"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.

"Gary Schnabl" wrote in message
...

"David" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 4 May 2005 17:49:55 -0400, "Gary Schnabl"
wrote:

The
power brokers in many markets in the radio biz apparnetly don't care to
jump
onto AA, even though there are abundant facilities available for the
right
formatting fit. AA doesn't appear to fit in, and its revenue producing
and
prior accounts payable history also speak for themselves.

Near half the Air America affiliates are owned by Clear Channel.

Nobody brokers more power than they do.

The financial worth of the super conglomerates is not what was once
imagined, and many stations are now on the chopping block at Viacom.

Viacom decided it was not worth the effort to be in markets outside the top
20. this is because about 40% of all radio revenue is in the first 20
markets, so the big money is made there. It takes as much time to supervise
a station in Palm springs as one in LA. But the payoff is about 30 or 40
times higher in LA:

It
costs CC next to nothing to provide AA's programming, and a little of
something is better than a lot of nothing.

AA provides AA's programming. Clear Channel puts it on stations. It costs
money to run them... the LA affiliate must cost $100 thousand a month or
more to run.

Gary Schnabl wrote:

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?


Springer did prostitutes, not other people's shows.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...
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 Limbaugh went national, he started with 58 stations, and WTDY in south
central WI where I lived was one of them. So I listened the first day and
was surprised how popular he instantly became in the People's Republic of
Madison.


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.

I'm sure that some ratings were done in order to ascertain if any listener
erosion occurred during the fairly long time that Rush was away. Ratings
don't always have to come from Arbitron.

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.

It sounds like you're making excuses why AA isn't doing as well as hoped.
Besides, The left coast is strongly blue, relatively. Conservative talk does
well nearly everywhere, even in strongly blue country. Otherwise they
wouldn't command all those hundreds of outlets. Delayed rebroadcasts of Art
Bell and Noury probably outdo AA.

DE & GS,

AA's biggest foe for a slice of the "Talk Radio" Pie
is not Rush Limbaugh, it is 1200+ 'local' NPR Stations
and their "Soft Message" {Enlightened} Liberal Programming.
NPR has a Long Term Listenership {Generational} that goes
back for many more years then Rush Limbaugh has been on
the Air with his "Stick".

"RHF" wrote in message
ups.com...
DE & GS,

AA's biggest foe for a slice of the "Talk Radio" Pie
is not Rush Limbaugh, it is 1200+ 'local' NPR Stations
and their "Soft Message" {Enlightened} Liberal Programming.
NPR has a Long Term Listenership {Generational} that goes
back for many more years then Rush Limbaugh has been on
the Air with his "Stick".
.
and that's my opinion ~ RHF

Who knows? Maybe AA will take a page from NPR's book and start begging for
money...

"Gary Schnabl" wrote in message
...

"RHF" wrote in message
ups.com...
DE & GS,

AA's biggest foe for a slice of the "Talk Radio" Pie
is not Rush Limbaugh, it is 1200+ 'local' NPR Stations
and their "Soft Message" {Enlightened} Liberal Programming.
NPR has a Long Term Listenership {Generational} that goes
back for many more years then Rush Limbaugh has been on
the Air with his "Stick".
.
and that's my opinion ~ RHF

Who knows? Maybe AA will take a page from NPR's book and start begging for
money...

Why? By most reports, they are profitable already.

GS & DE,

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
om...
Who knows? Maybe AA will take a page from NPR's book and start begging
for
money...

Why? By most reports, they are profitable already.

Relax, David. It's a joke! Don't you just love fund drives?

In article ,
Gary Schnabl wrote:

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
m...
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 Limbaugh went national, he started with 58 stations, and WTDY in south
central WI where I lived was one of them. So I listened the first day and
was surprised how popular he instantly became in the People's Republic of
Madison.


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.

I'm sure that some ratings were done in order to ascertain if any listener
erosion occurred during the fairly long time that Rush was away. Ratings
don't always have to come from Arbitron.

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.

It sounds like you're making excuses why AA isn't doing as well as hoped.
Besides, The left coast is strongly blue, relatively. Conservative talk does
well nearly everywhere, even in strongly blue country. Otherwise they
wouldn't command all those hundreds of outlets. Delayed rebroadcasts of Art
Bell and Noury probably outdo AA.




The red/blue thing is a fiction. The "most red" states" (UT and NV I
think) voted 1/3 for Kerry. Given that a popular radio show gets a
couple percent of the population to listen the pool is plenty big
enough for all flavors of opinion, even is a "red" state.

--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.