Syndicated talker Ed Schultz is without a Washington, DC affiliate for the first time in five years as WTNT (570AM) has dropped him from the on-air roster in favor of local conservotalker Jeff Kuhner.
Station management cites ratings, though ratings for the station as a whole are pretty lousy all-around.
DCRTV.com's Dave Hughes sums it all up this way:
WTNT does a splendid job keeping all its programming changes a deep dark secret. And, as a result, it has almost no listeners. Great station, huh! What? 30th in the PPMs. The only reason it exists is to satisfy the egos of a batch of syndicated talkers who can claim that they're "on the air in the Nation's Capital." Keep up the good work, WTNT owner Dan Snyder. At least you get one or two people to listen, which is more than the cluckheads at CBS get for "The Big Talker 1580," which has yet to even show up in the PPMs. Sheesh.....
And Hughes is right. Aside from WMAL, all-news WTOP, and public radio, talk radio in D.C. gets crummy ratings all around. Getting a D.C. clearance typically seems to be more about bragging rights. That's conservative, liberal and everything else in between.
Schultz was added to WTNT's lineup in February after the demise of sister station WWRC's progressive talk format.
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Eureka, CA 
6 comments:
After watching him bully Barney Frank on the TV last night, I think I'm pretty much done with Big Eddie, too.
Sure, because the 99% / 1% ratio of conservatalk to progressive talk isn't quite high enough yet. Are you kidding me? Big Eddie is pro-middle class, pro-union, pro-equality, pro-health care, anti-corporate pandering, anti-corruption, anti-bigotry, and he's not afraid to get in the faces of the hypocritical frauds that have sold their souls to corporate lobbyists. Ed Schultz is EXACTLY what real America needs.
Hnag in there Big Ed. You are apparently getting under their ugly skin.
Ed Schultz is terrific! He's honest, smart, entertaining, and he has guts. He's not there to massage the people in power, no matter what party they're in. He DIDN'T bully Barney Frank; he just insisted on real answers, not the kind of pablum Frank wanted to push. I can't think of anyone else on radio or tv who is as honest and genuine as Ed, and that's why I plan my day around his radio show. Integrity is so rare, and Ed Schultz is one of the few people on the air who has it.
You guys have the right to love Fat Eddie if you want but I find him incredibly boring. I don't find him deep. I don't find him informative. I don't find him funny or even likeable. He sounds like a Democratic version of the fat conservative blowhard talk show host. Compare Shultz to Hartmann or Maddow - Shultz just doesn't have the depth, persona or intelligence.
Schultz still has his TV show on MSNBC. He probably won't lose sleep over a two-bit radio station. Radio talk shows are cable talk's farm system.
Interesting article in the Sacramento Bee: "Time is fading both sides of talk radio."
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