All Access: WLIB Leaning Toward Syndication One

[fred flintstone]

All Access reports New York's Inner City Broadcasting Corp, owners of 1190 WLIB, is "seriously considering" Radio One and Tom Joyner's Syndication One Urban Talk network to replace their LMA with Air America Radio.
ICBC is a Black-owned company and a Black-targeted talk format has been described as a natural fit.  ICBC management, headed by former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, was criticized in the Black community for dropping it's prior format in favor of AAR's programming for "White liberals." 

Syndication One currently airs:
10 am to 1 pm  Michael Eric Dyson from Detroit
1 pm to 4 pm The Rev Al Sharpton (who already does a weekend local show on WLIB)
4 pm to 7 pm The Two Live Stews sports talk from Atlanta

No word on morning drive or evening programming on WLIB after AAR leaves (after August 31).

ICBC was previously reported in talks with Randy Michaels' P1 (producer of the Ed Schultz Program) but those talks ended earlier this week, leaving ICBC scrambling to fill WLIB's schedule.

[OhioMediaWatch]

It'd certainly fit, and the Syndication One programming would be a natural for WLIB...not to mention with its own weekender and high-profile voice Al Sharpton being a lynchpin of it.

Does this portend, perhaps, Mark Riley breaking from AAR and going back to local morning drive?  That (or something similar) is the only way this'll really work.  Sharpton is a quasi-local name show, but they do need to go live and local in AM drive.  Of course, I always believed they needed to do it with the liberal talk format, too.

I'm not sure of Riley's future with AAR, but it sounds like he loses his NYC flagship when AAR moves over to WWRL...which is keeping its existing morning drive talk show from all indications (Sam Greenfield/Armstrong Williams).  And the morning show's carriage outside of WLIB is very, very spotty.

[fred flintstone]

OA, I've been wondering about Mr. Reilly myself.  It has seemed all along that he came to AAR as part of the deal with WLIB - part legacy and part affirmative action. 

If Reilly stays with AAR and AAR stays with the split morning show, WWRL could take one-hour of Reilly - but apparently the deal between WWRL and AAR is for 12pm to 12am (which would mean Malloy's third hour would still be blacked out in New York, as it was on WLIB).

Still no word on who gets 10 am to 12 pm on WWRL.  WWRL has two local hosts getting bumped for AAR's evening programming.  WWRL is in the same bind ICBC was two and half years ago when they dropped their Black-targeted programming for AAR.  This could tip the balance toward WWRL's current (Black) hosts.  But AAR may insist on putting an albatross on WWRL's neck (Jerry!  Jerry!). 

The morning show on WWRL is currently Black-targeted, as well.  It's been pointed out that the hosts could try to broaden the show's appeal to the AAR crowd but then the Black community will object to losing "a voice."  If WWRL goes with Black-targeted or Urban Talk before noon and AAR after noon, AAR runs the risk of the same kind of failure AAR had when they tried to do that in Philly.

I have listened to the Syndication One line-up online.  Sharpton, as a talk show, was not as good as I expected.  I've covered him and he's probably the best pulpit-pounder I've ever heard but his talk show sounds phoned in.  If WLIB tries to play up Sharpton as the "lynchpin" based on his local connection, it could be analogous to Clear Channel using Jerry as the progressive talk lynchpin in Cincinnati.  On the other had, I was VERY impressed with Dyson: Informed, articulate and handles callers very well.  The guy is a writer, professor and preacher and combines the best qualities of all three.

For the record: I don't much like Maloney.  But giving the devil his due, he pretty much has called it on AAR/WLIB.  Sorry, Phil.  The guy can't stop grinding his axe but he is not always wrong.

[Phillip Dampier]

For the record: I don't much like Maloney.  But giving the devil his due, he pretty much has called it on AAR/WLIB.  Sorry, Phil.  The guy can't stop grinding his axe but he is not always wrong.

Uh, how did he "call it?"  He was telling us a few months ago that AAR was folding up its tent in NY altogether, and has said on O'Reilly not less than four times since 2004 that AAR was going off the air imminently.  These generic predictions are less useful than a call to the psychic hotline.

I predict that in 2006, at least one station in your market is going to change format.  I also predict that your favorite radio station will be changing its format according to insider information that I have in my hands right now (like this list of Communists in the State Department).  And you know, I'll be proven 100% correct, not because I have any inside knowledge, but because I can predict that change in inevitable.  And for the Unequalizer, who knows all to well that change can put an end to a talk radio career, where is the downside of just predicting common events in the radio industry and then use those to make sweeping statements about the things he hopes and wishes were true?

After all, nobody who belongs to his Dream Team of rabid anti-liberal talk fans is ever going to call him on his failed predictions (Majority Report off the air by the second week of July, indictments against Franken, et al are imminent, federal criminal investigations are underway...).

The most unfortunate effect this has is the outing of the low credibility of those who use his "reports" here and actually believe they are accurate.  It shows us all too well who we can dismiss around here.

And by the way, like a stopped clock that is always correct twice daily, my prediction of your favorite radio station changing format?  My inside sources tell me it could happen at any time (next hour, day, week... year....)  And when it happens, you must believe everything else I have written because I was right about that... me and my secret sources.

[barooosk]

For the record: I don't much like Maloney.  But giving the devil his due, he pretty much has called it on AAR/WLIB.  Sorry, Phil.  The guy can't stop grinding his axe but he is not always wrong.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[fred flintstone]

I predict that in 2006, at least one station in your market is going to change format.

Actually, two stations changed format this week.

In the immortal words of Ed McMahon: "You are a correct, oh Great One!"

[tombetz]

Does this portend, perhaps, Mark Riley breaking from AAR and going back to local morning drive? 

Mark Riley (and Wayne..........Gilman) are staying with Inner City.  They must have lifetime employment arrangements with Percy Sutton.

AAR has a wholesale re-arrangement of its schedule in the works.  Rachel Maddow announced this morning that she's moving to PM drive.  Sounds like Randi Rhodes is moving to evenings (which is where most AAR affiliates air her, anyway -- now she'll be live more places), leaving Sam Seder out in the cold.

[evnlee]

For the record: I don't much like Maloney.  But giving the devil his due, he pretty much has called it on AAR/WLIB.  Sorry, Phil.  The guy can't stop grinding his axe but he is not always wrong.

 Like all things media, both Maloney and his fans and Phil and his crew were right and wrong.

Maloney reports in march that AAR is losing thier flagship station. He sets a date that is incorrect.

The AAR apologists immediately proclaim 'not true! we are not losing our flagship station!!'

When the incorrect date comes and goes, and comes and goes again, the AAR apologists scream " See! See! Why believe this moron! He can't get his dates right! "

Then, when the real story comes out, AAR does lose it's flagship station,like he predicted.

But, to be fair, Maloney has made a bunch of predictions that also did not come true.

He claimed they will not continue broadcasting in NYC. He has claimed AAR would fold a number of times. He has said they lack the funds to continue.

Both sides have been right in the past, and both sides have been wrong in the past.

What reasonable people have to do is look at Phil AND Maloney, realize that the truth lies somewhere in between, and make a judgement based on that.

[fred flintstone]

What reasonable people have to do is look at Phil AND Maloney, realize that the truth lies somewhere in between, and make a judgement based on that.

Wow!  A moderate!  One of those "the truth is always in the middle," "compromise is a virtue" people.   

AAR got an extension on their lease in late March.  What's strange is what happened with P1 and Randy Michaels that he did not get his act together to take over the beginning of April and then walked away last week?

But, to be fair, Maloney has made a bunch of predictions that also did not come true.

Unless he says something will happen on or by a specific date, it would be more correct to say "have not come true."  He has not said they lack funds.  He has said they are not making money and have gotten infusions of cash from their backers.  Of course, abut 10 percent of what he says is actual reporting and the rest his axe grinding and venting.

Mark Riley (and Wayne..........Gilman) are staying with Inner City.  They must have lifetime employment arrangements with Percy Sutton.

 
Even Black solidarity does not explain keeping those two on the payroll.  There are, after all, many more qualified Black broadcasters AAR or ICBC could have hired.  Maybe they know where Percy buried the bodies.   

In response to a recent thread, I spot checked schedules on local PT stations in different markets.  I hadn't done this in a while and I was surprised at how many stations now carry Steph instead of Jerry.  The Reilly-Maddow show has lost markets, too.  It's hard to explain AAR's infatuation with Rachel Maddow (maybe everybody else on-air is straight and they need one token gay).  Two shows on AAR and both fizzle.  Now they stick her in PM drive against Big Ed and All Things Considered - a sure prescription for failure.  Given AAR's poor performance in AM drive and late morning, they might as well just save some money and not open the store until noon.  AM drive may be prime time for most stations, but apparently not for PT stations (and this is not entirely due to poor product in AM drive).  What's interesting is Bill Press has picked up some stations and his shown isn't all that good, either.

[evnlee]

Unless he says something will happen on or by a specific date, it would be more correct to say "have not come true."  He has not said they lack funds.  He has said they are not making money and have gotten infusions of cash from their backers. 

 *ahem* here's just ONE of the multiple times he has said they 'lack the funds to continue':

Taking marching orders from RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, who also oversees and often funds Air America parent Piquant LLC, interim head Jim Wiggett is in a surprisingly tough position.

If at least $5 million can't be sliced away soon, it could finally be curtains for Franken & Co.

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2006/05/air-america-budget-cuts-al-franken-jim.html

Now, he did use the word 'could'. But the implication is clear: if they can't cut the budget, they will not have the $$$ to continue. That means they dont have the $$$ to continue operating with the new contracts. Clearly FALSE. That was waaaay back in May.