Getting "permission" from WPEN wouldn't have been all that difficult, seeing as how it's a sister station.
Ah, true. Forgot about the ownership. Can't hardly keep track anymore.
But, really, what possible confusion would there be between a hit music station appealing to younger people and a right wing talker?
Talker today, hot AC tomorrow, sports talker the next day. I guess CC could put a format clause in the call letter permission.
Premiere dropped PHT as payback for PHT not renewing Beck and Hannity...
This is kinda like a reverse WDEL situation in nearby Wilmington, after WDEL refused to be force-fed Mark Levin from ABC, and chose to drop Sean Hannity... Of course, Hannity is now Premiere product.
It'll be interesting to see how price-conscious Cumulus treats Levin, now their star product. If they try being stingy, I could see Levin following his buddy Hannity over to Premiere which likely would be glad to have him. Cumulus has already lost former WMAL Washington morning host Mary-Katherine Ham reportedly because they tried to get her to host a syndicated show without a producer or prep time before the show launched.
with the world getting more partisan and the 'mainstream' press increasingly perceived as liberal, there will continue to be a market for conservative talk radio,
That "perception" that the "mainstream press" is being increasingly more liberal is mostly held by folks who spend a lot of time listening, and believing, what they hear on increasingly extreme partisan talk radio, and from partisan cable TV talking heads.
It's kind of a Catch-22. Media consumers choose news and issues sources based on content that matches their sensibilities, that makes sense to them. The media sources (mainstream press included) hone in on their target audiences. New entries, like Fox News and the modern day MSNBC, chose to serve certain positions on the ideological scale through their commentary shows based on complaints from viewers that their political sensibilities weren't being addressed. Both significantly increased their audiences as a result. CNN, which insists it's right down the middle (according to someone's idea of the middle) is taking a bath ratings wise because by assuming, incorrectly, that they know where the center is, they end up serving no one well.
Talk radio has done the same, discovering that conservative talk radio resonates with a sizable audience. The questions are how to sell an older audience to advertisers (which is starting to happen) and how to build shows that appeal to a younger radio/internet audience.
If you spend your life listening to echoes in a tunnel, you lose perspective on what the entire outside world sounds like.
And, if you keep turning your head farther to the right, even things in the true center start to appear far left to you.
Most find a place on the political spectrum where they're comfortable, where things make sense. With some ideological views nearly 360 degrees in opposition to others, much of "the outside world" can sound like indecipherable gibberish. The problem comes when people believe that there are no overlap or compromise positions worthy of consideration. We've seen this in Congress and at the voting booths over the past 6 years. Maybe that's a position for CNN to stake out: more moderate arguments from both sides of the spectrum. The danger remains in where you draw the center line.
Some think the President is too far left, too far right or a moderate. You have to go to very different sources to see these views expressed, and they are all apparently genuine. From our positions on the ideological spectrum, it's usually difficult if not impossible to identify with all of those views.
Talk radio and other partisan media are simply reacting to that reality to attract dedicated audiences. And it works.
