A few years ago, I was sitting across from liberal talk show host Ed Schultz at a local restaurant. It was part of a station promotion for KJLL AM 1330. During our conversation, Schultz lamented the difficulty of getting liberal talk on good radio signals. The gist of his argument is a familiar liberal-talk spiel. Conservatives run big corporations, and therefore they want conservative talk on the prime talk stations.
Never mind that Schultz was then negotiating with a big corporation to get a primetime TV spot.
Regardless, he visited Tucson on behalf of 1330 AM, which, indeed, does not have a strong signal and got terrible ratings for its liberal-talk format. But it did have a loyal fan base, and it’s clear that the fan base feels disenfranchised since the market’s only liberal-talk outlet changed formats.
So, can liberal talk similar to what was broadcast on KJLL (which has since flipped its call letters to KWFM) find a profitable niche in this market? It wouldn’t be easy, but the prevailing opinion from a couple local radio programmers is yes.
Doug Martin and John C. Scott have been down this road. Martin is the general manager at conservative talker KVOI AM 1030, while Scott has transitioned his long-running radio program to KVOI after he was ousted as the GM at KJLL during last year’s behind-the-scenes upheaval.
KVOI is similar in many ways to 1330. While it has a significantly better signal, it’s independently operated and doesn’t deliver great ratings. It is in direct competition with two more established conservative formats: Clear Channel-owned KNST AM 790/FM 97.1 and Journal Broadcasting-owned KQTH 104.1 FM. Furthermore, KVOI has to deal with being on the AM dial, which is consistently losing favor with younger demographics. But the station turns a profit due to what Martin calls a partnership model, in which hosts purchase air time but then can split sales revenue.
“I believe strongly in people being incentivized to do things,” Martin said. “I don’t think the old model works quite as well anymore. You have people not involved in the selling of what they’re doing, and they’re passive and don’t really care, but all of a sudden, the money’s not there, and they don’t have a job. That was the old way. You hire jockeys or air talent and a sales staff and the chips fall where they may. What I think is neat about this is people are directly tied and invested, and they’ll want the program to be successful, and that helps. It’s working for us, and I think the same could be true for a liberal format.”
While Schultz and other liberal talkers would argue that progressive talk radio struggles on an unfair playing field where conservative talk gets more established, and therefore more familiar, signals, Martin suggests NPR has at least as big an impact.
“They may be listening to National Public Radio instead, which gets huge numbers,” Martin said. “You’d think in a market like Tucson, you could do pretty well, but (KJLL) was never able to really connect and get the listeners, and they should have been able to get a great deal of the listenership because there’s no real competition, aside from National Public Radio.”
Scott believes connectivity is the bottom line. While 1330 has been saddled with a string of financial difficulties, the station turned a profit during Scott’s tenure as GM, paid off significant debt and made payroll on time, all on a struggling signal that rarely cracked 1.0 in the ratings.
“There would always be a market for it because this is a university town; it’s a liberal town; and there’s a democratic majority of voters in Pima County,” Scott said. “They want a place to come hear what they want to hear that reinforces their liberal thought and belief. The idea you couldn’t make any money at it is ludicrous. Of course you could make money at it. If you pay attention to the community, you can program Yaqui Indian chants and still have an audience, and still be able to sell it. If you pay attention to the community, you have an involvement in the community, and that’s what the new management at KJLL never understood and has not done, ever.”
After abandoning the liberal format in September, 1330 programmed all-Michael Jackson-all-the-time for a few weeks, then jettisoned that for holiday music. Who knows what the plan is for the beginning of the year? In its current format, with an all-but-nonexistent staff (a familiar refrain for much of music radio regardless of ownership status), 1330 is more or less a Pandora station without the ability to skip six songs an hour. And nearly all of its once-loyal listener base has likely skipped the frequency in search of other options, which at the moment don’t exist in a market with a voter registration that runs 3-2 Democrat.
“If you pay attention to the community and realize the FCC gave you a license for one reason, to serve the convenience and necessity of the public, we did that, and we were able to make money,” Scott said. “Elevator Christmas music doesn’t serve the convenience and necessity of the public. It just doesn’t. You can get that in an elevator.”
During Scott’s tenure at 1330, the station cut deals with 22 shows. That brokered approach brought revenue into the equation while giving the hosts an opportunity to use the radio waves for information and advertising purposes in a variety of areas of expertise. It was a hodgepodge in the midst of a liberal foundation, but a functional model that got the bills paid.
“It worked, because we could sell it,” Scott said. “Yes, you can make it. Yes, you can build a great audience. If someone put a liberal station on the air, they could make a lot of money at it.”
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2012.
It’s not like the radio shows, not like the zombie newspaper: Arizona Daily Star, and its policies and vile and illogical comments by readers, not like Mindy Blake or Lupita Murrrrrillllo, Stern Som, the failing am station, the aging pretty boy at KVOA, or even beer-gut photographer Guy Atchley, or even two lost guys fooling around the savvy vending machine.
It’s the City of Tucson’s Tucson Police Department’s Facebook page, a media thing of course, where you can find the following and perhaps wonder about the stupid Oro Valley resident TPD police executives who would allow such hateful and possibly damaging, shoot yourself in the foot in a court of law, recent comments:
I’m so glad that ASSHOLE is dead!
One less piece of trash on the streets.
Glad they shot and killed the suspect….
That criminal deserved what he got.
SLIMEBALL got what he deserved
Im glad the jacker died.
Shoulda shot his ass first and then released the dog. If they have a weapon and refuse to drop it, gun ’em down. It only takes a split-second for these scumbags to trigger a round into an officer.
I’m glad the jerk is dead
at least the guy died for what he did.
WELL DONE…………One more POS off our streets…..NOW lets hope he is identified as the shooter of our Sgt……….
try them and FRY them!
I’m just disappointed that he didn’t resist when he was apprehended. Something along the lines of, “he reached in his pocket…”
O yeah beat the truth out of the bastard !!!
Now here’s hoping the DA, Judge, and Jury are in your corner and they put this idiot away for a long time. I agree with a previous commentator’s remarks about how it was a pity he didn’t resist. Would have been cheaper to cover the costs of a funeral than room and board for 25 to life.
never let the thug out again,,,
He needs to spend the rest of his life behind bars where we can be sure he won’t hurt anyone else!
What a douche bag!
i hope that your @$$ ROTS in jail and I hope that A higher power deals with you and lets you burn in Hell!!!! You are a piece of scum and you are a disgrace to the human race .
@ Shawn Benjamin if it is Barbara Lawall on the case you better believe she won’t do her job! She lets people get away with murder!!!!!!
Bastard
Crucify this POS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Red Star understands venting, but not even the shabby daily newspaper allows such vile, ignorant, prejudicial, and self-defeating bilge. Roberto Villasenor’s TPD Facebook media outlet does. A government media site.
Please post the link to these comments.
tired of PC, you can see some of the comments Red Star mentions at the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/TucsonPoliceDepart…
Too bad Red Star has so many issues. If he doesn’t like what he reads, he should stop reading it. His rant is akin to some of the mass shooters. Almost sounds like Laughner.
nam6870vet, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Really.
Again, Red Star thinks it *not* best practice or even good practice or even basic-sensible practice, for a government agency to allow the comments Red Star presented (above) on its Facebook page. Most TPD media releases are well-written, just the facts, no surface emotion or rants. There seems to be some training and professional intent. All that fine and costly effort goes out the window at it’s Facebook page: the prejudicial comments.
Perhaps TPD shouldn’t get itself involved in the media business in that way and stick to police work, regardless of how many officers it is short. Why make things worse and provide a whack sandbox?
Red Star has no idea whether the local TPD problem exists elsewhere, but it would be interesting to know…
Do judges, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys nowadays ask potential jurors about their Facebook activity?
Are Facebook comments at police Facebook sites a slick way to get out of jury duty?
Amigo, welcome to the 21st century. Law enforcement has the ability to read almost anything you post. If you don’t believe me, please do some research into recent laws. The so-called Patriot Act comes to mind. Ihave always enjoyed my time in the jury box. Educational and entertaining at the same time. When I lived in Tucson, I had no use for the keystone cops and their lazy ways. Now I am in the country and the clowns here are worse in the “been buddies for 30 years” mentality. Some are too lazy to leave town. But that is another issue for another day. Cheers Red Star.
Regarding “liberal” talk radio….
“Conservative” talk radio was born out of a need. The guys behind Rush Limbaugh determined that “conservatives” were not getting their “needs” met with current mostly music radio formats. “Liberals” were apparently getting their needs met from the “mainstream” media…liberal slant to news on radio and TV, liberal “messages” in music and the arts, etc. Conservatives were “unserved,” or at the very least: “under-served.” AM stations…of ALL signal strengths…struggled to hold on to listeners as the rush to FM went on unabated in the late ’70s early ’80s. ABC Radio (before Cap Cities and Disney) tried a syndicated talk radio format, “customized” to local markets. We carried it on KNST in the early ’80s. The hosts were either shrinks or liberal-leaning “generalists.” (No perceptible “agendas.”) That didn’t fare well and the guys behind it subsequently found Rush and rushed to fill the gap left with the demise of “ABC Talkradio.” Suddenly, conservatives discovered a reason to listen to the radio for something other than “elevator” music. No loss of listeners on the FM band…mostly liberals anyway. A “format” was born.
A liberal alternate to Rush was launched in the early ’90s. Alan Colmes found few listeners. Similar liberal talkers over the years failed. Even Al Franken’s decidedly liberal Air America Radio network failed to find any sort of successful niche. Its six-year run ended officially in January, 2010.
When Rush debuted on KNST in Tucson, its signal on 940 was limited yet Rush quickly dominated his time slot. When we flipped to the better-signaled 790 on the dial in 1993, and when it went wall-to-wall conservative talk, adding G. Gordon Liddy to afternoons on KNST, the station began its climb into the top ten in Tucson. “Liberal Radio” fails because liberals don’t listen to it. Signal strength or lack thereof has little to do with it.
Similarly…Rupert Murdoch recognized the general failure of “mainstream” TV to serve conservatives and thus the success of his nighttime conservative opinion show lineup.
The unabashedly liberal-leaning opinion shows on other cable news channels have never matched the audiences on the Fox News Channel at night.
I don’t care what Ed Shultz or John C. Scott opine, liberal talk radio is not going to find a niche…in Tucson or anywehere. The morning “entertainment-oriented” radio shows lean liberal. NPR has ALWAYS been left-leaning. TV is already liberal. Of course, if ABC, CBS and NBC all suddenly and openly demonstrate a conservative tilt, local AM stations…along with FM stations that were “failing” and switched to talk…might find enough liberal-leaning listeners to pay the rent. It’s not about “signal.” It’s about who gets what and from where.
Bob Lee, former talkradio programmer (KNST from its “birth in” ’82 to 1986 and again
1993-1996)
Liberal talk radio has been tried over and over again. Wasn’t that long ago Al Gore was involved with a start up that went belly up rapidly. People don’t want to listen to another left outlet. Mainstream media and NPR has that covered
I miss the progressive talkers tremendously and you folks are wrong- I listen to 1480 from Phoenix on the internet when I can, so I can hear Steph and Ed and Alan at night. I listen to NPR too but I like the progressive option as well. There IS a market for it here- Steph makes me laugh and it’s a great way to start the day. Rush and his ilk do not represent the majority here in Tucson and they never will. The future for conservative talk is on the downswing, thank God. The right wing is shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis- it’s a joy to see these tea bag types make fools of themselves. They don’t have a clue about this country; they are out of touch on social, immigration and economic policy and the more they dig their heels in the more ridiculous they appear.
Liberals do not want to make a profit so how can liberal talk survive?
Yeah azaggieone, that’s why Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue are on food stamps right now, because they never wanted to make a profit. You’re living proof conservatives are too dumb to understand how to work a television.
A good sign of tolerance and rationality is making fun of a woman for pronouncing her name correctly.