NevadaBrad

KOH is not the only station that appears to be looking for the right rhythm. 99.1 FM Talk has also been making a lot of changes. In April, the station upgraded to 50,000 watts and also added Sean Patrick to the lineup. Recently, the station dropped Glenn Beck and put Laura Ingraham on in his place. Time will tell whether these changes will help or hurt the station.

Regardless of what you think about the programs on 99.1 FM Talk, there is an overarching problem that I believe plagues the station: No one is really surprised when things change anymore. You just never know what programs will be on from day to day. And you never know whether the change is permanent or temporary. For example, the station was apparently flirting with Laura Ingraham when Glenn Beck was still on. It would be Glenn Beck one day, Laura Ingraham the next and then back to Beck again. And then it’s Laura Ingraham and it never goes back.

It’s too early for me to know what to think about Sean Patrick. It generally takes 3 to 6 months of listening before you can fairly judge a host. I rode my bike to work almost every day from April through September, so my exposure to The Sean Patrick Show is minimal. I will say that his show has improved since it started. He is definitely becoming more comfortable.

So, why does any of this matter? KOH seems to be struggling and the other talkers have an opportunity to grab listeners who are looking for an alternative. People who are disenchanted regarding the firing of Bill Manders will find the change to 99.1 quite comfortable. Probably more comfortable than listening to someone they perceive as being responsible for Manders’ departure, regardless of whether or not that is a fair perception.

While KKFT seems poised to win in the afternoon slot, I’m not sure why they dropped Beck. Laura Ingraham is good, but Glenn Beck is HUGE right now. He dominates the media in a way few others can. This was driven home a few days ago when I heard my mom complain that Glenn Beck was no longer on the air. She isn’t big on radio or politics, but she was discussing the change with her friends. My mom was talking about Glenn Beck.

I enjoy reading comments and blogs that mock KKFT. They always use current ratings to discount the station – they never look at the change over an extended period. Bob Hastings over at BATTLE BORN POLITICS made the following comment: “The closest News/Talk station in the Reno ratings is KKFT with paltry 3.3 rating.” Keep in mind that KOH has scored below their average in 7 of the last 9 ratings periods. KKFT is almost double their own average. And that’s even if you include the spectacular current rating in the average.

KKFT has a chance to kick KOH while they’re down. Consider that when I started tracking the stations KOH had more than 10 times the share that KKFT had. In the current period KOH has less than 3 times the share. You can call me clueless and mock KKFT’s “paltry” ratings, but the Reno radio landscape is changing.

It seems that now would be a good time to talk about the Reno radio market. It’s a sordid, incestuous situation full of conspiracy and intrigue. Well, maybe not quite, but there’s still a lot of interesting things going on.

First, what is the story behind the shakeup at KOH? Bill Manders was laid off from KKOH in November. There is very little information about what happened – pretty much just a few paragraphs on RGJ.com. The article states that Bill Manders was laid off on November 11th and was replaced by Dan Mason. The story quotes Manders as saying, “It certainly wasn’t shocking, and it wasn’t a surprise. But it’s caught me a little off guard.”

While declining to comment, Andrew Perini, general manager at KOH, made the following comment: “We’re going to refrain from any comments. It’s too complicated of a situation.”

The lack of reporting on this story is a little odd considering Manders’ popularity and KOH’s huge audience. KOH commands about 10% of the market share in Reno radio. Manders was KOH’s voice for the after work rush. His fans deserve more information than “It’s too complicated.”

The whole Reno radio market has become very strange. Dan Mason, program director at KOH, appears to be in the middle of a lot of things. Dan Mason was hired as program director around 1995. He is considered to be the brains that helped launch KOH into the number 1 spot. He is known and recognized throughout the radio industry for his achievements. There’s no doubt that he knows what he’s doing when it comes to running a radio station.

In the midst of all his achievements, though, there appears to be trouble when it comes to hosts. You may remember that in 2003 Rusty Humphries tried to leave KOH to move to Washington. He explained that his wife was very ill and he felt that he had “exhausted all of the doctors in this community.” He also wanted to be with his family in Washington while dealing with his wife’s illness. In the face of this horrible situation, KOH refused to let him out of his contract and actively interfered with Rusty’s efforts to find other employment. Rusty final brought a civil suit against KOH and the judge issued a restraining order and ordered “Citadel Broadcasting Co. not to interfere with Humphries’ job-seeking efforts.” His wife died just 5 years later in 2008.

A couple of years before the situation with Rusty Humphries, KOH was involved with another controversy when they fired popular Saturday host Ira Hansen. In the months leading up to the 9/11 attack, Hansen had been critical of the relationship between the United States and Israel. According to Hansen, the station warned him that he could only speak favorably about Israel. Following the attack on the twin towers, the subject was renewed and Hansen again made comments critical of Israel. John Farahi, a big advertiser on KOH, threatened the station and Hansen was ultimately fired as a result.

I am sympathetic to KOH’s situation regarding Ira Hansen. Loss of a big advertiser would certainly impact the station significantly. Ultimately, the station needs to make a profit and pay their employees. What makes the situation interesting is that KOH tried to censor Ira Hansen and fired him when he failed to comply. Dan Mason is quoted numerous times in Brian Jenning’ book Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio. As a matter of fact, the book contains essentially an entire chapter dedicated to Dan Mason, Bill Manders and Harry Reid. It surprises me that someone who is quoted as an authority on talk radio censorship should censor his own hosts.

So, Bill Manders is gone and we now have The Dan Mason Show. Was this the plan all along? Or has Dan Mason finally given up on trying to find a host? Or was he jealous of Sean Patrick’s show? Remember, Sean Patrick used to be the producer for Bill Manders’ show before he had his own show on 99.1 FM Talk.

It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed the market ratings, but KOH was the only talker to lose market share in the Spring 2011 report. What’s more, since I started watching the ratings in 2007 KOH has only dropped below 10% twice – once in Spring 2010 and again in Spring 2011. Did this have anything to do with Bill Manders? I doubt it. The ratings were strong for years with Bill Manders. I think people are finally discovering that they have other choices.

In part II we’ll look at some of the changes made at 99.1 FM Talk.

Sadly, I’ve had little time to attend to my duties here on NevadaBrad. I had an interesting comment this morning, which required that I spend a little bit of time composing a proper reply. Since there has been a dearth of posts I am re-posting the comment and the reply. The comment required that I look at my radio information a little differently than I have in the past, so I figured it was worth sharing. The original comment and response can be found in my State of the Stations entry.

eric boyer wrote:

Funny every ratings book KOH’s margin of change, up or down, unsually up, is bigger that KKFT’s entire audience, sometimes twice as big. Who’s slipping and who is on the rise? You’re clueless.

My response:

Hi eric – thanks for the comment! You sound like you know what you’re talking about so I’m not sure I have anything useful to add. I’m going to have to be a stickler about the facts, though. Sorry. Unfortunately, the facts probably won’t be very interesting to you so I’ll try to get through them as quickly as possible.

First, over the past 7 ratings periods KOH has averaged a share of 10.83. With the market current defined at 400,800 in the 12+ category that would give KOH an average of 43,407 listeners. That would also give KKFT an average share of 1.67, which is 6,693 listeners. If the share differences are averaged for KOH then they have an average share change of 1.26 or 5,050 listeners. This is not close enough to 6,693 to say the change is “bigger that[sic] KKFT’s entire audience, sometimes twice as big”. It’s just not true.

Next, let’s tackle the claim that “KOH’s margin of change” is “usually up”. I have 7 periods available to me currently. That gives me one starting point and 6 changes. For KOH, three have been up and three have been down. So, again, you’re claim is untrue.

KKFT, on the other hand, has had 5 ups and only 1 down; however, their ups have only averaged a gain of .5 while the downs have averaged a change of .9. KOH averaged up 1.4 and down 1.5. Still, KKFT is at their highest point since I’ve been tracking them, while KOH is at their lowest. So, who is slipping and who is on the rise? I’m clueless, so I’m not going to speculate.

And have you also considered that KOH is a 50,000 watt AM powerhouse that is capable of reaching a lot more people than KKFT? The most powerful transmitter listed for KKFT is 3,250 watts on FM. On top of that, KOH has been around for more than 80 years, while KKFT is registered as first going on the air about 25 years ago. I don’t know for sure, but I think they’re current format is younger than that.

I’m not sure what your agenda is and I don’t know why you have a problem with KKFT. The station is run locally and is a good competitor for KKOH. I can’t agree with your comment, but I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read my stuff and comment. Thanks!

Following up on my previous post, the day of the election I received a letter, this time from “Independent Nevadans for a New U.S. Senate”. The message was the same as the one from America’s Future Fund: don’t support either candidate.

Whether Harry Reid mailed these messages personally or whether he assigned the task to one of his lackeys will probably remain forever unknown. One thing we do know is that it’s possible to cheat your way to victory. Either that or the people of Nevada are complete idiots. I’m going to stick with the cheating thing.

I mean, people are angry about the economy, unemployment, healthcare, taxes, spending, earmarks, and on and on, yet they re-elect Harry Reid? Is anyone seriously buying that?

I maintain my support for Sharron Angle. I believe she had as good a chance as any other candidate to win against Harry Reid. I also believe that if we had elected Sue Lowden then it wouldn’t have mattered whether Harry Reid won or not. I think it’s sad that Harry Reid based his whole campaign on calling American ideals “extreme” and “dangerous”. Without asking for compensation I am going to offer an idea for Harry Reid’s 2016 campaign. Here it is: “Power for me, free money for you. It’s win/win.”

I’ll admit, my idea is essentially identical to the campaign he just ran; however, it’s worded more clearly and it doesn’t include any attacks on anyone else. I don’t see how it can fail. Especially if the unions “support” Reid again next time around.

Until then, 15% is “really good”, but we can go higher! And we can’t do it without Reid.

Today’s the big day. I can tell you right now what’s kind of sad – I’ve been preparing to stay up and watch election coverage for weeks now, but I didn’t know the World Series was going on. Because of a person sitting next to at work I knew the Giants were doing well, but I didn’t realize the series was over until I saw a blurb on a news site last night. Sports are not very exciting when compared to elections. Especially when it’s so much harder to get away with cheating in sports.

Speaking of cheating, I received a postcard last week from America’s Future Fund. The postcard advised me to not support Harry Reid OR Sharron Angle. I tried to find some information about the organization, but could not find much. They had a website, which has since been taken down to “re-brand”. This is undoubtedly because people were confusing them with American Future Fund, a legitimate conservative organization. There is a Facebook group for America’s Future Fund that was started in June; however, there is little activity on the page, except for a couple of shots at ObamaCare. I tried extracting some information about the organization from their web site, but they registered using Domains by Proxy. It is obvious that the group is trying to remain anonymous.

It seems pretty clear that this is a bogus group. Harry Reid cannot win honestly, so the next step is to try to shave votes away from Sharron Angle. By trying to paint her as just another politician the Democrats hope to steer conservatives away. I don’t know that Harry Reid is directly involved with this campaign, but I find it hard to believe he would be oblivious to it.

I would love to know more about America’s Future Fund if anyone has any information. My guess is that they will be going away since they have served their purpose. As always, dishonesty is the only policy when you’re a Democrat.

Happy birthday, Nevada! I hope your birthday wishes come true and Harry Reid gets canned!

It’s a horrible day. I’ve tried so hard to avoid the election season, at least from a commentary perspective. But today I am announcing something that grieves me terribly. I will be voting for Sharon Zadra, Reno City Council Ward 2. This decision is made as I sit perched directly across from Reno’s newest illegal electronic billboard. I’m sure you’re aware that I’m not a fan of Sharon Zadra by any standard, but I believe that her opponent’s mindset is dangerous.

Running against Sharon Zadra is Brandi Anderson. I was excited to support anyone who would oppose Ms. Zadra, but Brandi Anderson is too far out of step with the citizens of Reno to even be considered. Although the City Council position should be considered non-partisan, Brandi Anderson is certainly not non-partisan.

On her Facebook page she makes no effort to hide that she is a Democrat. Her Twitter page shows that she is obviously an Obamacare advocate. The people she “follows” are not run-of-the-mill progressives either. They are people like Rachel Maddow and Arianna Huffington. And outstanding news organizations like MSNBC.

I first became aware of Brandi’s political leanings when I noticed who campaigned for her. It was not your neighbor or the people down the street – it was the crazy career Democrats. Then the Democrats did a hit-and-run at our house where they dropped off a stack of mailers for Democrat candidates. There was Brandi Anderson smashed right up against Rory.

The country is suffering tremendously because of Obama’s disastrous progressive agenda. Even before the Obama regime the country had started down a dangerous path when Democrats began to retake control toward the end of Bush’s second term. President Bush even helped this trend by embracing TARP and Medicare reform (not the good kind). So the country is wounded.

States suffer similarly. The states with the biggest problems are the states run by Democrats. New York and California are perfect examples. This is also reflected in our cities – cities run by Democrats are the ones suffering the most. Detroit, New York City, Chicago and D.C. are good examples. The farther the city leans to the left, the more likely that education, taxes, homelessness and crime are out of control.

I believe that a city can easily rise or fall depending on political ideology. We need a city council that is pro-business and will help us get past our casino-based industry. We need someone who will lower taxes to encourage people to move here and bring business here. We need someone who will not impose a “temporary” tax every time they feel like digging a trench in the middle of town and then forget to remove the tax. You simply cannot trust that Brandi Anderson believes these same things.

As much as I hate the status quo, I believe Ms. Anderson is out of touch with our community. Please support Sharon Zadra in November (even though it is likely to be physically painful).

As Harry Reid works closely with our supreme leader, President Barack Obama (mmm, mmm, mmm), to turn America into a rotting mess, there is good news in the Silver State! During the past two weeks I have seen several marmots – mostly in the usual place, but a few in places I haven’t seen them before. I tried to snap some pictures but it was just too cold and windy that particular day. But to celebrate our 2010 team of marmots I’m posting a few low quality scans of some old pictures. I’ll try to improve the quality another time.

I don’t think I saw a single marmot last year. I can only imagine that they fled the country. I’m not sure what kind of healthcare is available to marmots but I’m sure it’s pretty good. I’ve never actually seen a sick marmot. I suspect they magically regenerate. Or perhaps the colony has a marmot shaman that instantly heals ailing marmots. It’s possible they headed for the border because of the healthcare disaster going on here.

It’s getting to be the season that marmots should start appearing. If I don’t start seeing marmots soon then I’ll assume that they really did flee the country. If it’s true then I think we had better wake up and take notice of their warning.

I’m starting to think that all of the marmots might have fled to Iceland – that would explain a lot.