Excommunication for Nightside?

Is the Nightside Project history?

We know you don't really give a shit about this, but we've kept abreast of Bonneville Communications' (KIRO, KTTH, KBSG, The Mormon Tabernacle) innovative Nightside Project because we think it's an important development for radio, a medium that's staring into the crypt these days.

Nightside is the innovative evening show coming from the stuffy Salt Lake City mothership, KSL with the intention of developing a new format that might attract some earballs from the so-called "millenials," a demographic much younger than the one talk radio now is helping into senior housing.

They succeeded in attracting their target audience... wildly. They hired a Michael Castner, a hip radio and TV entertainment (E! Channel) veteran and in less than a year after the fast-moving 7p-12a program was launched, the time slot went from number 12 to number one. 

It was five hours of talk, call-in segments, breaking news and interviews with entertainment people and pols and political experts kept the show moving.

As recently as the show's first anniversary in July, Bonneville was saying it was thrilled. “We’ve had significant success with the format in a very short time,” said Bonneville suit Chris Redgrave. “Talk radio is the most entertaining but also the very hardest format to produce. We’re thrilled.”

There were plans were steaming ahead in the Bonneville boardroom to take the show to Seattle's KIRO and other major markets, sources say.

But last month, Castner, the professional talent and creative glue for a young energetic cast, was fired.

"Despite Nightside's on-air popularity, it did not sustain itself financially," LaRue said in a statement.

“I don’t know how they make these decisions,” Castner told SL Weekly reporter Holly Mullen. “I’m just the meat in the seat. The math doesn’t add up as far as budgets go.

“We’re in the middle of a ratings book. We’re the No. 1 show in time slot in this market. I don’t know what you say to someone—‘Sorry, next time we’ll try to be No. 2 or 3?’”

Mullen:  "... some at the station to speculate whether the rollicking nature of the program, laced with irony and often a heaping portion of adolescent, double-entendre humor was just too much for honchos of the LDS Church-owned Bonneville.

                                (photo: Michael Castner)

“In this industry, they call it ‘pushback,’” says Castner. “It’s when someone hears something they don’t like and complains, but you never know exactly who or what set it all in motion. There were times I wondered when someone in ‘pushback land’ was going to drive into a wall, make a phone call and then it will all be over.”

The show is now co-hosted by Ethan Millard and Alex Kirry, both of whom worked under Castner on the Nightside staff. They're running their own board, now- always a bad sign.

We're hearing that Nightside will go gently into the night in the early new year.

The irony finally got to them, apparently- Bonneville reportedly decided the money spent producing the innovative program could not be justified considering the many listener complaints it generates amongst KSL's aging but extremely loyal listeners.

Our source says KSL plans to replace Nightside with a nightly, old-school sports talk show.

We're sad. We had hopes something like Nightside would be launched in the KIRO 7-10 evening slot. Station management has been promising for months to replace what is well, a nightly, old-school sports talk show.

One of the Nightside creators was KIRO PD Rod Arquette; we like what we hear about Arquette, (though we doubt he likes us) but we thought his presence in Seattle was all the more reason to expect some programming along those lines locally.

Nightside and NPR's Bryant Park Project, are corporate attempts to pull radio out of the dilly of a pickle it's in demographically. We're a little geezerly round here, ourselves, but we'd hate to see our bottomline favorite medium grind down to just a bunch of geezerly shouting with nobody listening.

If Nightside sold in SLC, it'd sure as hell sell in Seattle. Talk radio is begging for irony and programming for the the dominant political and social sensibilities around here, as well as needing a wider demo than Boomer males.

Radio management is so risk averse and afraid of losing this established audience, it's always just more of the same- despite they're losiung thier audience to Butterworth's each and every day.

Comments

[Duffman]

Unfortunate, if true Bla'M; was looking forward to some new format in our area, and that time of night would have been perfect for KIRO. Guess they don't want to focus on Gen Y after all. Sad!

[rozskat]

Oh my heck!! For those who have lived in Utah and familiar with Mormon piety, it is equivalent to WTF or what the hell.

When I was living in the “holy land” or “Zion” as many Mormons refer to their state, KSL was the same station that showed Pickett Fences at 2AM Sunday morning so the gentiles (non-Mo’s) could watch the show after much protest from non-Mormons as well as wrath from CBS execs. In its place during prime time, KSL showed documentaries ranging from first-aid to wholesome shows pertaining to beavers making dams and so on. The LDS big shots at KSL were offended that one episode of Pickett Fences depicted a polygamist couple. Of course polygamy has been outlawed by the church as a condition when Utah joined the union in 1896. However, Utah and the LDS church do turn a blind eye to those practicing polygamy. The state will make a token arrest to appease outsiders to avoid negative publicity.

When KSL became an NBC affiliate, they promptly canceled Saturday Night Live because the contents were not “wholesome” and proper for the general populace. The show aired briefly on KUTV, the former NBC affiliate who swapped affiliations with KSL. That lasted for a while and it then not shown at all in the seven state mountain regions that KSL covers after KUTV handed it back to KSL.

Wasn’t it KSL that brought us Herb Jepcko in the 60’s and 70’s? The non-topic talk show that avoided controversial subjects and focused on grandkids, children going to church, family reunions and ridiculous to the point that people pick up a guitar and sing Hank Williams songs over the phone. It was a radio version of the “Gong Show” except the participants were serious!

How long will it be before they try to convert (no pun intended) KIRO into another KSL?

[Rev]

It seems like both Nightside and Bryant Park Project are suffering from the same basic problem: Bonneville and NPR understand that their audiences are rapidly aging, so they're trying to introduce new programs to attract younger listeners. But the existing listeners hate the new programs and complain bitterly.

The only way to make this kind of format succeed would be to dedicate a separate station to the target deomgraphic. You can't just drop an 18-35 program into a station whose established audience is 45-dead.

NPR has only convinced about half a dozen stations to carry Bryant Park Project. Some, like KXOT in this market and Vermont Public Radio put the show on "second" stations that don't interfere with the established Morning Edition audience. In places where the new show replaced Morning Edition, the listeners are creaming bloody murder, even if ME is available on another local station.

Bonneville is smart enough to understand the differences among the markets in which they operate. Just because KSL panders to the culturally conservative Mormon audience in Salt Lake City, they don't expect the same approach to work in Seattle or Washington DC. But the KIRO audience would not be any more tolerant of a radically different program like Nightside.

[Rev]

Correction: that should have been:

"In places where the new show replaced Morning Edition, the listeners are screaming bloody murder, even if ME is available on another local station."

[Hoagy]

Actually, I think the reason they're looking to for SOMETHING, ANYTHING to put on in the evenings is so they can find some reason to get Frank Shiers off KIRO. His conservative talk just simply CAN'T be on the station.

(I mean...what if he actually makes SENSE???)

[fearful heathen]

On October 30th, Michael Castner listed Nightside's affiliates: Washington DC, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and "KIRO Newsradio in Seattle."
real.ksl.com/video/slc/2/205/20594.mp3

In September he said, "I'm the resident heathen in this building, the resident heathen in this state."
real.ksl.com/video/slc/2/201/20149.mp3

[asfdsaf]

they used to have an entire talk radio station that tried to grab the 18-35 demographic. It was called "the buzz". It was on FM radio.

Of course it was run terribly. They had bj shea and tom leykis, both who were up there in the ratings books for their time slots, but that was about it.

Pretty tough to fill time when there's really no shows out there that cater to the younger listener.

It would be interesting to see if they could make it work again since it seems like there is interest in that type of show. I would listen to a Shea, leykis, carolla, nightside, especially if it is on FM. I'm probably the only one, but I get tired of the same political bullshit (or sports talk) getting spewed over the AM band day after day after day.

You want to know what's really killing talk radio? There are NO MP3 players that include an AM radio (that are even remotely popular). Talk radio better learn how to transition over to FM or HD radio or they might as well pack it in.

[Utahn]

Re: Poster above about KSL TV
Yes, SNL is not on KSL Television, however KUCW which is carried on cable systems and translators statewide as well as available on the air in the Wasatch Front carries it. (the station was KUWB before that merger - channel 30)

Re: Poster on KIRO kicking Shiers
The time slot is supposed to be 7 to 10 pm they're looking at. Shiers would be safe in 10 pm to 1 am... as far as I can tell from things.