Maybe a month or two ago, Joe Pags showed up on The Blaze Radio Network. The show was/is? produced by Premiere – Glenn now employs the guy who used to run Premiere. The Weekend used to be hosted by Mike O’Connell before he decided to jump ship to WOR in Chicago, possibly not a great decision.
This weekend, Handel on the Law and Gun Talk made their debut on Blaze Radio. Both are long standing weekend shows. The Blaze undoubtedly has some subscriber cash to spread around. It isn’t yet clear if the Blaze is just subscribing to the shows or is taking over production. The Blaze TV is a video service and Handel and Gun Talk don’t stream video. It looks like TheBlaze Radio is only radio/podcast but this is all a bit murky.
Monica Crowley would be another logical addition. She is just dangling out there on a few stations that are standing by Talk Radio Network.
Glenn Beck seems to be doing well. He is having success at extracting a dollar per month from most of America through getting cable companies to bill Americans monthly on The Blaze’s behalf.
Beck, like the sports industry, is the antithesis of a la carte cable billing.
The Blaze radio isn’t a full-time simulcast of the TV operation. It seems that Glenn Beck and Pat & Stu are really the only shows shared on both. There is a substantial lineup of live political talk shows on Saturday from 8 am to 3 pm EST, and then Joe Pags is run on tape. The weekday lineup is pretty strong, with Doc Thompson, Glenn, Buck Sexton, Jay Severin, then Pat & Stu, live from 6 am to 7 pm EST. It’s a good lineup, and I’m surprised that Sirius XM has made it online-only. They should give it better placement so it can be heard on a standard satellite radio unit.
Back when they started it, the Glenn zebeck folks contacted me directly and were moderately pushy that I add the “official” Glenn Beck stream. There were no threats, but I was generally agreeable. I don’t list Internet only streams, but generally carry distributors that carry shows available on “real” radio. Stu & Pat are listed as a result even though that show is not on real radio. I’m not even sure I knew The Blaze is on Sirius XM. It probably replaced the premiere channel that used to carry Quinn & Rose.
They put it way up in the internet-only streaming portion, where most of the specialized channels nobody wants are. It would make sense to give it a regular channel where it can be heard on regular satellite units, but I can see that they’d want to include channels that no one really listens to (NPR or MSNBC, or lately CNN for that matter) instead to seem fair.
Part of the reason for that is they agreed as part of the consent decree to get the Sirius and XM merger to carry “minority operated” channels that are even less demanded by subscribers like Korea Today, two channels of French Language Canadian broadcasting and a dozen Spanish language channels – but most importantly – sports!
The French channels, as well as half a dozen English channels originating from Canada, were all part of the deal to allow them people to listen in Canada.
Prior to that, it was illegal to listen in Canada and they would not accept Canadian credit cards, or Canadian billing addresses. Heard of Canadian content laws, eh? 😉
The Canada Talks channel simulcasts the BBN (Business Broadcasting Network) out of Toronto in the morning. It is a lot like CNBC and worth a listen. As far as I know, it is the only way to get the programming in the USA – I do not know of any US cable carriers carrying it.. Some current free videos are here:
http://www.bnn.ca/Video/video-hub.aspx
Art I have to thank you for publishing the tom leykis show. When savage switched times after leaving TRN from 6-9 eastern to 9-12pm eastern I needed a new 6-9pm eastern show and was going through the lists and thought, well, lets give it a shot..
Leykis and Savage are my YING AND YANG. Tom has started to attack savage after he learned he claimed he is the number one online radio stream.. Leykis now has a bumper claiming HE is number 1.. It is hilarious, and I sometimes call in to debate tom on savage.. amazing, I love this place.. even though i dont post as much as i should i still love the blog and read it..
Leykis is definitely not for everyone – and that’s the point!
Having never worked in radio, but watching and listening from the outside, Leykis is the most accurate voice about radio and its prospects.
You probably know this history since you listen to him, but a long winded recap for those people who are not. After the merger mania started following the 1996 Telecom Reform Act, a guy named Mel Karmazin who ran a company called Infinity Broadcasting was so successful at turning around failing stations and promoting new ideas that he effectively took over CBS Radio. He had a couple guys working for him – named Howard Stern and Don Imus. Once he had control of CBS, he created a thing called free FM – and hired a number of interesting people, like Tom Leykis and Penn Jillette. Making the serious changes to what people thought FM radio was.
CBS signed a long-term contract with Tom Leykis, and began the idea of broader syndication of his show on Westwood One, which was closely affiliated with CBS at that time.
This scared the hell out of the old-timers at CBS. Someone convinced a man named Sumner Redstone who own Viacom to wrestle control of CBS away from Mel Karmazin. One of the first orders of business was to shut down that damn freedom crap!
Karmazin saw the handwriting on the wall and left to work on this new idea called Sirius satellite radio. CBS decided to pay off Tom Leykis’s contract in full, with the only requirement that he could not do any work on radio.
Howard Stern decided he was going to move to siriuS with his longtime mentor Mel. CBS refused to let Howard Stern out of his contract – forcing him to work until the very last day, and just hoping he would say something they could use to sue him. Howard kept his cool and despite CBS’s legal attempts, they failed to prevent him from going to Sirius or bankrupt Stern.
Don Imus had a different trajectory, but also fell to the problem that Radio could no longer support the big dollar contracts that major hosts expected. The “nappy headed hoes” controversy had nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with terminating his contract.
So Tom Leykis had several years and a pile of cash to think about what he wanted to do. He sees clearly that the advertiser supported radio business model is dead. So he built a top notch radio studio for his Internet only web stream, hired some guys who shared his vision and were willing to take risk – something real Radio refuses to do – and launched his subscriber-based Internet only program.
The whole topic of whether an Internet only stream violates a radio noncompete contract is an evolving legal matter. Generally, the courts have ruled that Internet programs are not “radio” and therefore do not violate a noncompete agreement. Leykis decided not to fight that battle and spent the time preparing for his eventual return using his CBS income stream. He doesn’t hide his contempt for the self-destruction going on in the radio business, and I think it’s likely he will be the victor in the long run. It doesn’t surprise me for a second that Leykis is going after Michael “Savage” Wiener. He makes a very good symbol of much that has gone wrong in talk radio and radio in general.
Leykis was in NYC friday for the talkers convention.
Mentioning he had a chance to speak.
Your posts rang true that he is most accurate voice about radio and its prospects
He had to be “the bad guy” speaking the truth when he was up their.
I really enjoy hearing him talking as an insider about radio!!!
Leykis and Savage are the only shows I get excited about, I get a tingling up leg waiting for it to air live.
Savage has won a talkers “Freedom of speech” award in 2007.
Thom Hartmann won this years..
I really believe Leykis deserves one, and I hope he gets it really bad.
I have read posts that you do not like Mikes show, but I did not know you thought he was a symbol of what has gone wrong, why do you think that?
Leykis has mentioned he is friends with Hannity.
Speaking to him on the phone about the talk radio business ect. Savage and Hannity have been going at it also.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/michael-savage-sean-hannity-feud-102597.html
“My competitor doesn’t have the capacity to go beyond the Democrat-Republican talking points,” Savage told POLITICO. “That’s all he’s ever done. That’s all
he can do. He has no education. I’m just going to lay it on the line, I’m not going to mince words.”
“You could say, well, I’m a snob,” Savage said. “Well, ok, I’m proud of my doctorate, two master’s degrees, I’m proud of my 28 books, including many in health. And so, yeah, I’m proud of my academic achievements. I believe it’s embarrassing for people to act as experts, even in politics, if they don’t have a rigorous training in anything.”.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Hannity told POLITICO. “I love everybody in this business. This guy is obsessed with me, I’m not obsessed with him. And, you know, I understand the Dickeys are bitter because I left,” referring to the heads of Cumulus.
Savage, 71, kicked off 2014 with his show “The Savage Nation” moving into the prime 3-6 p.m. afternoon drive timeslot on Cumulus radio stations. Savage scored the spot when Hannity split with Cumulus last year and re-upped his contract with Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.”
My remark about Savage being a symbol is more about the death of independent syndication in talk radio. He’s now a captive of the Cumulus monster and syndicated almost entirely on their stations. So far, they seem to not be yanking his chain much and telling him what to say. He is being better managed than what TRN was doing, where he would just not show up many days because he didn’t feel like working.
Savage and Levin are bitter enemies. The “Wiener” nation is Levin referring to Savage’s real name. The main reason I’ve heard Levin not liking Savage is he thinks Savage is hiding the fact he is Jewish and/or misleading Christians to think he is one of them.
My reasons are that I believe Savage is just a radio character that has very little to do with Michael Wiener and he’s largely deceiving his audience – but he tells the listeners that right to their ears and they still don’t get it.
He has a PhD from Berkeley, spent his youth wandering the South Pacific trying to become his mentor Charles Darwin. He hung out in Hawaii with a communist poet, and eventually moved to North Beach and hung out at a socialist bookstore known world wide.
His conversion to be a “Conservative” he attributes to Berkeley turning him down for a teaching job because he is white. He went on to invent the RockStar energy drink (his son and wife run the company, but try to be discrete about the connection).
He runs around saying things like “All of the people at CPAC are fake conservatives”, and he’s the only true conservative. He is leading a movement of one.
I noticed that Art now lists the Leykis Internet Radio stream, along with a number of other Internet Radio Streams.
One that I recommend that Art does not yet list is Free Talk Live. Give it a shot and see what you think.
http://www.freetalklive.com/listen/live
Oh i listen to Ian and mark every night except sunday. After leykis ill listen to the last hour of free talk live.. I talk to them usually once or so a month actually
Oh and i did find that show through this site.. they were listed http://streamingradioguide.com/radio-show.php?show=1729 love the show i listen to the first two hours on the replay right after works out good then at 12am ill put on clyde lewis then its george all night baby
Nice. That is probably where I first found them too, but I had bookmarked their site directly. I had forgotten that they are on a lot of over the air stations. Would suggest that SRG consider adding their 24/7 link similar to the 24/7 links here for Leykis, TheBlaze, Gallagher, Bennet, and others.
Free Talk Live 24/7 added.
Right now, it’s a manual process, but I’ll do it for pretty any much any radio syndication offering a 24/7 stream that doesn’t require a subscription or registration
My basic criteria – and Leykis was a a blatant exception – is the program must be on at least one licensed FCC station. Tammy Bruce was added at some point, but her show time seemed to be pretty much “whenever I feel like it”. Tom Leykis is a real radio guy – and even though he could do a podcast only thing, he knows to be interactive and grow, he has to be live and at a regularly scheduled time.
Yin and Yang’.. now i remembered why i don’t post much… haha
lol Sounds like that old nightly cable tv battle between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann.
WE’LL DO IT LIVE!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1M6EYA14eU
ooooooo my.
that gets me every time hahahaha
Leykis uses this as a take me out style
A caller can ask at the end of a conversation
to be taken out by saying “BLOW ME UP TOM”
and you hear a big loud explosion. Or you could ask to be taken out bill o’really style and the clip of him flipping out is played.
There are many take me outs, after you listen you learn them.
Thank you for the recommendation. I will make it a point to seek out the Leykis show. I know I have heard it before, but I think it was years if not decades ago.