Posted on 11/26/2008 8:37:20 AM PST by raccoonradio
Joe Scarborough looks like radio’s next syndicated talker.
Can he make it, this time? The former Republican Congressman and current MSNBC "Morning Joe" host wants another shot at talk radio, and Citadel’s ABC Radio Networks is probably going to give him that chance. It would be for a late-morning program that might air 10-11:45am on WABC (770) and be syndicated nationally. Scarborough briefly hosted a show for Westwood in 2005. But it had trouble getting clearances in its 10am-1pm live timeslot and he left after about four months - the blink of an eye, in syndication terms. So what’s different today? ABC hopes that Scarborough’s exposure on cable’s MSNBC has made him more of a household name. Also: Joe’s perceived as more of a maverick now. For instance, he’s been criticizing the GOP for over-spending during its years in control of Congress and other things that won’ t go down well with movement conservatives. That includes the guys who would follow him on WABC - Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Another thing - adding a syndicated show to the WABC lineup between Don Imus and Limbaugh would potentially make WABC a total syndication showcase during the week - all syndicated, all the time. That’s partly because -
Laura Ingraham replaces Bob Grant in the nighttime lineup at WABC, New York.
Is it true that he learned his fate in a 7pm phone call from an operations supervisor, while he was doing show prep on Monday night? That’s what I hear. And that’s when they plugged in TRN’s Laura Ingraham. So that’s two more hours of syndicated, non-New York-focused programming on WABC (770), from 8-10pm. The sometimes irascible Grant (“get off my phone!”) is turning 80 soon, but he’s still got the fire that made him one of the early stars of talk radio, at WMCA (570), then later WABC, WOR (710) and then WABC again. Now he’s off the weekday schedule at Citadel’s WABC, but still under contract. Grant’s had some stormy times in New York and in syndication (where he didn’t really thrive). In 1996 then-WABC PD Phil Boyce had to make an emergency flight from Disney meetings in Florida to fire Bob after his widely-circulated comments about the plane-crash death of Clinton cabinet member Ron Brown. (You can only imagine how Media Matters would’ve circulated that clip, if the current Internet was around in ’96.) Boyce was eventually able to rehabilitate Grant enough through guest appearances to bring him back fulltime for 8-10pm. That was in August 2007 – but now he’s on the shelf. One more new piece of the schedule at WABC -
Charles McCord will anchor a full hour of early-morning news, leading into Don Imus on WABC.
He tells New York Daily News columnist David Hinckley "The way the news has been sounding these days, I think a lot of folks just want to know if it’s safe to get out of bed." That will be his role - uninterrupted by Imus - on the new 5-6am hour that replaces one of Curtis Sliwa’s many shifts on WABC. That helps clear the way for Sliwa to do his new WABC-based evening talkshow (already signed up for L.A., Boston and Washington). While longtime Imus cast member McCord creates a show that gives CBS all-newsers WCBS (880) and 1010 WINS some competition. McCord says the hour is a natural extension, because the regular Imus show is almost entirely news-driven. It will be billed as part of the Imus empire.
I figures Sacrborough was on a short leash at MSNBC for some time now. He’s gone an awful lot and many times be is on a split screen from Washington instead of hosting in New York. He’s probably tired of trying to get along with all those flaming liberals that appear with him.
Scarborough’s inability to let others talk will result in his show failing, if this is whats coming.
Moring Joe is a much better program on MSNBC when he’s not there, to be blunt.
Finally, didn’t we just watch what happens when a ‘maverick’ is put before a national audience?
The Sliwa show, 10 pm-1 am, is on WABC 770 NYC, WTKK 96.9
Boston, WMAL 630 Wash. DC (I believe), and KABC 790 LA (tape delayed)
I listen to Bob often and I hope some station finds a spot for him in their lineup. That said, Laura will likely draw bigger ratings and ultimately end up costing the station less (assuming the syndication fee for Laura is less than the salary and costs of having an in-house host like Bob).
In Boston, WRKO picked Ingraham up off the waiver wire
from WTKK when they picked up Sliwa; cost-cutting at Entercom
had eliminated the late morning show with Reese Hopkins (Reese
was then arrested for alleged child rape, mere days later).
That station (WRKO) is now all syndicated except for
morning drive (Tom Finneran) and aft drive (Howie Carr).
So Entercom saves money (and gets to run Laura live;
WTKK had her on 13 hr tape delay)
Morning Joe = Good Night Ratings
Good points all.
I have never seen ‘Morning Joe’ and I don’t believe I’ve ever deliberately had MSNBC on my TV, but it sounds like Scarborough suffers from Hannityitis. Sean is a great American and definitely has his heart in the right place, but his TV show is unwatchable.
I never thought I'd say this, "Bring back Ron Kuby".
At least you'll see what the left is up to. YOu won't learn anything new from Ingraham.
They dumped Laura here in Colorado and put that big windbag Mike Gallagher on.
RE Joe’s perceived as more of a maverick now
We saw his Hillary worship. This guy is now a liberal but maybe with dem win he will find the $$$ in going after dems.
WABC needs to dump the horrible Imus.
I used to watch Morning Joe until he started giving Obama daily tips on how to defeat McCain. I'm starting to think that for the most part, it's only Republicans watching MSNBC. Democrats are watching things like 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'American Idol.'
You might learn what hip restaurant she went to or which celebrity she saw at her gym. ;^)
I heard that WABC wants to drop Laura’s show but the syndicator threatened to sue. As much as I like Laura, WABC should not have a tape delayed show in the evening. Their plan is to eventually find a place for Bob back in the regular lineup and his current status as a fill-in host is only temporary.
I switch from Fox to MSNBC repeatedly in the mornings. I can only take so much fluff from the dim trio Fox puts on in the mornings.
I can’t take much of Kilmeade that early, to be honest. His ‘go off on weird tangents’ schtick is annoying, especially if the topic is something of interest.
Depending on who the Morning Joe program has on, I’ll watch for a few minutes. This morning, unfortunately, they had the oh so smug looking Peggy Noonan on again. After seeing her get caught saying one thing on air, and the exact opposite when she thought the camera was off, I don’t bother with her.
As for Hannity, I listen to the radio program here in the office, but its rare I bother with H&C. I’m hoping the program is improved when Colmes is gone - we can all get the DNC talking points of the day so who needs him? - with the addition of Kirsten Powers.
Back to Scarborough, how can a radio talk show gain an audience when the host is gone 60% of the time, as is the case with Scarborough at MSNBC?
I predict that will happen eventually, but he has a "eight-figure, multiyear contract." I wonder what kind of ratings Imus has.
Surprisingly, the “corpse in a cowboy hat” allegedly does very well in the ratings at WTKK in Boston. (When the I-man got knocked off the air, WTKK had plans to hire Howie Carr away
from Entercom, but judges ruled that Carr had to stay for
another 5 years at WRKO/Entercom. Had the ruling been
different, Howie would have had morning drive at 96.9.
So shortly after that got settled, right around this
time last year, Imus got another show started via WABC
and WTKK brought him back. He continues to do “Kiss Me
I’m Imus” shows in Boston on St Patrick’s Day).
You’d think they could keep Grant on until his contract is up. The man can’t be far from retirement and he is a talk radio pioneer.
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