Ed Schultz Blasts Phil Boyce and Poor Management at WABC

[MartyandElaine]

>>>Don get help and turn off the radio. You are blabbering on repeatedly saying the same tired things. One-sided politics is not what you want, check. Hannity is slanted, check. Your nickmname for Rush is Limbo, check. Jerry Williams, David Gold, all better, check. Yikes.<<<

AMEN to that. In reading this thread through. Don sounds like an obsessed stalker or a deranged mental patient.

Boyce said it best...arguing with Don62 is the equivalent of trying to explain quantum physics to a kindergartner.

[Don62]

Boyce said it best...arguing with Don62 is the equivalent of trying to explain quantum physics to a kindergartner.

Nice ad-hominom attack.

So pointing out weaknesses of a particular talk show host is related to a kindergartner?

You're starting to sound like Hannity and the other blowhards, who only want one side of an issue debated. If another side gets out, it's slandered and called all sorts of names.

Glad to know you know everything there is to know.  You'd make an excellent Hannity replacement.

[mobile-exradiodj]

Ed realizes that he stepped over the line by calling Phil Boyce “a fat slob” on-air.  He is sorry if Phil was offended by those comments.  It’s just radio; and he was just entertaining the audience. 

He holds no ill-will for anyone.  If you believe that you should program only conservative talk to make a buck, that’s your choice.  The point of the WABC comments is if you have the promotional resources and the strength of WABC’s signal behind you, your ratings should be higher.  Ed doesn't need/want a show on WABC; however, he feels there’s no reason that his show is not heard in New York City by one station.

It’s an ownership issue, and Ed is taking steps to address this situation such as his newly formed OMG (nickname Oh, My God) group.  Can progressive talk break through the glass ceiling of 80-90 stations by actually owning radio stations?  We will see where this goes.

As far as the sumo wrestling match, Minnesota is the perfect place with the Republican National convention in ’08 and if a deal can be made for Governor Jesse Ventura to MC the match.  Now, NYC might be possible if Phil is willing to sign an agreement that if he loses the match that Sean Hannity will debate Ed Schultz in a no holds bars on-air debate.

[Radknowski]

This thread has been interesting, entertaining, informative and to an extent, exasperating. Much like talk radio. In some instances, this thread has devolved to a "mine's bigger than yours" posting match. In other ways, it's been an informative clas in Arbitron 201: Cume, Quarter Hour Shares, Persons, Ratings Points, Turnover Ratios, TSL... I'm surprised a few sales types haven't jumped in with Gross Ratings Point, Reach and Frequency. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Somewhere between Free FM (moment of silence, please) and what passes for Talk radio from Hannity, Schultz and others (notice I use a lefty and righty) these days lies the future of the talk format. Maybe it's somehwere between the politics of Hannity/Schultz and the lunacy of Opie & Anthony. Maybe it's NPR crossbred with The Daily Show.

One thing about talk radio these days, it's old. It sounds old and it appeals to old people. What's old? 45+? 55+? 65+? A friend of mine, a 43 year old attorney who lives on Staten Island has long ago tired of me asking him about talk radio in the Big Apple. He doesn't listen. Why? "It's for old people, WABC is a parody of itself," he says.

"But why?" I wonder. He reponds, "There's very little there I'd want to listen to for any length of time."

I persist, "WABC is a legendary station. You're an attorney, doesn't even Kuby interest you?" "No, he's an ass... and he's hopelessly liberal."

"You're a third generation Republican, a legacy... surely you'd like Hannity and Rush."

"They don't speak for or to this Republican," he replies.

He loved Stern and listened to NPR. What's up with THAT!?

So Phil, what's the median age of a WABC listener these days? I'm sure the qualitatives look nice, upper demo and upper income, with plenty of white guys from the burbs who drive Mercury Marquis and Buick Park Avenues. Ah, but those land-barges do have a nice ride.

Much as I was intrigued by what Air America might do, it was readily apparent within a few weeks of their launch that they would fail. Fail across the board and fail especially when going up against stations like WFAN, WABC, WRKO, WJR, WLW, KFI and WWL... you'll recognize these as the "heritage talkers," the Big Daddy 50 kW flamethrowers.

The AA affiliates and AA itself lacked discipline and substance. It had plenty of style, but very little form. It more resembled an amoeba than a vertabrate. This having been said, it did have potential. Randi Rhodes can be shrill, but she knows how to push the buttons and work the room. Too bad the whole Air America platform reeked of poor design and execution. Leasing time? Buying stations? WTF? Get a network up and running, polish it, work it, sell it, promote it and improve it day by day.

Most Progressive Talkers are running on life support these days. I often thought that when CC committed to Progressive talk, it intentionally co-opted it. Sure, progressive talk does well in a few markets, notably Portland, Oregon. Buffalo has a 50 kW flamethrower on 1520 that, according to recent ratings, attracts about 27 people on a good day. Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and Alan Colmes can't get arrested here. Of course, Entercom does nothing with WWKB that would allow it to infringe upon News-talk 930 WBEN, the Queen of the Cluster, which tops the ratings with plenty of local, well-recognized conservatives, a solid local news department and Rush ensconced in late midday. WBEN swerves to the center at night with the superb Ron Dobson, who's unpredictable and unafraid to buck convention, but other than that, it's conventional (as the analogy has been made here, "country songs on a country station.")

Wonder how WABC would fare against a full blown competitor operating on a 50 kW 1A (such as the 50 kW WCBS signal) that offered as solid (if not more resourceful) news department, as efficient vertical and horizontal promotion and equally talented and compensated (if not left of center) air talent that can be found on the very well-programmed WABC.

The idea is purely hypothetical, but it's worth imagining.

[KJCB]

Don, you're starting to believe your own hype.  Hannity can do whatever he wants on his show.  Who cares?  If you don't like it, join the 287 million Americans not listening.  Fortunately, a couple percent means a lot of money in radio, so his faults as you point out are raking in lots of dough.  Why change?

As far as Schultz owning stations (I heard him mentioning this in my brief listening the other day), it won't work.  You need someone who knows radio and how to run a business in order to succeed.  I've spoken on this before... from my firsthand knowledge, liberals who run liberal radio (or want liberal radio) are idealists.  They want to get a message out.  Surely there are liberals in radio who are business people, but when it comes to trying to build progressive radio, the types of people these ventures attract are clueless.  They refuse anything that would in the slightest way hinder the ability to "get the message out", regardless of the fact that they are mostly preaching to the choir, because they overlook the more entertaining hosts to put on the more left-leaning hosts that no one but the Pacifica crowd can relate to.  Even WABC sells a few hours on the weekend because it's a much better economic use of that time than trying to sell spots at 11pm on a Saturday night.  If you're not going to many sell spots in the Saturday late night daypart in NYC, you won't sell any anywhere else.  But God forbid one of these liberals would try and monetize their station.  They want to run it like a college station, where it's "all about music" and outdoing the "evil corporate titans".  I'm in my first gig in my short career basically running a station, and we've significantly increased revenues by being more flexible to sales opportunities that come along.  The best programming people understand that at the end of the day, the ratings they deliver for a station aren't for show, but for a sales department to bring in tons of money with.  Just like some less accomplished PDs argue with any decision that detracts one iota from a station's "image" in order to make a buck, so does it seem liberals who run stations.  You can only raise money for bake sale radio from middle-class progressives for so long.

(BTW, this is why, if any of you end up owning a bunch of stations, never go public... you have to answer to clueless goose-stepping people like those who send Ed Schultz $10 to buy a station)

[Radknowski]

They want to get a message out.  Surely there are liberals in radio who are business people, but when it comes to trying to build progressive radio, the types of people these ventures attract are clueless.

We've seen this in Buffalo where a group of progressives sank their money into leasing WHLD-AM 1270 (5k-D/1k-N) in a lame attempt to take on market dominant WBEN-AM 930 (5k DA-N). After about nine months there was lots of red ink and the station changed format to brokered religion. They just didn't seem to get it. As you noted, it was all about getting their message out rather than entertaining, informing and providing a competitive product.

[KJCB]

Yep.  Airing Democracy Now and shows by local communists with little radio experience, predictably, didn't work.  Despite having a somewhat adequate signal, WHLD could have been useful if run properly.  You're not going to take on WBEN as you mention with the dreck they put on, but considering that Beck, Hannity, and Savage, three hosts with 5mil plus weekly audiences aren't on any station of significance in the main metro area, there is certainly room for a 2nd conservative station.  Maybe when WWKB gets sold that's what they'll do with it. 

Also note Nova M's lease of a station in Little Rock, which they had to let go of.  Granted, they're better off now that they've gotten rid of the egomaniacal dead weight that is Mike Newcomb, but leasing a peashooter in Phoenix hasn't exactly propelled them to new heights. 

[Dale Jackson]

Ed doesn't need/want a show on WABC; however, he feels there’s no reason that his show is not heard in New York City by one station.

Me too, when do I get my show on there. I mean, there really is no reason for it not to be. What a bunch of crap.

Here is a reason... no one has offered to carry it.

[mobile-exradiodj]

Ed doesn't need/want a show on WABC; however, he feels there’s no reason that his show is not heard in New York City by one station.

Me too, when do I get my show on there. I mean, there really is no reason for it not to be. What a bunch of crap.

Here is a reason... no one has offered to carry it.

Hopefully, you will be a keynote speaker at the next talker's convention in New York City like Ed.  Once you have TV appearances on MSNBC, CNN, Fox, CNBC, C-Span and ABC.  Then, I think you should also have a microphone in the big apple until then I see no reason for Dale Jackson. 

Ed is turning a profit and is NOT funded by the democratic party as Hannity keeping on telling his listeners.

[KJCB]

Appearing on TV means nothing.  Ed is a talent, IMHO, but there are other talents that aren't on in NYC, either.  The market dictates.  The fact that there are so many ethnic/foreign language AMs (as is the case in many major markets) doesn't help his chances on the short list of talk stations.