Carr talk on WTKK

I don’t listen to either of them, but doesn’t this set up a battle royale between Howie and Finneran? I predict that it’ll generate a lot of heat and a lot of smoke.Who’s going to referee? I nominate Jon Keller.

WRKO is finished.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Braude heard this one. Looks like we will have “Gypsies in the palace”, (hat tip to J. Buffett). If you think Braude was biting his tongue with Severin, this will be hilarious. Make sure that contract is bullet-proof, Howie.

Raj, WTKK is owned by Greater Media, along with 105.7 WROR, Magic 106.7/WMJX, Country 102.5/WKLB, and WBOS 92.9FM.They’ve also got other stations in other markets, about 20 altogether I think.In Boston, Entercom owns WEEI AM&FM, WVEI AM&FM, WMKK/Mike, WAAF, WKAF and, of course, WRKO. But they’ve got a lot more stations across the country.I agree that despite Rush Limbaugh, it does seem unlikely that WRKO will still with right-wing talk much longer. It strikes me as more efficient to let Rush go to WTKK and switch WRKO’s format entirely.I’ve seen speculation that WRKO would switch to Air America Radio, but given AAR’s tepid reception on WXKS/WKOX before, that feels like WRKO cutting off its nose to spite its face, ya know?FWIW, I would not assume WRKO will automatically become a companion sports station to WEEI. I don’t see that working unless WRKO picks up both the Celtics and Bruins and manages to force ESPN Radio (890/1440) and/or WWZN (1510) out of business. That’s a tall order; there’s probably cheaper, easier and more profitable formats out there.

EB3 here.I say Finneran beats Howie once things get going. But then again, stupid people like stupid radio. Howie is stupid radio. if there are more of them than us, then stupid radio wins. doesn’t make it good radio though.

WRKO will never put on Air America. But, they should at least give a serious “moderate” or politically middle of the road host a chance to have a show. The city – and its overwhelmingly liberal to moderate voting base – deserves it.Tony…WHY? Those people already have WBUR and, to a lessor extent, WGBH. Plus, WRKO’s signal covers plenty of districts that are a lot “redder” than Cambridge and Brookline.Also, given WRKO’s ratings…is it really any less obscure than WXKS & WKOX were before Air America? 🙂 Seriously, though…if signal issues alone were the reason why AAR didn’t work, then AAR would’ve taken off like gangbusters in the markets where it was on good signals – and that was not the case. Basically, it’s trading one underperforming and unpredictable format for another one…that’s not a good business case.___________________Dan: I believe Rush is free, actually. WRKO “pays” Rush by allowing him to air his ads; he makes his money by selling those ads on a national level. That’s usually how commercial radio deals for national hosts work, although Rush has such cache that WRKO might actually pay at least some fees to carry him.

To “the man …” your comments aren’t altogether true. AAR has had great books in many places like Portland, Austin, Milwaukee, and yeah, NYC, on tiny stations to boot. Some of their hosts, including Randy Rhodes, have good numbers in strange place you wouldn’t think possible, like Palm Beach and Miami. The problems are/were with AAR two fold: Leasing time to get access to listeners and the lack of national advertisers willing to take a chance on the format. Leasing time without the ads is a bad business formula. You blow through your money, as they did. For whatever reason, nationally advertising is more than happy to fund racists and drug-dealing addict hypocrites on the radio but not the news or others, even when the rates are for a song. There is such a thing as diversity in marketing. I agree that AAR was badly run. I would not have run it the way it was run. But I don’t agree that moderates and liberals can’t be successfully in radio. Many of them have never really been given the opportunity or resources to compete. Maybe now, in Boston, on WRKO, one of them will be given a shot at it.