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Future of conservative talk radio now that Trump is President-Elect

Saga changing WNYY Ithaca NY from prog talk to oldies Feb 1.They deny it's politics but say many liberal talkers have stopped doing shows (syndie) so they don't have enough to fill a lineup. Unknown if Saga will dump prog talk on its stations in Brattleboro VT or Springfield MA.
And I guess the sister station of WNYY is conservative talk but staying with the format..
 
b-turner said:
The thing to remember is the radio and television host is presenting a well-tuned persona that is designed to attract an audience for the advertiser to get the results. Because the person is one way on the air, there may be a bit of 'acting' involved to create that personality. One station I worked, we were to speak to a 35 year old female. We were coached on this regularly. There are things my real personality would say that were not said and my slant was to speak the mind of a 35 year old female...not sure I pulled it off too well being a 28 year old guy at the time. I'm not a 'cocky' guy in real life but I played one on radio at one point per my program director's instructions. I state this because so many believe the on air persona is the person's true personality. Granted, it's really difficult to pull off something exactly opposite of your true personality, so usually the on air version has elements of reality involved. News anchors, for example, are merely reading what the producer or news director approved whether they want to or not, not to say they might argue with the producer or news director.
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Any PD who requests that you alter your on-air persoanlity to appeal to a specific demo is an idiot.

Hire what's appropriate for what you want. You don't ask a dog to act like a cat. Just dumb. Typical small-market bush-league PD move.
 
b-turner said:
The thing to remember is the radio and television host is presenting a well-tuned persona that is designed to attract an audience for the advertiser to get the results. Because the person is one way on the air, there may be a bit of 'acting' involved to create that personality. One station I worked, we were to speak to a 35 year old female. We were coached on this regularly. There are things my real personality would say that were not said and my slant was to speak the mind of a 35 year old female...not sure I pulled it off too well being a 28 year old guy at the time. I'm not a 'cocky' guy in real life but I played one on radio at one point per my program director's instructions. I state this because so many believe the on air persona is the person's true personality. Granted, it's really difficult to pull off something exactly opposite of your true personality, so usually the on air version has elements of reality involved. News anchors, for example, are merely reading what the producer or news director approved whether they want to or not, not to say they might argue with the producer or news director.
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And this is how radio consultants have ruined radio...
 
And this is how radio consultants have ruined radio...
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One station I worked, we were to speak to a 35 year old female. We were coached on this regularly.
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That's how.

By "researching" what's in the head of a 35 year old female and then pandering to her.

When someone has a strong and unique personality, people of different ages, sexes political views, economic status, etc. are drawn to him or her. As flybynight said, find a personality that's what you want and let 'em rip, but not necessarily the same age and sex as the target audience. Bernie Sanders is no millennial but he resonates with them.

Above all, DON'T PANDER! It's just too obvious.
 
wadio said:
By "researching" what's in the head of a 35 year old female and then pandering to her.
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Obviously no one is consulting talk radio, because that is hardly the demographic they aim for. More like the 60 year old man. So talk radio is a great example of what happens when you have hosts (mostly old and male) saying whatever they want, with no thought given to the consequences. Listen to the results. Do you think it's good for radio?
 
TheBigA said:
Obviously no one is consulting talk radio, // Listen to the results. Do you think it's good for radio?
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But lots of research went into "Hot Talk," and look how that turned out. At least the "old men" you refer to have broadcast skills and continue to draw a viable audience.

So the question is, should talk radio management tell the current hosts to pander to a younger demo? Or begin introducing new talent? The weekends would be a good place to start!

There are plenty of young, often minority, females on TV. They wouldn't necessarily succeed on talk radio because it's a very different skill but, if given a chance, some might.

Talk radio used to be, and still should be, better balanced. But a consultant would likely evaluate which current hosts are getting the best ratings (Rush, Hannity, et al.) and continue hiring hosts to emulate them. Hence all the Rush clones who have kept talk radio stagnant for years.
 
wadio said:
But a consultant would likely evaluate which current hosts are getting the best ratings (Rush, Hannity, et al.) and continue hiring hosts to emulate them. Hence all the Rush clones who have kept talk radio stagnant for years.
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Radio stations don't sell ratings, they sell demos. Current talk demos are terrible. No one I know is advising radio to hire more angry old guys.

But getting back to the comment, do you want radio to pander or not?
 
wadio said:
But lots of research went into "Hot Talk," and look how that turned out.
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The only research was "let's do like Howard all day long and we'll be #1".

At least the "old men" you refer to have broadcast skills and continue to draw a viable audience.
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But Millennials and Gen X listeners don't like those kinds of skills and they don't listen.

So the question is, should talk radio management tell the current hosts to pander to a younger demo? Or begin introducing new talent? The weekends would be a good place to start!
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The whole format is mostly irrelevant to anyone other than boomers.

Talk radio used to be, and still should be, better balanced. But a consultant would likely evaluate which current hosts are getting the best ratings (Rush, Hannity, et al.) and continue hiring hosts to emulate them. Hence all the Rush clones who have kept talk radio stagnant for years.
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The issue is not "sounding like" anyone. And they do not tell hosts to "sound like" other people; the leading talent consultant tells talent to "be yourself".

For management, the main effort is to find people who are entertaining, personable and a bit different to create new audience magnets. The new shows that work will have to be strikingly different in style or they are just more of the same.
 
wadio said:
By "researching" what's in the head of a 35 year old female and then pandering to her.
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Nobody researches 35-year-old females for talk radio. Perhaps they look at the appeal of talk-intensive morning shows like Seacreast and Elvis Duran and such, but not for politically driven all-talk radio.
 
DavidEduardo said:
the leading talent consultant tells talent to "be yourself".
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Is this the one that counts calls and rates the station on number of calls taken? Because if it's that guy, "be yourself" comes with an exception. Don't "be yourself" if "yourself" is conservative.
 
Ravens said:
Is this the one that counts calls and rates the station on number of calls taken? Because if it's that guy, "be yourself" comes with an exception. Don't "be yourself" if "yourself" is conservative.
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No, it is not even a guy. And many of the most successful talk shows today hardly take any calls.
 
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