Talk Radio Seminar:
Timely Topics, Record Turnout

By Adam Jacobson
R&R Radio Editor
ajacobson@radioandrecords.com

MARINA DEL REY, CA — In the eight years that R&R has offered its Talk Radio Seminar to industry professionals, no convention has attracted as many News/Talk executives, programmers and on-air talent as last week’s event.

If it wasn’t the balmy weather putting smiles on attendees’ faces, it was the lively conversation and frequent laughter at the many sessions. Later, those smiles were accompanied by a tear or two as legendary ABC Radio newsman and commentator Paul Harvey humbly accepted R&R’s 2003 News/Talk Lifetime Achievement Award.

Harvey’s March 8 TRS appearance was his first at an industry gathering in a decade and galvanized TRS attendees, who gave standing ovations to both the 85-year-old Talk pioneer andhis wife, Angel. Harvey, who was perhaps the sharpest dresser in the room in his stylish bright-blue suit, said, “The highest compliment of all is when the girl of your life says, ‘I do.’ The second-highest compliment is to be saluted by your peers.”

Harvey has been heard coast-to-coast since 1951, when his daily Paul Harvey News and Comment began airing on the ABC Radio Networks. Speaking of his award, an emotional Harvey said, “It doesn’t seem logical to be honored for keeping on doing what you do every day. I’m going to place the award where I can see it every day at 3:30 — that is, the other 3:30, when I wake up and start my day. I want to look at this and discover what it takes to keep on keeping on.”

Harvey’s award preceded the announcement of the 2003 R&R News/Talk Industry Achievement Awards, which this year were dominated by ABC. A complete list of this year’s winners appears on Page 16, in the News/Talk/Sports column.
That same day kicked off with a “face-off,” between liberal and conservative talk hosts that quickly turned into a heated ping-pong match of clashing ideals. Much of the one-hour session dealt with how each host stood on an American invasion of Iraq, with veteran talk host Gil Gross serving as moderator — or, at least, attempting to.

Cox/Jones Radio Networks syndicated talent Neal Boortz opened the discussion by saying that going to war with Iraq depended on the situation at hand. But longtime Los Angeles talk host Michael Jackson, who stood in for WMAL/Washington’s Bill Press, argued that we should only go to war if the world is on our side. Otherwise, he said, ”the U.S. will not get one step closer to the end of the war on terrorism.”

WOR Radio Network talk host Tom Marr fervently disagreed, explaining that 40 countries are on record as supporting a U.S. invasion of Iraq. “Thank God for Bulgaria,” Jackson retorted.

The ongoing battle of left vs. right led WOR Radio Network’s Lionel to ask the panelists to drop their war talk. “This is, by far — next to drinking bleach — the least exciting topic we could be talking about on a Saturday morning,” he quipped.

But the hosts refused, and Lionel’s remarks drew a quick response from WLIE/Nassau-Suffolk talk host Ed Tyll. “I don’t find it tedious to be talking about peace and freedom,” he said. Further bickering led Marr to say about Saddam Hussein, “Just shoot the bastard. We don’t need a military tribunal — just put a bullet in his goddamn head.”
Gross tried his best to control the hosts but seemed destined to fail. “I could have been in a van filled with children this morning,” Gross said, eliciting wild laughter from the crowd. Meanwhile, KABC/Los Angeles talk host Larry Elder noted that he felt complete indifference toward the highly touted debates between former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Senator Bob Dole set to air on CBS’s 60 Minutes II.

Other highlights from Saturday’s sessions included the latest on Arbitron’s Portable People Meter trial in Philadelphia. According to Arbitron VP/Radio Programming Services Bob Michaels, big cume and lower TSL is the story for radio. In fact, no fewer than 13 stations had a cume reach of 20% or more in fall 2002. Why? The number of stations being picked up by the PPM is significantly higher, and the number of short listening occasions — such as those of 15 minutes in length — is being noted, where in many cases diaries wouldn’t reflect such listening. But as cume has risen, “TSL has plummeted,” Michaels said.

At a session that was actually a live focus group led by veteran researcher Jon Coleman, TRS participants heard from “News/Talk Radio’s 10 Most Important People” — the focus group participants — about what their likes and dislikes were concerning the choices available to them on Southern California’s radio dial.


Should Opie & Anthony Have Been Fired?

Most of the Talk programmers, consultants and talent taking part in a lively standing-room-only round-table discussion that opened TRS 2003 on March 6 agreed that WNEW/New York afternooners Opie & Anthony should not have been fired after a stunt in which a couple allegedly had sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Consultant Walter Sabo even believes that WNEW GM Ken Stevens and PD Jeremy Coleman were wrongly dismissed in reaction to the stunt.

“I wouldn’t have let them go,” Sabo said. “The right thing was done when the N.Y.P.D. arrested the people inside St. Patrick’s who did something wrong. I’m not sure why what Opie & Anthony did wasn’t forgivable.”

Premiere syndicated talker Phil Hendrie vigorously disagreed: “You can’t break the law. You can’t desecrate a house of worship. You walk into a Catholic church and fuck — how is that any different than spraying swastikas on a synagogue? Should the GM and PD have been fired? You bet your ass.”

Hendrie added that Opie & Anthony will be back because they’re very talented and will have realized they made a mistake. Another Premiere host, Glenn Beck, said the real culprit in the now-infamous “Sex for Sam” promotion was WNEW management, not the hosts. “You have a Sam Adams-sponsored bit, and management doesn’t know what was going on?” he said. “That’s crap.”


Hannity: ‘I’m A Radio Guy!’

A full slate of sessions on March 7 kicked off with an address from Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer Tim Sanders, who lamented the lack of likable, loving leaders in the business world and challenged attendees to treat their employees better by being likable leaders — especially amid radio consolidation. “You’d better be liked,” he said, “or you won’t be able to keep your chair.”

Conservative ABC Radio Networks-syndicated host Sean Hannity later told a jampacked Talk Radio Seminar luncheon crowd that he grew up listening to the greats of Talk radio, including Barry Farber, Bob Grant and even Tom Leykis, at KFI/Los Angeles, who once “blew him up” after he phoned in to Leykis’ show.

Hannity told how an ad placed in R&R in 1991 yielded his first opportunity, at WVNN/Huntsville, AL. “I’m a radio guy! I love this business,” he said. “I love being on the air.”

He also said this is a pivotal time in our nation’s history to be in News/Talk radio. “We will look back and say this was one of the most relevant times for radio,” he said. “It will play a role that is unprecedented. We are about to hit one of the biggest news cycles in the history of radio, with war, an upcoming election and North Korea. The bottom line is that we’re on the front lines. This is info time for the American people, and I think we’re at war [by March 21].”

Other TRS sessions on March 7 included a panel featuring News/Talk radio’s “big dogs” that dealt with the issue of facing aging listener demographics. When asked by moderator Harry Valentine of Sabo Media about the situation at his stations, Entercom Director of News/Talk Stations Ken Beck said aging demos were an issue, but that it was a question of perception more than anything else.

Clear Channel News/Talk/Sports VP/Programming Gabe Hobbs commented that aging demos are a battle all formats have fought forever. “There are always those challenges, no matter what format you do,” he said, explaining that sometimes having listeners over 60 is not such a problem: “As long as you can attract some
sizable number of 25-54 listeners, you can’t get too upset with other demos that come along for the ride.”


ABC Radio VP/Programming John McConnell agreed, saying, “Having 65+ listeners is a positive thing, especially at night and on weekends.” And KMOX/St. Louis VP/GM Tom Langmyer pointed out that older demos “give you a tremendous amount of quarter-hour listening on one end, but the station’s composition is not that good on the other end. But who’s upset? Weak salespeople and competitors.”

TRS attendees on March 7 also received a firsthand update on America’s war on terrorism from former U.S. Senator Gary Hart, who warned that our seaports face the biggest terrorism threat. Hart, who serves as co-Chairman of the Homeland Security Commission, said that, in his opinion, America will be attacked again.

“The worst is yet to come,” he told CNN Radio News’ Robert Garcia, who conducted the one-on-one interview with Hart. Additionally, Hart said that when the U.S. begins its attack on Iraq, “the threat to this country is going to skyrocket. It’s miraculous that we have not had subsequent attacks [since 9/11].”

Other sessions that day included discussions on “Why Content Is Still King,” a debate on what constitutes a “fireable offense” and how to maintain your local station image when a syndicated show comes on.

R&R News/Talk/Sports Editor Al Peterson will offer full coverage of these and other TRS sessions in forthcoming columns.