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Los Angeles Radio Ratings: October 2023

ChannelFlipper said:
Plus his show was oversold like crazy leading to 10+ minute stopsets. Even die-hard fans won't sit through that.
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It was not oversold. In fact, it sold very little nationally as few national advertisers would go within a mile of it.

The show had local breaks, which were timed to "whenever Stern wanted to go to a break". Sometimes two breaks met together, for over 10 minutes of ads. There was no structure in a formal sense, and Stern would drag subjects out across multiple quarter hours, and lots of people would get to work or their destination and never hear the end of each segment.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Uh, not really. Rush at the end was still on over 600 stations , although not getting the same ratings he once did, was an integral part of the many stations he was on.
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Most of them were iHeart stations, so they had no choice. Once he passed away, a big chunk of those stations went in other directions. Yes he was popular with his base. Just as Stern is now. I agree with that. Rush had a different way of looking at things and saying things. To some, that can be entertaining, but it usually wasn't funny.

ChannelFlipper said:
Tom Leykis has been off the air for decades (unless he has gigs I don't know about) and nobody will hire him for his shtick as I noted above. Comparing Rush's career with Leykis' is ludicrous in the extreme.
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Yes I know, and I acknowledged that in my post. Same would apply to The Greaseman. They did what they did in their time. My point was not that they were in any way equal. Just that they didn't have to be conservative to succeed. Two different things.
 
TheBigA said:
Most of them were iHeart stations, so they had no choice.
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iHeart only had, at the most, something like 230 AM stations*, and many were in same markets where they had two or more AMs. About three-quarters of Rush's affiliates were not iHeart stations.

Someone may have better data on this than I do right now as I try to recover from COVID.
TheBigA said:
Once he passed away, a big chunk of those stations went in other directions. Yes he was popular with his base. Just as Stern is now. I agree with that. Rush had a different way of looking at things and saying things. To some, that can be entertaining, but it usually wasn't funny.
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All it takes to be #1 in a competitive market is about one out of every 15 or so listeners or one out of every 60 to 70 people.
 
DavidEduardo said:
iHeart only had, at the most, something like 230 AM stations*, and many were in same markets where they had two or more AMs. About three-quarters of Rush's affiliates were not iHeart stations.
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Correct, but they had heritage contracts that went back many years. Heritage is very important in talk radio, as Buck & Clay have learned. They tried to glom onto the Rush mantle, and found it only goes so far.
DavidEduardo said:
All it takes to be #1 in a competitive market is about one out of every 15 or so listeners or one out of every 60 to 70 people.
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I agree and that's why talk radio remains competitive in a lot of markets. But we know who that audience is, and the clock is ticking.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Plus his show was oversold like crazy leading to 10+ minute stopsets. Even die-hard fans won't sit through that.
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Wrong rush was entertaining till the last day he was on the air. Always funny and entertaining. Even I was a Democrat I may not have liked his politics but always found him very talented and entertaining.
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
Wrong rush was entertaining till the last day he was on the air. Always funny and entertaining. Even I was a Democrat I may not have liked his politics but always found him very talented and entertaining.
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Patrick, I think you are responding to a different post. You are right, Rush was compelling radio right to the very end.
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
Wrong rush was entertaining till the last day he was on the air. Always funny and entertaining. Even I was a Democrat I may not have liked his politics but always found him very talented and entertaining.
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The word entertaining gets thrown around a lot. Some people consider George Strait entertaining. He just stands on an empty stage and sings. Yet he's won Entertainer of the Year award a bunch of time against people who do far more aggressive shows. But he's been doing it for 40 years, and nobody stands on an empty stage and sings hit songs better. So for some, he's entertaining. Maybe that applies to Rush. I just think his act wasn't as entertaining in his last ten or so years. The dead air between thoughts became longer, and the talk became more acerbic. But it's all subjective.
 
TheBigA said:
The word entertaining gets thrown around a lot. Some people consider George Strait entertaining. He just stands on an empty stage and sings. Yet he's won Entertainer of the Year award a bunch of time against people who do far more aggressive shows. But he's been doing it for 40 years, and nobody stands on an empty stage and sings hit songs better. So for some, he's entertaining. Maybe that applies to Rush. I just think his act wasn't as entertaining in his last ten or so years. The dead air between thoughts became longer, and the talk became more acerbic. But it's all subjective.
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To be fair you might be right but it is subjective. I remember the whole Monica Lewinsky bill Clinton affair and his team did this sketch of James carville and Kenneth Starr. .it was very funny.

Stephanie Miller is also funny don't like her politics but she is funny along with Bill Maher. Talented people.
 
CTListener said:
It sure is up here in the tiny Hanover/Lebanon/White River Junction market. I hear the same ads for the same local auto dealers, restaurants, furniture stores, and everything else on every station in the market-dominant Great Eastern Radio cluster -- country, classic rock, oldies, CHR and AC. They don't even customize the ads for the stations' formats. You get the same folksy ad for West Lebanon Feed & Supply on the country station and the classic rocker.
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GXL isn't CHR. And that spot would have no reason to be different on different stations.
 
MassMusicMan said:
GXL isn't CHR. And that spot would have no reason to be different on different stations.
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You're right, it's an AC. I don't listen to it much and admit that I've assumed it was a CHR because it markets itself as The Valley's Hit Music. But looking at the last hour I see Miley Cyrus and Lewis Capaldi and Olivia Rodrigo and the Zach Bryan/Kacey Musgraves collab. Yikes, what was I thinking?
 
CTListener said:
You're right, it's an AC. I don't listen to it much and admit that I've assumed it was a CHR because it markets itself as The Valley's Hit Music. But looking at the last hour I see Miley Cyrus and Lewis Capaldi and Olivia Rodrigo and the Zach Bryan/Kacey Musgraves collab. Yikes, what was I thinking?
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Reasonable misconception based on the positioning statement.

I'm just disappointed that they couldn't make rhythmic gold work. It's 2023, local advertisers. You don't have to like it, your prospective customers do. And, believe me, they do.
 
TheBigA said:
Correct, but they had heritage contracts that went back many years. Heritage is very important in talk radio, as Buck & Clay have learned. They tried to glom onto the Rush mantle, and found it only goes so far.

I agree and that's why talk radio remains competitive in a lot of markets. But we know who that audience is, and the clock is ticking.
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Today's new talk hosts are on YouTube and similar platforms. The clock isn't just ticking for radio talk hosts, it's ticking for the medium as well. Most slowly for the medium in general than it is for the radio talk hosts.
 
boombox4 said:
Today's new talk hosts are on YouTube and similar platforms. The clock isn't just ticking for radio talk hosts, it's ticking for the medium as well. Most slowly for the medium in general than it is for the radio talk hosts.
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Maybe. The internet isn't regulated, so people can say what they want there. There are lots of laws for radio. Radio is expensive, and the internet is cheap. Anyone can do a podcast or start a talk show. The issue is getting paid for it. Advertisers are hesitant to have their messages next to controversial topics. So they're pulling adds from social media. This is a problem everywhere.
 
TheBigA said:
Maybe. The internet isn't regulated, so people can say what they want there. There are lots of laws for radio. Radio is expensive, and the internet is cheap. Anyone can do a podcast or start a talk show. The issue is getting paid for it. Advertisers are hesitant to have their messages next to controversial topics. So they're pulling adds from social media. This is a problem everywhere.
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Looks like it.... some YouTuber podcasters of various stripes have complained about being demonetized and shadow banned. Obviously, some conservatives have had issues with social media, but this doesn't just apparently extend to conservatives.

I heard, on local radio KKNW 1150 AM, David Pakman's show, and he complained about being demonetized on Facebook. He also mentioned -- on his YT vid -- that he thinks he's been also shadowbanned. Apparently some other liberal and progressive podcasts have experienced the same thing, to varying degrees. Pakman's solution is to get people to go to his website. I think his YT hasn't been demonetized, though. Pakman is a progressive.

So, apparently the internet is no panacea either. Obviously, when commentators are opinionated, there is some pushback, whether by the platforms, or by advertisers, or maybe both.

Here's Pakman talking about his problem. And he's one of the people I think are the modern version of 'talk host' -- podcasters have increasingly taken those reins from radio over the past 8-10 years.
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
Absolutely not n I will go further take the soon out
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Don't go too far. Nothing is permanent in radio.

Especially for the stations I listen to. In fact it happened just again this week. Sirius XM axed one of my favorites, Deep Tracks. They kept the Phish and Dave Mathews channels. Of course I will call and complain, the nice operator will patiently indulge the nut on the other end of the phone, and nothing will happen. In the battle against progress, no matter how bad, backward, or even evil progress is, it will always win.

BTW, save the "they only moved it to the app" posts. I want to hear my station on the radio not on my phone. There is a difference, and a very big one at that.
 
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ChannelFlipper said:
Don't go too far. Nothing is permanent in radio.

Especially for the stations I listen to. In fact it happened just again this week. Sirius XM axed one of my favorites, Deep Tracks. They kept the Phish and Dave Mathews channels. Of course I will call and complain, the nice operator will patiently indulge the nut on the other end of the phone, and nothing will happen. In the battle against progress, no matter how bad, backward, or even evil progress is, it will always win.

BTW, save the "they only moved it to the app" posts. I want to hear my station on the radio not on my phone. There is a difference, and a very big one at that.
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