Furman Resigns from 1160

[XtraXtra]

Hundreds of comedians and
'naturally funny" people have been hired in radio. Most have failed. Being "naturally funny" on a consistent basis day in and day out, 4 hours a day takes serious skill.

I understand.  They were sure able to find people like this before, though.

[borderblaster]

3 words: David Lee Roth. Down in flames

[stereolane]

I understand that a ot of radio on the AM dial is serious. You knew the AM dial in Cincinati was going in the wrong direction when a great talent like Jerry Thomas was asked to not be funny and be a serious talk show host.

It takes money to find the talent to be funny and not so serious. Sloan and Jones try to do it for WLW but they couldn't even carry the hat for Jerry Thomas (in his fun years at WKRC), Dave Lee and Rich King.

1160 has the second tier of network talk shows but they are sooo boring. There is an overkill of their format with WLW and WKRC in the market and thecable TV shows.

I am not in management at 1160 and they are fighting a great battle and applaud them for their efforts. However, the problem you have with a lot of AM stations you have only a few people involved in making the programming decisions and often times you tend to have to go the safe and cheap way because if you don't produce a profit you are gone.

There are AM stations throughout the Tri State that are doing everything they can to survive but they all seem to be a carbon copy of each other. That's what is a real shame.

If you think 1160 is boring, you haven't heard WMOH.

Dennis Prager, followed by Michael Medved... ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz...

[XtraXtra]

If you think 1160 is boring, you haven't heard WMOH.

Dennis Prager, followed by Michael Medved... ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz...

I have a real problem with b-word women, and that's the big reason I can't stand Laura Ingraham.  Add to to that the fact that the Queen B has nothing entertaining to say, and I can't see why anybody would listen to her three hours a day.  I'm pretty sure I could do a better job (with practice, of course).

[borderblaster]

Looking like Furball goes to the Fox Sports morning show fulltime


http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=203650.0;topicseen

[jry]

What great humorist are you going to get for what jry is able to pay on a 5000 watt signal?

It really has nothing to do with a 5000 watt signal.
Again, WLW has done a good job of making people believe that you cannot do anything on AM unless you're 50KW.
You really have no idea as to what we can pay.....
Other than that, i really like the discussions going on here and the ideas being fleshed out.

Andy, yeah. We knew he was heading somewhere. Some in the media got kind of ticked when Andy didn't fess up.
I heard one say he was acting "squirrelly".

[XtraXtra]

What great humorist are you going to get for what jry is able to pay on a 5000 watt signal?

It really has nothing to do with a 5000 watt signal.
Again, WLW has done a good job of making people believe that you cannot do anything on AM unless you're 50KW.
You really have no idea as to what we can pay.....
Other than that, i really like the discussions going on here and the ideas being fleshed out.

I agree with the first sentiment.  If you have 1,000 watts, you're hosed, but 5,000 watts is plenty of signal.  Nighttime seems to be a challenge, thoiugh.

I've got an idea:  "American Idol" or maybe "The Gong Show" for Bulldog wannabes.  Take a time period where nobody listens.  Say, 6 pm Saturday or Sunday night, and open it up to people.

Or maybe Bulldog can be their co-host in order to help things move along.

Of course, you'll have to give them a cheat sheet/to-do list for the purpose of preparing.  You could open this up nationwide. 

I know this sounds like a potential trainwreck in the making, but it also has a potential to be entertaining.

[jry]

What great humorist are you going to get for what jry is able to pay on a 5000 watt signal?

It really has nothing to do with a 5000 watt signal.
Again, WLW has done a good job of making people believe that you cannot do anything on AM unless you're 50KW.
You really have no idea as to what we can pay.....
Other than that, i really like the discussions going on here and the ideas being fleshed out.

Has this ever been done? Come up with some kind of prize for the winner? Have other hosts judge their work?
Have the listeners judge their work.
BTW, dial position also makes a difference. I bid on a 1000 watt station at 540. I owned a 1000 watt station at 600. You can cover a lot with a kilo watt.... Rhymes too.

I agree with the first sentiment.  If you have 1,000 watts, you're hosed, but 5,000 watts is plenty of signal.  Nighttime seems to be a challenge, thoiugh.

I've got an idea:  "American Idol" or maybe "The Gong Show" for Bulldog wannabes.  Take a time period where nobody listens.  Say, 6 pm Saturday or Sunday night, and open it up to people.

Or maybe Bulldog can be their co-host in order to help things move along.

Of course, you'll have to give them a cheat sheet/to-do list for the purpose of preparing.  You could open this up nationwide. 

I know this sounds like a potential trainwreck in the making, but it also has a potential to be entertaining.

[XtraXtra]

Has this ever been done? Come up with some kind of prize for the winner? Have other hosts judge their work?

Have the listeners judge their work.

Not that I know of.  Believe it or not, I was thinking about how I'd do this today (I was sitting in a boring class daydreaming).

I think you would have to give them some homework to do, to increase the chance of putting together a listenable show.  Maybe a short video from Bulldog on how to do show prep.  Give them some pointers on how to move the show along, let them pick their bumper music, samples of segues into news and weather, let them line up guests, etc.

Then give them 15 minutes.  If they stink, Gong them or maybe the producer can blow them up.  It they aren't boring people to death,  you can let them continue.  Even if they get gonged, let them come back at another time to try again (practice makes perfect), unless they completely stink.  This might have the potential to be amusing.

On the Columbus board, I brought up the subject of the old Militia/Conspiracy Theory shows that used to run from the Sun Network.  That may be too off the wall for 1160, but I bet you could line up some real characters if you wanted.  With the station being owned by a company called "Christian Broadcasting" I'm guessing you wouldn't want things too off-color, but you can still do entertaining stuff without being crude.

BTW, dial position also makes a difference. I bid on a 1000 watt station at 540. I owned a 1000 watt station at 600. You can cover a lot with a kilo watt.... Rhymes too.

True.  AM 660 in Waverly goes out a pretty long distance.

[borderblaster]

Guess you could hire Bill Boshears.

WLW had a contest where they selected potenntial talk show hosts to fill a 2 hour slot on Sunday night. They had maybe 6 (this was in the mid 90s) who did a Sunday night.