Herald, BRW: 1200 to conservative talk in April

[Jim Hall]

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


I think you've hit on an important factor. Most commercial stations would be
proud to earn the ratings that WBUR manages to snag. Some cities have public
radio outlets that do a good job on news and information. In some cities,
however, the public radio station mostly plays music (as WGBH was doing). It
would be interesting to know if the cities where commercial progressive talk
has been successful are also the cities where there is *no* strong news/talk
presence on the public radio station(s). I can easily understand why a WBUR
listener would not automatically jump over to a commercial progressive talk
station: although both may be "liberal" or "progressive" in their outlook,
the commercial station needs to infuse a good bit of "entertainment" as
well, which may turn-off listeners used to a more serious format. I love
Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz, but they certainly would not fit in with an
NPR type news/talk format.