From the hallowed halls of the staid, trustworthy, fiscally-sound, non-judgmental and accurate Los Angeles Times — yes, ripped from today’s screaming headlines:
Here is what the article alleges (please go with me on this and read it all):
But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI’s John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.
For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.
Casualties include Mark Larson in San Diego, Larry Elder and John Ziegler in Los Angeles, Melanie Morgan in San Francisco, and Phil Cowen and Mark Williams in Sacramento.
Two of the biggest in the business, Roger Hedgecock in San Diego and Tom Sullivan in Sacramento, have switched to national shows, elevating President Obama above Schwarzenegger on their target lists.
Another influential Sacramento host, Eric Hogue, has lost the morning rush-hour show that served as a prime forum to gin up support for the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Now he airs just an hour a day at lunchtime on KTKZ-AM (1380).
Reading this, one would think that, literally, Conservative talk radio is physically collapsing around the greedy ears of its host stations and its equally porcine hosts. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
And here the Truth comes:
So-called “Liberal Radio” — that is, by way of
Air America — has flown the coop. Air America is even
less popular than the CIA airline of the same name. At one time, in Sacramento, just a few years ago, there were three “liberal” AM radio stations in the market. Now there are: ZERO. Nada. Zip. Empty. The Null Set.
I make these observations and writings from a bit of an “insider’s” and local standpoint in consideration of the ARB: I worked for some years in radio in the mid- and late 70s, for stations in the midwest and thence in Fornicalia. One of these stations was the 50,000-watt flamethrower, KFBK-AM — just slightly prior to the installation of Rush Limbaugh. I also worked for KFBK-FM and some other local AM — and collegiate — FM stations. At the ripe old age of 19 and 20 I determined what you, the listener, would hear for Major News as editor.
And I should like to reveal the Dirty Little Secret and the Dirty Little Lie that most radio hosts refuse to ever acknowledge: if your numbers are down, you’re gone. With no explanation to the listeners. Zero. And moreover, within the past 10 years or so, syndication pays and locality doesn’t.
That’s why all “local” radio hosts WANT to become syndicated. They see the obvious “writing on the wall.” Major radio networks have coalesced and Borg’d local radio. More and more terrestrial radio stations consist of a central office with three, four, five “separate” radio stations issuing from within — though most are primarily automated save a few hours each day.
Yes, in Sacramento, Tom Sullivan from KFBK-AM migrated to New York and became syndicated. Oh, yeah — only after he’d paid years and years of dues.
And Phil Cowen in Sacramento? Too pedestrian, too subsumed, a little too “nice” for the format. Cut-throat business in radio: gone. I miss Phil.
Eric Hogue from KTKZ? Yes, he clearly was primarily responsible for the recall of Gray Davis. And yet, despite that weak station, he’s back after a disappearance — for an hour each day at noon. In today’s horribly weak and, now, infirm economy — that he’s back bespeaks volumes about his professionalism and his veracity. He kicks ass by way of — imagine this — logic and common sense.
But let’s also reveal what isn’t revealed from that article: the bulk of these changes occurred at least a YEAR or TWO prior to our current economic collapse.
Because, after all, people are expensive.
But to quantify this as a “Conservative” issue — ?
That is: bull-shit.
BZ
