Good news for talk radio

WBZ Radio (AM 1030) talk-show host Paul Sullivan, who succeeded the late David Brudnoy last year, is staying put. Sullivan — who hosts one of the few civil, locally oriented shows still on the air — will continue with his 8 p.m.-to-midnight shift now that Jay Severin is sticking with WTKK Radio (96.9 FM). Herald coverage here; Globe coverage here.

To recap: the reptilian (thanks, John) Severin had been a ratings hit on ‘TKK’s afternoon-drive-time slot for the past several years, but disappeared from the airwaves this fall after he signed a national-syndication deal with Infinity, part of the CBS network. ‘TKK is owned by Greater Media; WBZ is owned by CBS. That prompted speculation that CBS would saddle ‘BZ with Severin. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, WTKK has been left with the worst of all possible worlds. The station has replaced Severin with the unlistenable Michael Graham during drive time, and will be broadcasting Severin during a time slot (7 to 10 p.m.) when the potential audience is much smaller — and when his competition will not be Howie Carr but, rather, the Tom Ashbrook rebroadcast, Christopher Lydon and Sullivan, as well as Todd Feinburg’s new local program.

Severin may pull some numbers, but it’s not going to be like before.

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9 thoughts on “Good news for talk radio”

  1. Not competing with Howie Carr should be GOOD for Serverin, no? They compete for the same segment of the audience.I can’t conceive of a large Ashbrook or Lydon contingent that would stomach Screamin’ Jay for very long.

  2. What about the comp from other receivable markets: Savage,Sean H.,Goldman/Maroney,and anybody talking about the Red Sox? I never listened to Jaybird before, and BZ was the only way I would have even given him a try. Did the Bruins save Sullivan? If the “prize-winning” Severino had arrived,he would have been preempted a lot.

  3. Civil? Eh, that wasn’t my experience with him when I was on Bruds’ show and he was subbing in 1998. But, he was civil later on when I became a member of the fourth estate. So, who knows?

  4. A. Everything is relativeB. We all (hopefully) evolveC. Judging from a lot of listening to Sullivan, one of you might have just had a bad night

  5. I heard that Jay Severin is going to be syndicated in 2006. Unfortunately, he is not going to be broadcast in Boston right away though.

  6. BZ is a Dinosaur and Sullivan is, at best, crushingly boring. A very good show that is no longer on is John Batchelor.

  7. Jay Severin was okay. He spoke well, he seemed educated. What bothered me was that I was under the impression that he was FROM New York and was now one of Us ( a Massachusetts resident). I was under the impression that he was a bachelor looking for women, who lived with 2 dogs. It was all not true. After 9/11, the station gave him 4 hours and that was much too long, because he usually talked about one subject for the whole time, and it got tired and redundant very fast. But, now that he is gone, I sort of miss having him as an option to listen too. I’m willing to be welcoming to Michael Graham; Hey the guy just wants to earn a living. I like the fact that he talks about other issues besides politics. But his voice is a bit high and it can be grating (no offense, Michael). I guess Jay loved us and thanked us for our loyalty, but for his loyalty to his listeners. It’s all about the money, honey.

  8. Hello,The John Batchelor program from WABC in New York, and formely heard on RKO from 10p to 1a was the best program on radio. Night after night Batchelor interviewed the most interesting people around. The show was free of name calling and calls from Joe Sixpack.New WRKO Operations Manager, Brain Whittamore chose to serve the lowest common denominator by replacing Batchelor with lunatic hate monger Michael Savage.This gives me one more reason to spend less and less time listening to RKO.

  9. C’mon Lets knock the S$$T off. We are talking about judge Murphy the obvious extortionist. Why are we all walking on our tip-toes. This man is no better than most of the inmates in our Prison system. The group that makes up the difference between 100 % 0f the inmates and the “most of the inmates” I referred to are the inmates that are not as bad as Murphy. He is quite clear in his attempt at extortion and displays his total disrespect for the law he gets paid to enforce. The man is defiantly arrogant with absolutely NO fear of the law. Why would he be afraid? He is the Law!) He has committed a crime against the people in an attempt to shake down the newspaper. Like so many tyrants HE has threatened the freedom of speech we so fervently embrace by through the press among the many ways freedom is safeguarded.. Instead of a defender of the Law he has in all his arrogance sent out the message that as a JUDGE he is above the law.HE actually indicated in this blackmail attempt that he had already delivered a piercing blow to the Newspaper in the court case as he said he would, and he would repeat that nefarious act a second time if the newspaper did not accede to his demand.If he were an ordinary citizen and mailed such a letter he would have been cuffed, and charged with extortion along time ago. Its about time we all behaved like HONEST citizen in our recognition of a crook as this man has so arrogantly revealed himself to be.A country loving Jeffersonian

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