NevadaBrad

This political season is looking pretty grim. Besides the fact that campaigning started way too soon, there just isn’t much to look at with the current contenders.

On the Democrat side the race is between two absolutely unelectable people: Hillary and Obama. Hillary’s policies aside, she is, without a doubt, the most shrill woman on the planet. If people think the world hates the United States now just wait until they have to listen to her. We’ll be in the middle of WWIII before you can blink. Obama is clearly more presidential, but his beliefs are so extreme that I can’t imagine enough people would vote for him. The remainder of the candidates don’t really have a chance against Hillary and Obama. It’s laughable that people like Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich are even running.

On the Republican side the decision is much more difficult since there aren’t any candidates that standout. I want to support Romney, but am finding this increasingly difficult each time he discusses his views on abortion. My primary concern is that he continues to insist that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no problem with their members supporting abortion. This is clearly not correct. The LDS church has made this official statement on their webpage, which states that the LDS church “…counsels its members not to submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for such abortions.” Although the wording says “counsels” and not commands, one must consider that it would not be advisable to go against the “counsel” of the church if they believe that the church is indeed led by God. For Romney to continue to say that it’s okay to be pro-choice is just rubbish. He states that he is now pro-life, so why can’t he just say that he was wrong before? I would support him whole-heartedly if he were to make a statement saying, “I was pro-choice before but I’m now pro-life. I was wrong and deeply regret my mistake.”

The other candidates have flaws that I consider to be fatal. Giuliani is still pro-choice and has strange ideas about gun control. McCain works against the Republicans as often as he works with them. Additionally, he’s responsible for atrocities such as McCain-Feingold. Thompson – besides that fact that he’s in his own little sphere instead of competing – supports McCain-Feingold, which is a fatal and unforgivable flaw. Ron Paul is a little too extreme. As much as I want to agree with him, I don’t think he has a clear understanding of the situation between the United States and the terrorists. The others have issues I like, but don’t have an overall image I can vote for. For example, Tancredo is a stud when it comes to talking about illegal immigration. Besides this issue, there isn’t anything that makes him standout.

One particular issue that distresses me is that some Republican candidates would use ridiculous anti-Mormon tactics against Romney. For example, Brownback had an aide that attacked Mormonism. Other candidates have had similar problems, even though the candidates have stated that they did not condone the attacks. At least three of the candidates are Baptist, a religion notorious for it’s vehement attacks on the LDS church. Although this does not automatically disqualify them in my book it certainly makes me question whether they indeed do not condone the anti-Mormon attacks on Romney.

I’m anxiously watching to see if a candidate will emerge that clearly deserves our support. I would love it if Romney would apologize and make himself that candidate.

Yesterday I posted a lengthy and quite unimportant analysis of the current State of Reno Radio. In it I made a brief mention of Mr. Larson, who is on 99.1 KKFT from 4p to 6p. This evening I was shocked to see that he had posted a comment on the web site regarding my mention.

To be completely honest, I didn’t have a strong opinion of Mr. Larson previously. I listen to him daily, although this has primarily been because of the lack of any strong competition during the evening commute. To see that he would take the time to comment (even briefly) on this goofy little web page changes my opinion of him significantly.

If you don’t already listen to Mr. Larson you should start! Check out his station finder to find a station in your area. And if you aren’t listening to 99.1 FM Talk you definitely need to give it a try. Break the KOH habit and move on to something better! Trust me – you’ll like it.

By the way, I have referred to him as “Mr. Larson” because I would be horribly embarrassed if he came to my site again. Hopefully this prevents it from showing up in any kind of search.

When it comes to talk radio in Reno there are not many options. To the best of my knowledge there are four radio station in Reno: KKOH, KJFK, KBZZ and KKFT.

KBZZ (1270 AM) – We can automatically disqualify KBZZ because it isn’t really a talk station. It’s basically the equivalent of lame FM morning shows all day every day. I can only take so much of that kind of radio – zero to be exact.

KJFK (1230 AM) - This is the child of Air America, although they don’t say so on their webpage. They feature some of the Air America hosts such as Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann and Lionel. Their market share is barely over 1% and dropping. You can tune into the station at any time and hear bizarre ranting. You’ll discover within moments why they cannot hold their market share.

KKFT (99.1 FM) – KKFT is a strange one because they are based out of Carson City, but their FCC license is issued for Minden/Gardnerville. The signal in Reno is usually a little weak and the advertising is clearly aimed at Carson, Gardnerville and Minden listeners, although this seems to be changing. Their market share is about 1%, but seems to be growing fairly quickly. In the past three ratings periods they have gone from roughly 0% to .6% to 1%. I expect this trend to continue.

KKOH (780 AM) – KOH is clearly the powerhouse of all Reno radio, including ALL stations and not just talk. Their ratings are consitently well over 10% but they are slowly slipping away. They are down more than a full percent from the same ratings period a year ago.

So, back to the original point. The pickin’s are slim and seem to be slimming. KKOH – once the undisputed heavyweight champion – has been losing quality steadily for several years. The start of the decline happened in the late 90′s when Rusty Humphries arrived in Reno. This event sparked KOH’s Dark Ages, which they still have not recovered from. Another painful page from their book is “Reno’s Morning News with Ross and Monica”. This show consists of < 5 minutes of news per 1 hour of programming, endless crude and unfunny jokes and plenty of loud, fake laughing by Monica Jaye. I believe the largest nail in the coffin is Michael Savage. There are a few things keeping life in the coffin, which, unfortunately, is still nailed shut. Limbaugh and Hannity obviously buoy the station to keep their ratings high. The recent addition of Mark Levin is odd because they are only giving him one hour in the evening in order to extend Coast to Coast AM to 10pm instead of 11pm. Is Coast to Coast AM so incredibly popular that it needed to be bumped up? More on Levin in a moment…

KKFT is the station that could pull away a huge portion of KOH’s audience with the exception of the Hannity and Limbaugh hours. They have Dr. Laura, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller and Bill O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly used to be on KOH, but for some strange reason KOH and KKFT traded Mark Levin and Bill O’Reilly. It was a good move for KKFT, but KOH hurt themselves by cutting Mark Levin down to an hour after the switch. KKFT recently brought Glenn Beck back into the lineup, which is probably their best move yet; however, the benefit of adding Glenn Beck is countered by the stupidity of removing him in the first place. As KKFT continues to target the Reno market they will undoubtedly impact KOH’s ratings significantly. Their weak signal in the Washoe Valley will be a big problem, but hopefully their continued success will allow them the grow into a more powerful signal, or perhaps even make the move to Reno.

My final comment pertains to drive-time listening. During the morning commute you can choose between Laura Ingraham and Ross and Monica. During the evening commute you can choose between Lars Larson and Bill Manders. The morning choice is a no-brainer. In the evening I think Lars Larson is a clear winner. I think Bill Manders is a good guy (definitely very genuine), but I just am not entertained by him. I’ve always wondered why KOH doesn’t put a stronger personality on during the commute times when they undoubtedly have the most listeners? For KOH it’s clear – by providing local programming during those hours they can increase their ad revenue by playing more ads. They are not restricted the way they would be by a national show. The perfect morning drive was when Glenn Beck was on KKFT during the morning drive. Why they took him off I’ll never know.

So, that’s basically why our market is weak in Reno. A little more shuffling and I think you’ll see KKFT become the powerhouse that KKOH is not ceasing to be.