The benefactors of the Washington Times in Asia have pulled the financial plug. One of the things this surfaced is the practice of a syndicated radio show paying to have their show distributed. The Times is reported to have been paying $100k/month to get the America’s Morning News share on the air nationally. The show started on WTNT and quickly picked up many affiliates, beyond what seemed like organic growth based on programming need and proven ratings.
Now that TRN isn’t being paid, things are starting to cascade. WTNT, the home station of America’s Morning News and the personable Jeff Kuhner is pulling the plug on Talk and switching to Sports. The station carries mostly TRN programs.
A pattern is appearing. Pay attention to the quality of the network ads on TRN shows (Mancow, Ingraham, Savage, Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries,Phil Hendrie). The network ads are typically what is paying for the hosts and running the operation. If they are herbal cures, make money at home schemes, fake water treatment systems and overpriced coins from a “mint”, that means the advertisers who are willing to pay higher ad rates are no longer using radio. How many windshield chips can there possibly be that need repair?
In a completely unrelated note, Mancow just announced he has accepted a weekend job at WABC in New York.
“In a completely unrelated note, Mancow just announced he has accepted a weekend job at WABC in New York.” Hmm… so let’s review:
*Dr. Laura announces she’s not returning to radio when her contract expires at the end of the year.
*Savage is allegedly pondering the same idea.
*Mancow is working closer with Citadel.
*Tammy Bruce has left.
*America’s Morning News just lost its major source of funding and at least one host (Melanie Morgan).
So, that leaves… Laura Ingraham, Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries, Phil Hendrie and a few weekend hosts. Oh, and Roy Masters, but that’s only because he and his family own the company.
I pity Phil Boyce’s position right now.
Roy Masters denies he owns the company. His son runs it, and it’s located in the same small town where Roy has his Foundation for Human Understanding thingy. I have a suspicion there is a silent partner who is active in the media business in another venue, but there is no “right to know” for syndicators of programming, which seems like a big hole.
Roy Masters is in his 80s and has been in poor health. His son has been doing more and more of the live shows, and running more reruns of older shows – it isn’t always obvious if the show is live or not, unless Roy goes on an anti-Obama rant. They’ve cut way back on the number of affiliates they are paying to carry the show. About a year ago, Roy Masters was basically begging people to send him money to stay on the air.
I don’t think Phil Boyce is going to be working for the same boss a year from now. Time will tell.
A small little detail I picked up on – I think it’s new. They now ID as “Talk Radio Network Enterprises”. That final word seems new to me, which suggests some change in focus is in the works.
They announced this week a new product of an “All news” syndicated format. CNN Radio failed miserably at trying this. “All News” only works in major cities, and with lots of local content with frequent traffic updates during drive time. The skeptic in me thinks they’re going to take the Morning News Show and recycle it with small updates during the day. That ain’t “news”.
Ten little nine little eight little Indians, seven little … .