My search started simply enough \u2013 I wanted to see if Laura Ingrham is even heard on the radio in Richmond Virginia as she claims victory in unseating Eric Cantor.<\/p>\n
From memory, I knew that the main news talk station in Richmond is WRVA \u2013 a heritage AM radio station now owned by Clear Channel. They carry Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity – although Hannity is carried on a delayed basis.<\/p>\n
No problem \u2013 I’ll just find the Laura Ingraham list of affiliates! You may remember Laura Ingraham had been syndicated by Roy Masters’ Talk Radio Network (Legally controlled by the Foundation for Human Understanding). After she eventually escaped TRN, almost all of her affiliates immediately left TRN.<\/p>\n
My records show that she left to go to Radio America, but that is apparently not correct, at least not any more. Laura’s program is distributed by an entity called courtside entertainment. This company is not in the radio syndication business \u2013 they are in the business of selling on-demand podcasts. They appear to have an arrangement with Radio America to handle the Podcasts sales on the Radio America programming – like Roger Hedgecock.<\/p>\n
One other detail is that Westwood One (now owned by Cumulus Media) provides the satellite facilities for both TRN and Radio America \u2013 which is why it was so simple for Laura Ingrham to switch away in a single day. Radio stations did not have to acquire any new satellite gear.<\/p>\n
Premier Radio started this trend on commercial radio \u2013 with Art Bell, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and Glenn Beck selling podcast subscriptions as a way to separate the production of the programming from being dependent solely on radio advertising. Oddly, Premiere just suddenly walked away and fired most if its staff about the time Bob Pittman arrived.<\/p>\n
Listeners have demonstrated they are willing to pay for commercial free on-demand audio programming. We are seeing the twilight of advertiser supported syndicated radio. <\/p>\n
The people holding radio debt should be getting nervous. Tom Taylor has a news item today carrying the implication that Nielsen is finding significant “quality problems” in the way Arbitron compiled ratings. The #2 Los Angeles ratings were held back due to (apparently) some PPM devices being carried by people working in radio. Nielson also had to correct their initial PPM top line ratings as the forgot to include many of their subscribing stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My search started simply enough \u2013 I wanted to see if Laura Ingrham is even heard on the radio in Richmond Virginia as she claims victory in unseating Eric Cantor. From memory, I knew that the main news talk station … Continue reading