O’Blowhard flops in the nation’s capital

July 14, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

I’m not a native Washingtonian — not many of the people I’ve met in the D.C. area are. Like me, they fled an economically distressed area for better opportunities.

Life in the Most Important City in the World can be frustrating. Our traffic is a nightmare. Our subway system, the Metro, is a great way to get around, but it’s expensive and showing its age. Housing costs are through the roof.

Yet we have much to be proud of as well. Much of our population is well educated, committed to public service and politically liberal. Our area is culturally diverse with great attractions. To the west we have gorgeous mountains and to the east the Atlantic Ocean.

We also have the good sense to ignore Bill O’Reilly.

O’Reilly’s daily radio program, “The Radio Factor,” was such a flop here it was cancelled. WJFK-FM, a D.C. station that had carried the program, dropped it recently and replaced it with a sports program. The Washington Post reported:

The popular Fox News Channel TV host never attracted much of a radio following in Washington — in the most recent ratings period, his program had about 1.2 percent of the audience. But then, neither have many other conservatives, whose programs are popular in many cities but barely move the ratings needle in the Washington area, the nation’s eighth-largest radio market.

But wait, it gets better.

Such radio stars of the right as Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage at times have literally had no ratings in Washington, as measured by Arbitron. That’s partly because those hosts are carried on WTNT (570 AM), a station that has a weak signal, no local programming and little promotion. Last month, for example, the Clear Channel-owned station attracted an average of just 0.5 percent of the listening audience.

Unfortunately, we’re still cursed with Rush Limbaugh — and the ratings for several progressive talkers are pretty much in the cellar too. Radio analysts speculate that people in D.C., many of whom work in government or in politically connected jobs, know the issues well enough and aren’t interested in hearing right-wing gasbags oversimplify things.

No one had to boycott O’Reilly or call for him to be yanked. He flopped on his own. Ironically, market forces did him in. I’m thankful my fellow D.C.-ites made the No-Spin Zone a No-Listen Zone.

I remember back in the days when Joel Spivak used to have a great talk show. He would discuss current issues in long form, have well informed guests and well informed questions from listeners. He, of course, eventually had to give way to the likes of Rush.

You still have some great talk radio on WAMU. I visit up there about once a year and it is a pleasure to hear a civilized discussion on the radio, something totally foreign down here in Alabama where all the talk radio is rightwing.

  • O’Reilly’s daily radio program, “The Radio Factor,” was such a flop here it was cancelled. WJFK-FM, a D.C. station that had carried the program, dropped it recently and replaced it with a sports program.

    What’s wrong with this picture?

    Why is only a conservative program given airtime – and when it flops because of lack of interest the station doesn’t try a liberal or middle-of-the-road political program, but decides to go with no political program at all?

    Does political talk radio only come in one flavor? What does it sat that the media considers the only alternative to conservative politics in the nation’s capital (where presumably people are more inclined to be political or have political opinions than elsewhere) to be sports?

    And why isn’t anyone else pointnig this out?

  • Nice to see that New Rome has little tolerance for yahoots such as Bill O’Leilly. Now if New Sodom (aka NYC) and New Gomorrah (aka LA) would only follow suit.

    I don’t regret much about leaving the ’50s behind. But one thing I liked about that era was its admiration for science, technology and the prospect of a peaceful world (after WWII) and its disregard for ignorance, superstition, and hillbillies … all of which seem to have become glamorous since Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

  • Ethel-to-Tilly, I don’t know about the particular station carrying O’Lielly, BUT, they might be a station “oriented” towards the Right Wing. They may even be a “Christian” station, and so not likely to replace Bill-o with a liberal program.

    On the same note, we have Air America here in Chicago, and I doubt they would replace a liberal program with a conservative one. Just saying…

  • Well said, Ed. If what you left behind wasn’t measurably better than what surrounds you now, nostalgia would die a lonely death. I don’t remember the 50’s, I was too little, but I distinctly recall the 60’s as more of the same – relatively innocent, hopeful and ambitious, with the respect for science and technology you cited. They used to have that great TV show, “Here Come The 70’s”, remember that (we got it in Eastern Canada, but I’m pretty sure it was an American show)? We would all just goggle at the forecast miracles and say, “As IF!!”. Now just about all of them would fit simultaneously inside an IPOD.

  • Why is only a conservative program given airtime – and when it flops because of lack of interest the station doesn’t try a liberal or middle-of-the-road political program, but decides to go with no political program at all?

    I will spare you my usual rant about the negative correlation between the diversity of DC’s population over a 30+ year period and the diversity of radio programming.

    But I can assure you that the current evolution of FM radio in these parts is as follows: X Format to Sports Format. Not just programming slots on a station but entire fucking stations. And when you consider what passes for sports in this area you have to wonder WTF the owners are smoking. Gee, let’s tune in to hear the Wizards get their arses kicked. In stereo!

  • TAiO (#6), Sports (and talk) is cheap, cheap, cheap. All the main characters want to perform for free (or even for extepected future incomes, e.g., selling their book, publicizing themselves). You don’t have to pay any real talent (skilled writers, artists, musicians, actors). And best of all, it can easily by syndicated throughout the corporate network – duplicating “product” with no increase in cost. Truly local news and commentary? forget it!

    If America suffers because of the consequent loss of diversity or challenge or stimulation, so what? We, the people, may own the public airwaves, but short-term, profit-oriented corporations own the stations and our “watchdogs” at the FCC are all corporate stooges.

    If it weren’t for Air America I’d only have my iPod and one or two classical music stations with weak signals (well, there are more stations than that but to get them I’d have to sit at my computer all day).

  • Ed #3 thanks for the walk down a shared memory lane. Yes, Jeb and his kin have taken up in recent times. -Kevo

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