Talk Radio Down In Seattle

Talked Out In Latteland?

Stations Look Weak In Latest Survey


What's happening to talk radio in the Puget Sound area? Tonight's fresh ratings data for the Seattle-Tacoma market doesn't bode well for the format.

Soon after the data's release, the Radio Equalizer was already hearing from readers, who thought these declines really jumped off the page.

Liberal, conservative, it just didn't matter from Arbitron's perspective: Lattleland seems to be suffering from talk radio fatigue.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've worked for a couple of these stations, but I call 'em like I see 'em. So far we have overall Monday-Sunday numbers for all listeners 12 and older, soon, more detailed data will become available.

For conservative talkers, the news wasn't good for either Limbaugh station KTTH, or more locally-focused KVI. While KTTH came out slightly ahead of KVI, that should be a given, with the huge built-in advantage of having Rush on board.

KTTH continued its massive audience erosion, from a solid 3.8 share last summer, to a sad 2.7 now. Each new report seems to take KTTH down further, while the station's been badly neglected, in terms of programming in need of a radical retooling by qualified professionals, combined with a moribund marketing effort.

For too long, the station cut costs by having only one local program, banking on Rush to hold it up. Meanwhile, there are several syndicated programs in the lineup that should have been removed long ago and the morning show needs fresh energy.

Rival KVI's not looking better, except for this: to hold your own against Limbaugh's station, without a similar superstar program, isn't easy.

Having Hannity helps quite a lot, as well as the emphasis on local programming, which gives the station an edge when area issues are hot (which has been the case recently). KVI's local hosts have been particularly active on state topics recently, taking advantage of their strong suit.

KVI fought hard to recover from the loss of Limbaugh, correctly sticking to local topics, but is now losing the audience again, falling from a 3.3 last fall, to a 2.5 now. What hurts KVI is the lack of a dedicated program director, after the last one left for Portland several months ago.

On the left side, there was nothing to crow about, either. The once-mighty KIRO held steady with last month's number, but is now stuck in 6th place. For many years, KIRO was locked into first place every survey, it never gets near that rank now.

There are major rumblings about changes coming, but I'm not so sure, they've been slow to make changes in the past. The station's sharp turn to the left, with one local conservative in the middle of a liberal sandwich, makes no sense from a programming standpoint.

When I worked there, one manager described KIRO to me as "net-non-ideological", meaning there was enough balance to keep the station from being seen too much as one way or the other. It always had a liberal tilt, but never to the extreme seen now, which is why I think a segment of the audience has been alienated.

What's key to KIRO's survival, by the way, is not how any of the talk shows are performing, but whether the morning news program's ratings hold up. Recently, those had begun to slide for the first time. That's where the money is made, so any real drop there, would hurt KIRO badly.

KIRO's real competition is a news station, KOMO-AM, which stole the Mariners radio broadcasts away from the station several years ago. With the team not faring much better than last year, KOMO hasn't seen the big ratings surge expected, at least not yet. That's more likely to change as the summer figures emerge.

Air America affiliate KPTK showed more promise than any of their other stations around the country, mostly because they had a chance to seize upon KIRO's misfortune, but they haven't put enough effort into the station.

Crucial time was lost in not hiring a local host for the station, which has cost it dearly. A real opportunity for liberal radio to succeed has been squandered in Seattle. One major problem: its local managers aren't familiar with the talk radio format.

KPTK fell from a 1.5 to a 1.3, settling in near the bottom of the list, next to tiny stations from distant communities.

Since the Radio Equalizer has a decent number of Puget Sound area readers, I'm going to put this question to you: what's going on here? Is there fatigue with some of the national programs?

Have some of the local hosts become stale or uninteresting? Are the wrong topics being covered? Are blogs such as Sound Politics or news sites like Orbusmax taking away the need for talk radio?

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