Air America on the move.
Posted on 07/02/2006 8:20:30 PM PDT by raccoonradio
The "revolution of talk radio" and "Homer: The Sports Animal" are trading places.
Clear Channel Cincinnati, which owns eight stations locally, announced Friday it is swapping the dial positions of its liberal talk and sports talk stations.
Effective July 7, the liberal talker, which carries Jerry Springer's 9 a.m.-noon "Springer on the Radio," will move from WCKY-AM (1530) to the significantly less powerful WSAI-AM (1360). Homer, meanwhile is moving from WSAI to the WCKY frequency.
For tri-state fans of each station, the move doesn't mean much except having to perhaps reset some car radio buttons. But it is significant in that it indicates local Clear Channel officials feel the sports talk format is more marketable than the progressive talk genre and deserves the more powerful frequency.
WCKY, the new Homer home, has a 50,000-watt signal that can be heard over much of the eastern seaboard and into the Deep South. It is the second most powerful radio signal out of Cincinnati behind WLW's 50,000-watt clear channel signal.
WSAI is classified as a regional 5,000-watt signal that adequately covers the tri-state, but not much more.
"Homer is a format and brand that over the last number of years has showed ratings success, showed revenue success," said Darryl Parks, operations managers for Clear Channel's Cincinnati AM stations. "On 1530, we felt we could increase the ratings and increase the revenue."
The decision to make the frequency flip perhaps reflects the ratings fortunes of the two stations in the past year. Since launching the progressive talk format in January of 2005, WCKY has not made much of a ratings splash, barely cracking the top 20 stations out of some 30 rated in the Cincinnati market. In the latest Arbitron survey covering the first quarter of 2006, the station had just a .09 share in total audience, the lowest since the format launched.
Meanwhile, Homer found its total audience double last fall to a 2.4 share and triple among 25-54-year olds, likely driven by the resurgence of the Bengals. With the Reds now seemingly on the rise, too, Clear Channel officials figured that the sports talk format showed the greater potential for growth and therefore deserved a more powerful signal.
The future of the liberal talk genre, still struggling in many markets, remains in doubt. Most of the programming comes from New York-based Air America, now in more than 80 markets since launching in April of 2004. Even in major markets, its affiliates are often on the lower-powered stations. WCKY was one of the bigger signals carrying Air America shows, such as Al Franken and Randy Rhodes.
Those involved here with selling Springer's show say the dial switch doesn't mean that much.
"It's no big deal to Jerry. He's still just excited to be on," said Pat Barry, the former DJ, TV weather personality and talk host who is in charge of marketing "Springer on the Radio."
The signal strength won't affect local sales efforts, he said. "Where can't you hear 1360? Remember when it was No. 1?" he said referring to the WSAI glory days in the '60s when it was a top-40 pioneer commanding shares that sometimes amounted to 40 percent of the local radio audience.
Parks said, for now, Cincinnati Clear Channel is still committed to the liberal talk format, although he thinks it could use some tinkering.
"I think in all of progressive talk - there is shrillness to it. I think there needs to be much more of a humanistic angle to it. Do I see it succeeding in the long run? Yeah."
Clear Channel has slowly built its Homer sports talk brand since August of 2000 when the station landed the rights to carry Bengals games. It has a developed a strong local sports talk cast that features the morning drive "Two Angry Guys" of Richard Skinner and Tom Gamble (both former Post sports reporters), Jeff Piecoro from 9 a.m. to noon and Lance McAllister in the afternoon drive slot.
"Homer was created as an anchor station built around the Bengals. It's become much more over the years with the local hosts," Parks said. "They have done a wonderful job as talk hosts and bringing breaking sports news to the station and talking topical Cincinnati sports."
Putting the sports talker on a more powerful dial position also raises the issue of whether it might regionally compete and cut into ratings of Clear Channel's top-rated WLW, which also is a prominent sports talk outlet as the home for the Reds and Andy Furman's high-profile evening talk show.
Parks noted Clear Channel already competes with itself in the market with conservative talker WKRC, often a direct competitor of WLW with conservative daytime talk hosts Mike McConnell and Bill Cunningham.
"There is no reason for us not to take a viable product and put it on the best delivery system," Parks said about the Homer move. "A lot of people might say we are going to dig into ourselves. I look at it as growing the pie bigger."
Clear Channel owns eight stations in the Cincinnati market: AM outlets WCKY, WKRC, WLW, WSAI and FM stations WEBN, WOFX, WKFS and WVMK.
Translation: Beggars can't be choosers...
WCKY-AM ---> Wacky Radio???
If the lib talk made money, Clear Channel would feature it.
I'll bet they'd draw a larger audience if they returned to THAT format.
Oldies fans were dismayed when first WWKB (1520) Buffalo,
then WCKY (1530) Cincy changed from oldies to Scare America.
Oldies would work. Sports would work. Air America won't.
Humanistic? I think he means HUMAN. Liberal talk is easy. Put on your most sarcastic voice and criticise everyone that's getting anything done.
we have an Air America station in Dallas... but I don't think it has any listeners
Well, duh...
The same government they criticize every day is the same government they want administering your retirement, your healthcare, and your child's education.
"The same government they criticize every day is the same government they want administering your retirement, your healthcare, and your child's education."
That is the liberal paradox I never understood. They say the government is full of crooks in one sentence and then call for the government to control and fund everything in the next sentence. Makes no sense.
Well I think it has at least one... Just like the Air Amerika station in Detroit.
>>The same government they criticize every day is the same government they want administering your retirement, your healthcare, and your child's education.
True...in Mass, seems like 98 per cent of officeholders are Dems. The governor isn't. Recently there was a Democratic convention and someone was heard to say "We want to take back our state!" Huh? Other than the governorship, the Dims HAVE
control of Mass...and if things are screwed up, blame them!
Air America on the move.
"... Just like the Air Amerika station in Detroit."
Which one is that? I'd like to know so I can avoid it when band surfing.
1310 AM, WXDX I think. Don't go very far right on the dial, if your listening to the Detroit Tigers. Next station over.
I channel by AirAmerika, here in the Dallas area...just to find out how goofy they are...
They tell so many lies, curse, and cry so much..you can't tell one show from the other...however, I do have to say that Randi Rhodes is the WORST...she lies and makes up conspiracies more than all of the other hosts together...
AND, every time I hear the word "progressive" now, I feel like pulling out the duct tape.
"Arbitorn" says: "Ask your liberal friends if they've listened to it. Every time I ask, I get the same answer: no. They say they don't listen to the radio at all, only listen to NPR, or tried it and hated it. When I ask why they didn't like it, they said the hosts are too mad and while they agree with much of the opinion, they don't want to hear it ad-nauseum. When prompted, they realized they wished the hosts sounded like they were having more fun. "
keys2 said: "This is an excellent post, Arbitorn. Very well said. I must note that in an earlier post when I said the format was poorly executed, I was referring more to the numerous technical glitches. I do think that 24 hours of syndicated programming on a 50,000 watt stick is a waste though. But you are right. Clear Channel did try it with Springer who has the local ties and they did some huge billboards early on. Most libs I know don't listen either. As you said, they tend to not like the angry, hateful approach of most libtalk radio. They lean more toward NPR. And as I always say, there's no shortage of liberal bias and opinion out there in the mainstream. Left-wingers pretty much have their views validated just about everywhere else, from sitcoms and hollywood tripe to the network evening newscasts and everything in between.
Yeah...why would libs feel the need to listen to talk radio...all the have to do is turn on CNN and MSNBC any time during the day..and watch their message being spread far and wide..
Oh..and they can also watch both of the C-spans.
However, I find it odd that they don't want to listen because the hosts are "mad"...that is the way ALL libs are..so they should LOVE it.
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