Tom Taylor knows everyone in the radio business and he’s careful – so his rumors are highly reliable.
Less than two weeks ago, the people who run Dial Global gave up and agreed to be acquired by Cumulus Media. Fallout was inevitable.
Talk Radio Network (TRN) was the third remaining significant producer of news/talk content for terrestrial radio. It is based in Oregon and run by the son of eccentric personality Roy Masters.
TRN has an active lawsuit against Dial Global – TRN didn’t do the leg work of syndication – they farmed out the management of relations of their affiliates to their competitor Dial Global, and felt DG was steering customers away from TRN programs. It may have dawned on someone that Dial Global has no money and isn’t worth suing.
The “talent” left at TRN is getting thin – Mike Savage left for Cumulus, Laura Ingraham switched to more or less doing her own syndication, and Phil Hendrie left and vanished down a rabbit hole called Dial Global.
The talent left at TRN are Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries, Andrea Tantaros and the TRN news (John McCaslin, etc…) and a few thinly distributed hosts like Louie Anderson and Barry Farber.
Michael Savage won a judgement against TRN to get his legal expenses paid because TRN tried to keep him from leaving and lost in arbitration (hint: if you sue your talent, it may get hard to hire a replacement). I tend to think that check for $1 million hasn’t gone out yet and never will.
Taylor is reporting that TRN stopped paying its bills and missed paychecks for its talent. TRN leases its satellite Channels from Dial Global.
So it sounds like TRN may finally be toast. That means by 2014, you can have the Cumulus Flavor or the Clear Channel flavor. If a station doesn’t align with one or the other, they are left with choices like Dave Ramsey, Alex Jones, Free Talk Live, John Gibson and Al Sharpton.
On the positive side, there are lots of sports talk syndicators!
Sports talk is a nightmare. It’s guy talk without the edge. Imagine if you put Tom Leykis on and didn’t let him talk about relationships, and you pretty much have the sports radio template.
Also, I feel like Phil got screwed. He could have stayed with TRN and had a few more stations, but he’d be out in the cold like most of those guys are going to be in a month or two. You can tell he’s really struggling now and virtually no one is calling his show because it doesn’t seem that any stations are carrying it live. I would hope that “Westwood One” would be able to help him out, but he seems to be in this by himself. I hope his show survives, but he didn’t do himself any favors taking that extra month off before starting new shows.
I think something else was going on – the supposed issue was being unable to get an ISDN line installed. That is slightly plausible as ISDN is a 20 year oldtechnology phone companies ran away from and might give you the runaround if you try to order it. Dunno.
I know of only 3 stations carrying the show live – WWRL in New York City, WWBA in Florida and KZNU in Utah. By 10 PM ET the sun is down for AM, people are going to sleep, not calling a guy on the radio. He needs a big city West Coast station to lure in some callers… I wonder if Premiere still offers that service to arrange to have fake callers to your show?
(I corrected the post to indicate TRN is in Oregon – d’oh)
On the non-CC and non-Cumulus independents, I have tried to listen to (and tried to like) Ground Zero. Like Saturday Night Live his bits go on and on about 50% too long. He does seem awfully charmed even amused by himself. The internet originated shows are still in the wild west phase – Hay House has done a very good job of marketing to a niche audience, maybe that’s the model.
Phil is amazing, got his backstage pass even though I have time to listen to one in twenty shows.
I’m aware of Clyde Lewis and his show. He’s apparently been doing some variation of it for almost 20 years. I was a big fan of Rick Emerson on KOTK Portland in the early 2000s and Clyde also broadcast from there. I won’t call him a nut, and I’m not even sure that he truly believes the things he broadcasts. What he is, in the grand Art Bell tradition, is a classic P.T. Barnum-style showman. It’s an entertaining show at times, but complete hogwash.
Confirmed – Mark Masters has said TRN is “suspending most operations”, although the America’s Morning News is on live this morning.
http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=2697150&spid=32061#.Ui28t2t5mSM
I saw a post on a message board from someone in Oregon that said he had lost his job with TRN. What will Andrea do ?
How in the hell has Cumu-lost out lasted these other companies?
That’s bad, cause after the war with syria, Cumu-lost will hire ‘shoeface’ AKA sec of state John ‘ Lurch’ Kerry to pontificate about the war, ketchup, Genghis Khan, & endorse botox.
sad
parrott
Andrea is on live today
One question I have is whether Cumuloss will offer two news/talk schedules – a conservative and a progressive lineup – or if Dickey’s cost cutting means dumping most of the hosts
I hate to see the talk radio market become smaller, but TRN deserves everything that is happening to them. They weren’t on top, but they were profitable. Nothing beat Savage in the evening drive slot, and Laura Ingraham did well in mornings. Rusty Humphries and Jerry Doyle aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re competent hosts and have their audience. But burying Phil Hendrie in the middle of the night and not promoting it was pure idiocy, and then putting on that Roy Masters crap? Huge mistake. No one wants that.
It would all be worth it to see Mancow leave the airwaves, but he’s harder to get rid of than that. Cockroaches survive nuclear blasts.
Beck maybe back this morning to save us from syria
I’m now wondering if this was a ploy to demonstrate that Dial Global damaged TRN and increase the damages in their lawsuit. Maybe the TRN people are working today for free or maybe DG coughed up some cash
You guy are missing the big one – Rogers Radio – they seem to provide programming for f WLYK Cape Vincent, New York and much of Canada. Rumor has it that they are involved in WLYK solely so that Art Stone and Streaming Radio Guide will include them. 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Radio
Kidding aside, if the US market consolidates into only two, radio will get even more boring unless Rogers ups it game.
Just looked at that Wikipedia entry and don’t have time to do my own research at fcc.gov but it would be stunning to me if the FCC allowed a U.S. station to locate its only studio outside the country!
Well, WLYK has some sort of studio… and the US/Canada have all sorts of complicated “free” trade agreements – Canadian cars are not considered imports and not subject to import duties, etc. All the legacy US auto manufacturers are have their North American operations split by the Detroit River- some stuff going on in Michigan and some in Ontario..
Back to radio, for an interesting alternative, consider Roger’s Toronto NewsTalk station if you are bored by the same old, same old:
http://www.newstalk1010.com/schedule.aspx
Hey wait – the web site says that is Bell Media. The wiki has the story on how the Rogers family lost the station when there was a death in the family (seems the Canadians have a death tax like we do here in the USA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFRB
Now Mark Masters says it isn’t true and he’ll issue a clarification today
*shrug*
I suppose I should count Salem even most of they mostly air on their own stations nd have feeble ratings
Salem is interesting in that its core lineup of hosts hasn’t changed at all in the past decade, and nearly all of their stations have the exact same schedule. I can tune in 1280 the Patriot in Minneapolis online and trust that (minus Savage) it will be the EXACT same station it was when I lived there in 2003.
So True, they are reliable. LOL
Medved is a nut
Parrott
Roy Masters is arguing with some guest host on the Jerry Doyle show – he’s calling in on a phone. Roy is talking about how he can control people with hypnosis
Maybe the President can send him instead of Kerry to meet with Assad and persuade him to stop gassing people. ;
America’s Radio News is gone. The guest host for Doyle is The Watchdog on Wall Street guy. It looks like the morning people didn’t get the memo or worked for another day to give stations time to get something to slap on the air as replacements
It’s always been a question whether Roy owns or controls TRN – he denies being the owner – but his son runs it and its only a few blocks away from his semi-religion – the Foundation for Human Understanding where he sells self-hypnosis meditation tapes
And when hypnosis stops working, he also has lawyers.
One of the “regulars” here (he doesn’t post on the blog – just did testing) left a job with Clear Channel and moved out to Grant’s Pass in Oregon and worked for TRN in some technical job. He moved back home after a few months totally disgusted with them – I didn’t push him for specifics, so I don’t know anything more.
Oregonians do things a bit different than the rest of the country. The landscape is pretty amazing near Grants Pass with Crater Lake, the Rogue and Umpqua Rivers, Siskiyou National Forest and all that wilderness, snow and graveled roads.
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/122072/changes-at-talk-radio-network-arnn-closes-other-pr
Rusty Humphries was cut off in mid sentence when he started to discuss the issue.
Looks like Roy Masters is going to be putting in a lot of overtime.
TRN’s assertion is that Dial Global is not remitting advertising revenue due to TRN and not providing billing data. Maybe they should have thought about that before they outsourced their business to their competitor and then again when they decided to sue.
I’m pretty convinced that if Dial Global had not agreed to the Cumulus deal, they would be in bankruptcy court this week. So Sorry.
Very much related – about three weeks ago, this guy “rejoined” TRN to assist in business development and affiliate relations
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/121499/jim-watkins-rejoins-trn
Too little, too late.
Yeehaw! You might want to listen to delayed broadcasts of the Jerry Doyle show. The last 30 seconds The Watchdog was going right at Roy Masters and basically said his own show is done. I missed the last half hour while researching – it sounds like Masters must have unloaded on Chris Markowski. The fact he wasn’t cut off suggests the technical people are not happy either.
Masters called Markowski a bad father and said his clients don’t need him.
Chris mentioned he is keeping detailed notes of what Roy Masters is saying.
Would Master’s remarks be considered libel or is it slander? I can’t keep the difference straight. Regardless, sounds like a very messy, but juicy lawsuit is brewing.
I think Markowski is smart enough to not sue an empty shell. The one thing I’m pretty sure is Chris is doing a lot of self-examination of how and why he was ever on TRN.
Oh, I was thinking it would be a personal lawsuit against Masters, not TRN.
In the midst of the past few days, Masters started babbling about being a reverend of his mind control religion, something he has had a long standing fight with the IRS about. When the IRS shows up, he tells them to Be Still and Wait and hypnotizes them until they go away suffering from post traumatic stress.
One little detail that came out is the support staff of TRN are being paid as 1099 contractors rather than employees. While that may be appropriate for “talent” who work from their own home studio paying their own expenses, paying the engineer running the board in Grant’s pass in a 1099 isn’t going to fly.
Haha – with two minutes to go, Roy hangs up and says “I’m done with you”, then Chris points out the obvious – that his show is done. Masters was in full bully mode… At the end of the first half of the third hour, a female caller challenged Roy and Roy announced “I’m not going to talk to her, take the next caller”.
The final caller assumed that since Masters had been quoting Jesus and referencing the Bible – he must be a Christian. Roy immediately cleared that up that he’s Jewish and not a Christian.
Phil Hendrie seems in a very good mood tonight. His guests are talking about the thrill of anal sex
So, sex worker and activist Siouxsie Q called in? She knows all the ins and outs of anal sex and proudly identifies herself as a whore. She writes, “It is part of my identity and am proud to say that.”
http://www.powderzine.com/node/68
Maybe TRN can sign her… or is TRN too anal? 😉
Not really. Siouxsie Q is intolerant. Her clients have to sign a waiver and swear they are not Republican or conservative or religious. Narrows the listening audience quite a bit and might be the reason why she has to run a free podcast instead of a radio show.
Masters re-streamed the Markowski show…. I wouldn’t have, would have done a best of…. I forced myself to listen for about 7 – 10 min. what a smug jack-ass Masters is.
I know what you’re saying HPaws. I may have listened 10 min. before moving on to something interesting AND informative. Agree completely with your assessment of Masters.
Yep, things are dark there. Rusty Humphries got cut off curing his show and today seems like a repeat. Jerry Doyle is refusing to do new shows for TRN, and John McCaslin walked out after one segment of the morning news show. Crazy.
Not curing his show, DURING his show.
There is no curing his show.
Lori Lundin (who used to be on in the afternoon) was doing the show by herself the first hour (at least the second half) – John showed back up in the 7am ET hour
I’m currently shifting my daily schedule which means I was asleep in the afternoon. I’m still catching up – Doyle’s show had some guy I have never heard of and can’t find in Google. Based on his voice, he’s probably a friend with no radio experience.
Rusty’s web site suggests he is being a loyal soldier for now – probably scared of legal threats if he doesn’t show up for work…. But if he isn’t being paid…
I’m thinking some radio stations who weren’t paying attention to who was behind their programming just got a wake up call. I expect a new wave of schedule changes to find. Maybe stations will go back to in house talent they can control.
WPHT does that…. may change when WWIQ fades into heaven.
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/122089/mike-murillo-joins-wtop from WWIQ
John showed up for the second and third hours because TRN (according to Talkers) re-fed the first hour two more times. I would expect them to find someone willing to be on the radio for free for as long as they can keep the lights on, but I don’t think they can sustain it forever.
A few years ago TRN offered an interesting diversion from the other radio syndicators, but they blew it. They brought all of this upon themselves, and it’s hard to feel bad for them at this point.
Ah, no wonder the news sounded old 😉
I actually have his private email – he wrote a couple months ago asking that I update the listing for the news show and remove the information saying he was a reporter for the Washington Times. If I compiled a list of the 5 people in radio I respect the most, he would be on the list
The AMM show isn’t bad as far as news shows go. I don’t listen regularly, but it’s fine. He’s at least as capable as any other guy on the air reading the news.
The fillin guy for Doyle is much more interesting. He’s an Austrian whose father was conscripted by the Germans in WW II and captured by the Russians. He’s identified himself as Catholic but seems like he may be the guy behind Roy’s rather odd beliefs about being able to prove the existence of God in the way gravity behaves.
I don’t know if they are friends calling in or random listeners, but the callers are a couple of orders of magnitude smarter than the typical callers
His name is Marius Forte – he is listed on the TRN with a weekend show called Flashpoint Live. He is calling Obama a Communist and not backing down
The co-host of the weekend show is Sam Sorbo, the curator of truefeminist.com
Just as I starting typing that, a female caller named Sam called in. What are the chances of that? 😉
You know, their biographies read like they work for the CIA, or at least they should
Today’s morning news is being done by the boss – David Ruben has been with TRN since 1999. He’s stumbling through reading wire copy about flash flooding in Colorado. It’s pretty bad, to the point of being amusing if you have a sadistic side.
Ruben should hook up the RSS feeds to a text to voice app on a standard telephone.
Maybe he can get a job at Cumulus if he suggests that. Just think of the cost savings.
Jerry Doyle is back from “vacation”
Phil Hendrie is back from his week-off attending the NAB event, except he never went, the flu bug hit hard.