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.”
I agree. I listened to him a few times, and also found him unbearable - he was angry all the time, and I had a hard time figuring out who he was angry with. Mostly Gov. Arnold here in CA, during the time I listened. Total negativity.
I was under the impression that people just didn't want government taxpayer money to go to stem cell research.. that meant that private companies were still able to do such, just not with taxpayer monies?
I was also under the impression that private companies didn't really seem to be pursuing embryonic research because it didn't really show much promise, but that liberal governments were pushing the idea due to it lowering human values basically, instead of medical research advances.
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Any civil imput?
He is obviously a retread that just wants to start a fight with me.
I don't have the time or the desire to get into it, especially on a thread about radio.
This is your opportunity to educate us. I don't recall arguing anything, just asking for a clarification. So far none has been forthcoming.
I clarified, I am for the research, read into that what ever you will, I respect that you may have different beliefs than me, its no skin off my back.
Your sign up date is 2 months ago, that is a newbie account.
Have a nice life at FR.
You are correct. Those involved in esc research could not raise private funds, so they merely discovered a way to get the government to be their sugar daddy. They did this by a clever combination of media manipulation and effective political lobbying.
The only classical music station in Houston spends at least 4 hours of the programming day giving NPR taxpayer dollars to tell us how great Democrats are.
Tejano is nothing BUT polka music except they sing in Spanish.
"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."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1749743/posts
I'm currently living in Boston and will be more than happy to gloat over this one...
Cheers
Odd how the Mexican intifada is proud of their Spanish heritage but resentful of the English speaking societies that never served the Spanish crown.
LOL!
Good point. The mexican accordian music annoys the heck out of me, but I just choose something else.
But Mexicans say that Cubans are not real Hispanics. Was true even here in Houston when a Republican Cuban imigrant ran and the Democrats put up "Orlando Sanchez is anti-Hispanic" signs.
Having a Spanish language conservative is not enough; they want to know his heritage.
There is some conservative black talk radio on 1430AM KCOH in Houston even though the host draws a wider audience (who are even critical of his politics, although not so much his religious beliefs).
Back to the station at hand, I know there are other areas along the Tex-Mex border than have poor radio reception because of mountains/hills.
Have you ever really listened to "Mexican" music? I tend to upset the Latinos around here when I ask them "Oh, you're listening to that polka music again?"
How cool is that? Can I have your autograph? Hahaha
You make a good point - there's room in the market for a Hispanic Rush Limbaugh.
A Rosario Lopez, if you will ;>
I want the KWKH "Night-Rider Show" back...;0)
NPR around here has become 'rat talk radio and is to be avoided as it is 100% bash Bush.
Except for the fact that Beck is talented and funny.
Ahh. The cerveza barrel Poco. ¿Como?
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