John Avlon, of no-labels shame, who also writes at the Daily Beast, has penned another hit piece on the supposed demise of conservative talk radio: The Right-Wing Talk-Radio Flame Out. My, oh my, … however will Conor with one N control himself? But this alleged demise has been predicted for 20 years. Still, Avlon can hope – after all, he has another book to sell.
Avlon believes the future is ideologically muddled radio, the likes of Michael Smerconish and John Batchelor. That’s right, muddle will drive listeners to the radio. In fact, Avalon’s a frequent guest on Batchelor’s show, should we be surprised? I can enjoy and have enjoyed Batchelor for his overseas and war reporting via various correspondents. But he tends to be muddled on domestic politics.
What Avlon conveniently ignores are the various host’s total syndication numbers and time-slots. Not only are the hosts he mentions barely syndicated, I’m unaware of any station that has built their entire schedule around one of them, as so many have done and still do with Rush, for example. And given their time slots, perhaps who Avlon is really missing is Art Bell. He could probably do a phone in from Schenectady in the evening and dominate the numbers; not to slight George Noory, or anything!
Now, an executive of long-standing in the radio biz writes me:
First let’s look at what Avalon said(in quotes) about KVI in Seattle. It truly is sickening, especially as KVI repeatedly tried to woo Limbaugh back after he went to a competitor in that market:
“First, here’s a snapshot that puts the shift in perspective: Just days after the 2010 election, the nation’s first all-conservative talk radio station, KVI in Seattle, switched back to a classic-rock format after 17 years. Its innovation had become media saturation–and music became an appealing alternative to the drone of a dozen Rush Limbaugh imitators.”
The truth is, they pulled the plug on KVI because there were two guys on the board of directors of Fisher Broadcasting who were liberals who hated the format. Last year, the station billed about $4.5 million doing conservative talk. In the first three months after the format change to music they dropped from a 2 share to a .6 share. The revenue is down, of course, and the listeners have fled. This was a horrible mistake by the company.
“In Austin, Texas, Smerconish has increased the station’s drive-time ratings in the 25-54 demographic by more than 150 percent over the first three months of 2011,…”
Truth: He is on 8-10pm not drive time. Here are the numbers 25-54 for the first three months of 2011:
8pm 1.3 1.0 .7
9pm 1.3 3.6 2.8
10pm 5.4 6.1 7.4 (Jerry Doyle Show, not Smerconish)
11pm 7.8 10 10.3 (Jerry Doyle Show, not Smerconish)In fact, Smerconish actually dropped a bit on this station, not the 150% increase the author is claiming. We looked at the other markets where the author bragged on Smerconish’s numbers and they were all wrong.
In Dallas, the 9pm to midnight number on KRLD was up in Men 25-54 .8 to 1.9 (month to month). Hardly the 500% increase the author reports. These monthly numbers wobble that much routinely. In St. Cloud, Minnesota, the author gives the credit for a 146% increase in ratings for the entire station to Smerconish who is on 2 hours a day. This is market 219 which sees some wild fluctuations. I wonder what the other hosts on the station feel about Smerconish taking credit for their shows.
The author of this hit piece has a pre-conceived notion about both left and right wing radio, which is evident in this book:
“Wingnuts: How the lunatic fringe is hijacking America.”
His next book will be: “Wingnuts: How crazy guys with blogs and no journalistic integrity are getting picked up as if they are legit.”
One wonders why Avalon doesn’t supply us with the full list of stations that air Smerconish and Batchelor, when they air, and all their ratings? Why cherry-pick the stations and numbers when such terrific talent, the future great talents of talk radio, must undoubtedly be burning up the airwaves and PPM ratings all across the nation?
If Smerconish and Batchelor are the future of talk radio, then talk radio is dead. Something tells me Rush, Sean, and Mark, among other great conservative hosts, won’t let that happen.
Another issue Avlon ignores is media trending overall. The major television networks are tanking, Fox dominates cable, MSNBC has gone full-on Lefty and CNN languishes in third, while searching for some muddled middle. On top of that, the newspaper industry is hurting and print and on-line media is becoming more ideologically defined and honest, be it of the Right, or Left. By Avlon’s standards, those first entities are all completely dead and just don’t know it, yet. It sounds good; however, it simply isn’t true.
Avlon wanted to make a point he can’t substantiate, so he grabbed up a few stray cases and tried to make them fit. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps for his latest book, they simply don’t. But then, consider the source. The geniuses at the Daily Beast are still convinced Meghan McCain has some political wisdom to offer someone. So, it comes as no surprise they might actually believe Avlon knows something about talk radio, while his effort falls so far short of making any real, or valid point.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.