The real fun is going to start when the big talk radio guys start getting told they either take massive pay cuts of they get replaced.
Ad rates pay for everything. Ad rates are sinking into the toilet, and it dosent matter how popular a host is; The amount of money they get paid per listener is based on the listener spending at retail. That’s what the advertiser is paying for, the access to the listeners wallet.
The wallet gets lighter, the pay scale goes into atrophy.
CBS kicked off local overnight hosts in Minnesapolis, Pittsburgh, and Boston and started an overnight show based
at their St Louis station, Overnight America, to save money.
But listeners of the overnight host, Steve Leveille, organized a protest (contacting advertisers etc.) saying that the show was valuable and had listeners who were dedicated
(CBS must have felt it wasn’t worth paying the guy, even though he wasn’t making much money). He returns next week.
(CBS didn’t want to risk advertiser defections, etc.)
But it is interesting, about the “big talk radio guys”. I do
know Rush and Hannity signed big deals, etc. but they’re
a license to print money for Premiere/Clear Channel
and Citadel/ABC/Clr Channel (a new partnership), respectively. But you could see local hosts get cut.
Many have.
>>The wallet gets lighter, the pay scale goes into atrophy.
That’s very true, but I wonder if they could find another way to cut costs. (In Boston WBZ’s storied reputation
went into the toilet and they figured the host—who really doesn’t make all that much—was worth bringing back.
I did read somewhere, though, that Arbitron doesn’t
bother to do ratings for overnight hosts...
Well the high paid radio talkers could spend a few bucks on the BC lawsuits that some of us have been contributing to.
I guess flying around in your Gulfstream, going to see the Steelers, smoking cigars, living in Marin county and San Fran or sucking up to people like Lanny Davis (Hannity). The two legal beagle talkers - Ingraham - dull and RINOish and Levin just calls people a big dope. They are no help.
Rush is getting in the fight now at least.
To understand the economy look at a chart of the S&P 500 starting in june 2008 - right after that O gets nominated 7 it starts going down.
Keeps sinking a dives in October when the polls have O up 20%. Rallies a little Nov 1 to 4th on better poll numbers for Juan McCain.
O wins and the market sinks lower. No rally yet.
The public and business has no confidence in him just dread.