I remember when a station in the Washington, DC market tried that all-comedy format. It was a bigger bomb even than Air America.
Yes though Clear Channel figures all comedy can work, even if it only makes a slight profit. They bought the 24/7 Comedy Network and plan to launch it on multiple stations. Maybe they figure people of all age groups will listen whereas conservative talk might skew older. They’ll run comedy routines and then ads for local and national businesses.
Clear Channel doesn’t own it but WTAR 850 in Norfolk VA has been “funny 850” for a little over a year now and supposedly does OK. Or maybe they use it to sweeten the deal: “Advertise on our we-play-everything Bob 96.9, and we’ll throw in spots to air on Funny 850, too!”
For some AM stations now the options include sports (a network), ethnic, oldies, conservative or liberal talk,
religious, and now comedy....FM is where the real action is but there are still some big powerful AMs (like WBZ Boston)