Industry Views

Don’t Leave Cash on the Nightstand

By Walter Sabo
Consultant, Sabo Media
A.K.A. Walter Sterling
Radio Host, Sterling On Sunday
Talk Media Network

imAmazing fact: In ancient times, from 1962-1972, the highest-paid on-air talent in New York City was “an overnight guy.” He was paid salary plus sales response. I’m talking about Long John Nebel on WOR, WNBC, then WMCA. Long John’s live reads moved product because his audience was captive. One-to-one his listeners were attached to their radios in the truck cab, night watchman’s building lobby, parents pacing with their babies, students cramming. His background was not in radio; he was a skilled auctioneer. Obviously, the same listeners exist today – and are anxious for someone to talk to them. Check out this old clip of Nebel in action: https://youtu.be/wYMCkpYFtbk

One of today’s bizarre misconceptions is that overnights/late nights are not important for sales or audience share. Totally and completely wrong!

— As an executive, when launching a new format, any new format, the first time period I staffed was overnights. Late-night, overnight is the doorway to a station. Listening patterns to AM drive are habitual, hard to change. Late night listening is discretionary. Audiences will sample new radio offerings when they seek pure entertainment rather than essential utility elements.

— Late-night cume feeds morning drive. Study the flow of audience from late-night to morning drive, you will be surprised how much of the AM drive cume depends on the last station heard before turning off the radio.

— No distractions. It is easier to sell any product or idea to a person who is giving you 100% of their attention rather than rushing to work, calming the kids and remembering to avoid road construction. As George Noory’s success confirms, the percent of listeners who act on a commercial message is higher overnights than at any other time period.

— Every format has a default hour – one hour of the day when it will have its largest audience share. For all-news, for example, it’s always 5:00 am – 6:00 am. Lite FM’s, 1:00 pm. Live, local talk: 11:00 pm.  Listeners seek companionship, sympathy and empathy from talk shows.  If a station offers a “best of” at 11:00 pm, it is ignoring the built-in strategic advantage of the talk format. 11:00 pm is primetime.

— Rate integrity. A station may charge top dollar for morning drive. Upon further study those high rates usually come with nighttime bonus spots.  Bonus spots cut the rate in half. The nighttime results story can stand on its own and command premium pricing without bonusing.

Walter Sabo was the youngest executive vice president in the history of NBC. The youngest VP in the history of ABC. He was a consultant to RKO General longer than Bill Drake. Walter was the in-house consultant to Sirius for eight years. He has never written a resume. Contact him at walter@sabomedia.com. or mobile 646-678-1110. Hear Walter Sterling at www.waltersterlingshow.com.

Front Page News Industry News

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

WABC’s McGuirk Tribute Airs Today. The day-long remembrance of Bernie McGuirk on Red Apple Media New York news/talk WABC-AM & WLIR-FM “77 Talk Radio” began at 6:00 this morning (Wednesday, 10/12). The 65-year-old McGuirk passed away last Wednesday (10/5) from prostate cancer. For the past four and a half years, he and Sid Rosenberg co-hosted “Bernie & Sid in the Morning.” According to Red Apple Media owner John Catsimatidis, who purchased WABC two years ago, “We are airing this all-day tribute to honor our friend and colleague, who loved New York, radio, and his listeners. We’ll have the opportunity to bid farewell to a wonderful man who reached WABC radio listeners around the world every morning with his unique take on the news.” Red Apple Media/WABC radio president Chad Lopez notes, “Bernie’s observations and analysis of world and local news and politics were not only insightful – they were authentic. His brilliant mind, combined with that New York attitude, [gave] listeners what they wanted – the truth; we will miss him.” News anchor/air personality Charles McCord worked with McGuirk during their years together on “(Don) Imus in the Morning” and will appear this morning in the 9:00 hour. Among others scheduled to be part of the tribute are: New York City mayor Eric Adams; comedian/longtime “Imus” cast member Rob Bartlett; sports talk host Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo; former “Imus In The Morning” sports personality Warner Wolf; NBA play-by-play announcer Mike Breen; actor/author Chazz Palminteri; Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean; and WABC host Bill O’Reilly. McGuirk joined WABC in 2007 as “Imus in the Morning” producer/on-air contributor. He’d previously been with Imus at New York’s WNBC and WFAN. In 2016, WABC teamed McGuirk and Rosenberg in mid-days (10:00 am – 12:00 noon), before boosting them to morning drive. Rosenberg reflected on McGuirk with TALKERS founder Michael Harrison. Listen to their conversation by clicking here.

Round Four of August PPMs Released. The fourth round of ratings data from Nielsen Audio’s September 2022 PPM survey has been released for Austin; Raleigh; Indianapolis; Milwaukee; Nashville; Providence; Norfolk; Jacksonville; West Palm Beach; Greensboro; Memphis; and Hartford. Nielsen Audio’s September 2022 sweep covered August 18 – September 14. TALKERS magazine managing editor Mike Kinosian presents his “Ratings Takeaways” from this group of markets. Three news/talk outlets are included in West Palm Beach’s top twenty (6+). A four-tenths improvement from August 2022 by iHeartMedia’s WZZR (1.8 – 2.2, 6+) coupled with co-owned WJNO’s half-share dip (1.8 – 1.3, 6+) results in “92.1 Real Radio” (ninth to eighth) overtaking “News Radio 1290” (#9 to #11). Also in that Florida market’s mix is Hubbard Broadcasting-owned WFTL “News Talk 850,” which drops two-tenths (1.1 – .9, #13 to #14, 6+). Although they only yield a combined 5.0 (6+), four Hartford news/talk stations crack the top twenty. Leading that group is Audacy’s WTIC-AM, although “News Talk 1080” logs a full-share deficit from August (4.6 – 3.6, 6+), slipping from eighth to ninth; its internet stream is unchanged in share and market rank (.2 and #20, respectively). Meanwhile, Red Wolf Broadcasting-owned WDRC-AM “The Talk of Connecticut” picks up two-tenths (.8 – 1.0,  #15 to #14, 6+) and iHeartMedia’s WPOP “News Radio 1410 AM & 100.9 FM,” which had been unlisted since April, resurfaces with a .2, (#20, 6+). See Mike Kinosian’s complete “Ratings Takeaways” from this group of markets (as well as the first three groups) here.

Charges Dropped Against Subject Of “Serial” Podcast. Baltimore prosecutors yesterday (Tuesday, 10/11) dropped charges against Adnan Syed in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee, a case that was chronicled in the first season of the podcast “Serial.” Laura Nirider, co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, tweeted, “After the latest round of DNA testing generated results that, like previous rounds of testing, excluded Adnan Syed, he has now been formally exonerated.” A Baltimore judge last month overturned Syed’s murder conviction and ordered him released from prison, where the 41-year-old had spent more than two decades. Circuit judge Melissa Phinn gave prosecutors 30 days in which to decide whether to retry Syed or drop the charges. Syed captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on the case and raised doubts about some of the evidence, including cellphone tower data. Syed served more than 20 years in prison for strangling the 18-year-old Lee. Her body was found weeks later buried in a Baltimore park. More than a decade later, “Serial” revealed little-known evidence and attracted millions of listeners, shattering podcast-streaming and downloading records. Prosecutors failed to tell Syed’s defense attorneys about evidence that would have allowed him to defend himself, including details that established two other people had threatened Lee’s life. In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, said that recently tested DNA completely exculpated Syed from the crime. She declined to say if any other known suspects may be implicated in the recent DNA testing, saying that the investigation is ongoing.

TALKERS News Notes. Effective next Monday (10/17), Jeff Rowe will join Southern California Public Radio Pasadena-Los Angeles news/talk KPCC and LAist as vice president/programming. Southern California Public Radio chief content officer Kristen Muller comments, “As we reach more audiences, we need to rethink the way we program across multiple platforms. Jeff brings an entrepreneurial spirit and innovative mindset – these are critical skills that will be a huge asset.” Co-founder of Okanjo and Zap2it, Rowe has worked at AOL; Journal Communications; Tribune Media; NBC; and VH1. … Three-year KDWN “The Talk of Las Vegas” program director Steve Hoffman exits the Beasley Media Group news/talk station. … College Station, Texas news/talk WTAW celebrated its 100th anniversary last Friday (10/7). The Bryan Broadcasting-owned outlet began as experimental station 5XB in 1914 and was officially licensed as WTAW by the Commerce Department in 1922. Vice president/general manager Ben Downs comments, “When we followed the [Rush] Limbaugh wave into talk in 1989, it was a great day for the station. We still control the 25+ demos, which isn’t bad for a 100-year-old station – even though we don’t look a day over 70.” … Attorney/Corporation For Public Broadcasting board chair Bruce Ramer will be honored tonight (Wednesday, 10/12) with CPB’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.” CPB president/chief executive officer Patricia Harrison notes, “Bruce Ramer’s award is in recognition of his extraordinary leadership and guidance given to CPB over the nearly 14 years of his service. He led CPB’s support for innovation, interconnection, infrastructure, and access to content over many platforms. [Bruce] was committed to strengthening local, national, and international public media journalism and editorial integrity. On a meaningful level, he always advanced diversity and inclusion personally and professionally.” CPB vice chair Laura Gore Ross adds, “Bruce’s leadership has strengthened CPB and public media when we needed it most. On his watch, CPB was able to distribute $75 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding and $175 million in CARES Act stabilization funding to public media stations. He has provided wise counsel through thick and thin that’s been felt by all.”

SiriusXM To Open Miami Broadcast Center. Scheduled for completion in 2023, the Miami Broadcast Center venue will feature several radio and recording studios, a 50-seat performance space, as well as office space. SiriusXM president/chief content officer Scott Greenstein notes, “We are excited to open our Miami broadcast complex and deepen our ties in such a multicultural and entertainment-rich city. Our Miami facility will feature a world-class performance space for our special events. Its artist-first recording studios will be a destination for major stars and emerging personalities to connect with listeners.” SiriusXM’s other facilities include its New York Rockefeller Center headquarters; West Hollywood studios; and studios/offices in Washington, DC and Nashville.

Front Page News Industry News

Thursday, October 6, 2022

WABC, New York’s Bernard McGuirk Dies from Prostate Cancer at 64. Longtime New York City radio personality Bernard McGuirk – most recently co-host of the “Bernie & Sid” show on WABC, died on Wednesday evening (10/5) after a battle with prostate cancer. WABC calls McGuirk “the brains of the 77 WABC ‘brains and muscle’ team of ‘Bernie & Sid in the Morning.’” McGuirk had been with WABC since 2007 as executive producer of the “Imus in the Morning Show,” where he was also featured as the program’s quick-witted, on-air contributor. McGuirk added color to local and national news updates with his own take on the serious and not-so-serious news of the day. McGuirk was with the “Imus In the Morning” show since its latter days at WNBC Radio. He made the move with Imus to WFAN, New York in 1988 and remained there until 2007. McGuirk was also part of the Imus team when the show became nationally syndicated in 1993. WABC says that McGuirk, who had been co-host of its “Bernie & Sid in the Morning” with Sid Rosenberg since April of 2018, helped bring WABC back to the top in New York, reaching #1 in share of the 12+ audience in morning drive in the August Nielsen ratings. The station says there will be a tribute and moment of silence for McGuirk on 77 WABC today, during the morning drive program. A special tribute for McGuirk, including memories and thoughts from the WABC staff, will air on Tuesday, October 11. Red Apple Media Group chief John Catsimatidis says, “We are all devastated by the loss of Bernie. He was a true New Yorker whose talent and intelligence propelled him to the top of New York morning radio. He had incredible insights on local, national, and world news that his listeners respected. He will be missed by everyone at WABC and his fans around the world.” Sid Rosenberg says, “Bernie was my partner and my friend. He was always the smartest guy in the room, and I was fortunate to be the guy next to him. I know our listeners join me in grieving the loss to radio and to New York.” Born in the Bronx in 1957, McGuirk was a graduate of the College of Mount St. Vincent. He is survived by his wife Carol, and their two children, Brendan and Melanie.

Tavis Smiley Is This Week’s Guest on Harrison Podcast. Independent radio station owner/operator and longtime multi-platform media commentator Tavis Smiley is this week’s guest on the award-winning PodcastOne series, “The Michael Harrison Interview.” Smiley’s accomplished, three-decade career includes having hosted shows and making appearances on such national television platforms as BET, CNN, ABC, and PBS, as well as radio stations KABC and KGFJ in Los Angeles. He’s a prolific author and dynamic purveyor of the African American perspective in the media with his current radio focus representing the majority liberal side of the nation’s diverse black population. In 2021, Smiley’s company, SmileyAudioMedia, Inc., acquired a radio station in Los Angeles – the former hip hop legend KDAY, and turned it into a brand-new station and format launched on Juneteenth of that year – KBLA Talk 1580 – where he’s assembled an outstanding air staff, including himself, with the passionate mission of “unapologetically” serving people of color and political progressives. Harrison states, “Tavis Smiley is to be applauded for bringing two rare but extremely important entities to America’s talk media universe – an African American-owned-and-operated major market station as well as a commercial talk radio outlet that actually embraces liberalism. Putting his money where his mouth is, his belief in and support of radio itself is needed and inspirational.” To listen to the podcast in its entirety, please click here.

Howard Stern Praises Old Boss Bill Nosal Upon News of His Passing. Legendary radio personality Howard Stern had high praise for former longtime WCCC, Hartford program director Bill Nosal, who died recently at age 77. Stern said on his SiriusXM program that Nosal hired him in a move that brought Stern from a small station to a top 50 market and would give him the visibility needed to become the superstar that he is. Stern said his first audition for Nosal didn’t go well, but he got a second interview anyway. Stern said, “Either he was a genius like on the level of Lorne Michaels … or he was a complete moron who had no idea what he was doing. I choose to think he was a genius. He saw a diamond in the rough in me [when] no other person did.” Nosal would eventually leave WCCC and the radio programming business to launch his own advertising agency. You can read Stern’s comments here.

Report: Audacy Exploring Sale of Cadence13 Podcasting Unit. According to a piece by Axios, Audacy has retained investment firm Evolution Media Capital to explore the sale of its podcast studio Cadence13 in order to “alleviate some of the company’s debt as it faces financial challenges.” The story notes that in addition to Cadence13, Audacy has acquired Pineapple Street Studios, and podcast monetization platform Podcorn. While Audacy is not commenting on the matter, the Axios piece notes that on Audacy’s most recent quarterly conference call, company president and CEO David Field stated that the company’s podcast growth is coming from its local sports and news radio stations – as well as Audacy’s new sports podcast studio 2400Sports. The piece concludes that Audacy is shifting its podcast strategy to programs “based on its own intellectual property from its radio [holdings], rather than bidding on premium podcasts to distribute, which is Cadence13’s specialty.”

Triton Digital Releases August 2022 Streaming Ranker. The August 2022 Streaming Metrics Ranker from Triton Digital is released. Triton ranks streaming publishers based on Average Active Sessions or AAS that represents the average number of sessions at any point in time in the reported time period. iHeartRadio remains ranked #1 with 305,156 AAS. Other radio-related companies making the ranker include: NPR Member Stations at #2 (71,378 AAS), Audacy at #3 (64,858 AAS), Cumulus Streaming Network at #4 (42,893 AAS), Beasley Broadcasting Corporate at #7 (18,144 AAS), Hubbard Broadcasting at #8 (15,154 AAS), and Salem Communications at #10 (8,871 AAS). You can see the complete ranker here
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TALKERS News Notes. The newest podcast from Newsweek is “The Kristal Knight Show,” hosted by Knight, whom the news organization calls “a leading voice on the progressive left.” She most recently served as the political director for Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC, during the 2020 election cycle. Knight says, “I have worked on elections across the country in big cities and small towns. People vote with their party when their party reflects their values, but if their values aren’t reflected, they either don’t vote or vote third party. The Democratic Party today is bifurcated and on ‘The Kristal Knight Show,’ we want to present both sides in this ‘interparty debate,’ so people can decide for themselves what the party truly stands for at this juncture.”…..The board of directors of the New York State Broadcasters Association announces that Michael Strahan is named its Broadcaster of the Year for 2022. Strahan currently co-anchors ABC’s “Good Morning America.” During the NFL football season, he serves as an analyst of “FOX NFL Sunday,” for which he received a 2019 Sports Emmy Award nomination for “Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Analyst” and a 2020 Sports Emmy Award nomination for ‘Outstanding Studio Show – Weekly.” Strahan also hosts the top-rated primetime game show favorite “$100,000 Pyramid” on ABC…..ESPN and host and commentator Bomani Jones have agreed to a new contract extension. Jones will continue to lead his popular ESPN Podcast, “The Right Time with Bomani Jones,” three times per week. Jones will continue to make regular guest appearances across ESPN Radio’s sports talk programming. He will also continue to be a key contributor across ESPN’s television studio lineup, including “SportsCenter,” “First Take,” “Pardon the Interruption” and more. Jones says, “I’m very happy to continue ‘The Right Time’ with ESPN. I remain indebted to everyone who has worked to build the podcast, particularly my producer Gabe Basayne.”…..SiriusXM announces that Dave LaGreca, the lead host of the pro wrestling show “Busted Open,” signs a new multi-year extension with the company. LaGreca says, “I am very happy to cement my relationship with SiriusXM. The platform will continue to be the home for ‘Busted Open’ and I appreciate every SiriusXM team member who has made the show a success.”

Russia-Ukraine War, Mar-a-Lago Documents Case, DACA Ruling, Biden Visits Florida/Ian Aftermath, The Economy/OPEC Decision, Midterms/2024 Presidential Race and ‘Rust’ Settlement Among Top News/Talk Stories Yesterday (10/5). The annexation of parts of Ukraine by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his attacks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant; the legal battle over former President Donald Trump’s storing of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago; an Appeals Court rules that the DACA – that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants – is illegal; President Joe Biden visits the destruction in Florida from Hurricane Ian and the search for missing residents; the high rate of inflation, financial markets activity, and OPEC’s decision to cut oil production; the November midterm elections and speculation over the nominees for president in 2024; and Alec Baldwin settles with the family of the cinematographer killed on the set of Rust were some of the most-talked-about stories on news/talk radio yesterday, according to ongoing research from TALKERS magazine.