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(Most) Premiere talkers homeless in Boston

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Full new WMEX lineup is now posted on their site and no Premiere/iHeart talkers are among them. We know WRKO is dropping Rush and WMEX won't pick him up. Beck and
Hannity will disappear from WMEX in days, meaning Premiere will not have any daily talk shows in town--other than Coast to Coast overnights on WRKO, which also runs
Bill Cunningham Sun nights I believe. At one time what was then Clear Channel had their own station to run these shows, WXKS 1200, but now these daily shows other than C2C
will not have a Boston home.
WMEX will have Joe Ligotti at 6 am, Herald Radio at 10, Bill Keeler at noon, Michele McPhee at 3, Tim Constatine's Capitol Hill Show at 6 (has been on before, and Savage at 9.
Overnights are CFR (Cluster F--- Radio), Bob Levy and Holeshot Radio

http://www.1510wmex.com/

Anyone who wants to hear shows like Rush, Hannity or Beck can try, if you can pick them up WHJJ 920 Providence, WXTK 95.1 Cape Cod, WGIR 610 Manchester NH and WTAG 580/94.9 Worcester
 
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Oscar Madison said:
And there's that little thing called The Internet. IHeartRadio even has an app for that.
Click to expand...

Sure, but how many people really listen to any radio online. I have an example. Recently I was looking at the Facebook Page for the K-LOVE network. There are many messages posted to their page from people who are and I quote "devastated" because K-LOVE was off the air in both Rochester, New York and Westerly, Rhode Island. And that they were having issues for a few hours in Hartford. - KLOVE has an online stream that people can listen to in Rochester and Westerly while the station is off the air.

Point 2. Not all, but a lot of the people who listen to Rush are in the 65-Death demographic. While some in that demo may have a computer, smart phone, etc to listen online, the vast majority do not.
 
The vast majority of Rush listeners don't have a computer? Why is he always hawking those PC backup services like Lifelock?

Now you are being ridiculous.
 
MarcB said:
Sure, but how many people really listen to any radio online. I have an example. Recently I was looking at the Facebook Page for the K-LOVE network. There are many messages posted to their page from people who are and I quote "devastated" because K-LOVE was off the air in both Rochester, New York and Westerly, Rhode Island. And that they were having issues for a few hours in Hartford. - KLOVE has an online stream that people can listen to in Rochester and Westerly while the station is off the air.

Point 2. Not all, but a lot of the people who listen to Rush are in the 65-Death demographic. While some in that demo may have a computer, smart phone, etc to listen online, the vast majority do not.
Click to expand...


Reply to Point 1:
More than half of Americans ages 12 and older have listened to online radio in the past month, according to 2015 survey data from Edison Research – a clear indication that online listening continues to move rapidly into the consumer mainstream. Pew Research - State of the News Media 2015
Click to expand...

Reply to Point 2:
Six in ten seniors now go online, and just under half are broadband adopters. Pew Research - Adults and Technology Use
Click to expand...
Besides, everybody who can read this has Internet access and can listen to Rush (if they want).
 
Oscar Madison said:
More than half of Americans ages 12 and older have listened to online radio in the past month, according to 2015 survey data from Edison Research – a clear indication that online listening continues to move rapidly into the consumer mainstream. Pew Research - State of the News Media 2015
Click to expand...

But that doesn't mean they're listening to traditional radio shows online. What that poll includes in "radio" is online music services like Pandora and Spotify, which have replaced downloading or purchasing of music. So the poll explains why music sales continue to decline, but doesn't mean that people are likely to listen to traditional shows like Rush or Hannity online. Although they're available as streams and podcasts.
 
Rush may charge for podcasts; streaming is prob free via iHeart feeds of his stations like WHYN. Howie now charging for podcasts though there are ways elsewhere to get them free (with the original ads) and he has a phone number people can call anytime to hear a stream of the show; those whose smartphones have unlimited minutes can enjoy without huge data charges.

Some people enjoy podcasts of Net only talk shows, like WTF with Marc Maron, Stu's Show with Stu Shostak etc.
 
MarcB said:
Point 2. Not all, but a lot of the people who listen to Rush are in the 65-Death demographic. While some in that demo may have a computer, smart phone, etc to listen online, the vast majority do not.
Click to expand...

While, like any other individual, my sample will mostly be of people I come into contact with and thus not a real cross-section, I find that just about every "over-65" person I come into contact with are very Internet savvy when it comes to smartphone usage. In fact, those who can't use the web are the unusual, exceptional seniors.

There are many reasons for increased Internet literacy among the over-65's, starting with grandchildren (I know a number of folks who have had their grandkids teach them things like FaceTime so they could chat), staying in touch with other retirees who have moved to different places, security, finding music they like, checking finances conveniently, etc.

And I see large numbers of older folks with tablets... most cable providers now let you "watch" online too, and it's very convenient to hold a tablet while sitting on the porch or to prop one up while puttering in the garage. I suppose that I could make snide remarks about how that helps pass the time when you are on life support, but today's geezers are a lot more active and tech savvy than you give them credit for.
 
TheBigA said:
But that doesn't mean they're listening to traditional radio shows online. What that poll includes in "radio" is online music services like Pandora and Spotify, which have replaced downloading or purchasing of music. So the poll explains why music sales continue to decline, but doesn't mean that people are likely to listen to traditional shows like Rush or Hannity online. Although they're available as streams and podcasts.
Click to expand...

Maybe. Maybe not. But they CAN listen to "traditional radio shows online" if they want. Anyone who can listen to Pandora, can listen to Rush. If the local terrestrial station drops him, he's still available.

The first of the Baby Boomers turn 70 next year. Senior seniors may not want to deal with new technology but Baby Boomers are used to it. Senior seniors are from an era when only secretaries touched keyboards. Research was done with library books. And spreadsheets were spreadsheets. Baby Boomers have been using computers in the work place (including keyboards) for some 30 years. And they've been online since Compu$erve (and others) launched that long ago. Compu$erve was one of Rush's sponsors more than 20 years ago (he even met one of his wives, a younger and thrice married aerobics instructor, in a Compu$erve chat room - which seems sort of creepy).
 
Oscar Madison said:
Maybe. Maybe not. But they CAN listen to "traditional radio shows online" if they want. Anyone who can listen to Pandora, can listen to Rush. If the local terrestrial station drops him, he's still available.
Click to expand...

Exactly...I'm just responding to the specifics of the poll. People CAN do lots of things. But they CHOOSE to do what's easy and familiar. Taking Rush off broadcast radio moves the cheese a bit. Requires some creative thinking. Like the other thread, where when Rush changed affiliates, half of the listeners stayed with the previous station. In this case, it wouldn't surprise me to see the same thing happen...Rush leaves and they audience stays, regardless of the replacement.
 
The bottom line is that Rush's show just isn't very good anymore. It used to be cutting edge. Now he just reads off the Drudge Report. He is mailing it in. Sean Hannity's show is basically the same as it always was, it hasn't gone down the tubes like Rush has.
 
TheBigA said:
Exactly...I'm just responding to the specifics of the poll. People CAN do lots of things. But they CHOOSE to do what's easy and familiar. Taking Rush off broadcast radio moves the cheese a bit. Requires some creative thinking. Like the other thread, where when Rush changed affiliates, half of the listeners stayed with the previous station. In this case, it wouldn't surprise me to see the same thing happen...Rush leaves and they audience stays, regardless of the replacement.
Click to expand...

That suggests half the audience listens to the station, not to Rush (or any host). And if, Rush disappears from terrestrial airwaves, maybe more than half keep listening to the station. Maybe Rush isn't really the draw conventional wisdom assumes, and maybe he's not worth the money stations pay for him.

The class acts depart before being asked to depart. Including, now, Letterman and Scheiffer. Which suggests Rush will hang on for dear life until he drops, with few stations and less bucks in his paycheck. In denial about his irrelevance.
 
TheBigA said:
ike the other thread, where when Rush changed affiliates, half of the listeners stayed with the previous station.
Click to expand...

The facts do not support that contention. There is no evidence that half of the Rush listeners from WABC stayed at WABC.

The only fact is that, on WOR, the listening levels to Rush started off at half the level they had been at when the show was on WABC.

Some listeners from WABC may have moved to WOR. Some may not have known about the change. Some may have just been part of the normal ebb and flow of any station's listeners. They might be all-new listeners. We can only guess where they came from, why there were not as many after the move and such.

The most likely reasons why Rush declined are lack of promotion and a lack of a good lead in and follow through program on the same station.
 
Probably a fair percentage of Rush's former listeners are tuned into that great radio station in the sky listening to Joe Pyne, Wally George and Bob Grant.
 
TheBigA said:
However, the exact same thing happened in three different cities.
Click to expand...

And weren't all cases similar in that there was nearly no promotion and the new station had a lesser signal?
 
DavidEduardo said:
And weren't all cases similar in that there was nearly no promotion and the new station had a lesser signal?
Click to expand...

Rush himself told his audience on the air that he was moving. No better promotion than to have the host say he's going someplace else.

And signal isn't an issue with WOR.
 
TheBigA said:
Rush himself told his audience on the air that he was moving. No better promotion than to have the host say he's going someplace else.

And signal isn't an issue with WOR.
Click to expand...

There was certainly not much KFI promotion of the change of Rush to 1150 AM... which has a considerably (understatement) inferior signal to KFI.

While WOR is probably the best directional clear in NYC, it is deficient in the New York state suburbs to the north and in some of the northern and western New Jersey counties that are in the WOR nulls. But probably not a significant enough difference to be a game changer.

Which was the third station change being referred to?
 
DavidEduardo said:


While, like any other individual, my sample will mostly be of people I come into contact with and thus not a real cross-section, I find that just about every "over-65" person I come into contact with are very Internet savvy when it comes to smartphone usage. In fact, those who can't use the web are the unusual, exceptional seniors.
Click to expand...


Again, not a study, just an anecdote. I'd say people who between 65 and 70, very likely had to learn at least minimal Internet skills for their work - Seniors over 75 are less likely to be online at all, and very unlikely to use music streaming services.
 
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