Posted on 01/02/2007 7:23:52 PM PST by freedomdefender
McALLEN — Some of the biggest names in conservative talk radio have been stripped of their microphones — at least in the Rio Grande Valley.
Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage are among the radio talk show hosts who will no longer have a spot on the local airwaves after Clear Channel pulled the plug on Brownsville’s KVNS News Talk 1700 AM.
The station has switched over to a new Spanish format that will play songs from the 1970s to 1990s.
The three-year-old station couldn’t draw a large enough audience, said operations manager Billy Santiago.
“We couldn’t get any ratings on that station first of all,” Santiago said. “From a revenue standpoint, we weren’t making a lot of money.”
Since KVNS broadcasts from Brownsville, it was often difficult to clearly get the station’s signal from McAllen westward. The station once considered moving to McAllen, but that plan never came to fruition.
KVNS was one of the lowest rated on AM radio. It carried a 0.4 percent market share, according to Arbitron, similar to that of KSOX, the ESPN sports affiliate that was temporarily axed in 1999 and has been recently battling some transmission issues due to windy weather in the area since Thursday morning.
Some upset listeners have called KVNS to show their displeasure for dropping their favorite radio shows, but since there were few listeners in the first place, calls have been limited.
Joann Teuscher, a Winter Texan who lives in Harlingen, listened to “The Glenn Beck Program” back home in Akron, Ohio, and counted on KVNS to play her favorite program when she moved to the Valley for the cooler months.
“I love Glenn Beck,” she said. “He’s like ‘Saturday Night Live’ on the radio.”
She called the station and complained to Santiago when her program disappeared last week, but she was only urged to rally her fellow listeners.
If the stations new format doesn’t work out and enough talk radio listeners complain, the station format could be switched back, Santiago told her. Now, Teuscher’s trying to mobilize the other listeners at her mobile home park to e-mail the station manager.
Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage were the highest-rated programs on the stations, but there was not a local program to hook a local audience, Santiago said.
Those programs have not been picked up by another station.
The Valley still has one English-language news talk radio station. KURV, based in McAllen, has the highest AM radio ratings in the area. It has a 2.4 percent market share with program hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Santiago said the Valley may not be a good market for two English-language talk radio stations.
“From a revenue standpoint the news talk audience goes to KURV,” he said. “We were left with crumbs.”
borders, language, culture -- all suffering a defeat.
I've switched over to classical music, at least until ~4 months before the next election. Things are much calmer. I feel safe knowing that Pelosi instead of W will be taking care of the borders now.
I will wait for the standard response of a tancredo/savage supporter to call me pedophile as nitzy did on another thread.
Sounds more like a free market decision that you disagree with.
What does "pro-stem cell research" mean? Is someone stopping researchers from doing research? Please provide some evidence.
Agreed. If the station was switching from the English-speaking Air America to "The Best Mix of Mexican Favorites from the 70's, 80's and 90's" there would be only gloating.
If they were going to with righty talk...and didn't have Hannity and Rush...they weren't going to go very far in the ratings.
Niether format is worth a darn.
It means that I don't change my opinion on things just to fit in here.
It means I am in favor of stem cell research, like it says.
Muy bueno. I was ribbing my older retired brother today in Texas. When I called, he was taking an afternoon nap. Yep, taking a siesta to get into the spirit of things for when Texas officially becomes part of Mexico.
Radio is about chasing the buck. If it wasn't, there would be 24 hour polka stations in every city. But people don't listen to polka much anymore, so you go where the money is.
Savage is a joke, but 95% of radio personalities are fake, they just adopt a belief system to match the demos that they are serving.
who is against stem cell research? are you saying someone is stopping stem cell research? Are you Michael J Fox?
With every post, you establish new lows. So now, conservatives are all rascists.
weiner/savage certainly is and I also don't consider him a conservative, but a lowbrow blowhard.
Why the hell do you care?
This thread is about radio.
Find a stem cell thread and stalk me there.
I'm done talking to you, get a new hobby.
"It means I am in favor of stem cell research, like it says. "
That's like saying you're against kicking dogs and for helping little old ladies cross the street.
The argument is against using confiscated tax dollars to conduct research that involves cloning, growing, and destroying embryos to experiment on. Neither the tax money nor the cloning part sound especially conservative to me.
If I weren’t so darned old, I would rush out and buy some Spanish Language Learning CD’s. Get it over with … La salsa seems to be our destiny. Or Arabic …
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