First Sign Of Trouble At WTKK?

[David Tomm]

WTKK's local programming tends to be more moderate (Barnicle, Eagan & 
Braude) but that only accounts for three hours during middays.  Imus 
tends to be moderate to conservative in the morning, but after 1pm it's 
all right wing blather all the time (O'Reilly, Hannity, Ingraham, etc.)

Conservative talkers have taken a bit of a ratings hit and most 
observers are chalking it up to post election fatigue.  That may be 
part of the problem.  However, the fact that most conservative hosts 
are steadfastly behind Bush and his policies may not be ringing true 
with the general public like it once did.  With several major polls 
stating that Bush's approval rating is only around 39%, talk stations 
may be losing some moderate listeners who aren't buying the message 
coming from the right wing talking heads.

Meanwhile in a number of markets, new liberal talk stations are slowly 
increasing their ratings or at least are holding steady.  Their numbers 
still dwarf the ratings of the big conserva-talkers (who tend to be on 
much better signals) but it will be interesting to see how things shake 
out once the mid-term election season starts heating up next year.

Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"


On Oct 18, 2005, at 5:55 PM, Tim wrote:

>> The Boston Arbs are up for the Summer book, and WTKK shows a major 
>> decline in the 12+ number (I won't quote it...you can look it up).>
>
> Is WTKK's talk programming heavily partisan political (I don't live in 
> New England...I have no idea)?  If so, that could be the problem. I 
> read a piece of talk radio audience research a couple months ago that 
> said they believe the public is tiring of political talk shows...that 
> some talkers national audiences are down over 50% in the past year. 
> Not my opinion personally (I could care less either way)...just what I 
> read.
>