The post-Franken shuffle, Part 2

Though yesterday was the last day of "The Al Franken Show," his individual affiliates are still adjusting their on-air rosters as they carry on toward the future.

Last week, a few stations announced their intentions as to what they would carry. Today, there's a few more.

Two stations that will not be a part of the future of liberal talk include KCTC in Sacramento, which has officially announced their pending flip to sports effective February 26. As reported earlier, KFPT in Fresno will be sold, and will likely be flipped to sports once the sale is approved in early Spring. In the interim, they will likely fill their schedule with whatever Air America Radio is offering in the time slot, which starting Monday will be Thom Hartmann.

In Rochester, WROC moves Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes into live afternoon slots, followed by a simulcast of WROC-TV's evening news (WROC-TV is seperately owned), followed by Rachel Maddow until 8PM. The station adds Democracy Now from 8-9PM, followed by two hours of Lionel and a simulcast of WROC-TV's late news. Lionel gets a replay for the late-night hours.

Air America gains a new affiliate as WWKB in Buffalo gives Rhodes a live clearance for her afternoon show, following Schultz. Miller's morning show gets an evening replay. The station's schedule is still in a state of flux, as they seem to have four hours of airtime (currently devoted to replays) to fill. Look for more additions (hopefully) soon. Local (or at least somewhat local) talker Leslie Marshall is no longer there, due to budget cuts, and is currently exploring other opportunities.

At KPOJ in Portland, Sam Seder fans will be elated to find out that his show is added from 9AM-noon (which will likely piss off Ed Schultz, who is still on a delay from noon-3PM). Not only that, but Seder also gets a weeknight replay, from 6-9PM. This move sounds very temporary, and they're promising more changes to come. The station has been rumored to be working on a deal to pick up Mike Malloy's show, possibly for the evening timeslot.

WCHL in Chapel Hill, NC moves Schultz live to the 12-3PM shift, followed by Randi Rhodes live.

Hartmann will get a few new affiliates, as he is added to San Diego's KLSD, Denver's KKZN, Los Angeles' KTLK and WNYY in Ithaca, NY live effective today. He'll also be on Washington, DC's WWRC. KABQ in Albuquerque, and Miami's WINZ on delay, following Ed Schultz. WPEK in Asheville, NC will also add Hartmann, starting next week.

WXXM in Madison is going live with much of their new schedule. Schultz gets a live clearance, followed by Rhodes and Maddow live. Hartmann is added for nights.

Quite a few stations have not announced what they are doing, either over the air or on their websites. Actually, it looks like some stations have forgotten they even have websites, as they are horribly outdated. Unless Jerry Springer is still doing a radio show and we just don't know about it.

Finally, Armed Forces Radio will replace Franken's show with that of even more inoffensive Alan Colmes. They also air Schultz' show, or at least an hour of it (as they tend to do with most talk programming). Which begs the question - why does AFN carry talk shows in the first place? Quite frankly, if I were currently serving in the military overseas, I'd rather listen to music. But I guess that's just me.

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.

Radio stations do the post-Franken shuffle

Latest update 2/13

Following the announcement last week of Al Franken's pending departure from Air America Radio, stations carrying him have begun making plans for the post-Franken era.

So far, KTNF, WROC and KYNS have announced some or all of their schedule changes, with Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz being the big beneficiaries.

Starting February 19, Randi Rhodes fans in Chicago will be pleased as WCPT will give her a live clearance, from 2-5PM weekdays, in place of the delayed Franken. The nine-hour morning-early afternoon bloc of JRN programming, featuring Bill Press, Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz remains unchanged. Following Rhodes will be a delay of Thom Hartmann's show. Since WCPT is a daytime-only station, the station signs off at sunset. However, they do program their webstream during the off-air hours. And with this, they'll add Mike Malloy live from 8-11PM, giving Malloy another stream for his fans to hear him. In addition, as the warmer months and longer days of summer approach, Chicago area listeners will be able to hear the early part of his show on 850AM until sign-off.

At KPHX in Phoenix, Franken is gone from the schedule as of next Monday (2/11). The station will Hartmann live in middays, followed by Rhodes, Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy and a delayed airing of Miller's show in the late night hours. The station fills out the overnight/early morning hours with EcoTalk, Rachel Maddow and Bill Press.

WPEK in Asheville, NC has acknowledged Franken's departure, but the well-rated daytime-only station has made no scheduling announcements. It is very likely that the two hour shift currently allocated to Franken will be turned over to Rhodes, who is currently on for only the following hour.

Franken is almost completely gone from the schedule of WNYY in Ithaca, NY. They are carrying Hartmann live in the midday slot. Although the station carries Press and Miller, they do not air Schultz' show, which airs on WENY (1230AM) in nearby Elmira.

Portland's KPOJ hasn't set their lineup yet, but are taking suggestions on their website. Same goes for WROC in Rochester, which will move Schultz into the live slot being vacated. KPTK in Seattle will move Rhodes into Franken's delayed 5-8PM shift, followed by Malloy from 8-11PM. No word on the 11PM-2AM shift being vacated.

Nothing is really known about KOKE in Austin. The sole remainder of the Texas Pro Radio network, which once had stations in San Antonio and Dallas has a website that is currently under construction, and rumors abound that they will move away from syndicated programming, including Air America, and add more local liberal talk voices. We'll keep you posted on further changes. As for other liberal talk stations in Texas, they don't seem to be taking the format seriously. KCCT in Corpus Christi does not have a website, and has reportedly preempted Air America shows with infomercials. They do, however, carry some local talk shows. And KHRO in El Paso, which had been rumored to be dropping the network a few months back, is still airing it (allegedly). Their website consists solely of a link to Air America Radio.

WVAX in Charlottesville, VA is carrying Hartmann in place of Franken. They also air Rhodes and Maddow live, followed by an evening delayed broadcast of Schultz in the evenings. The station carries quite a bit of live programming, as it also airs Mark Riley, Press and Miller in the mornings and Lionel at night.

WKVT in Brattleboro, VT will replace their delayed airing of Franken with a delayed airing of Miller, from 7-10PM ET.

And KTNF in the Twin Cities, which last week announced that they would move Hartmann to afternoons and add Rachel Maddow to the roster, responds to listeners' demands and adds a delay of Malloy's show to the 12-3AM shift, starting February 19.

Denver's KKZN will carry Hartmann, and the relatively successful station is also looking to add another local host, in addition to current morning talker Jay Marvin.

WMLB in Atlanta, which carried the entire Air America feed under its former WWAA call letters and retained only Franken after a format change last year, will not replace his show with any other Air America programming.

Over at XM, Schultz will be moved over to the Air America Channel (ch. 167), meaning that Thom Hartmann will not be cleared, at least not live, by the satellite radio provider. Whether this has something to do with Hartmann's deal with and (partial) clearance on Sirius Left is unknown. And whether this will ruffle feathers with Air America, who currently have an exclusive deal with XM, is also unknown. And then there's that vague "Malloy coming to XM" rumor...

As for other stations that are still carrying Franken, including the few remaining stations that carry the straight Air America feed, it is likely that they will just carry his replacement, Hartmann in that slot. Some stations could go with Schultz, who airs at the same time.