Tag: WLS

Why WLS in Chicago has a 1.9 Share

50,000 watts.  Major League Baseball.  And the ratings are shit. You might ask why?  I believe I have the answer. When breaking news (or weather) happens, people are looking for information.  People that may never have listened to a station are tuning in wanting to know what’s happening around them. Think back almost 15 years…

Radio Industry’s Fake Outrage Over KGO

People are outraged.  People are sad.  People are in shock.  People are now, finally, speaking up over the execution of one of America’s former great and “heritage” stations, KGO-AM in San Francisco. Why now?  What happened last week to KGO has been happening to radio stations, personalities, talk hosts, support personnel and news staffs for…

AM “Revitalization” Destroying AM Radio

Bob Pittman, the head of iHeart Media, said this when announcing the company’s name change from Clear Channel Media + Entertainment. I can’t imagine former Clear Channel CEO Randy Michaels ever saying something like this. Ouch. It’s going on three years since the Federal Communication Commission (F.C.C.) announced plans for “AM Revitalization.”  Then, late last year, the…

Rush Limbaugh’s Fall Into Oblivion

In reality I’m a humble sort and “not that kind of guy.”  So… Today’s talk radio, as we know it, is fast fading into the sunset because of a format stuck with 1990’s rhetoric, each day addressing topics few care about.  A constant right-wing political drumbeat that no longer resonates.  A format where its practitioners…

iHeartMedia – Great Move! But, Gone are “Clear Channel” and AM Radio

Well I guess radio station lobbies will need some new signage! The name Clear Channel has been thrown on the heap of now gone radio companies.  Jacor, AM/FM, Taft, Citicasters, Citadel, Clear Channel.  All gone.  We’ll now only get to remember the “good old days” of Clear Channel, just like when we watch the DVD…

Ratings Disaster: Ignore It. Talk Radio Hoping It Goes Away

A few years ago, a talk host at a very “Big” (hint ONE) radio station told me, “I just want another 20 years.”  My reply, “20 years?  You’ve got 5.” I’m an optimistic guy by nature.  I always think positive, maybe to a fault.  I’m also a realist and a competitive son-of-a-bitch who has no…