Posted on 06/02/2006 8:28:45 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Dan Patrick, whose years as a conservative radio pundit helped him win a Republican state Senate nomination, is expanding the reach of his voice with the purchase of a Dallas-area radio station.
By Labor Day, Dallas-area residents will be able to hear Patrick on station KMGS-AM (1160), based in the enclave city of Highland Park.
Patrick, who announced the deal Thursday during his afternoon drive-time show on Houston-based KSEV-AM (700), says he plans to duplicate KSEV's conservative talk format on the North Texas station. Patrick owns and manages KSEV through Houston Broadcasting, a limited partnership.
Patrick said the radio station purchase was driven by business and not politics.
"This has nothing to do with raising my political profile," Patrick said. "The station came along at a time when some people would see it as having some other meaning than intended, but it doesn't. I have been looking for a station for the last four years. And the truth is quality signals are very hard to come by."
Still, Patrick said, he wanted people who share his concerns and political views to have a voice elsewhere in the state.
With the addition of KMGS, Patrick says he will have the potential to reach nearly 50 percent of the people who vote in November elections and close to 60 percent of the people who vote in Republican primaries.
Patrick trounced three veteran elected officials in winning the March Republican primary to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Jon Lindsay in state Senate District 7. Patrick is favored to win the November election in the heavily GOP district.
"Dan Patrick plans on being more than just a state senator. He expects to do something that is new, and that is use his public persona as a bully pulpit to raise core constituency in the Republican Party," Rice University political scientist Bob Stein said. "I'm assuming he's doing it for business and profitability, but it would be naive to assume there isn't a political benefit."
It's also a potentially dangerous move, said Stein, because increasing his radio reach may not endear Patrick to the clubby culture of the Senate, whose members like to have their conversations behind closed doors.
"When you move the competition out of the realm of the Senate and into the realm of the public, you are drawing a line in the sand for many politicians and you can't cross it again," Stein said.
All of Patrick's show and portions of Edd Hendee's morning show on KSEV will be simulcast to the Dallas audience.
Patrick has asked state Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas, to be a part of local programming while helping to recruit other conservative voices for the station. He plans to tap other conservative elected officials and business people to play a role.
However, Patrick acknowledges that it will take several years to establish the audience and presence in Dallas and Fort Worth that KSEV has in Houston.
"The people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the conservative, grass-roots voters, have the same concerns of those in the Greater Houston area.
"They just haven't had a voice or a rally point," he said. "And I am tired of hearing from those in Austin saying, whatever the issue is, that it's a Harris County problem. They will soon discover that people in the Metroplex are concerned with illegal immigration, rising property tax appraisals and out-of-control government spending."
Patrick said he plans to look for other radio opportunities around the state. He purchased KMGS as the majority owner of Dallas Broadcasting.
Let the geat Austin RINO hunt begin!!!!
Last time I listened, AM 700 was pretty lightweight in the evenings. Would be great if Dan Patrick would work out a deal with WBAP to carry David Gold's live Dallas evening broadcast in Houston, though WBAP's Stars coverage during hockey season might make that too complicated.
ping, more info.
I've listened to Dan Patrick for years and I've met him in person. If he wants to be the pebble in the shoe of the Texas Senate that works for me.
After the Perry tax increase I hope he becomes a big conservative rock in the senates shoes.
There was also a tax cut, and for the total budget the change was revenue neutral. Neither a cut nor a hike in the totality, just a shift in who is taxed. Individual property owners will pay less, more businesses will pay a portion, and many organizations such as doctors and lawyers who were previously exempt will pay a portion.
Dan wasn't elected by the "clubby culture" of the Texas Senate, so I would expect his loyalties to lie with them that brung him. Having Dan in the Senate is going to be fun.
The problem is that the small tax cut we get will soon disappear due to appraisal increases. This night have worked with appraisal caps but not without. In 2 years from now that tax cut will be history for me at the rate my taxes have been going up.
Doctors and lawyers all over the state are changing their business structure from the types of entities taxed to partnerships or whatnot that are not taxed. An attorney I know explained to me in great detail exactly how his law form will get around the new tax. They knew exectly how to do so before hair boy signed the bill.
HB-3 was an expansion of an unconstitutional income tax. It's going to cause big problems for some small businesses because of the way it looks at gross revenue for the portion that is taxed. People in the legislature know this and passed it anyway since "they can fix it later". Which is an odd way to look at things since the Texas legislature is supposed to meet every two years. But that is not so odd anymore because the SOB's are used to calling special sessions like Perry has over and over. So now the Texas legislature seems to almost always be in session which is not what the Texas Constitution intends.
The Texas legislature is full of people that have no other job but being in the legislature. Many of them are very well off which seems odd for a job that pays about $7,500 a year......
Radio, even talk radio, is primarily entertainment. Patrick has a radio background, but most politicians, especially those in state and local government, suck in terms of communication skills. And businessmen are even worse.
I can't see this venture as being very successful in the short term, given the saturation point that has already been reached in terms of talk radio in the Metroplex.
He talked about this last evening. He is not looking short term, he is looking long term. And keep in mind Patrick is the guy who gave Rush Limbaugh his first shot in Houston. He historically has called more shots right then wrong.
Ah, but that's not always the case. Ed Hendee is a businessman and he's great on the radio. On KPRC in Houston Michael Berry is a city councilman and he's a natural at radio. Patrick is not going to let someone on that does not have the talent to be on the radio.
The concept where you have an elected offical doing talk radio is pretty new. In the case of Michael Berry who I mention above Berry now has a huge audience and that audience is full of voters.
Dan Patrick has a machine that underpins what he is doing. It collects information quickly and gets issues out to the public on the radio as quickly as "Internet time" can. And he uses the Internet wisely. He's also very good at collecting opposition data.
Dan Patrick is trying something that's a bit more aggressive and complicated than just doing talk radio. All this is very well thought out. He's been "taking it to the streets" for some time. Now he's expanding things.
He's a Houston guy. Dallas is not Houston. Ad revenue for talk radio is very hard to come by up here, especially if you don't have a nationally syndicated anchor whose show can drag in some big bucks. The good news is he won't have to pay big bucks for talent.
The bad news is his station has a weak signal at night.
Laura Ingram, and Jerry Dooley are in in 700 AM. I would not be surprised if they move up there as well.
A website with four articles in six months, all written by Ed Hendee? Some "machine".
Perhaps Patrick really is the visionary genius you Houstonites think he is. OTOH, just from looking at the Arbitron ratings, talk radio is not nearly as big in Houston as it is in Dallas.
All talk formats have a 10.2 share in Houston, versus a 15.6 share in Dallas.
Maybe there is an urban audience in Oak Cliff who is interested in the antics of the Dallas City Council, but those of us in Tarrant County think it's an embarrassment.
Laura Ingraham's already on the air up here, on KSKY. I stopped listening to her last year; she is as unprofessional and unpolished a host as there is on the air (save the reprehensible Michael Weiner). Her "I mean" throwaway phrase was driving me crazy.
I never said Dan Patrick was "a visionary genius" but at least he is pushing the conservative cause.
Yikes! KSEV had a .7 share in the Spring ratings, versus a 3.1 for KTRH.
It doesn't appear Mark Davis over at WBAP 820 has much to worry about.
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