Beginning of the end of WSB?

beachguy3b said:

ArtyBoy said:

We can say various people aren't as good as Neal Boortz, but are we talking about Neal Boortz today, or the Boortz who joined Ring Radio in the `70's?

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In my case, I think Boortz will be remembered for him as he goes out, at close to his peak of skill. No one remembers those first days, and relative to "how good was he" they don't matter. That's like asking how good Chipper Jones was in the minor leagues.

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Right, but I'm saying, Boortz had over 20 years to grow into the job, and now we're discussing potential replacements as though they should be at that level in the first five minutes. Anyone will have to break into the job.

beachguy3b said:

ArtyBoy said:

We can say various people aren't as good as Neal Boortz, but are we talking about Neal Boortz today, or the Boortz who joined Ring Radio in the `70's?

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In my case, I think Boortz will be remembered for him as he goes out, at close to his peak of skill. No one remembers those first days, and relative to "how good was he" they don't matter. That's like asking how good Chipper Jones was in the minor leagues.

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No doubt nobody will be as good as Boortz out of the box...you can't find 40 years of talk radio talent ANYWHERE anymore. But is Herman Cain in it for the long haul? Is Cox in it with Cain? Or is Cain the "interim pastor" at the Church of the Painful Truth? Maybe Cox will start trying out talent in smaller markets and see who works out.

Firebird said:

Does WSB look at WGST's Rusty Humphries or Dave Merlino as possible replacements? Would they consider Mark Arum? Or, Wes Minter, where ever he may be today. Chances are that WSB is looking at talent all over the country, including over at The Building of Death.

And, with Johnny Isakson not running for a third term in 2014, will WSB be going through this again assuming Clark Howard decides to run for the US Senate?

And, with Missy Wolf running things at The Building of Death, there won't be a local host replacing Glenn Beck any time soon, let alone a stronger FM signal for WGST.

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I am sure Cox is considering Humphries. But that's about it talent-wise in the Building of Death, with WGST's dependence on syndication. All of WGST's best home-growns over the past 2 decades--Boortz, Howard, Hannity, Ralph from Ben Hill, the Kimmer--are all long gone. I don't think WSB would bring themselves to hiring back Kim Peterson, for a variety of reasons.

Interestingly, Cox's dependence on syndication in other markets has left no one to come to the Mother Ship.

Will Clark Howard finally pull the trigger and run for public office? He keeps toying with ATL Mayor. He probably could run for Senate.

Herman Cain replacing Boortz will once again. Proving the old saying "You never want to be the one who follows a legend, ou want to be the one who follows the one who follows a legend."

That being said, anyone want to take bets as to whether the Herman Cain post-Boortz era will last longer than the David Lee Roth post-Stern era? (Yes, I know I'm completely contradicting my desire earlier in this thread not to compare Boortz to Stern - but face it, in any talk format, replacing a big name is a daunting task.)

ArtyBoy said:

beachguy3b said:

ArtyBoy said:

We can say various people aren't as good as Neal Boortz, but are we talking about Neal Boortz today, or the Boortz who joined Ring Radio in the `70's?

Click to expand...

In my case, I think Boortz will be remembered for him as he goes out, at close to his peak of skill. No one remembers those first days, and relative to "how good was he" they don't matter. That's like asking how good Chipper Jones was in the minor leagues.

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Right, but I'm saying, Boortz had over 20 years to grow into the job, and now we're discussing potential replacements as though they should be at that level in the first five minutes. Anyone will have to break into the job.

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The problem with that is that WSB doesn't have 20 years- or 2 years- for someone to grow into the job. Let's not lose sight of the fact that Cain is 66 years old- 8 months younger than Boortz. Regardless of whether WSB considers this a long-term solution or not, reality is that it will, indeed, be short term. Herman doesn't have time to grow into it. And again, as a disclaimer, I will remind again that I am a fan of the man. I just don't know if he will bring the entertainment factor they need.

Let's also not lose sight of the fact that WSB is mainly seen as an AM station. Yep, they have NOW 95.5 also, but they won't have the time nor ability to scramble the way a music station will. I'm pulling for them to continue, but I am also more than aware of the headwinds they will face.

beachguy3b said:

The problem with that is that WSB doesn't have 20 years- or 2 years- for someone to grow into the job.

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WSB or the industry period (as we know it) may not have 20 years. So I think there's not necessarily any job to grow into period. Cox's move with Herman Cain I think is similar to Cumulus' with Mike Huckabee. The era of grooming personalities like a Rush, Boortz, or even other personalities on a somewhat smaller scale with a long track record like a Dennis Prager may be over.

taylorengineer said:

Atlanta's population has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The last stats I have seen show over half the metro population has been here less than 15 years. There really is no "legacy" station in Atlanta if you're from Michigan.
Also remember that Cox almost let WSB fall into the dumper back in the 80's. The "giant" may be awakened but will it be able to get out of bed.........!!??
WSB has offered a good product up until now. But all goods and services necessarily evolve (or go away) as the consumer's desires and needs change. Does Cox have the programming horsepower to make the correct calls now that Bob Neil has left the building?
As I said earlier, the recent WSB hires do not bode well for WSB's continued success. Everyone knows what's at stake here and how important WSB, and it's revenue, is to Cox. IMHO they have not put together a farm club with the right talent for future challenges.
If they fire Capt'n Herb and Kirk Melluish to save a few pennies I will be able to safely delete them from my presets. For some reason I suspect that is coming soon. I hope I'm wrong.......

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While this is a radio board, one cannot help but notice WSB-TV is also losing Monica this July, I notice channel 2 is running lots of segues with Monica bragging about her 37 years re-introducing anchors like Jovita Moore, Justin Farmer (where is daddy Don and mommy Chris these days?), and Glenn Burns. My sister who left Atlanta in 1993 and has lived in NYC since always makes comments about how everyone on channel 2 is "old and has been on the air since you were a baby and I was in elementary school". Clark Howard is also a fixture on channel 2, if he goes, without Monica, Glenn Burns and Clark, what will become of channel 2?

I wonder if Cox is noticing that us lifelong Atlanta residents are indeed, becoming fewer and fewer as we age, move out of the area and yes, even die off? Are they planning accordingly? It's not just radio on their minds I'm sure as they pay dearly for talent like Monica, Boortz and Clark Howard. Can they replace them with talent they can afford that produce numbers and satisfy us "legacy residents" as well as all the move-ins?

The next couple of years will be interesting indeed. I still live in the same neighborhood I did as a kid, I plan on being here till I can't breathe anymore. We came here in 1977 from Louisville, KY. Since then, I've slowly watched all the families I grew up with leave. I think out of the 38 homes, only about 15 or so "original" family names still show up on the tax records. So this is certainly true about the changing demos of the metro Atlanta area.

Keep in mind that WSB-TV has replaced John Pruitt and Chuck Dowdle with hardly a blip in the ratings. And the newscasts on which Jovita Moore has replaced Monica are doing just fine.

This comment is actually not a reference directly to any of the younger replacement peeps, but if you replace quality with quality, you do well. Jovita is a good anchor, for example. And she is familiar. If they find good people to replace the retiring ones, they'll be fine. But they cannot ignore the reputation for quality. I watched another large market, dominant station in the midwest do that, and now they are horrendous and cheap.

I'm a Republican and like Hannity and Cain. WSB now is better than when it was a left leaning station ;D

I agree, Big Dave. How could you possibly create a worse lineup than David Paul and Mike Malloy!!??
I have never understood the "David Paul" thing.......

taylorengineer said:

I agree, Big Dave. How could you possibly create a worse lineup than David Paul and Mike Malloy!!??
I have never understood the "David Paul" thing.......

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There isn't a worse lineup!