Great post MAS. Thanks!

Looks like the fanfare has worn off.

MAS, are you following XM Radio at all? Any opinions about Podcasting — any impact on hot-talk type radio?

Id love to see your take on some of those issues. (Hint Hint)

I extended my XM Radio subscription for 4 more years, so I’m a big believer in satellite radio. It has genres of music that I like, but can’t hear on terrestrial radio such as electronica and 70s pop (guilty). And even though they still can’t pronounce many of our street names, having a channel that gives 24/7 San Diego traffic is great. For the record, Sirius now has a channel for San Diego traffic as well. I haven’t heard it, but would be interested in hearing any reviews.

I read the Wired issue on PodCasting and it struck me that I’ve been a podcasting consumer since 1997. I’ve been downloading hot talk shows from markets I don’t live in for quite a while. From time to time I listen to Leykis (LA), Neil Rogers (Miami), Don & Mike (DC) and Ron & Fez (DC), even though none broadcast in the San Diego market. I’ve probably got 20 GB of shows dating back to 1999.

Nice post, MAS. I’d be interested to see KPBS-FM’s numbers during that timeframe too, as it was theorized that KPBS would lose listeners to KLSD — any way to add-on to this post with that info?

I had hopes KLSD would take off, but now after being a regular-morning, sometime-afternoon, and rare-weekend listener, I realize they haven’t quite got it. They seem to believe all right-of-center radio is yelling and argument — and for those who don’t listen to it, this is an understandable conclusion. Not an impression to build with though.

Perhaps the worst decision for KLSD is having Stacy Taylor as their morning guy. I used to like Stacy. But now, considering I’ve listened to him pre-KLSD too, I see him as an opportunist. His politics have clearly gone further left as the months have gone by, and a savvy radio talk show fan can’t help but wonder, is he doing it for show now, too? Scooter’s personality is taking over the show too, probably not making him feel any more secure in his once-middle of the road opinion’s viability. Scooter’s the star of that show, and that’s not saying much.

Morning Sedition should be played in Stacy Taylor’s spot. One nice thing about having local programming on KLSD is that they can talk about local politics; local programming is important for KLSD to thrive. Stacy et al. (or should I say Scooter et al.) may be better suited to Randi Rhodes’s timeslot in the afternoon drive.

KPBS is a public radio station, and as such it doesn’t pay Arbitron to be measured. It could be the most or least listened to station in the market. We don’t know. Public radio uses it’s own metrics to measure listeners, of which I’m not knowledgable on.

Another thought: It’s really hard to get listeners to new format when you have a 4 digit call number on the AM dial (1000+). Most stations above 1000 AM are either foreign language or a dying format. This is true for most markets. Even Stern’s debut on 1010 AM in Tampa has been a disaster with the station unable to even get a 1.0.

Air America needs to start putting out info along with opinion. For example - on the National ID RR didn’t have her home work done
so she initiall didn’t have the bill number to give out and she didn’t have
a House member on the phone to talk - this is an interactive world and AA is playing like it is still in the 60’s when it comes to having their production
concept together.

“Infomation” touched off the ’60’s and the same would happen now of AA
would put some real media savvy producer to work - head em off at the past.

I hope KLSD doesn’t go away. I like it.

To Bill: Info along with their opinion? Have you heard their morning show “Morning Sedition”? I’ve never heard so much info on a radio show (even more than NPR, based upon my NPR listening.) I say this after listening to Rush Limbaugh and Rick Roberts for years, if you wonder about my basis of comparison.

To Derek: Taylor has always been pretty libertarian. He just wasn’t allowed to go into some of his views on the other stations, because it would offend their conservative listeners. Taylor has said several times that he used to get reprimanded for having liberal views while working at the other stations. And as for “yelling and argument”? Aside from KPBS, what talk radio have you been listening to that does NOT have those things? That’s the nature of the medium. I’m just glad the argument and yelling on KLSD isn’t about how great Bush is or how we need to kill more Iraqis. That got tiresome. Air America might get tiresome for me as well, someday, but for now I still like it.

And lastly, as for rating, etc. I say give it time. They’ve only been around a year, and if you saw “Left of the Dial” (the HBO documentary about Air America’s beginning) you’d be surprised they’ve gotten THIS far! Give it time. Fox News took like 8 years to start making a profit. And that’s for a station that basically reads GOP press releases and talking points all day (IE things that don’t consume much money.) I think Air America will find its niche.

Derek was correct about S. Taylor. Taylor’s a total hypocrite and chamelion. He didn’t even protest the Vietnam War! Just what does that tell you? He was too busy partying and said so many times over the years.
Didn’t even bother himself to protect vs. Vietnam War. Not even a Dem. then!
(he shouldn’t have lasted as long as he did. Think those guys must hand each other whatever behind the scenes until stopped from doing so.)
Taylor is another who lives yuppy lifestyle with a Corvette and speeding buring up all that gas for years, four cars, a pool, etc.
He’s saying whatever to have a ” gig” that pays. He doesn’t even like people. If you listen at all, you’ll pick up that he lectures like lecturing some school kid or something. He’s been like a chaivinist to any women too (as some have informed me). He’s another of those guys who spun some music and that gig went by the wayside, so.

One day he and that Scooter’s topic was: “What would be worse for you having your sone tell you that he was gay or that he joined the Taliban?”
He said repeatedly over the years that he would not want any gay guys around his sons at all.

That Scooter is just another big mouth wanna be and also lives like a yuppy– wanting to be a wanna be. He’s far too immature and dumb for what is needed (he got very low grades and almost flunked out of college).

I saw the HBO film Left of the Dial. As a fan of talk radio, I couldn’t stop laughing. When asked if anyone had radio experience, Janeane Garofalo responded by saying she played a radio host in a movie once. At that point every investor should have bailed.

The first rule of any radio show is it must be entertaining. Once you have entertaining down, then you say whatever you want. Air America failed this test. They put the message over the messenger and it’s been a disaster.

If I were in charge, I’d get rid of everyone, stop paying for the brokered radio, move to some smaller markets and start over. Spend some time (and as little money as possible) finding and fostering true radio talent. Once you had a show of national calibar, then and only then expand.

All the big names in radio started in small markets. As they gain experience and get better, they move to larger and larger markets. Air America felt they could violate this rule and it’s cost them millions. They continue to bleed money.

One more comment regarding the life left in Air America.

A question that needs to be answered first is why did Clear Channel back the Air America network? I think there are 2 possible answers:

1-Clear Channel believed in the lineup and thought that even though they lacked any radio experience, they could make it work and be profitable.

2-Clear Channel wanted to further loosen media ownership rules and needed votes from Democrats in the House and Senate. Using a liberal talk network as bait might be enough to sway a few votes or at least end any Howard Dean talk of breaking up their existing empire.

I believe it’s answer 2. Now that Clear Channel is reversing it’s growth policy and selling off assets, what will happen? Again I think there are 2 possible answers.

1-Clear Channel will hang in there and hope Air America takes off and is eventually profitable.

2-Clear Channel, a company often refered to in the industry as “Cheap Channel”, will eventually cut it’s losses and dump Air America from it’s stations.

My prediction is again answer #2.

Air America doesn’t do that well on local radio stations, but it is by far the most popular streaming radio show online, setting new records monthly.

Those whose advertisements are carries nationally via streaming have signed up for the long haul for good reason.

It’s an interesting exercise in new media.

My listening habits (and those of my co-workers) don’t show up on the ratings, but we’re still listening (and while few are actually Democrats, right wing radio is just too brain dead to listen to). With satellite and streaming possibilities open to the more technologically advanced, it’s a mistake to link KLSD’s failure that of Air America, which is already solvent.
And no, Clear Channel doesn’t need Democrats–it has the Republican majority in its pocket. A simple look at it’s national ratings trends for Air America programming shows why it continues support for the station. The downward trend in San Diego is actually somewhat anomolous among Air America’s 50+ stations.

By the way, just a technicality: MAS couldn’t have been podcasting in ‘97, since podcasting requires delivery via RSS.

When Clear Channel backed Air America we were heading into an election. Had the election gone against the GOP, a large hated media company like Clear Channel could have faced tighter ownership rules. By “backing” Air America, they were IMO covering their bases. Now that the election went for the GOP and Clear Channel is selling off assets, having unprofitable stations on the books are less likely to be protected.

I didn’t pull the numbers for every market, but I do know it’s rating failures are not just local to San Diego. I believe their DC station got a 0.0 rating. In NYC they are 24th.

Thanks for podcasting clarification. I’m still old school then.

My friend,
You are wrong about Air America flopping. Look at the facts on the link I sent to you and start telling the truth.

Fr. Hector Trevino

Rev. Hector, this is a SAN DIEGO blog. My post from April 2005 was about the SAN DIEGO market at that time. In the most recent Winter 2006 book they still had a pathetic 1.6 rating. Sounds like a flop to me.

The link you provided said the listenership went up during that time nationally, but so did the number of stations (25 to 67). I’d hope that adding 42 stations would increase the listenership base.