Miller, Schultz and Hartman off WWZN?

[raccoonradio]

From WWZN Rev Boston site; "new lineup starts today"
Bios of hosts/shows, no explanation of cancellations

http://www.revolutionboston.com/on-air

[whdh1920]

its like wild 1090's old syndicated line up with out the oh oh no tom joyner show!!

[raccoonradio]

Donna H and Joe V. responded to my posts on facebook and said they were told it's out of Santos' hands, issue with Dial Global

[Schuyler]

What type of deal is involved in carrying the canceled Dial Global shows? If it's straight cash, or cash plus barter, the expense might explain their cancellation.  But if it's straight barter, that raises the question of whether a bigger and better station might become an affiliate.  (I doubt that's likely in the current climate, but stranger things have happened.)

[dlhalper]

You really think that CC is going to put "Lib Talk" on 1200 after it couldn't even muster a tenth of a point on 1510?

This IS a business, remember?

Well, yes, but when you are under-capitalized, have no money for promotion and basically do all the work yourself (Santos does two shows on the station), plus when your signal is very weak in some parts of your target market, I am not sure you are gonna do well no matter what your format.  Progressive or liberal talk, while some on the boards like to scorn it, actually does very well in certain cities.  And it's a myth that every conservative talker or every right-wing station gets huge numbers.  Many do not.  Anyway, having worked with Ed Schultz in the early days of his progressive/liberal talk radio career, I can tell you he has an amazing sales force and his shows were just about always sold out with real sponsors; he gets some very respectable numbers, and his radio show also makes a profit -- and has since 2006 (as even right-leaning Talkers' magazine acknowledges). 

That said, I have no idea where Dial Global will put these shows next-- Ed, Stephanie & Thom are heard on Sirius/XM, but for local radio, you'd think they'd end up somewhere.  CC does indeed do progressive/liberal talk, but just about always gives the best signals to its conservative talkers and saves the worst signals for its liberal talkers-- nothing to do with ratings, and everything to do with the ideology of CC's owners, in my humble opinion.  (I am sure people will disagree with me!)  But having said that, I still hope we have not heard the last of the Dial Global talkers:  since 2005, in the face of massive skepticism, Ed and Stephanie and Thom have proved conclusively that liberal or progressive talkers can in fact succeed and get a niche audience when given a fair opportunity.  I'm of the opinion that the country needs more opinions on the air if democracy is to thrive.  Currently, 95% of all talk hosts are conservative-- and again, ratings show it is a MYTH that conservative hosts all get huge numbers and nobody wants to listen to liberal hosts.  It's a market-by-market, host-by-host situation.  So, an entertaining leftie talker should be given the same chance to compete as an entertaining rightie talker. 

[DanStrassberg]

Donna H and Joe V. responded to my posts on facebook and said they were told it's out of Santos' hands, issue with Dial Global

The rumor I heard (can't verify, though) is that WWZN has not been paying its bills (at least some of them, anyhow). I thought that the Dial Global programming on 1510 was all straight barter, but apparently not. I now suspect that WWZN was supposed to pay Dial Global but was not doing so. So I presume that D-G cut WWZN off at the ankles. I wonder what kind of deal Santos has (or had) with WWZN. I thought he was leasing the time for his programs and the D-G programs from the station. If he has failed to pay the station (different financial entity from Revolution Boston AND dial Global, AFAIK), his failure to pay could explain the station's failure to pay Dial Global. And, of course, if the D-G programs disappeared, the station would have had to find replacements or go dark. So my current guess is that the replacement programs are available for straight barter. That means WWZN just has to carry the network spot load and doesn't have to come up with $$$ to pay the program distributor. The Red Sox in Spanish apparently cover the power bill. But it does appear that the whole arrangement is a house of cards and it's collapsing.

[raccoonradio]

It could be that they may put the conserv talk on 101.7 and libtalk on 1200 (or vice versa?), and the 1200 signal has improved --for many but not all--from the old days. Here on the North Shore 1200 comes in well day and night and the signal from their Newton stick at night points east, etc. right toward Boston. As usual we can't totally trust the maps on radio-locator, but the "nighttime" predicted coverage of 1200 --forget it if you're west of Wellesley, south of Brockton, and maybe N of Wilmington, but in Boston proper and some surrounding areas 1200 may not be too bad even at night. Again, not totally accurate though.

>>my current guess is that the replacement programs are available for straight barter.

Could be. Sharpton used to air on WILD. Some college/public stations (maybe WZBC?) do run
Democracy Now. (My own WMWM, a mighty 130 watts, has a prog talk block on Thu nights)

>>actually does very well in certain cities

(You mentioned CC runs prog talk in some places.) Entercom actually runs it in Buffalo, though they place conservative hosts on their 950 WBEN.
The 6 plus ratings (again, not nec. the best indicator) show WBEN doing very well and
WWKB only so-so. Maybe it does well in Seattle, LA, etc.

Conserv. talk may not get huge numbers everywhere, but Rush sure has a fancy mansion in
W. Palm Beach and makes about $59M a year. People want to advertise, and yes that includes
people advertising on prog talk shows, too. Maybe there are too many conservative hosts going after a certain market, and some shows eventually fail or the hosts retire (Boortz, for example.)

There are left leaning hosts on public radio (powerful FMs here in town). I can't think of
right-leaning programs or hosts on WBUR or WGBH. It's tough to say the percentage of
left-leaning or right-leaning radio hosts but if libtalk is scarce on radio it may be more
plentiful on TV and other sources.

And if conservative talk isn't doing well in the ratings, what explains the continued presence
of WRKO, WTKK, WXKS (AM) and for that matter WBZ with Rea? Maybe they only make
a small profit and are living off the successes of rock or sports talk (Entercom), country or classic rock or AC (Greater Media), top 40 (Clear Channel), etc., stations owned by their companies
also on air in this town.

Then again WTKK may not necessarily be all conservative talk. There's Eagan and Braude ("Jim and Margery? I LOVE them!," exclaims my liberal sister) and Michael Smerconish (maybe more centrist...voted for Obama, for one)
Of course as said before talk hosts can attract listeners from across the spectrum, even those
who disagree with the host, and being entertaining and informative play a huge part.

[raccoonradio]

Check out the signal range (day) of WMKI 1260... if their owners went with prog talk, etc. it could reach a lot of people. Then again it chooses to be a "Mickey Mouse operation" format wise

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

Many of the other stations in town (AM especially) have limited signal range and in some cases the owners would prob not be sympathetic to running lib talk (Salem for example: 590, 950, 1150).
Entercom chooses to put WEEI on 850 despite the other signals they have. Not many options but who knows.

[DanStrassberg]

Check out the signal range (day) of WMKI 1260... if their owners went with prog talk, etc. it could reach a lot of people. Then again it chooses to be a "Mickey Mouse operation" format wise
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMKI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
Many of the other stations in town (AM especially) have limited signal range and in some cases the owners would prob not be sympathetic to running lib talk (Salem for example: 590, 950, 1150).
Entercom chooses to put WEEI on 850 despite the other signals they have. Not many options but who knows.

Radio-Locator's AM daytime contours are: 2.5 mV/m (closest to transmitter), 0.5 mV/m (middle contour), and 0.15 mV/m (farthest from transmitter). 2.5 mV/m is a usually listenable but not overwhelming AM signal, 0.5 mV/m is OK if you have a good radio and there is not too much interference (lamp dimmers etc) but it's not a signal you would discover accidentally on most radios. You'd have to be looking for it. Most listeners in urban areas will not bother with 2.5 mV/m. However, if you lived in Worcester and you wanted to listen to WBZ, its signal there is ~2.5 mV/m and you could listen to it if you wanted to do so. In this day and age, with all of the interference on AM, 0.15 mV/m is just marginally better than no signal at all. Even devoted AM geeks are unlikely to listen to a 0.15 mV/m signal for very long. Unless you have a communications receiver (a so-called boat anchor), a 0.15 mV/m AM signal is available only to DXers and only during daylight hours..

[LAUROJRM]

what the Program Director should've done is put Warren Balentine on for the whole three hours (10am-1pm-that is the correct time it's supposed tyo be on LIVE-Eastern Time) Isn't he Jeff Santos?
He's a Program Director, he should know how long the show is on?
and then they're gping to have Repeated shows on at 7pm and nights.
I wish I can be a Program Director/Assistant Program Director.
All I will leave with is, (They know more, what they want, not me)