The Top 10 wherabouts of former progressive talk stations

The holidays are over, we're sobering up and playing with our new toys, and we finally throw down our arms in fighting the mythical and nonsensical War On Christmas. So now, it's time to take a look back on 2007.

In this installment, we'll take a look at the corpses left behind during the year. The stations that gave up and flipped from progressive talk to other, often less-successful formats. This isn't a complete list, as I tried to keep it down to ten. But it does show that perhaps the owners of some of these stations were a bit hasty in their programming decisions.

The year 2007 marked the big liberal purge from quite a few AM stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, Entercom and others. So far, none of the successor formats have done anything in the ratings. Check this out:

1. Cincinnati - WSAI dropped progressive talk in late 2006, going with some kind of advice-talk format. Well, that format blew dog, and it lasted a mere six months or so before becoming a dumping ground for leftover programming from sister sports station WCKY. To their credit, at least the station is getting ratings now, though nowhere near what they got with their half-assed and underpromoted approach to progressive talk.

2. Columbus - After WTPG also dropped progressive talk last December, it's replacement, right-wing babbler WYTS turned out to be a complete joke. Unlike its prececessor, which actually got the best ratings the signal had in years, WYTS has dropped off the chart. Not even Michael Savage can save them. Now, with progressive talk back on WVKO, perhaps we'll get proof that Clear Channel screwed the pooch when they hastily dropped the format.

3. Santa Cruz - KOMY ditched the Air America feed early this year. With their replacement oldies format, the station has not shown up in the ratings at all. At least liberal talk showed up on occasion. KOMY and their sister station are currently on the market.

4. Duluth - KQDS dropped from 2.1 to 0.8 overall after switching to an automated oldies satellite feed in February.

5. Fresno - KFPT was forced to switch to sports when they were sold by Peak Broadcasting to Fat Dawgs 7 in February (there was a no-compete clause in the sale papers to protect Peak's talk station, KMJ). A station that quite often floated around a one share completely dropped off the list.

6. Burlington, VT - WTWK thought the'd have more luck with estrogen, dropping progressive talk and picking up programming from Greenstone Media back in March. They were thrown a curveball when Greenstone closed up shop, and had to scramble to refill their schedule. They also brought back Stephanie Miller. So far, no ratings.

7. Sacramento - After sponsoring a Christmas season contest on their sister station in which they actually killed one of their listeners in public, Entercom killed progressive talk on KCTC in February. It was replaced by a sports format that has all but killed the 1320 AM signal in Sacramento. Locally-owned rival KSAC picked up some of the abandoned programming from KCTC and experienced a 300% jump in the ratings.

8. Akron - The axing of WARF ("Radio Free Ohio") in March completed Clear Channel's "Ohio Trifecta," where they effectively killed progressive talk on all three stations in the state programming the format. The replacement format was (surprise!) sports, and their ratings are currently (surprise!) nonexistent. They are currently getting their asses kicked by an independently-owned sports station out of Cleveland.

9. Memphis - WSMB was a joke when they did progressive talk. The station suffered from horrible promotion, poor sales efforts and serious neglect. No local presence whatsoever. An amateurish-looking website with an ugly station logo. A real shame, since the signal really kicks ass. But Entercom has never been adept at running progressive talk formats (as seen in New Orleans, Sacramento and other places). The result was a signal that was horribly neglected. So the flip to FOX Sports in early September likely came as no surprise to anyone.

10. San Diego - And now we save the most notable for last. Perhaps the most drawn-out format flip in radio history, Clear Channel in San Diego made few friends when word got out that they were about to flip KLSD to sports, going up against two other station in the area already doing the same. Time will tell if it will succeed, but Clear Channel screwed up royally when they ditched a format that was getting decent ratings and reportedly pulling in $2.5 million a year in revenue. Low-powered AM stations are not known for doing that in this day and age.

NOTE: In attempt to save space, stations such as WKOX in Boston, KDXE in Little Rock, WAVZ in New Haven, WLVP in Portland, ME, KOKE in Austin, KHRO in El Paso, and perhaps one or two others were left off the list. Of those, the new formats of WKOX and WAVZ are ratings dogs, some of the others are too early to tell, and only KHRO went up in the ratings, thanks to actually doing a locally-oriented liberal talk lineup after dropping the straight Air America feed.

Well, that was a big success

A mere six months after the beginning of Clear Channel's purge of liberal talk from their Ohio stations, it looks like the move has more or less backfired.

And in Cincinnati, the much-ballyhooed replacement for progressive talk is already out the door.

WSAI, which dumped liberal talk in December for what appeared to be a rather half-assed 'advice talk' format, evidently realized that the move was a spectacular failure. In essence, nobody really gave a shit about the new format, especially advertisers. What's next? Come Monday, say hello to ESPN1360. Yes, you read that right. WSAI, which actually found a little stability, though far from spectacular ratings with progressive talk, will now shift to the 'AM radio band-aid,' namely sports off the satellite. They've already got WCKY ("The Homer"), which has a mostly local presentation, lots of play-by-play and overnight brokered religious shows. And they had to steal the ESPN affiliation from a little AM station outside Cincy. The new ESPN1360 gives WCKY a complimentary signal and gives would-be competitors less of a reason to compete with their own sports formats (after all, cluster-based radio ownership has more or less evolved into some sort of chess game).

The outgoing format, dubbed "The Source" was a disaster in the making. After Clark Howard, Dr. Laura, Dr. Joy Brown and a few local gardening/car repair shows, there just wasn't enough stuff to put on the air. The solution? Rerun Clark Howard's show the next day. In morning drive. Ugh. And add that famed how-to guy Neal Boortz at night. Needless to say, there were likely more birds hovering around the tower than there were listeners hearing this boring train wreck. Needless to say, The Source was a dud.

Up I-71 in Columbus, the replacement for the old WTPG was third-tier conservotalk as WYTS. After progressive talk actually put the 1230 frequency on the map for the first time since their Top 40 heyday as WCOL and got somewhat decent ratings (relatively speaking), WYTS is languishing at the bottom of the ratings heap. That is, when it actually does show up on the list.

WARF in Akron was the third Ohio Clear Channel to ditch the format. Overall ratings are down by half, but it's too soon to really tell what's going on there. Besides, sports talk is one of those formats that are ratings-proof, since they superserve a narrow demographic. Which makes it attractive to near-invisible AM stations. They don't have to show up in the ratings.

Perhaps they should all just turn off their transmitters and save the electricity.

Ratings Roundup Winter 2007: Part 3

And now we come to part three.

Today, Arbitron released ratings books for more markets, including five that have liberal talk radio stations.

In Minneapolis/St. Paul (#16), 1000 watt independently-owned suburban blaster KTNF drops a bit, from its highest-ever 1.7 to 1.1 for the Winter book. This is a tenth of a point higher than their position a year ago. They are clustered in a pack with three other talk stations: Conservotalk FM'er KTLK-FM, which rises just over a full point, Salem's WWTC and female-oriented FM talker WFMP, which they are tied with. Last fall, the station actually bested KTLK in several daypart and demographic breakdowns, particularly with Ed Schultz' show. Since then, the station moved Schultz to his new time slot, three hours earlier.

There's some interesting stuff going on in Buffalo (#52), as WWKB almost triples its ratings in one book, leaping from 0.6 to 1.7, good for 16th place in the market. They are helped somewhat by a change of formats at WHLD, which previously carried Air America Radio programming, prior to their current gospel music format (which has thus far failed to chart). Since the flip, WWKB has picked up Randi Rhodes and reorganized their schedule, to what appears to be greater success. They are also up nearly half a point from a year ago.

WPTT in Pittsburgh (#24), which carries Air America's Thom Hartmann, local talker Lynn Cullen and even FOX Noise suck-up Alan Colmes drops only a tenth of a point, from 1.2 to 1.1, the same point where they were a year ago.

Market #22 Denver's KKZN slides as well, from 1.9 to 1.3, close to where they were last winter and spring. They are still neck-and-neck with Salem conservotalker KNUS.

And finally, in the Queen City of Cincinnati (#28), WSAI, which ditched liberal talk around the beginning of the year for some weird form of Neal Boortz-anchored 'lifestyle talk' has dropped off the ratings charts. They are non-existent. Hope the Clear Channel braintrusts there who were adamant about wiping progressive talk off the local airwaves are satisfied with this little account executive throw-in special they've created.

Coming up on Friday, books for Miami, Seattle, Columbus and others will be released. Portland and Phoenix are set for Monday. I'll likely combine both days into one report, on Monday afternoon.

Ratings Roundup: Phase 2 Winter trend, part 2

Yesterday, you saw some of the early results of the second of the Winter 2006 Arbitron ratings trend reports. And today, some results from a few other markets.

This rolling trend report survey period covers this past December, January and February, and is the run-up to the official Winter ratings books, which will be released starting later this month.

In Denver and Pittsburgh, nothing exciting to note about any of the liberal talk stations there. KKZN slides a bit, and WPTT, which carries only Thom Hartmann from the Air America lineup and is as close to liberal talk as the market really gets (save for tiny WURP), drops slightly as well. However, one station makes a very impressive leap this time around. WWKB in Buffalo/Niagara Falls (#52), which recently lost a competitor when Air America-formatted WHLD flipped to gospel music, moves from a 0.6 in the Fall book, to a 1.1 in the last trend, and now to a 1.6 share, good for 15th place in the overall rankings. Like the situation in Monterey/Santa Cruz discussed yesterday, one station seemed to benefit when a rival switched formats. WWKB has also recently shuffled its schedule.

In Minneapolis/St. Paul (market #16), KTNF slides a few tenths of a point to 1.3 after their spectacular Fall book. The 1,000 watt station in the western suburb of Eden Prarie holds its own in a very heavy talk radio market that is also home to legendary top-rated middle-of-the-road talker WCCO, reformed conservotalker KSTP, underperforming 100,000 FM conservotalker KTLK-FM, female-oriented FM talker WFMP, Salem's pair of conservotalkers, and, of course, highly-rated Minnesota Public Radio flagship KNOW.

Finally, we conclude with Cincinnati, OH (#28), where WSAI is nowhere to be found after ditching liberal talk for some weird hodgepodge of lifestyle and how-to programming and lower-tier conservotalk shows. Gee, smart move, Clear Channel. Hey, at least liberal talk got ratings!

More trend reports for other markets are on the way next week. If you want to see the overall (12+) numbers for yourself, you can check them out at Radio and Records or StationRatings.com.

Ratings Roundup Fall 2006: Part 1

As Air America Radio is going through growing pains, and conservative bloggers and radio flacks everywhere have been circling the liberal talk radio format like starving vultures, there is some encouraging news for the format in regard to Arbitron ratings for stations carrying the format.

This past fall was important for the format, as the national midterm elections heated up. And it seems that a few liberal talk stations enjoyed some pretty impressive success. Many others at least maintained their current level of listeners. Granted, the only ratings reports released to the general public are often only the overalls, which consist of all listeners ages 12+ in all dayparts from 6AM-midnight. These numbers, while not as important to advertisers as demographic and daypart breakdowns, do at least give a glimpse of how the format is doing.

In the first of several reports, Part 1 will cover the midwest region of the country. In future installments, LTR will take a look at other areas.

Last Friday, Ed Schultz lashed out at Sean Hannity for comments he made about the liberal talk format, which he claimed was dead. Schultz made it a point to openly remind Hannity that in the most recent ratings book, he actually beat him in several large markets, including Portland, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Miami and Albuquerque (mp3). The most notable win was in ranked market #16 - Minneapolis/St. Paul, where Hannity, as well as Rush Limbaugh, took quite a beating. Schultz beat, tied, or came close to clobbering Hannity throughout all the demographic breakdowns of the latest book. Schultz' affiliate, 1,000 watt independently-owned suburban liberal talker KTNF, finished with a virtual tie against Hannity's 100,000 watt FM affiliate, KTLK-FM, which has been heavily promoted over the past year via a $1 million advertising campaign by its owner, Clear Channel Communications. KTLK-FM also serves as the Twin Cities affiliate for Limbaugh's show, though he wasn't much help, since he finished virtually tied with KTNF's Al Franken in the midday shift. Schultz was eager to remind Hannity of the ass-whuppin', and to rub it in the face of his longtime nemesis, Clear Channel regional VP Mick Anselmo, who he blames for trying to stall his radio career.

KTNF more than doubled its overall share (all dayparts, ages 12+) from a 0.8 to a 1.7, for 15th place, finishing a mere fifth of a ratings point behind KTLK-FM. The station did well with its morning drive combo of Bill Press and Stephanie Miller, obtaining a 1.9 share, tied for 15th place and beating both local talk stalward KSTP, and more than doubling the ratings of KTLK-FM. KTNF was also the only talk station in the market to actually improve its ratings from the Summer ratings period. The Twin Cities market is saturated with news/talk stations, ranging from the mostly conservative KTLK-FM, full-service legend WCCO, locally-oriented KSTP, Salem conservotalker WWTC, female-oriented WFMP-FM and Minnesota Public Radio's KNOW. Considering the dearth of competition, a much smaller local presence and the limitations of its signal, KTNF has much to be proud of this time around. Congratulations.

Elsewhere in the midwest, WCPT in Chicago (market #3) has been somewhat of a success story. They're a suburban AM station that signs off the air during the nighttime hours, but they have been making a dent in the lower reaches of the local ratings. For the Fall book, the station is up a fifth of a point, to 0.7. Putting it in perspective, that's not too far behind CBS' Free FM station, WCKG. Across the state, WKBF, which was recently flipped to a Christian-based format by its new owner in December, was tied for tenth place in its final book with a 1.7 share, up from a 0.8 in the Spring book.

Ohio has been a bit rough for liberal talk as of late. The format was dropped on stations in both Cincinnati (#28) and Columbus (#37), both part of the same Clear Channel regional cluster. In Cincy, WSAI ends its progressive talk run with a 1.0 rating and a 19th place finish, while WTPG ends with a 0.8 share. In Akron, sister station WARF slides a bit, down from a 1.0 to a 0.6 share. The station, however, is still optimistic about the format, and recently tweaked the schedule in hopes of future success. The station also marks its first appearance in the ratings of neighboring Canton (#128), clustered with various Cleveland and Akron stations near the bottom of the book at a 0.4. Nothing earth-shattering here, but it is notable in that this is the station's first appearance in the Canton rankings.

In Detroit (#10), WDTW, hampered by a rather weak signal and heavy competition, holds at a 0.5, just a tenth of a point behind high-powered Canadian talker CKLW (the local George Noory/Art Bell affiliate). They're also a tenth of a point ahead of Salem's conservotalk WDTK. In nearby Ann Arbor (#147), WLBY comes in with a 1.5 share, in a six-way tie for 17th place, with local talker WAAM and several Detroit FM stations, including the local affiliate of CBS' struggling "Free FM" talk format.

UPDATE: In several late-arriving market reports, Duluth/Superior's KQDS, a tiny AM with no web presense and virtually no promotion whatsoever (like many other stations in the market), makes a rather impressive jump from a 0.9 in the Spring to a 2.1 share for the Fall. WXXM in Madison, recently saved by grassroots supporters, holds somewhat steady with a 3.4 share, down slightly from 3.7 in the ratings period that ended in mid-December. And in Grand Rapids, WTKG is still just under a share.

Note that ratings surveys do not take into account listeners to online streams. Also, the way ratings are reported will change considerably in the coming year, as Arbitron is moving toward doing away with the old 'pencil and paper' diaries and moving toward electronic means, such as online reporting and 'peoplemeters'. The hope is that this will give a more concise figure as to radio listenership. Arbitron also plans to include non-commercial stations, such as NPR affiliates, community and college stations, and non-commercial religious outlets in the overall rankings. Currently, the publicly-released figures include only commercial outlets, though they do track non-coms and include them in some breakdowns.

This is only the first in a series of pending ratings reports you'll see here at LTR, as there are so many stations to report, and not all markets have gotten their Fall '06 books yet. In future installments, you'll see how stations in other parts of the country fared.

The 'Revolution' is over

Days after midday host Jerry Springer announced the end of his radio show, his flagship affilliate, WSAI (1360AM) in Cincinnati, has announced plans to drop their liberal talk format altogether.

Tony Bender, program director of WSAI, claimed it just wasn't working, in addition to the current Clear Channel excuse du jour, Air America Radio's bankruptcy.

The "revolution of talk radio" was launched in January 2005 with Springer and Al Franken’s Air America show on 50,000-watt WCKY (1530AM). It swapped stations with the sports format previously on WSAI-AM in July.

So, what's going to replace "The Revolution of Talk Radio"? Why how-to shows, of course!

On Monday, the station will unveil a lineup of consumer, relationship, home, car, garden and financial advice shows. Most will be tape-delayed or reruns, including old WKRC-AM broadcasts by fix-in expert Gary Sullivan, gardener Ron Wilson and auto mechanic Steve Overbeck.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Dr. Joy Browne also return on tape-delay after several years off local airwaves. As a matter of fact, the majority of the station's shows will be delayed. Even the local business newspaper thinks this thing will fare worse than liberal talk.

The station will be marketed as "1360thesource.com."

“Our big push is the Internet. Instead of a radio station promoting a Web site, it will be a Web site promoting the radio station,” he says.

Atlanta consumer expert Clark Howard (http://clarkhoward.com/) will air in afternoon drive (4-7PM), and repeat 7-10AM the next morning. Now THERE'S a powerhouse morning drive show! Here's the rest:

5-7AM: Wall Street Journal (live feed)
7-10AM: Clark Howard (previous weekday afternoon show)
10AM-1PM: Dr. Laura Schlessinger (tape-delay)
1-2PM: At Home with Gary Sullivan (old WKRC show)
2-3PM: In The Garden with Ron Wilson (old WKRC show)
3-4PM: Steve Overbeck’s Autoline (old WKRC show)
4-7PM: Clark Howard (new show, taped 1-4 pm in Atlanta)
7-10PM: Neal Boortz (tape-delay)
10PM-1AM: Dr. Joy Browne (tape-delay)
1-5AM: Joey Reynolds (live from WOR in NY)

Funny, I didn't know Neal Boortz did an advice show. Maybe he's teaching listeners to be a racist fake libertarian.

Progressive stations have thrived in other cities, most notably on Clear Channel stations in Portland, Ore., Miami, Fla., and San Diego, Calif., says Tom Taylor, editor of the “Inside Radio” newsletter.

In conservative Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky, it attracted only about 1 percent of the audience. WSAI-AM ranked No. 18 in the most recent Arbitron ratings.

The advice format should be easier to sell at Clear Channel, which offers package deals for WKRC-AM and WSAI-AM, Bender says. WKRC-AM airs Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and conservative political talk on weekends, and Sullivan, Overbeck and other how-to shows on weekends.

“We wanted a complement to WKRC-AM, instead of selling left and right (political) talk. It was kind of hard to get (WKRC-AM advertisers) to take a look at WSAI-AM,” Bender says. Or, in other words, their salesmen were too inept to be able to sell it.

WSAI was never a strong affiliate. And local Clear Channel management really didn't help matters either. It's on-air roster was uninspiring. When they were on WCKY, overnight hours were occupied by paid-for religious programming, which obviously clashed with the liberal talk aired the rest of the day. They signed the station on with the debut of Springer's show, and even tried to pass "Springer On The Radio" as a local show. Never mind that he hasn't set foot in the WSAI studio since August. And did I mention the many technical problems?

Back in August, Ed Schultz ripped the station, which carries his show, and stations manager Darryl Parks over the many technical glitches that marred the station's on-air presentation. "You can't develop revenue and ratings with dead air, double programming, programming playing on top of each other," said Schultz, in response to listener complaints about how WSAI has been operating. "I just want to know if there's as much dead air over on the conservative station. I just want to know if there's someone who can answer that question."

WSAI, and WCKY prior to that, are operated as 'latchkey' operations using automation software. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Provided, of course that the software acutally works. "The Revolution's" automation program would do all kinds of crazy things, such as air two programs at a time, broadcast satellite-delivered news or actuality feeds as they came in (over whatever was currently on the air). Liners would air for several minutes back-to-back. Shows abruptly cut off. The wrong shows aired. For example, the live feed of "Majority Report" would run instead of the scheduled delayed airing of Randi Rhodes one evening. Another incident featured an unplanned 'battle of the late-night talk hosts', featuring the scheduled Lionel up against Air America's Mike Malloy. At the same time.

Of course, Parks always denied that there was anything wrong with what was going out over the air. And to prove his point, as Schultz lashed out at the station, Parks immediately ran in the studio and pulled Schultz' show off the air for the rest of his shift. Well, I guess somebody in the building was monitoring the station then.

The Revolution was an absolute neglected mess of a station. For a company like Clear Channel to allow this to happen in one of their most important markets, they should be ashamed of themselves. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

A little of this, a little of that

There aren't any really big stories to report, so this article will cover a bunch of little ones.

First up, Aldous Tyler checks in with the latest on WXXM in Madison (92.1 The Mic):

Here we go...We have a final push this week.The Petition to save The Mic 92.1 has almost 5000 signatures. It has only been up a month. That is incredible!! In fact, 5000 signatures was the original goal set for it, but with one more week until it will be presented, the goal has been raised.Help us meet it.We need just over 2000 more signatures to hit the new goal of 7000. This will then be presented at the rally at the High Noon Saloon, at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, December 12th.I know this can be done. There will be no way that the demand for local Progressive Talk can be denied once we complete this.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/720087508 has the petition. I'm #14, and I recognize names both below and above me in order. I am so very proud of each and every one. Now we need to get numbers 5014, 6014 and even 7014... so pass this on to everyone you know who supports local, alternative voices in Madison, or Progressive Talk in general.Oh, and if you miss Lee Rayburn and Jodie Shawback's "The Pro Show" make sure to catch weekly brand-new podcasts being recorded live every Tuesday until Christmas at Escape Coffee (916 Willy Street) from 7:00 am to 9:00 am, or listen to the recorded podcasts on http://mortymadcat.libsyn.com/

Let's go. Spread the word. Get the signatures. Let's show everyone that the airwaves DO belong to the people!

Aldous Tyler,
"TLYMAWYA",
The Liberal Your Mother Always Warned You About

And listeners to WKBF in the Quad Cities were taken by surprise this morning at 10:47 when, during an airing of The Stephanie Miller Show, the station's signal abruptly went dead, and soon returned with the sounds of holiday Christmas music as "Truth 1270" took to the airwaves. This format flip was expected, since Mercury Broadcasting (Clear Channel operated the station for them, but were required by FCC rules to divest of it) sold the station back in October to a new owner who planned to program a Christian-based format. The station, which initially picked up progressive talk in April 2005 will air the sounds of the season all the way through Christmas. Bill O'Reilly would be so proud!

Vague rumors of the demise of Boston's liberal talk simulcast of WXKS/WKOX have circulated around for the past week or so, but have died down a bit in recent days as "Boston's Progressive Talk" decided to shuffle their schedule a bit, dropping Al Franken's show for Thom Hartmann. Now, they seem to be second-guessing, as they have now asked the listeners' help in determining their mid-afternoon lineup. Since Ed Schultz will begin airing his show live in the 12-3PM ET slot starting next week, the station asks its listeners who they should put on. Should they air Schultz live? Go with the recently added Hartmann in the slot, or put on Franken (who they announced last week as being dropped from the station). Decisions, decisions. So take your pick, and vote here.

Jerry Springer, who yesterday announced his departure from radio, did his last live show today, and will air in reruns to finish out the week. Chicago's WCPT will waste no time replacing him, as Stephanie Miller makes her Windy City debut tomorrow. Look for Miller and her sidekick Jim Ward to make heavy use of their mock 'Chicahhhgoh' accents. Springer's other main affiliate, WSAI in Cincinnati, will announce their future plans later this week.

And speaking of left-leaning low-brow TV talk show hosts, remember Richard Bey? Well, the former TV talker has been filling in for Alex Bennett on his Sirius Left show, though Bennett's fans have mixed opinions of him. Look for Alex, whose San Francisco morning radio shows of the 80s and 90s made for some of the funniest moments in the history of broadcasting (yes, it's true!) to return tomorrow.

Springer to end radio show

The writing was on the wall.

As part of an on-going shift in the liberal talk radio landscape, and three months after a schedule alignment at Air America Radio that saw him scuttled off to the secondary syndicated feed, mid-morning host Jerry Springer announced on his show today that, due to a heavy schedule of outside commitments, he is leaving his radio show effective Friday December 8.

Springer has offers of a movie role and a possible Super Bowl commercial, partly thanks to his exposure on Dancing With The Stars. "These things are not going to come around again, particularly at my age, so I might as well take advantage of them," said Springer, 62.

He's filming a Bud Light commercial next week, which may air during the Super Bowl. And he recently taped a guest shot on ABC’s George Lopez sitcom, as a boyfriend for Lopez’s mother, and was asked to become a recurring character, he says. In February, he’ll play a rabbi in a feature film called God Only Knows. With all of that, a daily radio show, and a still-popular daily TV show, fitting everything into his schedule proved difficult.

"Radio is a full-time job, and I just couldn’t do it," Springer said.

He will be live on the air through at least Wednesday, but scheduling conflicts may result in best-of shows on Thursday and Friday.

Springer's departure was rumored last week, as one of his few remaining affiliates, WCPT in Chicago, announced that they were dropping his show, effective December 8. No word on what his other high-profile affiliate, WSAI in Cincinnati, will slot in his place, though an announcement regarding the station's future will be made later on this week. Recently, the website for his radio show was taken down, and now redirects to AAR's official site.

Springer, the former Cincinnati mayor most known for his outrageous, trashy TV talk show, made his radio debut on January 17, 2005 on WCKY in Cincinnati (eventually moving to WSAI), with the intent of taking "Springer on the Radio" into national syndication. A month later, he was on WDTW in Detroit, and a couple more stations followed, most notably WTAM in Cleveland, which airs mostly conservative talk. By April 1, Air America took over syndication of his show, and added him to their daily schedule, replacing Unfiltered.

Things went well for Springer. Though his lack of radio talk experience was initially noticeable, he added more affiliates, particularly stations that were airing the straight AAR feed. But there was a new presense to be dealt with, namely the rapidly-rising Stephanie Miller, whose breezy, humorous take on the liberal talk genre was quickly winning her affiliates, listeners and ratings in the same time slot. Springer's show hardly stood a chance.

As time went on, more and more affiliates began replacing the morning AAR programming with Miller's increasingly successful show. And AAR was looking to make even more changes. Following a turbulent August 2006, which saw the firing of night host Mike Malloy, the departure of evening co-host Janeane Garofalo (due to outside demands of her own) and rumors of a pending bankruptcy, AAR announced a revamp of their on-air roster, which saw Garofalo's co-host Sam Seder moving to the network's mid-morning shift. Springer, rumored to be dropped by the network, was shuffled over to and buried in a secondary syndicated feed, available to any affiliate that opted to carry the show. As a result, many of Springer's affiliates were gone, leaving WCPT, WSAI and perhaps a few other stations still carrying his show. The outcome of this was that Springer seemed to rebel against his syndicator, enlisting exiled hosts like Malloy and Mark Maron as vacation fill-ins. But with the loss of his affiliates, and the conflicts with his other gigs, the demise of Springer on the Radio was inevitable

Radio was certainly not Springer's main job. Initially, he fit in the radio gig with tapings of the TV show on Mondays and Tuesdays in his home base of Chicago, and commuted back and forth between there and Cincinnati. In recent months, he was in Cincinnati only once, due to his hectic schedule. "I did one show in three months from Cincinnati. That’s absurd. That’s not fair," said Springer.

He also recently appeared in Season Three of the hit ABC show Dancing With The Stars, which he took on in part so he could learn how to dance for his daughter's upcoming wedding.

Springer's name was practically a household word due to his long-running television show (provided, of course, that the household in question was either a single or double-wide). And he was an actual former politician. While a mere two years in radio is hardly enough time to create a legacy, Springer did manage to accomplish a few key things. First, he helped bring a more mainstream, commercial feel to the genre, as his show was produced by Clear Channel and syndicated in partnership with AAR. Predominantly conservative talk stations like WTAM briefly picked up his show, then unheard of for AAR. Fill-in hosts consisted of unpredictable choices like longtime Cleveland radio morning host/recovering Republican John Lanigan and Clear Channel-Cleveland exec Kevin Metheny (a.k.a. the venemous boss "Pig Vomit" of Howard Stern's book and film "Private Parts"), who was, surprisingly, not bad (though I kinda expected him to sound like Paul Giamatti). He also sought to prove that the 'ringmaster' of trash TV was indeed capable of serious thought.

The Jerry Springer of radio was considerably different than the Jerry Springer of shlock TV. And believe it or not, he was more outspoken on his much more toned-down radio show. Keep in mind that on his TV show, Springer often just steps back and lets the chairs and fists fly. He doesn't really inject a whole lot of opinion during the course of an hour. In the radio studio, it was all him, talking about the liberal and Democratic issues he was concerned with, and speaking his mind freely. His goal was to distance himself somewhat from his rather silly TV show and prove that he does, in fact, have something to say. And he did.

Stations start shuffling lineups, Springer might leave radio

In the wake of The Ed Schultz Show moving to an earlier timeslot, the first station to adjust their schedule in response is WCPT (850AM) in Chicago, which has announced a lineup change, as reported by the Sun-Times' Robert Feder.

Effective Dec. 11, the daytime-only station will air Bill Press from sign-on to 8AM (CT), adds Stephanie Miller (previously heard on weekends in best-of form) from 8 to 11AM, Ed Schultz from 11AM to 2PM, Al Franken on tape-delay from 2 to 5PM, and Randi Rhodes on tape-delay from 5PM to sign-off.

It should be noted that the move of Schultz's show to middays may not affect all of his affiliates, since Jones Radio Networks will offer a refeed of the program during his original slot (3-6PM ET), for stations that can't air him in middays or are unable to record his show for later airing. As a result, it's likely that not all stations will choose to follow his move immediately.

One name missing from WCPT's new roster is Jerry Springer, whose radio show has been airing from 8 to 11AM local time. Springer will exit the Newsweb-owned station for now -- and could be stepping down from radio entirely. This would not be a surprising move, since his show has been losing serious traction in the past year. Currently, Springer airs only on a few stations, most notably WCPT and WSAI (1360AM) in his hometown of Cincinnati.

The late-morning time slot is a difficult one, due mostly to the fact that on the West Coast, this is morning drive, and quite a few stations there carry their own local programming. Of course Springer has also struggled against one of the highest-rated talents in the format, namely Stephanie Miller, who's show airs at the same time and has picked up many affiliates. Add in Air America Radio's roster realignment this past September, which had Springer shuffled off to a secondary feed and Sam Seder taking his main network timeslot, and it was evident that Springer's days were numbered.

Springer, who's experience has been in Cincinnati politics (as former mayor) and television, has done a respectable job as a radio novice, but never really caught on with progressive talk listeners, who feel he's a bit bland. As the format shakes itself out, and the fate of Air America could be learned today, Schultz' move and Springer's departure could be just the first shoes to drop.

And special thanks to Bob, who posted a comment about WKOX/WXKS in Boston, which will drop Franken and replace him with Thom Hartmann. Schultz will remain in the 3-6PM slot, via the delayed feed. This also seems to contradict rumors that the two stations will change formats in the near future. I expect local Clear Channel management to make a decision on the future of "Boston's Progressive Talk" once the pending power upgrade to WKOX is complete, which could see at least one of the stations changing format, as WKOX's new 50,000 watt day and night signal should clear up their current reception issues. The new signal will improve on WXKS' better city coverage, making the two signals redundant. And as updated, it looks like the two stations are changing formats anyway, so this is all a moot point.

Hartmann has also recently replaced Franken on KQKE in San Francisco and new affiliate WCMI in Ashland, KY/Huntington, WV.

The Central Massachusetts trio of WHMP/WHNP/WHMQ has dropped Randi Rhodes and has replaced her with Schultz. However, she may be brought back via evening time delay if Franken decides to leave radio. Franken's decision could happen as soon as Tuesday December 5.

And WINZ in Miami will carry Schultz live starting Monday December 11, bumping Franken to the delayed 6-9PM ET slot. As a result, Randi Rhodes' show will air live 3-6p ET. Rhodes is no stranger to success in South Florida, as her current radio show got its start on WJNO in West Palm Beach, located just north of Miami.

Washington, DC's WWRC is adding Bill Press to morning drive effective next Monday, displacing The Young Turks. Schultz gets a live clearance in the nation's capital from 12-3PM, and Franken will air on delay from 3-6PM.

In the Twin Cities, KTNF (950AM) will give Schultz another live clearance, moving hometown host Franken to 2-5ET. From December 18 through the end of the year, while Franken is in reruns while he's touring with the USO in Iraq, Hartmann will air during that timeslot.

Where's Jerry?

Well, the whole Air America Radio bankruptcy is behind us (for now), and the wingnut vultures have stopped circling the expected corpse.

Since the whole bankruptcy thing was sooo last week, and AAR's schedule is finally set (except for that late night shift - why don't they just bring back Mike Malloy and be done with it?), there's not a whole lot of stuff to write about. But Ohio Media Watch chimes in with a very interesting topic, and one I'm sure is keeping many up late at night.

Namely, where's Jerry Springer?

In case you haven't been keeping up, or just didn't really care, Springer is still around (contrary to the bankruptcy story last week). And he's still being carried by Air America. Sort of. With the new schedule in place, Sam Seder will now take Springer's spot on the official network feed, as Jerry is sent off to the syndicated feed with Thom Hartmann. Affiliates (or at least the ones that haven't opted for Stephanie Miller or a local show instead) now have the option of taking either Seder or Springer.

In the fallout, it looks like Seder picked up a few affiliates (though many of them delayed) including flagship station WWRL in New York. Jerry's whereabouts are yet to be fully determined, though Jerry's people remain fairly optimistic. I reported last week that Jerry could be lost in this whole linup shuffle, as affiliates were likely to go in other directions. It was a given that WSAI in Cincinnati would carry him (as Cincy is Jerry's old stomping grounds, and WSAI considers him the closest thing to a local show that they really see fit to spend money on). And WCPT in Chicago (Jerry's current stomping grounds) was also a likely affiliate. But what about the rest?

Allegedly, Springer is still on WWWW (which still refers to itself by its former call letters WDTW - don't ask) in Detroit. They unveiled their new schedule that appears to carry the entire Air America lineup. As I do not live in Detroit, I have no idea how accurate this thing is. It almost appears that the webmaster got lazy, or just plain doesn't give a shit, and just cut and pasted the AAR lineup. I had even heard that Miller is on that station, but I'm really not sure (any Detroit listeners out there that can set me straight?) Furthermore, is Ed Schultz really gone from that station? Hmmm...

"WDTW"'s nearby sister station, WLBY in Ann Arbor, has more or less been a carbon copy of its Detroit sister, and it's obvious they haven't updated their site in a while. They do appear to be airing Miller's show. Again, help set me straight!

The listing of stations on Jerry's site, which is extremely out of date and chock full of errors, are as follows:

Cincinnati, Ohio: 1360 WSAI - a given
Detroit, Michigan: 1310 WXDX - Two call letter changes later...
South Florida: 940 WINZ - Dropped Jerry long ago
San Antonio, Texas: 925 KRPT - Now playing "Texas Music" a.k.a. country
Sarasota & Bradenton, Florida: 1450 WSRQ - just flipped to adult standards Monday, also dropped Hannity
Boston, Massachusetts: 1200/1430 WKOX/WXKS - Switched to Stephanie Miller a while ago
San Diego, California: 1360 KLSD - live and local in the morning
Memphis, Tennessee: 680 WWTQ - Ugliest website of all affiliates. Did Entercom really OK this?
Albuquerque, New Mexico: 1350 KABQ - I doubt they even know. This station's site is always slow to update.

New Haven, Connecticut: 1300 WAVZ - Updated schedule. Miller has the mid-morning shift
St. Albans, Vermont: 1070 WTWK - I'm not really sure this station still exists, but they have Miller on.
Ann Arbor, Michigan: 1290 WLBY - Miller has the shift
Key West, Florida: 1500 WKIZ - Out-of-date website
Northampton, Massachusetts: 1200/1400/1600 WHMP - Very up-to-date site. Miller affiliate.
Willamette Valley, Oregon: 990 KRKT - out-of-date site
Brattleboro, Vermont: 1490 WKVT - not updated yet
New York, NY: 1190 WLIB - Umm... HELLO?
Dallas-F. Worth, TX: 910 KXEB - Springer affiliate, but site needs updating
Philadelphia, PA: 1340 WHAT - Dropped AAR a long time ago
Detroit, MI: 1310 WDTW - Deja vu? This is listed further up the page!
San Antonio, TX: 92.5 WHTY - Ditto.
Austin, TX: 1600 KOKE - Runs same programming as KXEB in Dallas
Akron, OH: 1540 WJMP - Affiliation went to WARF a long time ago. Currently FOX Sports.
Burlington, VT & Plattsburg, NY: 1070 WTWK - More deja vu. Already listed.
Corpus Christi, TX: 1150 WCCT - Who knows?
Eugene, OR: 1450 KKXO - Now KOPT. Runs local programming in mornings.
Portland, ME: 870 WMTW - Has been WLVP for awhile. Runs straight AAR schedule, including Seder in the 9-12 slot.
San Luis Obispo, CA: 1340 KYNS - Unknown. Site has been down for awhile.
Sante Fe, NM: 1260 KTRC - No website.
Chapel Hill, NC: 1360 WCHL - Miller affiliate.

And no, WCPT in Chicago is not listed.

Now, keep in mind, this listing is straight from Springer's AAR site. And it is horribly out of date and full of errors. Of course, there is nothing wrong with Springer being on only two affiliates (though there may be more). Being on the air in Chicago and Cincy is a pretty nice gig for most shows. The mid-morning shift is highly competitive, with the red-hot Stephanie Miller show being the most popular option and Seder's AAR show. Factor in the west coast stations running local morning shows, and it's plain to see that Springer is in a fight for any affiliates.

Who is the power behind Springer's show? It's more or less a Clear Channel show, having started out on WCKY in Cincy (since moved to WSAI). But instead of being syndicated by Clear Channel's syndication arm, Premiere, it's distributed by Air America.

In the beginning, I was surprised that Premiere did not jump on liberal talk. Given that they have some very strong talk show hosts in their massive cluster, such as Jay Marvin, Cary Harrison, Jon Elliott, and Will and Willie, and the fact that they own quite a few 'progressive talk' stations as well, it is somewhat baffling that they did not try to corner the market on syndicated liberal talk. Keep in mind that Ed Schult, Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller and Bill Press started out on Clear Channel stations, but went with other syndicators instead.

I have heard rumors in the past about Premiere's 800 lb. gorilla, Rush Limbaugh, forbidding Premiere from doing anything resembling left-leaning talk, but it's an old rumor, and seeing as Rush is a radio business guy first, would likely encourage it (plus give him more ammo for his drug-fueled three hour bloviation fest). The fact that Clear Channel/Premiere is notorious for foisting ridiculous programming concepts on the masses does make one wonder why they didn't go for progressive talk, which would have been an obvious choice for them.

In ThinkProgress' (since retracted) story about Air America's alleged bankruptcy and financial reorganization last week, the Center for American Progress (which runs thinkprogress.org) is teaming up with Clear Channel and MSS Inc. to conduct a nationwide search for the next "Progressive Talk Radio Star". Whether this means Premiere is finally getting serious about syndicating liberal talk, or is looking to put more local programming on their stations (a very good idea, IMO), remains to be seen.

Liberal talk radio stations shuffle lineups

UPDATED 9/18. All times local.

In response to recent lineup changes at Air America Radio, several affiliates have announced their own schedule changes.

First, Clear Channel-owned KTLK in Los Angeles has adjusted its on-air roster, picking up Rachel Maddow's new evening show for 6-8PM and picking up WOR Radio Network's Lionel for 10PM-1AM. Cary Harrison's local show moves up the schedule to the 8-10PM slot.

Further north, after conducting an online vote on their updated lineup, KQKE in San Francisco, also owned by Clear Channel, adds Stephanie Miller to weekdays, airing an hour of her show from 6-7AM, displacing the locally-produced "The Progressive News Hour". The Quake will air the last two hours of Al Franken's midday show from 10AM-12PM followed by Ed Schultz live, add "EcoTalk" in the 6-7PM slot. Thom Hartmann's show, which has experienced great success in West Coast markets, will air delayed from 7-10PM, and Lionel comes to the station for the 10PM-2AM shift, including a repeat of one hour of the three hour show. Mark Riley's one hour show will follow at 2AM, and Bill Press is added live 3-6AM. Air America's new morning show, The Young Turks, will not be picked up by the station.

Entercom-owned KCTC in Sacramento lists Peter Werbe in the live 7-9PM slot, followed by a replay of Franken's show from 9PM-12AM. Press will air live 3-5:30AM, followed by the local morning show, "The Morning Retort", hosted by Scott & Sims.

And CBS Radio's KPTK in Seattle also shuffles it's schedule, The new weekday lineup adds The Young Turks (who had been on weekends) to weekdays live 3-6AM PT and Rachel Maddow live 3-5PM. KPTK moves Al Franken's delayed show to 5-8PM and Randi Rhodes 8-11PM.

Dave McDonald, senior vice president and market manager for CBS Radio's Seattle stations, said he's pleased to be able to add Maddow's show to the lineup. The new lineup also helps KPTK shift more of its programming to live, he added.

KPTK listeners have also expressed their disappointment over the loss of Mike Malloy, whose show was dropped by Air America, McDonald said.

In Portland, KPOJ substitutes live airings of Riley and The Young Turks for the current Air America Mornings bloc from 2-6AM. Seder's new show will air on delay around the time of the Majority Report's former shift, from 6-9PM. And following the success of Hartmann's local morning show, KPOJ adds his national show to evenings, delayed to 9PM-12AM, and taking over Malloy's former shift. Maddow follows from 12-2AM.

Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, WINZ in Miami picks up Maddow for 9-11PM and moves Sam Seder from overnights to the 11PM-2AM shift. The rest of the schedule remains unchanged, except for the shortening of Rhodes' show.

At WXXM in Madison, Maddow, "Politically Direct" with David Bender, and "EcoTalk" with Betsy Rosenberg will be added, along with a few other changes.

KTNF in Minneapolis/St. Paul adds Press for mornings, following Riley. Hartmann's show is also added, airing from 6-9PM, bumping Rhodes to 9Pm-12AM. Seder's show airs on delay from 12-2AM. The station does seem to remain open to Malloy's return, if he indeed does.

KKZN in Denver/Boulder CO adds Maddow from 7-9PM, followed by EcoTalk 9-10PM, Politically Direct 10-11PM, Werbe 11-1AM, and a replay of Franken from 1-3AM. Riley airs live from 3-4AM and The Young Turks air 4-6AM, followed by local host Jay Marvin. The rest of the schedule remains the same.

As reported earlier, KRFT in St. Louis, currently airing Franken's show, adds Randi Rhodes to the 3-6PM shift. St. Louis listeners can see Franken as he does a live broadcast from St. Louis on Tuesday 9/19.

KLSD in San Diego updated their own schedule, picking up Maddow for 6-7PM, sending Jon Elliott back to weekends and airing Werbe evenings 7-9PM. A Franken replay airs from 9-10PM, followed by The Lionel Show. Mark Riley and The Young Turks air live during the early morning hours. Seder's show will air on weekends as 'best-of' programming.

In Columbus, WTPG picks up The Young Turks for mornings. Maddow gets the 6-8 shift, followed by Politically Direct and EcoTalk. Fans of Rhodes will be disappointed, as her show moves to overnight hours (3-5AM) in a surprise move.

WXKS/WKOX in Boston adds Riley and The Young Turks for mornings and EcoTalk from 9-10PM. The 10PM-12AM shift is undetermined, but for now, Werbe will have the shift.

The WHMP trimulcast in central Massachusetts is also altering its lineup, moving Maddow to evenings. Stephanie Miller debuts on the station and picks up Maddow's previous timeslot, 10AM-12PM.

KPHX in Phoenix will air the straight Air America feed live for much of the day, outside of Mike Newcomb's morning show. Hartmann will air from 9PM-12AM in delay.

In the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area, WHLD adds Seder to mornings and will also air Franken, Rhodes and one hour of Maddow live. Democracy Now follows at 7PM, followed by various non-commercial shows, including Flashpoints, Building Bridges, Uprising Radio, Counterspin and others on a daily rotating basis.

Chicago's WCPT switches out morning shows, adding Bill Press. Jerry Springer remains in his mid-morning shift. The station is a Class D AM station, meaning it signs off the air from sunset to sunrise.

WRVC in Huntington, WV adds a second Air America show to the lineup, as they bring in The Young Turks for morning drive. The station currently carries Franken, as well as Ed Schultz. The rest of the schedule is heavy with local programming and ESPN Radio and other sports programming.

And syndicated host Lionel picks up a few new affiliates, including the aforementioned KTLK and KQKE. He also lands on WKJK in Louisville KY, WWKB in Buffalo NY, WHNZ in Tampa FL and WCRN in Worcester MA weekdays and WOND in Atlantic City NJ, KTLK-FM in Minneapolis MN on weekends. It should be noted that WKJK, WHNZ, WCRN and KTLK-FM air predominantly conservative talk shows.

And what about Jerry Springer? The bankruptcy rumors this week claimed that Air America and Springer have parted ways. It looks like the previous story about Springer being taken off the main Air America feed and shuffled to their syndication arm is actually correct, at least according to Springer's Cincinnati sales team in The Cincinnati Post, who claim that almost all their 50-some affiliates are staying with the show, while Springer will be dropped at the New York affiliate in favor of Seder. Whether Springer actually has 50 affiliates (I count twenty or so at most, and this is a very old list) is probably something that can be debated. Nonetheless, Jerry is still out there, plugging away, and will likely stay at WSAI in Cincy.
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