"Gary Schnabl" wrote in message
...

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...
There are very few good, competitive AM signals in the US that are not
already utilized in a good manner and quite profitable. In fact, most
markets have only a couple of full market AM signals (DC has none, for
example) and these are uniformly committed to a profitable format.

What is left is the mid to lower tier of staitons, many of which are more
profitable in ethnic or religious programming than they could be, given
the
signal-to-ratings expectations as a competitive talker.

AA doesn't appear to fit in, and its revenue producing and
prior accounts payable history also speak for themselves.

They had one bad two-month period at start up. they changed management
and
got a more solid backer than the guys from Guam. They are on a firm
foundation now.

Let's take Limbaugh, for example, when he started 17 years ago. He had 58
outlets to begin with in an uncharted sea of AM stations with an unproven
format - and daytime at that.

Limbaugh started out on one station, KFBK in Sacramento. At that point, he
developed and went into business with his then-partner to form EIB and do
barter syndication. This was not new, with both talk and barter going back
to Bill Ballance (early 70's out of KGBS-LA) and Joe Pyne at KABC and
others.

Daytime, of course, has been radio's prime time since the early 50's. Trying
to do Limbaugh at night would have been a challenge!

AA still has fewer outlets than Limbaugh
started with.

You can not have fewer than 1. EIB started with zero, and built out of that.

When you consider the added alternative distractions that
didn't exist 17 years ago, he's still doing very well.

He is very entertaining. So is Paul Harvey, and he is still the most
listened toperson on rado.

And it's also not all due to Limbaugh. When he's away, the ratings for
that
program still hold up for his replacement hosts. While he was away for
some
time due to his problem(s), the listeners were still there, I've heard.
Maybe you have the ratings for those weeks. If so, make mention of them.

Ratings are not done by week or month. They are quarterly.

A sidebar - Does it really matter who's at the helm for the particular AA
shows for a particular time slot? Would it matter if the ex-mayor of Cincy
did Franken's show or vice versa, for example?

Probably. Talk radio is about talent and entertainment, not content.

However, the real question is how well would AA do in the solid red areas
of
the nation that do not have an occasional oasis of blue, such as the
Research Triangle in North Carolina or Austin TX? The conservative
programs
draw well in the traditionally blue areas that are also good radio
markets.
Why doesn't AA have an actual edge in their "own" backyards?

First, it is too new. Second, it is on mostly horrible signals. In places
like Portland (where it is on Oregon's best signal) it does great.