A yr ago today KPTQ 1280 Spokane switched from prog talk to classic country. On Apr 11 it switches again to... Fox Sports Radio. "KPTQ has registered a 0.0 share of the audience in the last three ratings books. "

Ratings may not matter as much as earnings. In Boston the onetime progtalker, later cons talker WXKS 1200 had comedy for awhile but now is running Bloomberg financial news. Their ratings may not show up as well but they could make $$$. Targeted demo; while stations appealing to avg agew 55+ men usually don't make money, the financial talk Bloomberg is now brokering from CC could do well. That could be the case for CBS with sports (and again right side of this page still lists 1090 as prog talk not sports.) Sports fan demo very coveted now.

Dial Global has syndicated progtalk shows and now they have yet another sports net, NBC... and in Boston 1510 runs a blend of NBC Sp., Yahoo sports, local sports talk...and Bro. Stair overnight. This was where Jeff Santos was buying time to put progtalk on. Many on the left prefer NPR I guess.

More prog talkers bite the dust. WGUN Atlanta now simulcasting an Urban station on FM. KYNS San Luis Obispo CA dumps it for news/talk featuring TRN's America's Radio News Network and Overnight America with Jon Grayson (source Tom Taylor newsletter).

oops KPTK I mean!

...that station list on the right might as well delete WPTK (now KFNQ or K-Effin'-Q if you prefer), now a gone-er.

The CBS Sports Network site claims 232 affiliates (some of course part time, maybe overnight/some shows weekends). CBS could have done something like this with prog. or cons. talk but sports is where the money is. Where I am in Boston MA we have 4 stations and 4 out of the 5 sports networks have affiliates (unless Fox finds another home somewhere) WEEI AM ESPN, WEEI FM ESPN part time, WBZ-FM CBS, WUFC NBC & Yahoo

New format launches in a day but the site already says 1090 The Fan

And here's the Fan http://seattle.cbslocal.com/station/am-1090/

if you have a smart phone you can hear it..as low as $79 with $35/mo service on virgin mobile. Use earbuds OR a)if your car has a 1/8" jack, buy a cord and plug it into your phone or b)get a $15-20 mini FM transmitter and plug into phone. Pic an empty freq on your car radio and broadcast it on that freq etc

Another prog talker gone, as Detroit's WDTW will fall silent on Dec 31. Clear Channel has donated the station to the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. http://www.michiguide.com/archives2012/2012/12/clear-channel-to-take-wdtw-am.html "It's unclear how long the station will be silent pending the donation to MMTC which will attempt to find a minority owner that would likely launch its own programming." You want programming for minority communities, you got it.

Rush has only 600 affiliates and makes just $59 mil/yr...btw in Boston no comm. radio prog talk in Boston. Jeff Santos had been buying time from 1510 in Boston and running his own show as well as Dial Global ones. Then for some reason Jeff and DG couldn't come to terms or something so it was just Jeff's show. Then THAT disappeared as the owners wanted to go all sports with NBCSports (and yahoo). Who syndicates NBC Sports? DialGlobaal. Are you ready for some football? (Meanwhile while CC put Fox Sports in place of prog talk on KPOJ, they killed off their cons. talker in Boston--Rush went back to his previous, powerful station...and 1200 went to all comedy.

Further proof of the big business sports is doing, TV version: Time reports News Corp's deal to buy at least half of the Yankees' YES network will help them "take on ESPN" in a proposed NATIONAL all sports TV network. Bloomburg News mentioned the poss. network, to be called Fox Sports 1, earlier. You have ESPN, NBC Sports (etc) on TV and now Murdoch's proposed net which could bring News Corp big bucks. There are 5 national sports radio networks: ESPN (I'll link ESPN Deportes in with them), NBC Sports (Dial Global), CBS Sports (Cumulus), Yahoo Sports, and Fox Sports (Clear Channel). In Portland Fox sports displaced prog talk on Clear Channel-owned KPOJ. That station's facebook page has many disgruntled progtalk fans, some sports fans happy about the change, and some at the station who are proudly saying the slogan "We are! Fox Sports!"

WTDY Madison WI flipped from talk (had some prog.?) to all Christmas. Mass layoffs. Sports may be new format http://www.wtdy.com

The TALKERS site mentions this blog (and says "cool name!") and article about the supposed flip. Re: KPOJ, it adds "TALKERS is not privy at this time to how well Clear Channel was able to sell KPOJ but it should surprise few in the business that sports content has never been hotter from a consumption standpoint and political talk – whether conservative or progressive – is, from a sales perspective, controversial and therefore a much tougher sell, probably even in a progressive market such as Portland."

Sports makes money. Broader demo. People of all age groups like it, etc. and they want to sell beer etc. People are more interested in it rather than politics. Believe me. Boston: CC had cons talk on 1200 but dumped it for comedy as it didn't make money. Someone bought time on 1510 to run libtalk; not only was it not getting any traction but the owner flipped to sports anyway. It's not politics it's business. Owner of WRKO Boston, cons. talk, is personally a liberal. He runs talk shows that make money, though. It was have been libtalk years ago if he felt it made money. Who knows, maybe most on the Left prefer NPR instead.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29441-kpoj_cancelling_political_talk_radio_on_monday.html More, KPOJ Cancelling Political Talk Radio On Monday

KPOJ PORTLAND TO DUMP PROG TALK FOR SPORTS http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/79581/kpoj-portland-to-drop-liberal-talk-for-sports/ Clear Channel Liberal Talk 620 KPOJ Portland will flip to Sports “Fox Sports 620“. KPOJ garnered a 1.0 share in the October ratings, up from a 0.8 in September. It will join a Portland Sports battle that includes Alpha Broadcasting’s “750 The Game” KXTG and Entercom’s “1080 The Fan” KFXX. 620 will remain the co-flagship of Oregon State University play-by-play along with sister Talk 1190/102.3 KEX.

radio-insight says kvi back to Conserv talk on 9/4. " On Tuesday, September 4, with ratings hovering around a 0.2, KVI will complete the cycle as it will return to conservative talk. The new KVI will be anchored by John Carlson’s return to the station to host mornings from 5-9am. Carlson had been hosting afternoons on KVI prior to the switch to Oldies; at which time he moved to sister News 1000/97.7 KOMO for a 9am-12pm show. The remainder of the lineup will be syndicated including Laura Ingraham from 9am-12pm, Todd Schnitt 12-3pm, Mark Levin 3-6pm (starting October 15), Lars Larson 6-9pm, Michael Savage 9pm-11pm, Red Eye Radio 11pm-3am, and Don Imus 3-5am. Levin and Larson currently air in the market on Salem’s “Freedom 1590” KLFE. They will both move to KVI, but not right away."

Unenrolled but lean conservative. I do like Dunkin, great coolatas, but prefer Wendy's fast food. I do like baseball more than football. Toyotas. Prefer Fox News to MSDNC....So that kid Krohn has moved to the left. I might take him about as seriously as that 14 yr old web talk host who went after gays big time.

National Profit Radio--they can make some good money with corporate and private donations, etc. Why not just let them run ads and take public funding of CPB out of it? "This rerun of Car Talk will be right back after this message from Fram Auto Filters."

I'm mostly conservative but with some liberal views ("Classical liberal") and will note: --Obama said it should be up to the states. This means he is an agreement with that well-known progressive, Dick Cheney (/ sarcasm). (On YouTube you can find a vid from 2009 of Cheney saying his position. One of his daughters is gay.) --This could cost Obama the election--conservatives rally to support Romney, after earlier dismissing him as a RINO. Some (social conservatives--again, I'm not among them) were saying they wouldn't vote for Mitt even it it meant Obama wins. They have now changed their tune. Swing states/the South could now go Romney's way. (Mitt is now up by 7 or 8 in national polls). Some feel the presence of gay marriage initiatives on state ballots may have helped to elect W in 00 and/or 04. I support gay marriage. And Romney ("it's the economy...") Was this political? Pretty much. He was going to lose some donors. Imagine for example a Republican president making such a statement, when his donors hinted they might not support him. Obama has raised $$ due to this, especially from Hollywood.

Christian programming on WKDN Philadelphia (area) ended at midnight last night. They went into stunting, playing bits of REM's "It's The End of the World", most notably the start: "That's great it starts with an earthquake..." Camping's failed prediction had earthquakes going time zone by time zone across the world. Brilliant! Supposedly all Hannity all the time for a few days or weeks then Rush, etc. will be added to the new WWIQ 106.9, with a pretty good signal. Rush and Hannity beat out liberal talk (other than-taxpayer funded NPR, that is) by a mile.

The new affiliate for Rush, formerly owned by Harold "It's The End of the World As I Know It" Camping has a pretty good signal and their HQ and new antenna will soon be right downtown/Center city. Rush picked up the stations he lost in Hilo and Pittsfield MA with outlets in Fargo (a mere 96,000 watts on FM) and Ft. Wayne and is still around 600. Talent on Loan From Oxys still has a huge presence.

Here in Boston Olbermann either quit or was fired from the ABC affiliate after refusing to guest host the bowling show (host was sick) and complaining about lack of a car and driver provided to him (he didn't drive, and apparently still doesn't). The same station once employed a guy from the NY area who would later do talking points on a very highly rated show on Fox News: What say you? (Clips of O'Really on CH 5 Boston are on youtube)