Posted on 05/24/2021 8:53:45 AM PDT by Biggirl
RadioInsight: Cumulus Media flipped Classic Country 600 WRQX Salem/Youngstown OH to Conservative Talk “The Patriot” on Monday.
Coinciding with the launch of Dan Bongino in the 12-3pm timeslot, the station will run a lineup fully consisting of other Westwood One distributed shows. America In The Morning will run from 6-7am and again from 8-9am. First Light will air in the 7am hour. Chris Plante from 9am-12pm, Bongino from 12-3pm and Ben Shapiro from 3-5pm will make up the bulk of the daytime lineup. Peacock sports talk Rich Eisen Show will air from 5-7pm before the station returns to Conservative Talk with Mark Levin from 7-10pm, Jim Bohanon from 10pm-1am and Red Eye Radio overnight.
I know that. I like Levin's intellect. I like Chris Plante's preparation, POV, and wit.
Dan seems like a great guy but just not compelling or inviting to me. I did like Mark Stein, and always thought he would be the replacement.
Now I listen to classical music 11-5 central.
bongino is boring.
he invokes sienfeld and still manages to not be funny.
Now it is Steve Bannon’s Warroom that is on top of what is happening today. He brings on many guests who are actively doing things to try to affect change for the better right now.
and his bumper music sucks!
go back to books cuz radio is not your forte!
Dan is a top bloke but he sounds like he’s walking on eggshells AND trying not to wake the baby.
His delivery these two days has been absolutely whisper-quiet. This is out of character for him, especially given his bold, occasionally shouty delivery as a guest host, TV commentator and podcaster.
Presumably, Dan was hired for his boldness. His moxie. His uncompromising attitude. Presumably, potential radio affiliates were told that Dan was a dynamic figure who would deliver the unvarnished truth and name names.
So far this week he’s been none and done none of these. Where’s the firebrand who explained and exposed the Russia hoax and all the FBI/CIA/FISA nonsense and had an encyclopedic knowledge of same?
Is he trying to ‘fit in’ to the media gaggle now? Trying not to draw criticism or opposition? Surely he must know that’s impossible – and he should want it to be impossible.
Talk radio must grab audiences by the throat. Sensationalism isn’t necessarily required but energy is.
Granted any new production will have teething issues but Bongino should do away with the ‘Whispering Dan’ character immediately and resume being his normal, unafraid self.
Yes, it’s tempting to want the Limbaugh template recreated and yes, that’s a forlorn hope but most talkers had or have some basic cues in place – theme music, bumper music, ‘outcues’ such as Rush’s famous earsplitting tone or even the Savage heavy-metal-growly-voice ID.
Bongino’s production staff need to get this made part of the program quickly in order to let the audience know what’s going on without having to explain it long-form to them. Segment starting, segment ending, hour starting, hour ending, show ending, etc. Come up with some sounders (aka sound effects aka clips) and use them consistently.
The NPR-style ‘I’m Dan Bongino and this is the Dan Bongino Show’ isn’t cutting it. It’s redundant and self-evident.
In talk radio you DEFINITELY attract more flies with vinegar than with honey (ie the old metaphor reversed).
Laura Ingraham was never better than when she was mocking and cackling at the lunkheads in DC and the media. In her second radio iteration she softened considerably and we constantly heard ‘I like Paul Ryan/John Boehner/Mitch McConnell/et al.’ Not only was this concerning from a standpoint of principles it was far less interesting to hear swamp people’s mutual admiration society even if they didn’t really mean it.
I hereby suggest to Mr Bongino that he remember the lines spoken by Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton in ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’: ‘They’re going to kick us out no matter what we do so we might as well have a good time!’
Bongino may not yet be kicked off the airwaves but he has already been given the proverbial black hat to wear by political enemies and jealous types, especially now that he is in Rush’s timeslot and on many of the EIB stations. So Dan should embrace the role, offer no quarter and take no prisoners.
The board operator needs to bump the compression way up so we can hear Dan more clearly – and, again, Dan needs to speak up.
Finally, phone calls to radio shows are an anachronism – unless they’re with a special guest eg Donald Trump. We REALLY aren’t interested in hearing what Cathy in Clearview has to say in real time as she nervously fumbles through her question or statement.
There is Parler. Or Gab. Or Telegram. There is still e-mail. If Dan really wants to bring a ‘caller’ on then he can play a recording of said call – in edited form.
Dan’s show would benefit from greater continuity if he merely did all the talking – even if he’s reading someone’s message or email.
This would also eliminate the avoid-dead-air filler gimmick of mindlessly reciting the phone number. If someone wants to get in touch that badly they can do a web search for the number.
In sum, the format needs tweaked pronto. The host needs to stoke his firebox and get the boiler going and let that lonesome whistle scream.
He was better today than yesterday. Not great, but a person has to settle in to a new job. I wouldn’t want a performance evaluation on Day Two of a job.
True but he referred to ‘fake shows’ yesterday - meaning they’ve done at least a week of mock performances or dry runs.
I’m willing to allow a break-in period but the formatting needs sharpened up - that has nothing to do with his delivery and vice versa.
His show is 10X better today than it was on Monday. I think it’ll be OK and be successful.
...EIB would not dissolve like it has done.
Has it?
I guess this is still the current thread - many will already have seen the news that Buck Sexton and Clay Travis (Outkick) have paired up and will be doing a 12-3 pm Eastern show.
I’ve enjoyed Buck’s podcasts - he’s been a consistent and clear opponent and critic of all the covid nonsense and abuses - although he occasionally gets in a rut.
Travis may be less familiar to some but he basically built a blog/podcast/radio mini-empire out of a very simple business model: criticizing and opposing the politically correct madness in sports and sports media. As you may know he’s sold his operation to Fox.
The pairing of the two should be interesting and formidable. Travis has a law degree and Sexton is an alumnus of US government intelligence agencies. But both are able to avoid the jargon and wonkery and focus on the cultural aspects.
Which brings us to Bongino’s fledgling show in the same time slot and on many of the same stations that once hosted Rush. Are the stations now going to be forced to choose or even cut short their Bongino commitment to pick up the new Buck/Clay show?
Couldn’t we have a 9-12 show and a 12-3 show or 12-3/3-6?
Free markets and choice are wonderful things and podcasts are always an option but....
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton to take over Rush Limbaugh’s radio show
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton are set to continue Rush Limbaugh’s legacy with their own show in June.
The duo is set to begin The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on June 21, and it will air on hundreds of stations nationwide. Travis and Sexton are conservative voices grappling with the void that was left in the media ecosystem following Limbaugh’s death on Feb. 17.
“I could not be more excited to step onto the biggest platform in radio with my fantastic co-host, Clay Travis,” Sexton told the Washington Examiner. “We’re going to do a show that will make Rush listeners proud and bring a new generation of audience to the table.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/travis-sexton-limbaugh-radio-show-conservative
I like Dan but he’s not a radio guy. People like Rush, Beck, Maddow and Wilcow were radio people (DJs) before they became talk show hosts. They understood the business and how to handle an audience and manage the clock long before they started as talk show hosts. To seasoned hosts, five seconds is a lifetime, to Dan it just means he has to talk faster.
Radio people know how to make the content about the audience, “playing your favorite songs” or “topics we need to discuss” whereas Dan makes it too much about himself when most people don’t even know him yet. He needs to slow down.
Rush would have an occasional “4th hour” and frequently stated that he ran out of time long before he ran out of topics.
I give him six months to get into game shape and start to make the connection with the audiences.
I’ve given him two weeks of listening...in edited/time compressed form. 3 hrs chock full of commercials and interruptions is a hiding to nothing.
The challenges (to use a charitable term) in presentation and format remain.
Someone, possibly Bongino himself, or more likely management, syndicators, etc. have convinced him to take a softer, almost confessional tone.
There are immediate problems with this:
1) This is radio. As in audio. It depends entirely on sound produced, sound detected, sound transmitted, sound perceived.
I realize Bongino has a bit of a raspy voice which complements his hard-bitten image but if someone has a raspy voice then HE CANNOT WHISPER. A $7,000-10,000 condenser microphone is highly accurate and sensitive but it can only transmit what it ‘hears.’ His rapid-fire delivery with a hint of accent only exacerbates the problem.
Many of us were first exposed to Bongino as a guest host for Mark Levin. On that show Bongino was audible, forceful and stopped for breath - which was a form of ‘punctuation.’
To be fair, in the time between then and now Bongino has undergone elaborate treatment for cancer and that may have affected his voice, his stamina, etc. But he’s a smart lad and I doubt he would take on something if he didn’t feel up to it.
Rush Limbaugh was famous, and constantly mocked, for his rather foghorn-like delivery. In his early days it was a bit of an affectation...a wink at the audience. The bluster became the target of critics, not the ideas he presented, but that was more or less by design. After his deafness set in and before his cancer the delivery became loud because he couldn’t hear himself properly.
Beyond Rush, Chris Plante, Mark Levin and others are loud and proud on mic. We can always compress and limit peaks in volume. Raising the gain when someone is inaudible means raising the ‘noise floor’ of extraneous sounds in the room, electronic hum or hiss, etc.
2) His delivery of material is all over the shop. As above, when guest hosting for Levin, Bongino would set the dominoes up and knock them down in order with very few diversions. It was clear, it was concise, it was powerful, it was unflinching and it was captivating.
We don’t have that now. Being grateful for an audience, affiliates and a radio platform is nice and all but the Alphonse & Gaston routine of interrupting himself to thank people destroys his train of thought and therefore his train of delivery. If this is ‘theatre of the mind’ then we can’t have the curtain lowering and raising and the house lights coming up at random intervals.
Dare I say it? Bongino is suffering from Joe Biden disease with the frequent remarks of ‘Oh I’m going to get in trouble for that one.’ We get it - it’s an orator’s trick - a bit of humility meant to ingratiate oneself with the audience. But it can’t be done repeatedly as it loses its ‘currency’ quickly and becomes yet another distraction from the topic being discussed.
3) Mr Bongino’s background is laudable and well-known but he isn’t an agent or a cop anymore. It’s great that he has ties to the Secret Service and police but the frequently elliptical, cryptic references to law enforcement’s reports, intelligence, actions - without endangering plans or operations - are something of a disservice to the audience and to himself. If he has something solid that can be disclosed, then by all means do it, as he did with FISA, Russia, FBI/DOJ, etc. He’s in the media now, with all that entails, good or bad.
4) Per a previous post, the show needs bookends and markers. A familiar, clear appealing theme. Michael Savage-style instrumental nu-metal isn’t going to suffice even though it may sound street-tough.
It doesn’t have to be commercial music, including the ‘beds’ often sold to stations. Get a bespoke theme. Thousand of musicians would jump at the chance for notoriety and/or royalties. Although Limbaugh adopted the Pretenders’ song, it became as familiar as his theme.
A new, custom Bongino theme would be, as the marketing types say, audio or sound branding (eg the two-note Honda piano ID).
Bongino should do away with his NPR-style outro of ‘I’m Dan Bongino and this is the Dan Bongino Show.’ It’s redundant. It’s self-evident. It eats up airtime. Play music and increase the volume towards the end of the segment a la Chris Plante. Have a separate announcer give the show ID. Or, as in a previous post, develop an end-of-segment sound effect to be used consistently a la Rush.
These sounds become Pavlovian cues to the audience who know where they are in a broadcast hour and will, consciously or unconsciously, adjust their activities and their schedules to maintain or expand the time spent listening ie the magical ‘quarter hour’ ratings that media companies obsess over.
Finally, with the Clay Travis/Buck Sexton 12 noon show quickly approaching, there will be competition. Competition is good but we don’t want it to kill off the competitors. Travis is a very clear and measured speaker...Sexton does more of the conspiratorial close-mic stuff that Bongino does. But they will have a contrast and and a conversational presentation since there will be two of them, with Travis likely taking the tiller and drawing comments from Sexton more often than the other way round.
I really do want Bongino to succeed and I believe he can do this by being his old self which I believe is his real self. Stop pulling punches, stop apologizing, stop giving disclaimers. Hit them between the eyes every day and reap the rewards.
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