Former Air America Cincinnati now Sports Talk now doesn't even register in Ratings

[itsrobert]

Clear Channel moved Sports to WSAI saying that Air America/Progressive Talk doesn't work in Cincinnati. Now as Sports Talk, the ratings are so low that it doesn't even register in ratings.

Check ratings here, that would be WSAI: http://www.radio-info.com/content/arbitron.php?market=028

Also check WCKY, that was the higher watt station for Air America until they moved it to WSAI and than killed it altogether. WCKY ratings are also in the toilet since the switch.

Will history repeat itself in San Diego?

[zbdent]

1. ditto WARF 1350 in Akron Ohio

love the fact that the notation at the end says that the fact that a rating is not available is usually because X station only uses the two-per-year ratings, usually spring and fall ... and there's no ratings for spring 07 or summer 07

[Hondadriver]

2. Its almost

impossible to compete with 700 WLW down in cinci.

[AndyTiedye]

3. It Isn't About Ratings. It is About Owning the News

Mitt Romney's Clear Channel pretty much owns the radio spectrum.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. I bet they're sales dept is happy, though. You've got to understand demographics.

Clear Channel usually owns more than one radio station in a market. Their sales staff canvasses the car dealers, clubs, etc. who are likely to advertise on radio.

OK, let's get this out of the way: Sports talk appeals to a very, very well defined, very much desired market. Men (and PLUEEZE gals, don't chime in with your exception to the rule, "Oh, I listen to sports talk" Riiiight.) who listen to sports are also the type to piss away their money on Humvees, dirt bikes, gun shows, car shows, Nascar collectables, sports bars with happy hours, strip clubs, nudie wallpapers for your cell phone, you name it. All those wonderfully profitable (ie: priced beyond their real value) things.

It's a lot easier to sell "packages" of commercials (10 commercials on this clear channel station, 10 commercials on this other one, etc) to a very well defined, very desirable market than to a (and please understand this from their perspective) a neo-PBS whose only market I can think of is people who are less likely to buy things impulsively.

I'm not saying that AAR doesn't have listeners, but it's simply harder for the sales staff to find interested advertisers. Sports talk makes it drop dead easy. And the easier it is, the more money they'll make. It's that simple.

And I'm sure their new ratings book is bad. But I'm also sure they figure it can be tweeked (ie: hosts changed), listeners will catch on, etc. The point here is they don't need more PEOPLE, they need more people in the right demographic.

[angstlessk]

6. Good point...package sales vs having to find people to sell to...

that is the 'LAZY RICH'..

[ConsAreLiars]

13. Have you any evidence that any of the killings of Air America actually resulted in more profit?

I know that is the common argument -- just capitalism, not censorship. But I have never seen any evidence that this was "just business." On the contrary, all the cases I have seen show lower ratings after replacing AAR with some variety of over-served crap radio.

Dropping the ratings to half or 1/10th of the previous numbers hardly seems to be "good business," but maybe they get good profits by being pumped money by the Coors family, etc. But I've seen nothing to indicate that they got anything, other than killing the AAR voices, from these buy outs.

If you have any facts on this, I'd appreciate knowing more than I now do.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

14. Expertly said!

The other part of equation is that with multi-city media conglomeration, the balancing act becomes national. A dog in Akron balances against a flamethrower in Topeka (comparing apples and apples here, market-wise, I think). As such, a Clear Channel needs to balance overall losses against profits. What seems positively stupid in a single market setting makes more-than-perfect sense in the larger view.

Remember when Mother Carlson was going to change formats at WKRP because she knew it would LOSE money? It's just like that, only with national bean-counters.

I keep encouraging people to read this report: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/20/radio-report/ When I had a rep from the Center for American Progress on my show, we eventually drilled down to a single fact: the only way that anything they describe in their report changes with regard to terrestrial radio is divestiture and re-regulation. In short, ain't gonna happen for a long, long time, if ever.

That means that we Liberals and Progressives (a/k/a "decent people") have to look elsewhere for our information, including "talk" radio. Satellite offers some respite, but not that much. The programming is still ultimately "owned" by the wrong folks for the most part.

That leaves the internets. That's why, two years ago, we started The Head-On Radio Network ("The H.O.R.N.) and have aimed it solely at the internet. No FCC regs, no right-wing pressure on sponsors. Nothing but some of the most honest, straightforward radio you're likely to hear. The beauty of our model is that if offers listeners a chance to really become a part of a community and to say as much as they need to say. We aren't married to a format clock and we can take, for the most part, all the time we need. In this era, that's all quite radical.

Should you care to check us out, you'll be welcome!



www.headonradionetwork.com
and
iTunes Radio (Talk/Spoken Word)

[PollThis]

5. The whole town is getting XM to pickup AAR and saying FU to terrestrial radio. nt

[onehandle]

8. Terrestrial radio still exists?

My wife and I have Sirius and XM. We would have no idea.

[Snotcicles]

10. Dino-waves. nt

[thunder35]

11. what about the folks that can't afford xm

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I'm getting either an MP3 or an I-POD

and will podcast from now on...

I will not miss on my radio just because the local power structure does not want local liberal radio

Never mind we are the majority

I just hope people started voting

[GrpCaptMandrake]

15. If you've got any sort of mp3 player

you're primed for the new media.

I think you'll enjoy it.




Get On The H.O.R.N.!
America's Liberal Voice
www.headonradionetwork.com
and
iTunes Radio (Talk/Spoken Word)

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I know I will

hell may even get some subs to the steph show and a couple others

And take a look at HORN

As to what you said about re-regulation... it will come, faster than you expect it

Changes in this country are that unexpected, escpet for historians, and we are primed for one of those (if the fascists dom't prevalil)

[GrpCaptMandrake]

17. It's that last part that bothers me

"If the fascists don't prevail."

On a day like today, when a handful of supposed democratic senators bowed down to their Masters in the Repig minority and confirmed a hateful old unrepentant racist to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, I'm reminded of just how steep is the hill we have to climb. What's more, it's apparent we'll have to do that climbing with some so-called democrats throwing stones at us from above.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I know

Again history I hope can be a teacher

People marched against machine guns to get a forty hour week

There are days I wonder what is wrong with us?

And for the sake of my nephews I hope we can turn this whole bloody mess around... for their sake

I'm old enough that I have resigned myself to not coming on the other side if it gets really ugly

[GrpCaptMandrake]

21. Hope is the first, most important tool

Beyond that, however, we must remember that we are, at present, ALL of us, an enslaved people.

And the chains we wear are easy and light. They are the chains of home mortgages and car payments and insurance premiums and that new wall-size flatscreen TV.

They chain us to our complacency.

What did Kris Kristofferson write? "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose."

Fact is, we have PLENTY to lose: homes, cars, status, the satellite signal that keeps us connected to the day-to-day coverage of Britney, Lindsay and OJ. All of that is more than enough to keep us tucked tidy and safe in our little self-imposed prisons, waiting decades until they haul us off to some industrial center for the "aged," where we'll spend the last ten years of our lives wallowing in our own offal until we finally die of sheer exhaustion and disgust.

The yoke of fascism is easy. Shut up, keep your head down and move along. A heckuva lot easier than actually paying attention and learning where we've been and where it sure looks like we're going.

I don't mean to be grim, but that's more or less where we stand.

Any change in the status quo will be mighty hard to come by.

Again, that's why those of us who do pay attention have to be very much committed to standing together and supporting one another. Only gathered together may we foster that hope of which you speak.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I've written about this

but the first step, the actual first step is to break the sense of social isolation people feel

Anomie is the term used by sociologists and has been designed into the society

As to all the consumption, it is one tool... but that isolation is what is so critical to break. Until that happens, and
people realize.. hell, we're in the same damn boat, nothing will change.

That is why cities are developed the way they are, and believe it or not, why stations are being flipped, Here in San Diego we had
an honest to goodness community develop around it... community is dangerous.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

27. We talk about this a lot on The H.O.R.N.

The intent of all the right-wing yammer-haters has been to create a sense of isolation among Liberals/Progressives. That's why Phlush Phlegmball is always hollering about how America is "a conservative nation," when every last bit of empirical data suggests otherwise.

By virtue of the chat room we maintain free for listeners, e-mail, blogging and the radio shows themselves, we talk in terms of community. Listeners have formed friendships among themselves and with the hosts. We provide emotional support to one another all across the country and, in fact, the globe. We diminish the effects of distance and economics on isolation.

All of this is able to happen because every single person associated with The H.O.R.N. is working for nothing more than the love of the calling. No one gets paid. It's an all-volunteer effort. No 6- or 7-figure salaries here. No salaries. From the bloggers, to the mods to the on-air hosts themselves, no one is getting paid. We solicit enough in listener contributions to keep our monthly bills paid. That's it.

It seemed to us that if we were going to attempt a national community, then we couldn't ask listeners to support lifestyles at any level. That's why, unlike a lot of text sites out there, you'll never see the H.O.R.N. telling people we need "Thirty Thousand Dollars for the Month of September," as one "liberal" text-only site recently did. This was, of course, after raising Thirty-large for the month of August. There are lobster dinners padded into a number like that, and we at the H.O.R.N. absolutely WON'T do that to people who are already sharing the most precious resource they have with us: their time.

Community is the sine qua non to creating change in this country. We think we've done an amazing thing creating a deep-seated sense of community with The H.O.R.N. so far.

[regnaD kciN]

18. Or, more to the point...

...the people who get bored with what they're hearing, start flipping through channels, and come upon a Thom Hartmann or Stephanie Miller, realize that a) they're entertaining/interesting and b) they make sense, decide to keep listening, and wind up changing their political views because of it.

That isn't going to happen for most people with anything other than standard broadcast radio.

As I've said before, if you have a niche market of already-dedicated customers, you can communicate with them via Sirius, XM, or podcasts. But you'll never do more than preach to the choir...and never help create new progressives instead of just hanging on to (some of) the current ones. To use this format to change people's minds, not just reinforce "true believers," there's no substitute for over-the-air AM or FM broadcasting. None.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. And that is why

the powers that be (and here in San Diego I could tell you exactly who) do not want progressive radio

A movement is emerging... but they think they still have time to stamp it out...

And I remember telling people... they are going to flip as many stations as they can before the elections...

It is not about money... but about politics and who controls what

[GrpCaptMandrake]

22. Which highlights the tragedy

Liberal/Progressive radio can compete in any market. It can compete, that is, IF it is allowed to.

At present, the conglomerated media ownership has no interest whatsoever in fostering that commitment. We're seen as dangerous. We're seen as contrary to "their" commercial goals.

In a word, as the data indicate, it just ain't gonna happen on buggy-whip radio.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

23. Most of 'em still have the internets

And there's plenty of free listening out there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yes it wil, only the fourth radio station in town to do sports

[Botany]

9. In Columbus OH

WTPG had a solid following .... Stephanie Miller doubled than tripled
the #s for her morning show. The new flipped station WYTS (Whites)
does not even pull in enough people to register .... it is about owning
the airwaves. Hell, the even put on an FM right wing station too.

[EnviroBat]

28. Yep our radio is shit here.

Clear Channel would rather lose money on SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS, and RW Blather than allow an opposing viewpoint to air. Welcome to the fascist machine at it's best. We have enough mouth-breathers here in Columbus to keep the crap radio afloat.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

25. who still follows sports via radio?

Do they gather round the radio with the other newsies and trade baseball cards they bought with their hard-earned nickels?

[SoCalDem]

26. They consider it a success.. To silence progressive thought is worth

any price.. :grr: