Peter B. hangs up the microphone

After self-syndicating his daily talk show for many years, Peter B. Collins has decided to end the program, citing the tough economy. His last show is this Friday (March 20).

From his site:

On Friday, I delivered the news of my decision to end the daily broadcasts of the PBC Show.

Our last live broadcast will be Friday, March 20, which will replay on some stations through March 22.

Since we started on KRXA in 2005, I’ve been covering the costs of producing the show and delivering it to our affiliate stations by satellite. With phone bills and the other expenses, it adds up to more than $5,000 a month. We get a little advertising revenue and some generous listeners contribute, but most of it is absorbed by my small business, Collins Media Services. Until last summer, I was able to cover the costs from my work as a radio producer and consultant. Like everyone else, the Bush recession has hit me hard.

To make money in syndication, we need to be on 20+ stations and at least one of the big 3, NY, LA, Chicago. As an independent, self-syndicated show, we’ve had to compete with Air America, Dial-Global and Nova M programs, and for various reasons, the PBC Show didn’t break through. Air America is the brand that most people connect with progressive talk radio, and their bankruptcy and sequence of blunders has, unfortunately, defined our collective efforts in a negative way that has provided an easy target for the non-liberal media. As a result, the total number of stations offering progressive talk in the US peaked at about 105 in 2006, and is now around 70. Miami, DC, and even Ann Arbor have lost their progressive stations in the last month.

Over the past 3.75 years, I’ve tried it all. I pitched all of the Air America programmers except the current one, who never returned my calls or emails. I was offered a deal by Nova M, but they reneged in a bizarre story I’m saving for my talk-n-tell book. Air America just announced that Montel Williams will be their new offering in the Thom Hartmann time slot, which tells us that Jerry Springer’s flameout was just their first attempt to retread a tabloid TV host as a “progressive” radio host.

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