Herald, BRW: 1200 to conservative talk in April

[raccoonradio@mail.com]

 No idea if they'd consider putting Premiere's Randi Rhodes on. CC wants to air the ads on its talkers, and get the talkers on air here. Surprised it took so long. Prog talk fans were hoping that the 1200 power increase would have happened in time to save the format--they ditched progtalk in Dec of 06 but the increase wasn't till last spring.

Conservative talk has tended to work even though CC gave progtalk a try on several stations before switching to such things as sports in New Haven and conservatalk in Providence. As I have said before it may appeal to middle aged or older people who may be partially or totally conservative, perhaps people like me who may be liberal or moderate on a couple social issues but to the right on fiscal, military/foreign policy, immigration, crime and punishment, and so on

The "it succeeds because it's entertaining" argument leads some to say that well, left leaning talk can be that way, too, but it depends on the audience. Is Jeff Santos the same kind of entertainer Howie Carr is? Is Stephanie Miller as funny as Glenn Beck and vice versa? Depends on whom you ask. Were Santos and S. Miller to be on RKO and Carr to be on WWZN, how would the ratings be affected? 

Or are liberal talk radio listeners preferring news-talk on the likes of WBUR and WGBH, or music?

It's also weird to see that in this part of the country the political dominance is by Democrats yet libtalk radio is in the minority (or is it? Eagan and Braude, Leveille, GBH/BUR? And while Dennis and Callahan are known to be conservative when they get into politics, I have heard that WBZ-FM's Toucher and Rich may be a liberal counterbalance) 

And even if a talk host leans one way that doesn't necessarily mean "the other side" is shut out of the conversation. I have to praise WBZ's Dan Rea who tries to cover both./all sides of the issue in the guests he books, and he invites callers to express their opinions as long as they're civil and have a conversation ("I don't care what you're thinking just as long as you are thinking").

Basically the big radio corporations want to put on what they think will get ratings and billing
(note btw that when WBZ brought Leveille back it was not just listeners but SPONSORS who stepped up to the plate) and CC has money in mind. Getting their own Premiere shows aired was a major consideration (and again, who knows, would they consider Rhodes or do they feel having a liberal show on would spoil the mix?)


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: raccoonradio@mail.com; boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 4:02 am
Subject: Re: Herald, BRW: 1200 to conservative talk in April


At 03:52 AM 1/14/2010, raccoonradio@mail.com wrote: 
 
 > It will feature conservative talkers from the Premiere lineup, eventually; Hannity, Beck, even Rush perhaps when the WRKO deal expires. There are also plans for local >hosts and a news department. 
 
Wow, Clear Channel once again shows its true colours-- the biggest donors to Republican causes (including to President Bush back when he was running) have been the Mays Family, owners of Clear Channel.  And boy howdy, we just don't have enough conservative talkers on the air, do we?  :-\