1200 stunting as Gaffe 1200

[Dan.Strassberg]

I wonder how well CCU has tested (focus groups, etc) THIS incarnation of 24/7 comedy. At my age, nobody in the biz is going to listen to me, but I believe that what I've heard so far on Comedy 1200 has several problems: Virtually all of the cuts are by male comedians and a very high percentage of the male comedians are white. For sure, we need more female voices and ethnic minorities. And they ought to slow down--a lot! After 20 minutes, I feel as if I've been listening for eight hours. If TSL is important (and supposedly, it is), why make the listener feel as though he has been listening all day after only 20 minutes or so?

Also, I assume that the total absence of music is a royalty thing. Some comedy music (Tom Lehrer, for example) would be very welcome--at least to these ears. Also, I've heard nothing from the Goon Shows.

-----
Dan Strassberg
e-fax 707-215-6367
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott Fybush 
  To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org 
  Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 2:29 PM
  Subject: Re: 1200 stunting as Gaffe 1200


  On 8/13/2012 1:01 PM, Donna Halper wrote:
  > Not trying to be a killjoy here, but comedy as a format has a noble
  > history of being tried and then failing miserably in the ratings. People
  > like a particular comedy routine or even a live show at a club, but a
  > steady diet of comedy has no history of being successful.  (Plus, some
  > of the funniest club routines use language you can't use on radio.)  I
  > love Matty, but I wonder if this too isn't a placeholder for something
  > else down the line.

  Times have changed. Many of those previous attempts were at standalone 
  stations (cf. WJOK, WRCA), and it's quite true that comedy on its own 
  couldn't sustain an independent station, even a small AM one.

  The guys behind the "Comedy 24/7" service that's running on 1200 came 
  along at the right time, though: they're pitching their service to the 
  number-six signal in any given cluster. If you've already got three FMs 
  carrying mass-appeal music formats and a bigger AM doing news-talk and 
  maybe another AM doing sports, what else are you going to do with that 
  throwaway signal at the bottom of the pile?

  Where it's been tried so far, especially on HD2/translator combos in 
  Kansas City and Austin, the comedy format has turned out to be a nice 
  bonus addition to a cluster programming strategy. It attracts younger 
  listeners who wouldn't ever hit that "number-six station" if it were 
  carrying more satellite-fed third-tier talk or sports or standards, and 
  at least in KC it came out of the box with something like a 2.5 
  share...on a TRANSLATOR!

  Comedy 1200 isn't going to be the next Kiss 108, but I have a hunch it 
  will do better for CC, sales-wise, than "Fox Sports 1200" would do.