Posted on 08/27/2007 7:11:35 PM PDT by kristinn
Washington Post Radio, which brought the newspaper's journalists to the local airwaves, will go off the air next month after failing to attract enough listeners and losing money during its 17-month existence.
Post Radio, which is broadcast regionwide on 107.7 FM and 1500 AM, was not able to draw even 1 percent of listeners during its first year. Although ratings have improved somewhat in recent months -- partly due to Nationals broadcasts and Tony Kornheiser's morning program -- the gains weren't enough to convince WTWP's owner, Bonneville International Corp., that the station could be profitable any time soon, executives said. Bonneville and The Post had a three-year agreement.
The two companies will announce Friday that WTWP -- whose call letters echo the newspaper's name -- will go off the air by the end of September. The stations will continue to carry news and talk programming without an association with The Post.
Billed as a new kind of radio programming when it began in March of last year, Post Radio, or WTWP AM-FM, featured in-depth discussions with Post reporters and editors about the day's news. The station's backers said it would be like "NPR on caffeine" for news-hungry listeners.
SNIP
The addition of syndicated programs to WTWP's lineup had been a source of tension between Bonneville and The Post when executives began meeting in June to consider changes. Bonneville, eager to cut losses that have run to about $2 million annually, favored syndicated programming because it costs a station virtually nothing to carry it. But The Post was concerned about being associated with the kind of one-sided and inflammatory rhetoric that often distinguishes successful syndicated talk hosts.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Tears By Me Out The Heart
Is this the same as WTOP?
Good riddance.
Gee I missed every show.
where are all the left-wingers???? clearly not supporting their radio. and NPR survives ONLY from our tax dollars!!!!!!!
The Washington Post sucks at everything it does.
Everybody sing: “Another one bites the dust!”
Another example of the true fairness doctrine in action. It’s called the free market.
Did they run it by the Muslims on-staff first to make sure it was OK? /s
No and yes.
No, but expect WTOP’s well-established listen-to-news-all-day listener base had a lot to do with the failure of the post station.
Another left-wing broadcast outlet, taken down by the VRWC.
Good work, everyone. Let’s meet at Base Gamma to plan our next target. For the precise time, check your SHF units. Channel 16383.
It's OK, I'm over it.
I was driving home one day from work and WTOP had George Tenet on and you’d think the first question would be about Al Qaeda or Iraq, but no, the first question was about, ta da, Valerie Plame.
Pretty much shows you where they are at. Their sports also sucks, they never give UNC basketball scores.
The article mentions that Bonneville is “Salt Lake City-based”, but oddly leaves out the teensy weensy detail that it is 100% owned by the LDS Church. It is the media arm of the Church. Not surprising that with Romney on the Presidential campaign trail, the Church doesn’t care to be subsidizing anti-Republican rantings over the airwaves in this very influential media market.
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