KPTK rearranges the furniture

It gripes our ass.

Seattle finally gets a liberal talk radio station carrying Air America and other liberals, but it's owned by Infinity Broadcasting--the cheapest company in radio--the one least likely to take a risk:.

This from Bill Virgin's Radio Beat in today's Seattle Post Intelligencer
book

KPTK-AM (1090) is shuffling its weekday lineup to emphasize West Coast hosts beginning Monday. Stephanie Miller's Los Angeles-based show takes over the 6-9 a.m. slot currently held by "Morning Sedition," which moves to 3-5 a.m. Thom Hartmann's show, originating in Portland, takes over the 9 a.m.-noon slot currently held by Al Franken, who moves to 3-6 p.m. Ed Schultz stays at noon-3 p.m., while Randi Rhodes takes the 6-10 p.m. slot and Mike Malloy is heard 10 p.m.-1 a.m.

Yes, KPTK is rearranging the furniture...

Stephanie Miller will be live. Thom Hartmann will be live. Morning Sedition will be live if you want to podcast it or get up in the middle of the night. Al Franken will be pre-recorded, which doesn't matter so much since he doesn't take many callers, but we'll lose Randi Rhodes in living color and Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder's Majority Report altogether.

We're fans of both Miller and Hartmann--but this reshuffling is a lateral move at best.

Infinity's trying to plump up KPTK's piss-poor ratings without spending any money. These syndicated shows don't cost them a dime and since Infinity doesn't seem to know much or give a shit about talk radio, they won't make an investment in local programming, which would, by our lights, make a huge difference.

Local blabberjockeys like Dave Ross, John Carlson, Dori Monson--even Mike Webb are paid well (even overpaid in some obvious cases).

Because we're liberals political activists and and support lib-talk down to the short strokes, we've tried to put lipstick on this pig any number of times and we've yelled at 'em--to no avail. We're starting to give up on 'em.

What's sad is, that while we and many others have tried and given up, so many more people haven't even tuned in.

(Portland's KPOJ, the most successful liberal talker in the country, brought Thom Harmann out from Vermont to do a 6-9a  local show, which precedes his syndicated one which KPTK will carry. They invested in liberal radio and reap the benefits.)

KPTK isn't serious about talk radio. They have their KMPS, Seattle's long time top-rated station which plays shit-kicker music to the washed masses, plus some other big music stations--so what the hell.

We get letters like this:

I have stopped listening to 1090AM. Why bother? I have XM radio and I can Air America anywhere.

I have called 1090, I have emailed them, I have even sent them a cake with the words: "Local Talent: Get a clue", but obviously they don't care.

So if they don't care, I don't care. My only dream at this point is that KIRO yanks the AAR format away from 1090 and gives us the best of both worlds.  Posted by: Political Pulpit | August 12, 2005

They've blown public relations opportunities and stiffed listeners for the community touch that makes for station loyalty--despite even the ad-rate advantage to having local jocks with a "live" book and endorsement ads.

They have a liberal book club and an hour of traffic reporter Tami Kosch doing "community matters" at 6-7a Saturdays and those PSA's and community bulletins, but these things are just window dressing to real community-building.

Meanwhile, KVI, the right-wing station overcame the huge ratings blow of losing Rush Limpjaw to KTTH; and they did it by having local jocks, doing local issues while KTTH with Big Pants and  marginal local programming is on its lips.

We've tried in our humble benevolence. BlatherWatch gave them reader-generated lists of able and willing local amateur talents. They've had decent local professionals apply.

We're in this for the politics. We'd like to have a liberal local talk-crew to counter the dreadful damage KVI's Carlson (m-f, 3-6p) and Wilbur (m-f, 5-9a) are doing to America and Washington State. We understand Infinity's priority is business, not politics. But in the end, our goals are the same:  successful progressive talk in Seattle.

But what we don't get is how KPTK can to do the same things over and over and expect a different result.

It makes us think this is more about a quick buck than anything else--the talk radio version of Jack, the robot that's taking over the rest of the radio industry.

Ultimately, a progressive audience will reject this exploitation altogether--makes us think we might just have to get Sirius--and we suspect, we're not the only ones.

Comments

[umo]

KIRO: munson,ross,ventrella,webb.
KVI: hannity,carlson,suits,noory
KTTH: medved,savage,oreilly,ingraham

With that many excellent choices in Seattle radio...who needs KPTK?

[Lump]

Perhaps the station has finally determined that Air America is a financial loser and that a reshuffled lineup might be better for their finances or certainly couldn't be worse. There must not have been a market for AA in the greater Puget Sound for a radio station that only plays hosts calling people names for hours upon end. There does appear to be a trend that talk radio is on a decline and I'm sure that some of the conservative talkers will disappear in the future. No more Randi, no more Janeane and Big Al recycled on tape? Gosh that's a tough break for the lefties.

[drool]

I won't miss Randi. She is as FOS as Rush. Rantings and lack of research on subject matter do nothing for me. Frankin is much better.

[MacBoar]

Not being a Progressive, I'm still glad they've added Hartmann. I can't listen to Prell and can only take Snow and Rush for 10 mins at a stretch. I've heard Hartmann and he's fair.

I'm sooo glad Rhodes is out of drive time. She's a true wacko in the same vein of Rush.

Give me Dori any day.

[Political Pulpit]

This has got to be the worst line-up yet. They appear to be giving up because they aren't able to turn things around on the cheap.

They made the point last year of doing away with the Cougar game pre-emptions, yet brought them back again.

I am through with AM1090 altogether. XM radio costs me a little over $10 per month, and I can get everything I want, when I want it.

Put a fork in them, they are done.

[sparky]

Hmmmm
This is one time I disagree with you...
I am not interested in a local show on AAmerica. I suppose thats because I dont live in Seattle and so I dont care about what goes on there. I am thrilled that Thom Hartmann will be live-- I and many others who currently stream him will be listening.
I still wont listen to Ed but his time slot is when Im doing stuff around the house and I can listen to Randi at night instead of watch TV.
Dave is still a sometimes apologist for Bush and the rest of the KIRO line up is poor, so there is still no reason to tune in there. Dave is good, but he is no Thom Hartmann, and in my opinion spends way too much effort in trying to play devil's advocate.
Morning Sedition is a very east coast show, Janeane Garafalo was leaving Majority Report to do "West Wing" anyway, so I have to say--I'm very happy.

[Daniel K]

Why can't someone else CREATE a new radio station that can broadcast the programming you're speaking of? If radio is as big a bullhorn as you make it, then perhaps the local progressives should just establish their own signal.

[blathering michael]

They definitely should, but they probably won't. It's an entertainment business that takes capital, broadcasting expertise, and specific marketing know-how and most important if it's to survive--the ability to attract & keep listeners. There's an amount of whoring involved that a station built on leftist ideology probably wouldn't put up with. The right has adapted itself well to an existing medium that has a wider appeal than to just their own choir--which has made it an effective tool for politicizing and proselytizing. There are stations in places like Berkeley and New York with lefty-only programming, but they're limited in audience to those markets and in general. The right has Christian stations limited to their own choir, too but they're small potatoes. The really effective thing they've done,(we were sleeping at the time) is push their politics into a ratings-generating broadcast product that pencils. the subscriber, public stations don't have a great survival rate--they tend to be boring. It's gotta be a successful business first, and that means entertainment must be the first priority...It's the ugly part and the beauty part.

[Lump]

The Blatherer sez "-the ability to attract & keep listeners. There's an amount of whoring involved that a station built on leftist ideology probably wouldn't put up with."
It's been a while since I've had beer run out of my nose, but this statement made it happen. Leftist ideology wouldn't put up with whoring? Now, that's funny!

[blathering michael]

I don't believe you, Lump--you breath beer outa your nose every night...