BlatherWatch

Public radio audiences "ain't getting any younger..."

With the slight exception at news-based stations,  public radio audiences are aging at a disturbing pace. The future may be bleak for the music stations: particularly classical.

A new study by Walrus Research calculated the rate of aging of audiences for each public radio format.

UPDATED: Seattle radio election coverage: the good, the bad, and the insufficient ...

KOMOAM/FM will provide the most extensive radio coverage locally with anchors Lisa Brooks and Brian Calvert; analysis with The Commentators, John Carlson & Ken Schram and local field reports from KOMO 4’s Bryan Johnson, and updates from ABC News on significant national races.

KING 5.com will have election night webcast streaming starting at 8p. Anchor Carolyn Douglas will be joined by Publicola's Josh Feit to survey the unfolding landscape with other political analysts, video reports and live shots from candidate headquarters. KING 5’s 10 & 11PM newscasts will also be live on the web.

KUOW will run live NPR feed from 6p with Marcie Sillman coming in from 8 to 9p and for local election coverage and commentary. (photo: Marci Sillman)

Luke burbank to "wait, wait, don't tell me"

TBTL's Luke Burbank will be a Halloween panelist on NPR's zane-filled radio quiz, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (KUOW, Saturday 10-11a) with guest with legendary horror movie director George Romero, the man behind Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead.

Made for seattle: radios that play only npr!

They're calling it the "baby boomer's boom box."

Don't laugh- that 35-64 demo may have fewer teeth, but they still have lots of ears. NPR is selling a granny-proof, internet radio already tuned to streams of local NPR stations, more than 1,000 nationwide NPR outlets, plus on-demand content from NPR.org. (Only boomers know what a boom box actually is- chances are, they still listen to one).

Also 16,000 Internet radio stations not affiliated with NPR are also accessible on the device, offered for $199 from the NPR Shop and Livio Radio, who designed the thing for WiFi or ethernet. Wired writes: "[I]t should pass the 'granny test' in ease of use, and it looks like a friendly radio and not a scary, virus-catching computer."

Can't believe the affiliates are too happy about this: they've been fighting NPR's on-line efforts for years. It eliminates the middleman, they say, "and we're the middleman!"

Rent's due at KUOW... pretty pleeze???

Hooty-hoo! Is it just us, or is this the longest pledge drive in the history of KUOW?

 Smooth jazz KPLU wrapped theirs up in a record 6 days. But KUOW's need$ are presumably higher and seem to be having trouble raising it- they're half way though a second week.

(photo credit: KUOW)

It's the economy, stupid.

We'd love to see PPM weeklies in Seattle as other stations get a little windfall goose as the mighty KUOW audience dives for the dial to avoid the slappy-happy semi-annual money grab. 

Will KPTK step up to radio reality?

Seattle liberal-interest money groups have long talked up the possibility of buying a radio station to counter the overwhelmingly conservative news talk stations in a market that's overwhelmingly liberal.

That's probably not a good idea, since it's been proven many times that radio should be left to radio professionals...Oh wait, that's right, a generation of professionals put radio where it is today: in the shit.

Another sign the end is near... KVI junks 'cop talk radio'

Effective immediately- if you were listening last week, you heard the last show.

We speak sadly of KVI's Cop Talk Radio (Saturdays 6-7p), another victim of media hard times in general, and KVI's problems in particular.

Seattle ratings breakout shows more trouble for conservative talk radio

Right-wing talk stations are missing in top 15 rankings in Seattle (where you'd expect) but also in the rest of the market as well (including Arlington, Mount Vernon, and Bellevue).

A fascinating breakout of Seattle's July radio ratings has been posted by Eric Lacitis at the Seattle Times. (Seattle for the ZIP codes from Greenwood to Seward Park compared with the Metro region including King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, Skagit and Island counties).

KBCS makes some changes... and the bullets fly.

Surprise, surprise, community radio is on the ropes.

Community radio: where the sounds of the experimenting, the esoteric, the exuberantly hip or the hopelessly out-of-date can be heard- the stuff  that polar reject the kind of cume that made commercial radio profitable when it was.

July seattle radio ratings: more of the dismal same for news talk

KOMO dropped a little, 4.9- to 4.0, but still good in 9th place; public talker KUOW is still at 11th with 3.8. Mariners baseball helps KIROAM, up from last month's 2.5 to 3.3. KTTH (Rush Limbaugh's home) lost slightly 3.0 to 2.9 at 18th place but still whacks former Big Dog KIROFM, who rose from 2.3 to 2.7, but only tied for 19th place. Progressive talk KPTK sucks as usual, tied for 27th place with only a 1 share. Kool Konservative KVI does only slightly better tied with KJRAM with a 1.6.