Who listens to local talk radio: an open letter to WBAL Baltimore

Dear WBAL Programming:

I can't imagine how hard getting good talk hosts can be, especially when you lose two strong personalities at the same time, as happened earlier this year. It appears to be too hard, even for professionals like you.

Today was the straw that broke this ever-bending camel's back. Maryland is going through a huge news event. Every talk show has crowded telephone boards. People want to talk about the Special session and issues. Once again, Shari is somewhere else, talking about inanities. I wish we knew why a host of the Bruce Elliott caliber could not be brought into the daytime line-up.

The Shari Elliker show was a good Sunday afternoon break for the masses, those that weren't in front of the tube watching the big game. Maybe she needs to fill that horrible spot on Saturday morning from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. Peo0le might not find her as irrelevant over coffee and breakfast. However, the daily drivel and cast of characters filling in as co-hosts has finally pushed me over to Tom Marr and WCBM. Moreover, right now, I am getting Rush's national perspective because I don't feel getting up to change the station.

Hours of Shari and her co-hosts on Britney Spears is now gone. Hours of knee jerk responses to news that are opposites of the truth in the stories is now gone. Hours of implorations to callers to tell her what is right, to disagree with her. Who thinks the audience is interested in Prince? Or Barack and Ellen? Grunting during workouts? People doing workouts are not listening to talk radio. They are listening to tunes. People at their desks, people in the shop, people behind the wheel or helm, people sitting, these are the people listening to talk radio. (I will admit to listening while wading in rivers and streams with a fishing rod.)

Chip Franklin introduced us to these personalities and he managed them well when he kept them to one segment or one day, mixed into the show. He was an interesting addition and will be missed. Too, his show was changing, and I frankly don't know what the impact (read: ratings) was, and what effect that had on his sudden departure.

It is my opinion, and only that, that talk radio during the day is listened to by people interested in what is going on NOW. Uncle Allie needed to go, although many people stopped as WBAL listeners, I am certain. However, Chip brought a new formula. He also figured out, or his producers did and he bought into, your audience wants to stay current. They want to believe in your advertising that radio does it now, television does it later and the newspapers do it tomorrow. In ten years, blogging has gone from zero to more than 70 million blogs. People want info now. Yesterday, in Maryland, the question traveling through local blogs was who will be blogging real time from Annapolis.

Big deal, you might respond. Well, I think it is. I have been a holdout in the switch among right of center political activists. Many of my more centrist friends left during the last few months, and they won't be back. Another reason it's a big deal – my office radio, the one I turn on in the morning and off at dinner, a 1985 vintage unit made in Korea and bearing the GE nameplate, has a manual tuner. That means I have to work, even if it slight work, by getting up, walking across the room, and turning the dial to make the station change.

Some years ago, I would listen to NPR in the evening for the jazz, and WCBM when working in the office or on the road. All of my tuners were manual. Now, except for the office, all of my radios have solid-state tuners, and most of them have remotes. Whatever station is tuned in the office is tuned to the other radios so I can follow discussions as I move about. For now, that will be WCBM for local news and talk. I might tune in to Dave and Ron, but being human, being lazy, that will happen less and less if the programming stays current.

I don't how big a deal it will be that this is posted as a blog, but it will give other people an opportunity to consider it, weigh in and make their decisions about what they need from a news source.