This could be BIG.
CBS radio tried out “hot talk” with Free FM which was a dismal failure. If you run down the CBS owned & operated stations, CBS has been allergic to any kind of “right wing” talk radio. KXNT in Vegas is about the only station that carries “hate talk”, and that’s just due to it being a former Infinity station they would probably rather sell off.
Well, down in Charlotte, North Carolina starting on September 14th, CBS is going to challenge WBT by converting a sleepy simulcast station to Conservative News Talk – including Beck, Hannity and Jason Lewis (who used to do local talk on WBT).
CBS crossing that psychic divide to entertain the possibility of giving listeners what they want to hear is a RBG (really big deal). I don’t doubt for a second that this lineup will succeed in Charlotte (I used to live there). Charlotte is home to two of the country’s largest banks and very Conservative (or at least moderate).
If Conservative Talk works in Charlotte, CBS owns a number of high power AM stations in major markets who might do the same. KFWB in Los Angeles is changing Monday from All News to News/Talk (Dr Laura, Laura Ingraham, Smerconish). I could easily see WINS or WCBS in New York flipped to News/Talk. Citadel/ABC is VERY vulnerable right now to a frontal attack.
Maybe CBS also sees that the GE/NBC/Obama connections and someone remembers the history of radio in the 1920s.
Just saw this story and came to the exact same conclusion…I was about to send you the article in case you hadn’t seen it.
Hope it’s a sign of the times.
For those who don’t get the CBS/NBC reference in post, it helps a lot to read my “Station Owner” report on CBS. The condensed story is RCA tried to take control of the entire radio business using patents and lawsuits. Sarnoff mostly pulled off controlling all of radio, and CBS had to live under the thumb of RCA until the 1940s, when FDR broke up RCA’s monopoly. That breakup split off the NBC Blue network into what we know today as ABC and took the pressure off CBS.
Good News !
This could be THE crack in the solid, liberally biased media
that we have all been hoping and praying for.
Fred you are really helping a lot to save America.
I pass your great and indispensable Streaming Radio Guide
web site on a lot. Keep up the good work !