Quinn & Rose vs Bob & Tom

I noticed today that in the 8-9 AM hour (Eastern), Bob & Tom is now the number one show – pushing ahead of Bill Bennett’s Morning in America and leaving Quinn & Rose in the dust.  I’m not 100% sure why.

What is odder is the during the 6 and 7 o’clock hours Quinn and Rose are doing much better.   I wonder if this is a case of old people get up earlier…. or do people switch to Bob & Tom when they go into work?

Quinn and Rose have failed in their attempt to become syndicated – they have lostt most of their affiliates.    As much as I generally like Q&R, it has some very basic problems – the main one is that Quinn is still doing a local show.

While he is talking about national issues, he does things like make reference to local time (“around 8:30 we’ll talk about….”)  that’s a huge no-no in syndication – it confuses listeners in another time zone. They also talk a lot about their experiences living in the Pittsburgh area.   Having grown up there (my family left in 1970), I get many of the references (like the Bridge to Nowhere to the North Side), but 99% of the potential audience won’t.

Why do you think Q&R should do to have a better shot at being nationally important?

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16 Responses to Quinn & Rose vs Bob & Tom

  1. 3tooz aka Roland says:

    I have alway’s said That Quinn & Rose need’s to go syndicated and get into the West ..Wash, Ore, Calif, Nev for starter’ I found them when I got a XM modular, unit for my car/truck when I was still in the work force. Now im retired I get up at 3am Pacific time just to listen to them on KYSL

    And unfortunetly they are on the same time on XM with the advent of Streaming I dont use the XM as much. And if they went syndicated (especially in the West or should I say the Left looking at a map) . Those Left handed people need a shock to their System’s ,

    We out here in the West have Bob and Tom on several stations AM and FM . Why can’t Quinn and Rose be carried on the same stations as Beck. Limbaugh, and a few others ?

    • Art Stone says:

      You point to at least two problems… Q&R are on live from 6-9 AM on the East Coast, which is 3-6AM on the West Coast – too early to ever got many listeners (plus it is before the start of the day for ratings purposes)

      The second issue is that the 5-9AM period (“morning drive”) is time of day when most radio stations make money doing local programming – they don’t generally “give up” that time slot to syndication, unless they are not in very good shape, or have a format that doesn’t do well in morning drive (sports talk)

      Bennett is carried mostly on Salem Radio, which owns their own network of stations so he doesn’t have to fight to get affiliates. Don Imus is mostly carried on Sports stations.

  2. Quinn Listener says:

    Your comment on the Pittsburgh references might be true. But their problems may also be due to the fact that Quinn cannot seem to string together a coherent sentence, often taking several stuttering starts before completing one. This is unusual for a guy who has spent 40+ years in radio. Quinn may have interesiting things to say, but they are almost completely camouflaged by the way he attacks politicians personally. He also is not as smart as he thinks he is, which becomes apparent as you listen. I can’t stand Rose. I don’t think she brings anything to the party at all. When Glen Meakem fills in, it is a much more interesting show.

    • Art Stone says:

      I grew up about two blocks from Saint Bernards, a church that Rose makes references to frequently as “her church”. My street (with the exception of two houses) were filled with women like Rose – who told their children not to play with the non-Catholic children (me). So while it’s personal with me, her constant refences to “What does the Bible say?” just leave me not interested in her opinions. I left Pittsburgh in 1970, and have never had any interest in going back.

      • Quinn Listener says:

        Rose is not Catholic now, she has said so. She is in some other Christian religion now.

  3. emsree says:

    First, and most importantly, the show needs to be more affordable. There’s no advertising spots on the network, which means the show requires a fee from stations to carry. I do realize that they leave roughly 24 minutes of advertising open to the local stations each hour, but if the show’s ratings aren’t good, and the ads can’t be sold, the station could be losing money on the show. A barter option puts a floor under the show, so the station can’t lose money. The only AM based talk shows able to charge carriage fees nowadays are Limbaugh, Hannity, and possibly Savage. Even Glenn Beck and Dr. Laura are free to carry. ESPN Radio recently implemented fees, but even that’s creating backlash from stations. So either Quinn and Rose need to run their own spots, or they need to find a distributor to sign with.

    Second, Quinn should stop promoting XM Radio so much. It’s almost like he’s trying to drive as many listeners to it as possible. It’s even listed at the top of warroom.com. Hell, the DNC thought XM was his employer! http://mediamatters.org/research/200705110002

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