....for any trying to make sense of this post:
It’s been quite a 2010 for conservative media icon Glenn Beck - spurring on the tea-party movement, drawing a throng to his August rally at the Lincoln Memorial and becoming a finalist for Time’s Person of the Year.
But come 2011, Beck will be off the radio in Philadelphia - at least as it stands now.
Beck and his fellow right-wing gabber Sean Hannity were dumped yesterday by the city’s top-ranked talk-radio outlet, WPHT, The Big Talker (1210-AM), in a shakeup aimed at keepin’ it local.
While Hannity and Beck - nationally the No. 2 and No. 3 most-listened-to talk hosts behind Rush Limbaugh - are scrambling to find a new home in America’s fourth-biggest media market, the shuffle means a more prominent role for locally based Michael Smerconish.
(snip)
If it were up to me,i’d say Beck can come to WMAL AM630 in DC anytime he’s ready. I like Chris Plante to a certain extent,but between the two i’d prefer Beck.
While Hannity and Beck - nationally the No. 2 and No. 3 most-listened-to talk hosts behind Rush Limbaugh - are scrambling to find a new home in America’s fourth-biggest media market, the shuffle means a more prominent role for locally based Michael Smerconish.
Thanks for making sense of this thread... at first I had no idea what "1210" was, but now I do recognize Philadelphia's WPHT, The Big Talker, 1210 AM.
Wow, that is shocking that WPHT would dump Beck and Hannity from a Rush station in a big market like that, and just when they could probably pick up many new listeners thanks to the Tea Party movement. Why would they do this? Hope this is an isolated incident and not the beginning of some "trend"...
>>in a shakeup aimed at keepin’ it local.
this has happened in other markets. In Prov. RI Rush went from WPRO to WHJJ and I don’t know for sure if WPRO’s
owner Citadel wanted to go all local, or WHJJ’s owner—
Clear Channel, whose syndication arm does Rush— pulled it
from WPRO.
In many cities like Boston local talk does very well and
some national shows wind up on secondary signals. Clear
Channel’s WXKS 1200 now has Rush, Beck, Hannity, etc
along with local talker Jeff Katz (orig from Phila.)
but even with a better signal have had tough time with
ratings. But even low ratings can still bring in money
if they can sell some ads in a desirable “demo”