Charlotte Bobcats v Phoenix Suns

Putting the ideology aside, the fact is that those who want to put a “liberal” talk radio osatitn on the air are operating in a far different climate from the one extant in 1988 when Rush hit it big. In 1988, owners of AM osatitns had seen their fortunes falter due to FM. But most still had ratings of some sort and wanting to salvage something before music radio on AM died altogether.Now, most owners of all but the biggest AM osatitns in a market the size of Phoenix have abandoned attempts to garner audiences sufficient to be included in the Arbitrons. They have evolved a successful business model brokering time — be it to preachers, financial husters, ethnic/foreign language producers, vitamin peddlers, or vanity radio shows. This is the impediment to Air America’s return to the Phoenix airwaves. If there were the risk-taking environment present in 1988, and if most AM owners were still interested in actual ratings, AAR would have no trouble getting back on in PHX-town. By the way, conspiracy theories have historically served as great fuel for talk radio careers, giving one the aura of a fighting underdog, which Americans historically love. Howard Stern built his rep on getting fired by NBC and claiming the suits were out to get him. NBC Radio died soon after he left. Coincidence? Of course, but that didn’t stop Stern from making the most of it.Limbaugh made a big deal out of getting fired in KC for his conservative commentaries, by a man who later managed KIRO. Failure is often the prelude to success.

ezsuds81 asked:”How long did it take for Fox-News TV to make money? How much did Fox have to put into that rtneuve, before they saw a return on their investment?”From a brief scan of , it appears that Fox News became operationally profitable about 4-1/2 years after launching in September 1996, which I believe is pretty fast in the cable-TV world given its much higher costs.The time required to achieve profitability in radio is much shorter (9 months if AAR’s Phoenix affiliate’s claims of having done so is any indication, and probably 12-24 months more typically.) For AAR itself, it would be much easier to tell how they’re doing if they would simply make their financial data public.This has got to be some kind of record for the comments on Brian’s blog – four on-topic posts in a row (so far!) without the usual appearance of the “inequalizers.”