had 
> played up the network as being on bigger stations than he actually was on.
> He also counted all the stations that all his leassors were on ... so, if 
> Doug Stephan or Chuck Harder had shows on a station but that station didn't 
> carry
> any other Talk America programming, he would count them as a Talk America 
> affiliate, that kind of thing. Talk America did get a big business spread
> in the Boston Globe just before moving to Vegas and they eventually did 
> manage to get enough money to lease or use a second satellite -
> which then put all the folks who were paying him $300 an hour for air time 
> in competition with themselves. It was a pretty strange operation.
> I don't know if they are still in operation now or not.
> 
> Best,
> Tony
> 
> Tony Schinella
> News Director/A&E
> WKXL 1450
> Celebrating Concord & the Capital Region
> with thoughtful community radio
> Concord, NH
> http://www.wkxl1450.com
> http://politizine.blogspot.com
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: SteveOrdinetz
> To: boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 7:36 AM
> Subject: Re: Talk America Founder Tom Star Dies
> 
> 
> At 02:08 AM 4/27/2005, Joseph Pappalardo wrote:
> 
> >http://www.radioandrecords.com/Newsroom/2005_04_25/talkamerica.asp
> >
> >Wasn't Tom Star based in Boston for a time?
> 
> Name sounds familiar.  Didn't he do a weeknight sports show in the late 80s
> called the Sports Final?