Luke Burbank: are we all talked out?

Luke Burbank is well-known in Seattle radio.

He was Kirby Wilbur's producer for years; had what he describes a "ridiculously bad Saturday show" on KVI, did Metro traffic;produced and hosted over at NPR affiliate KUOW.

A friend of and mentored by former KUOW personality, comedian and comedy writer Bill Radke (Rewind) Burbank did stand up comedy downtown with some success (e.g.: he made us laugh).

Luke's in Los Angeles working as a reporter for NPR- we hear him frequently on All Things Considered, and Marketplace; and other nationally syndicated NPR shows.

(Luke says he is Blatherwatch's biggest LA fan, we're not sure if Luke has gained some weight or whether he really likes us, but we also suspect he's also our only LA fan).

Burbank weighs in on the question worrying radio pros around the country: Is political talk radio is fading out?

The Los Angeles Times reported in August:

Still, however you measure these things, broadcasting professionals agree that audiences for political talk shows have declined significantly throughout this year. That's certainly been true in Los Angeles. This week, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-St. Paul reported that Limbaugh has lost 43% of his audience there, while Sean Hannity's has declined by 63%. An executive at the station that airs both programs in the Twin Cities told the paper, "We have really become concerned with what I could call their tight play list of topics revolving around politics." A Clear Channel programming executive in Northern California, where declines also have occurred, admitted, "We're not sure yet what's really going on."

It's happening in Seattle, too as we've been reporting since June and again this week as Fisher broke out of traditional talk programming with the announcement of its upcoming weekdaily pissing match with John Carlson and KOMO TV's Ken Schram beginning Jan. 30 (KOMOAM 10a-12p). href="http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/talk_radio/2006/01/update_carlson_.html">As we wrote:

Fisher honchos are hoping to give a shot of Viagara to the generally flaccid numbers for both KVI and KOMOAM. No talkers (neither the stations nor the humans) in this town are doing very well, and it seems to be a national trend. It's not only KIRO who is plagued with falling or lackluster numbers over the last year - it's all over the dial. KVI, KTTH, all have been worrying their masters as talk numbers have gradually degraded over the past five or six books. The Buzz paid the ultimate price.”

Luke writes:
I listen to A LOT of talk radio… and I’m non-denominational about it, I do a rotation every afternoon on my slog through LA traffic – Leykis, John & Ken, Lee “Hacksaw Hamilton”, Randi Rhodes… anyway, I have been realizing slowly but surely that I really can’t care less what any of them have to say about anything. It’s like I’ve heard these folks spout every possible opinion on every possible topic and I’m just over them.

Sure the specifics might change, (One day it’s Elian Gonzales, next day Hillary talking about a “plantation”) but it’s all just starting to feel like the same mishmash of sound and music bumpers signifying absolutely nothing. More and more I end up listening to NPR or KFWB because at least I’m getting some info while I’m being bored. (and lord knows I get plenty of NPR at work… so I must really be desperate).

I guess what I’m wondering is if we have really reached the point where we’ve heard every possible POV on every possible sort of topic. Might this explain the general decline in ratings?

Does that mean talk radio should start thinking about quality of life decisions?

Comments

[serial listener]

jaysis, Lukey- it's good to hear from you...we miss you- the liberal in the lions den of KVI.

[Andrew]

It's realy amazing to me that none of this addresses the issue of content. It's not like we listen to talk radio just to drown out the voices in our heads.

The latest political happenings aren't very interesting so listening to the hosts opine about Abramoff or the plantation comment or the wire tapping is no more interesting then if they talked about how they like to prepare their mushrooms.

[Ryder]

I will give y'all one big reason why talk radio is having problems. Its not fun anymore. Love him or hate him when Rush Limbaugh was ruling the airwaves in the early 90s he was having a blast. As were the listeners. Much of his programing was taken up with absurd news stories via the Homeless Updates, the Animal Rights Updates, Feminist Updates, Gorbasms etc. Rush knew how to entertain.

Now we have all these clods who take themselves so seriously. Michael Medved are you listening? Mr Savage? Look at Air America-----what a bunch of boring hosts. They drag in Al Franken, a supposed comdeian, a man with no radio experience, toss him to the lions, then wonder why no one listens.

Most of you seem to dislike Dori Monson. Yet at least he seems to have fun. He rarely lets an entire show go by without showing the listeners that talk radio can be crazy, funny, and totally off the deep end. Dori is able to communicate much more on the level of the common man than other hosts who seem to take such a serious view to every topic.

Then there is Dave Ross. There is not a better talk show host in the country. Yet somehow KIRO seems to have determined that their prize jewel should be tossed into an oblivion of news breaks, traffic reports and ENDELSS commercials.

And while I am ranting, blowing off steam, proving that I am a pompous windbag, may I make a hudge suggestion to John P......Quit swallowing all the time, or whatever it is you are doing.

There, I have spoken. What more is there to be said? You may all send your checks to the e-mail addy listed above.

Thank you

[Joe]

Ryder... You nailed it! Most of the current talk show hosts don't realize that another big factor is entertainment value. I like the idea that they can uncover details of current issues that I don't have time to research, but how many times have you flipped the dial only to find two stations talking about the same subject. And a couple hours later, some else brings up the same subject. In the market place, it's called 'over sturation' and doomed to fail.

But, back to the entertainment point I was making. People like to be entertained and good hosts use this to their advantage. The personality of the host has a lot to do with it too. Not to many of the current lot have that ability to keep you interested as a listener, regardless of the subject, which is one of the reasons people are tuning out instead of tuning in.

[Scrilla]

Gotta tell ya, Luke is missed here and all...but our peers are not in the demo. Know what I'm sayin'?
For god's sake, I'm a radio junkie and I'M sick of it.
But..."they" keep listening.

[Andrew]

Ryder, Joe: that can't be the case.

"This week, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-St. Paul reported that Limbaugh has lost 43% of his audience there, while Sean Hannity's has declined by 63%."

The same entertainment = worse ratings.

[joanie]

As far as Al Franken is concerned, his show rises to the level of great political entertainment and serious intellectual discussion.

If anybody wants to make a personal remark about him, that misses the point. Listen to his show, hear what he does, and then comment.

He is as entertaining and informative as any liberal host anywhere. Also, Stephanie Miller in the morning.

Dave is also entertaining, at least I think so. He is also informative and mixes it up a little. So, he's successful.

I think the secret is out that Rush and Sean Hannity provide so much unsubstantiated BS, that they are losing their audience simply because they are no longer credible.

And, the rest of talk radio is full of untalented wanna be's and they are not successful. Randi Rhodes has to quit her ranting monologues; Frank Shiers has to quit aping Dori; Medved has to quit taking himself so seriously. Just to name a few. These people are losing their audiences on Air America, on Kiro, on KVI, and probably on every other station.

Do I dare add, IMHO!

[audioslave]

Remmeber when Crow and West did their Leave it to Beaver spoofs?

Now that was classic radio.

[Lump]

Michael sez, "I guess what I’m wondering is if we have really reached the point where we’ve heard every possible POV on every possible sort of topic. Might this explain the general decline in ratings?"

I lay this at the foot of the internet and blogging. Up until lately listeners came to depend upon the radio hosts for the latest news and gossip with their own particular slants and bias's. Most were not reported by the MSM. They even had their own insiders that leaked little tidbits about things that had not been reported yet. Now, you get the latest stories, shortly followed by detailed analysis from all over the web and analized by all of the political spectrum. A good example is of the latest clown act of Ted Kennedy at the Alito hearings as he grilled the judge about membership in a club that supposedly discriminated against women and minorities in college and in minutes it was all over the web that the chief idiot of the far left was himself a member of an all male club. It was not reported in the NY Times or the Washington post till days later after it was old news and they were sort of forced into it. Newpapers are headed for extinction, why not talk radio?

I know there will be cheers all over this blog when Limbaugh retires, but he's already talking about it and having to put up with the daily grind of a 3 hr show is interferring with his golf. After 20 years of the same stuff, perhaps it's time to move on.

Go Seachickens, er Seahawks.

[Critter]

Luke is right on point! I never thought I would say this, but I'm just about "over talk radio" myself. I'm so tired of the ranting and raving and everyone trying to out-insult the others. I come away feeling like I need to bathe. No entertainment value at all. If I wanted to listen to fighting, name-calling, screaming and yelling, I would have stayed married to my FIRST husband. Enough, already!

[Andrew]

Come next election cycle everyone will fall in love again. You can't read blogs while you're driving.

[joanie]

Thanks, Andrew. Enough of the over-analyzing because, as Lump said, it is become anal-izing! :)
There are a few entertaining and topical hosts left and for those of us who love AM talk radio, thank god.

Just like network news took a bit of a decline when all the cable programs came on line, I guess radio programming will have to accept smaller audiences because they are competing with so many niche competitors.

I wish KIRO would decide to become my niche and do all day local/national liberal talk because so many of us are out their looking for this. Air America needs some local talk and hosts who do more than monologues for two or three hours at a time.

[joanie]

PS: Right now I'm listenine to "This American Life." What are you all listening to?

[Brian]

Joanie ! I have on the Lionel show, off the web because , Kiro has a very bad line up ! if somebodys out there that know CPR? KIRO has flat lined

[Lump]

joanie sez, "PS: Right now I'm listenine to "This American Life." What are you all listening to?"

So, spelling is not everything?

[blathering michael]

Hey Andrew: who can't read blogs while you're driving???

[blathering michael]

Hey Joanie: you're right- NPR rules on Saturdays!

[P-1 Stern Fan]

The First ever Sensible comment by LUMP!!

"I know there will be cheers all over this blog when Limbaugh retires, but he's already talking about it and having to put up with the daily grind of a 3 hr show is interferring with his golf. After 20 years of the same stuff, perhaps it's time to move on.

Go Seachickens, er Seahawks."

[robinz]

A long time ago I use to listen to a wonderful program hosted by a man named Jim Altoff. In the begining it was blues artists and literary types and as Rush became more and more popular he was forced into doing politics and even at that he was very good. You know it's good when both sides are sure your a liberal and a conservative. Anyway he also had a program once a week called "Ask me Anything". What a great show. If I remember correctly he hit burn out and took his family back to the midwest. Miss him still.

Robin

[Chad Stanley]

I think what you have here is that hosts forgot how to engage the listener and merely plant the flag and preach to the choir.

Limbaugh WAS a gas in the first 6-8 years, because a)there was no one doing his act, and b)he did it with a wink and a style. The Homeless Updates (Clarence Frogman Henry) and the Feminist Update (Sandy Dennis) were send-ups and entertaining, unless you had a thin skin I suppose. But something happened...

All of sudden things got personal with the Clinton lynch mob, and the era of Bush jr.

Maybe it's his own well documented personal demons or maybe it's the climate, but Rush has degenerated into a hateful caricature that he never was in the early years. And bring in fellow tight azzed fellows such as Tony Snow and Sean Hannity, well there's no real humanity or charisma anymore. Dang, I miss hearing G. Gordon Liddy on the radio; that guy might be right wing but he's not a puppet, he had an individualism and a libertarian jag that really doesn't get much play nowadays. I would add that amongst the current neo con tawkers, the one that's prime for a fall is Sean since he truly is a flag wavin' johnny-one-note. Not a lot of radio ability there imo. And to the 1090 fans out there, I'm afraid that its not caught my centrist attention enough to pay any mind.

I'm old enough to recall wild caller/host debates on the Mi Lai massacre on local talk radio in Pittsburgh. Nowadays, the host would shout down the caller and accuse him of being unamerican, an atheist, and less than desirable to advertisers (the most ignominious insult to be sure!)

[Radio Larry]

Yes I have and still enoy NPE, it just seems that right-wing talk radio is likie the housing market. Eventually it is going to burst with no one around to pick up the slag that is spewing our from station to station. I really see no one original except for Pate and Ross. Probably because they dont give a dam. Look for Kiro to shirft back to news PM format in the very near future. Dave is going back to his old slot as there is no more tom leykis to deal with and the Mariners at Komo no longer affored a ratings plus.

Later

Radio Larry

[Meeshy]

I don't think that the Carlson/Shram show will be the hit the station thinks it will be. Shram will be the main reason for that. They mistakenly think that people actually care what he says. John is a far better debater, but having Shram on with him will just sink the ratings

[Meeshy]

What???????????You mean Air Scamerica hasn't taken over the airwaves even in Seattle and become the number one listened-to ratings giant??

[Tim]

I like Air America (at least it's something different) but Frankein is boring and Mike Malloy sounds like a paranoid lunatic. Randi Rhodes is great and her market share is increasing each month in every city in which she broadcasts. It's not surprising when considering the dearth of variety in opinions (most of it is clearly right wing).

Even so, I think Ms. Rhrodes' broadcasts have significantly changed in the past year or so.

She used to have a lot more fun with her support staff: you could hear them laughing in the background and calling out their own punch lines to what she was saying. She used to have more comedians on there. She used to sound a lot more happy.

Don't take my word for it: listen to her shows on the Randi Rhodes archive from a year ago and compare for yourself.

Maybe it was the 2004 election, maybe it was her move to New York, maybe it was her operation; I don't know the cause, but the result is a meaner show. But still one of the better talk shows out there because I learn stuff from her.

[joanie]

Tim, how can you learn stuff from Randi who does a monologue every night but not from Franken who has three or four guests a day who are so informative?