On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 14:37:21 -0500, Rich Wood
wrote:

When I look back on it, we never should have pitched the stations in
the first place, though we never expected them to be so squeamish
about issues that were important to young people asking about sex in
an age of AIDS. They'd never get the information they need on a Salem
station. It's just policy. Kids with raging hormones will be told to
abstain.

There's a good reason Salem runs mostly its own programs on its
"conservative talk" stations (a la KRLA/L.A., and WHK/1420 here in
Ohio)...they have control over the content. They know what they're
getting...and they don't have to worry about the hosts being in line
with the corporate philosophy.

That may explain why even a very compatible show - ABC Radio's Sean
Hannity - is not carried by the aforementioned WHK/1420 in Cleveland.
Hannity is basically not cleared in Cleveland. Clear Channel has only
one talk station in the market - WTAM/1100 - which has established
local talk and sports programming and would only be able to clear him
late at night or on weekends. (They run local sports, either PBP or
talk, until at least 11 PM most nights.)

CC does clear Sean Hannity, with some success in the ratings, on
Akron's WHLO/640, but the station does not reach the majority of the
Cleveland market and makes no effort to target Cleveland.

So, you'd assume WHK would jump at the chance at clearing Hannity,
right? We still can't figure this one out...there may be clearance
issues regarding WHLO's signal in parts of the market.

Salem does carry one prominent non-Salem show on some of its stations
(Dallas, Chicago) - TRN's Michael Savage. If they're worried about
lack of control of the product, one would think they'd not even come
close to Savage...

Mike