Herald, BRW: 1200 to conservative talk in April

[Bob DeMattia]

I was typing my email when raccoon's email came in.  He beat me to the
punch...

Clear Channel (under a different ownership structure, but with the Mays in a
prominent position) picked up
Air America in 2004.  That didn't work out so well ratings-wise, prompting
the change to Rumba in '06.  So
it looks like their motivations are purely financial.

Although there are a number of talk stations in Boston, the two majors  -
RKO and TKK fill a lot  of their
day with locally generated programming.  This leaves some other "big" names
such as Hannity and Beck
with no Boston outlet.  Beck is carried on CC's TAG in Worcester and is
relegated to Saturday nights on RKO.
The closest Hannity gets is a few 5KW stations in Fitchburg, Providence, and
Rochester, NH.

So it makes sense for Clear Channel to create an outlet for their PRN
properties in Boston.  Being able
to pull the rug out from under RKO in the 12-3 slot is icing on the cake.
 It sure looks like they plan on making
the now-50KW 1200 signal a contender in the Boston market.


-Bob


On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:55 AM, <raccoonradio@mail.com> wrote:

>
>  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?  :-\
>
>
>