Don't be cruel

Jon Elliott claimed on his show last night, which originates from the studios of KLSD in San Diego, that things are looking up for that station, which has been rumored to be considering a flip to a sports format. Evidently, Monday's rally must have been effective.

In the midst of all this and other format flips on their progressive talk stations, Clear Channel Communications itself has taken a lot of heat, some deserved and some not. Many see this as some sort of conspiracy to remove the format from the nation's airwaves, and point to the political lean of the Mays family, founders of the company.

But it's never that simple. Over time, I've found that in the radio industry, politics often takes a backseat to pure commerce. Meaning, they don't really care what's on the air, so long as it pads the bottom line and takes next to no overhead to keep it running. How else to explain Entercom Communications, the fourth largest radio group in the United States? Now here's a major radio station owner that, ironically, actually donates heavily to Democrats. In a simplistic form of thinking, one would think progressive talk would be a slam dunk for some of their struggling AM stations. So, how have they been doing thus far in this regard? The first Entercom station to pick up the format was WROC in Rochester, NY. After three years, the station is doing modestly, given its AM dial position and rather weak signal. From there, Entercom stations in New Orleans, Sacramento, Buffalo and Memphis picked up the format.

Flash forward to 2007. WROC has been climbing in the ratings. WWKB in Buffalo occasionally does well, in spite of how badly neglected the station is. And progressive talk has been dropped in New Orleans and Sacramento. The format seems to be badly neglected in Buffalo. And now, rumors are swirling in Memphis, where it looks like WSMB (680AM) may soon flip to sports. At least that's the rumor coming out of there, as salespeople are allegedly breaking this news to their clients.

Needless to say, this doesn't sound surprising. WSMB (formerly WWTQ until they grabbed the current call letters from their defunct New Orleans progressive talker) is blessed with an amazing signal (10,000 watts day at a very low spot on the dial), rare for a progressive talk station. But they had to go and screw it all up by doing a rather half-assed job of programming and promoting it. Until today, I didn't even realize that they have rolled out a new website for the station. For a long time, it was the same old tired WWTQ site that prominently featured relics of the past such as Jerry Springer, Al Franken and Janeane Garafalo. Not very up-to-date, is it? And that's another thing. While progressive talk stations around the country have experienced some sort of success with a mix of shows from various syndicators, and even some local programming, WSMB couldn't even be bothered to program their computers to flip a satellite switch! That's right - they carry the straight Air America Radio feed. Meaning no Stephanie, no Big Eddie, no local talk. Nothing that can help a station boost their numbers and draw potential advertisers. To be fair, though, they did carry a local morning show at one time, but it was universally hated by everyone.

Keep in mind that, like at Clear Channel, format decisions for stations are made mostly at the local level. One look at the vast differences of the various stations easily prove that. WROC has been pretty aggressive, have a fairly good mix of programming, and are currently getting the best ratings the weak AM signal could possibly hope to get. Meaning that the people there are at least doing something. Not sure the same could be said about their other progressive talk stations, certainly not WSMB.

Granted, the station did add some other programming. But that programming consisted of St. Louis Cardinals games and University of Tennessee sports. It's true that locally-oriented sports programming does pull in the bucks. Even high school football on the radio can rake in a ton of loot. So when this stuff pops up on progressive talk stations, I often give it a pass. Hey, if this stuff is good enough for conservotalk stations (and many of them have sports contracts that often contribute the bulk of station revenues), then it's good enough for the liberal talk outlets.

Given the amount of neglect that progressive talk has gotten on this signal, and the increased emphasis on sports programming, it should be no surprise that liberal talk will likely soon be leaving the Memphis airwaves. And no, it's not because nobody wants to listen to it, as this ignorant pinhead seems to think. I chalk this one up to neglect. The progressive talk format is only as strong as the stations that carry it. And when it's viewed as merely cheap, latchkey programming, well, how well is that going to turn out? Weak promotion (except for a billboard or two a long time ago and some bumper stickers), poor ad sales efforts, uninspiring programming choices, and perhaps the ugliest logo in the radio industry. What aggravates me is that WSMB had so much potential, even in a market like Memphis. This station has been badly neglected.

Yes, Entercom really screwed the pooch on this one. Let's hope they know how to do sports.

UPDATE: And it looks like it's been confirmed. According to AllAccess, Entercom Memphis announced this afternoon that WSMB will become FOX Sports 680 on Saturday evening (9/1), immediately following the Cardinals/Reds game. They will carry the FOX Sports feed most of the time, save for the 11A-2P shift weekdays, Saturday mornings and whenever they run local play by play.

Ratings Roundup Fall 2006: Part 4

For the fourth part of LTR's Arbitron ratings analysis of the liberal talk format across the USA, we take a trip down to red state country (though they are turning a rather bright shade of purple at this point). Yes, we're going down south!

And what better place to start than the southernmost commercial liberal talk station in the country? WINZ in Miami (market #12) has been relatively successful since they signed on to the format two and a half years ago. For this past fall, they have held on to their listener base and maintained a 1.5 share, similar to what they've gotten in the past year's ratings books. This puts them just a fifth of a share behind all-sports WQAM, a station that features their own liberal talker, Neil Rogers. Due to the racial and ethnic makeup of the market, The top talk station in the market is Spanish-language WAQI. Second place belongs to WIOD, the Limbaugh/Hannity station (every market has one), which finished with a 2.5 share. There is another sports station in the market, WAXY, at a 1.0, and finishing dead last is Fort Lauderdale's WFTL, which carries the likes of O'Reilly, Savage and Ingraham. They eke out a 0.3 share. WINZ has gotten more aggressive in their scheduling in the past few months, as they've dropped Al Franken, moved Ed Schultz to a live slot and began airing South Florida's own Randi Rhodes in a live afternoon slot. Mike Malloy was recently added for nights.

Up the coast in West Palm Beach (#46), Rhodes' original flagship station, WJNO, aka "The Palm Beaches' Home for Rush Limbaugh & Randi Rhodes," holds on to its top five ranking, jumping half a point to a 3.8 share. Granted, this is not an all-liberal talk station, as they do carry Glen Beck and Limbaugh in middays, but they do air Rhodes and a delay of Schultz' show in late afternoons and early evenings respectively. Rhodes has historically outdrawn Limbaugh in regard to number of listeners. The other talk stations are farther down the list, including WZZR, an FM 'hot talk' station. WINZ, WIOD and WFTL are all tied at a 1.9 share. In the fall book, WINZ more than doubled their ratings since last summer for this market.

Up the coast in Daytona Beach (#89), independently-owned WPUL is a station that carries all the Jones Radio syndicated talkers (Bill Press, Stephanie Miller and Schultz), Al Franken, and evening sports show ("2 Live Stews"), Lionel and conservotalker Rollye James in overnights. They are basically a hybrid station that airs a combination of liberal talk and African-American talk. They carry no Air America Radio product. WPUL is fighting an uphill battle, as they are hampered by little promotion and a very weak 1000 watt daytime signal (32 watts at night). They are dead last in the book (as far as rated stations go) with a 0.4 share.

In Asheville, NC (#161), WPEK ("880 The Revolution") is the little station that could. They put out some pretty strong daytime power, as 5,000 watts goes a long way at 880AM. However, they are a daytimer, meaning that they must sign off the air from sunset to sunrise. Nonetheless, they're doing quite well, as they maintain a 2.6 share, good for 9th place. Ratings have improved over the past year. Local Clear Channel management have been pretty aggresive in building this station, as they carry local programming, offer podcasts and seem to do some promotion of the station around town. See what happens when management actually does something with a station besides ignore it?

Across the state, WCHL in Chapel Hill perhaps fits in best with the Raleigh/Durham market (#43). The station, which carries Miller, Schultz and (for now) Franken, in addition to lots of local shows, sports programming and Air America's weekend and overnight slate of programming, superserves the Chapel Hill area, due to its limited signal that realistically only covers the western half of the market. The station's owners, Vilcom Interactive Media, have wisely chosen to target the affluent Chapel Hill area as a local station rather than trying to fight it out with the Raleigh stations. In short, they are a no-show in the marketwide ratings book, and it doesn't really matter. WCHL is one of those stations that doesn't really cater to ratings.

In Memphis (#49), Entercom-owned WWTQ has recently taken on the call letters from its New Orleans sister station, WSMB. Unfortunately, they did not take this opportunity to update (or even clean up) their outrageously ugly and outdated website. I mean, just look at that hideous logo! And I'm sure their on-air presentation isn't too impressive either. It's a shame, since this station really puts out some serious power, with a 10,000 watt daytime signal that reaches parts of six states (not that tough in Memphis, however) and as far as Little Rock and Tupelo. Unfortunately, it's a neglected station. While they did at one time put up a few billboards and even make a few bumper stickers, the station has obviously been neglected as of late. WSMB comes in with a 0.5 share, tied with something called "Family Values Radio" (if you consider Neal Boortz, Bill Bennett and a bunch of advice shows to be 'family values'). Ironically, they are both tied for #2 in the market as far as talk radio is concerned. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. As for other stations in the market, the most successful ones are targeted toward African-Americans, which make up almost half the market population. Hopefully, Entercom gets their act together and gives this station the attention it deserves. Then again, the same company did do a half-assed job with the original WSMB, and is horribly neglecting WWKB in Buffalo. On the other hand, they're not doing too bad with KCTC in Sacramento or WROC in Rochester.

In the West Virginia/Kentucky border market of Huntington/Ashland (#156), WCMI, which assumed the liberal talk format of sister station WRVC a few months ago and expanded on it, enjoyed an actual presence in the fall ratings book, going from virtually no listeners under its previous sports format to a 0.9, edging out WRVC, which holds at a 0.6. This station flip seems to have worked, as it seperates the sports programming of the two low-powered AM stations and gives a 24/7 clearance to liberal talk in the market. So far, it seems to be paying off.

In the next and last installment of this series of reports, we'll take a look at the upper East Coast and the Northeastern United States, from Pennsylvania to Main. Look for that tomorrow.

Memphis to get Air America affiliate

Jerry Springer is not coming to Memphis radio -- at least not yet -- but Al Franken is. Franken, the former Saturday Night Live comedian who made a splash last year with his book about Fox News, will be featured on a new AM format starting Friday.

Entercom Memphis will change the call letters of radio station WJCE-680AM on Friday, and will launch a liberal talk radio format under the name Progressive Talk 680 WWTQ-AM, broadcasting the Air America Radio network.

Operations manager Jerry Dean says the station will go with the Air America format for the first few months, but hopes to add a live morning show thereafter. The station has not decided who will host that show, Dean says.

The station's new format will offer current political topics, social activists, occasional comical twists and "a creative approach to liberal talk by the best artists available," he says. It also will offer local news, weather and traffic.

(It should be noted that this is the second Entercom-owned station to flip to liberal talk. Entercom also owns WROC-AM in Rochester, NY.)