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...
I was thinkin’ about gettin’ back into radio. Guess I’d better think of somethin’ else.