Posted on 05/09/2002 2:32:26 PM PDT by johnqueuepublic
~ Radio Wars – O’Reilly’s Payola Strategy ~
By William A. Mayer - Editor & Publisher
May 9, 2002
Pompous loudmouth Bill O’Reilly has attempted to break into the radio spotlight with an all-out kamikaze blitz never before seen in talk radio.
The details, as so often happens these days, were broached by the “alternative” media, in this case the irrepressible, indefatigable Matt Drudge.
Drudge revealed that nearly $600,000 has curiously changed hands at precisely the time New York’s WOR and LA’s KABC made their decision to carry The Talk Factor.
This does not include the 200k that Drudge says was rejected in the DC market.
How much money, in totality, is being dangled about remains a mystery but there is too much smoke for this to be all bombast and mirrors – it has the ring of truth, in our opinion.
Enraged by the Drudge outing, O’Reilly went bonkers…ballistic…on the Imus show – calling Drudge a crack head and saying he [Drudge] should be killed.
O’Reilly, Mr. spin-free-zone, was spinning harder than James Carville, Paul Begalla and Bob Shrum combined, at a Grand Jury deposition.
We must assume that the former, Mr. Clean, doesn’t appreciate having his dirty clothes laundered in the same manner as that to which his guests have become accustomed.
Aside from the monetary implications – it has the nauseating appearance of payola to many - the choice of some of O’Reilly’s outlets are more than questionable.
Specifically, in the San Francisco market, attempting to counter conservative talk powerhouse, KSFO, O’Reilly’s syndicator WestWoodOne has placement with Susquehanna Media Co’s KTCT-AM, 1050 – The Ticket.
Suquehanna, blamed its 18 percent decrease in fourth-quarter revenues primarily on its San Francisco properties which, heretofore, have relied on the tried and true sports-talk format.
KTCT is at best a third tier operation that will be hard pressed to match the loyal audience either KSFO or KGO has amassed over the last few years – especially since KSFO carries Rush Limbaugh in the 9-12 PDT slot and follows with an hour of Shawn Hannity from 1-2 PM.
It remains a very unclear proposition whether KTCT can turn its operation around simply with a format change and entering the market in this manner is not an auspicious beginning for O’Reilly.
Imagine a young sportshead waking up on the morning of the changeover, expecting to hear a rough and tumble discussion of the previous night’s San Jose Sharks playoff game.
We are willing to bet it would be some variant of - “What the F$%k is this S$%t?”
What is the upshot?
There are several.that come to mind.
Fist there is the looney tunes aspect of O’Reilly’s seeming descent into madness on Imus. This is conduct bordering on the bizarre, especially for a graduate of the staid halls of Harvard., whose cool dissection of sandbagged guests is legendary. Such a reaction seems to lend considerable weight to the veracity of Drudges allegations – if not O’Reilly couldn’t have chosen a more damaging reaction.
Second there is the message of weakness that O’Reilly has sent to the market at precisely the wrong time. He has signaled that he can be rolled, that he is for sale and that he has already named his price – a figure that now will escalate.
Thirdly it shows a really seamy side of someone who has previously acted as a morally admirable paragon. Attempting to buy your way into the political talk show business, an industry created by one individual, from scratch, by Rush Limbaugh leaves a bad taste in ones mouth.
Why is that?
Well it has to do with a guy with vision and guts building an edifice by hand, one station at a time being challenged by a smug con artist who in the final analysis isn’t really even a moderate conservative, and who is now breaking arms like some morally dense palooka.
To say that we don’t have much respect for Bill O’Reilly and his hoodlum tactics is obvious, the question – the bottom line – is whether the repercussions will ripple or build into a tidal wave that will land him, hard, on a beach with lots of time for reflection of where it all went wrong.
You have left the no spin zone, its gone for good.
That's putting it mildly!
No stations carry it around her.
Then, after being caught by Drudge, he acts like a liberal trained by Asp Carvile! Trying to dodge reality, he tries to spin his way out. He must feel like the Red Cross execs that he caught in big time lies/denials when they tried to play games with the 9/11 money sent to them!
He has done himself serious damage.
What was CBSVIACOM trying to do here? They are no friends of conservatives?
As far as O'Reilly threatening Drudge, if you believe he was being anything but tongue in cheek, you've been watching too many Tom Clancy movies.
How do you know? You don't strike me as an Imus listener. Did you hear the interview? Personally I discount half of what that muckracker Drudge says. He himself said he is happy if 50% of what he puts out is true.
What was CBSVIACOM trying to do here? They are no friends of conservatives?
They are providing entertainment. No one owes us a "Movement" program or mouthpiece. Radio is an ENTERTAINMENT vehicle. Its purpose is to make money while entertaining and informing its listeners. Its not to spout propaganda.
Just a thought...
O'Reilly is just as the article states, "breaking arms like a morally dense palooka."
O'Reilly sound like Tip Oneill politically he aint no conservative.
O'Reilly got caught and he is throwing an Irish fit.
If you have a local TV station and it is not owned by the network it carries, do you wonder why they carry the network shows and network commericals? It is real simple. The network pays them to carry their shows and commercials. NBC pays its affiliates. CBS pays it affiliates. ABC pays its affiliates. Fox pays its affiliates. In the old days you could own a TV station and make big bucks net profit on just the network's payments to you . You did not have to sell a single commercial to make money.
Does anyone with an IQ larger than 5 think stations carry IMUS because they like him and want to make IMUS rich?
There are two deals. The first deal is the network pays the station to carry the show. I owned 3 radio stations. What do you think would happen if Matt Drudge came in asked me to carry his show? He says he would like 3 hours a day. I ask what is in it for me. He says, "Nothing! You get to pay your engineer, and rent, and electricity for the transmitter, and you air my show. I will sell the commercials and keep all the money."
In both cases a new show will need some promotional advertising. The show producer may very well pick up the promotion cost. It is very common for the producer to agree to pay for the promotion. If the station is being paid a flat rate for broadcasting the show, the producer will always pay all the promotion costs.
There is absolutely nothing unusual about the O'Reily deal no matter if it is a straight purchase or co-op. Some producers do it one way in some markets and the other way in other markets. The deals are always negotiable.
There is nothing new different or strange about the O'Reily deal.
This is exactly how I feel about Bill O'Reilly. When I hear people complain about O'Reilly being a right-winger it makes me want to laugh. And then cry. O'Reilly is to the right of McCain on some issues but that is not saying much.
Luckily, talk radio lives off of CALLERS-- and O'Reilly's particular brand of logic will not be able to stand up to serious debate. It's the same problem all "holier-than-thou" feel-gooders have when confronted with facts. They start with bombasity, move to ad-hominum attacks, then whining to their imbecilic base. That's why there are NO serious Liberal talk shows, and that is why Mr. Bill will be short-lived. Drudge just gives him a scape-goat when he crashes and burns in the Arena of Ideas.
O'Reilly has been a great thing for FoxNews, so for that I thank him. But most of his ideas are "out there".
His positions that by happenstance end up Conservative are typically accidental and based on stupid reasons.
O'Reilly is the worst sort of populist. We should start keeping a scorecard and rating him-- Are you listening ACU? Maybe you should rate the Media as well as the politicians.
Pithy enough for y'all?
If this is so normal re the payola, why aren't they saying so?
Of course this could be a pretend game between O'Reilly and Drudge to get people to listen to Bill.
Actually, I think that a cat fight between O'Reilly and Drudge would be great. They can each b$tch slap each other and sell tickets for the cat fight. They can give the money to a charity that they both like. Then, they can kiss and make up!
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