KMBZ’s News, talk stations are in the crosshairs…
As evidenced by the continuing decline of both KMBZ AM and KMBZ FM in the July radio ratings.
Starting with UMKC’s not-for-profit NPR station KCUR FM smoking of 98.1 FM KMBZ. KCUR slotted in at 10th place in the standings with a 4.5 share to KMBZ’s 3.0.
That’s nearly 50 percent more average quarter tree hugger listeners versus KMBZ Tea Party types .
Even more surprising was that lowly Talk Radio KCMO AM nosed out 980 KMBZ for the first time in like forever.
Yep, the one time news talker powerhouse that was home to radio legends like Mike Murphy skidded into 20th place with a 1.8 share, inching past KMBZ’s 1.7.
While that may not sound electrifying, “when you think about it, five or six years ago KMBZ 980 alone was in the high 3’s and low 4’s. So right now, KCMO is the tallest midget in the room. It’s not a big deal but this might be the first time KMBZ has been below KCMO.”
Steve Kraske
Rush Limbaugh and Darla Jaye aside, most of KMBZ’s shared talent migrated exclusively to the FM band, leaving 980 saddled with lackluster luminaries such as Herman Cain, Laura Ingraham and George Noory.
Then there’s the matter of news talk radio’s tendency to go into a summer slump, but wouldn’t that apply to KCMO and KCUR as well?
However, whereas KMBZ’s stations has been flat to down three months straight, KCUR has risen more than a full share point and KCMO experienced a modest increase in listeners.
Supporters of KMBZ FM note that in cume (total listeners), KMBZ holds a more than 40,000 listener advantage.
The bottom line: a local talk radio war of less than epic proportions is now underway on both the AM and FM dial. Time will tell who prevails in the political season.
The steady demise of KMBZ can be attributed to two names, “New Boss” and Dana Wright.
New Boss made it a priority to alienate the stations base of conservative listeners by trying and failing to get hip and cool. Dumping syndicated talk shows for the likes of Chris Merrill and Jonathan Weir who when I listened to them talk more about music or beer then they did politics or the events of the day.
To make matters worst, Merrill and Parks and Wright would make fun of many of the conservative shows as if they were some burden. All in the name if trying to attract Millennials.
Trying to get younger listeners is fine. Well used to be fine. But many inside radio are discovering that Millennials are a less then desirable demographic. For the most part, the 18-34 listener doesn’t listen to talk radio. They are at a whole, uninformed, under and unemployed and still live at home with their parents, get married and have kids at a later age. They largely have no disposable income.
Their parents of the other hand, do. The parents who KMBZ wanted less of. Big mistake by New Boss and KMBZ.
And Dana Wright she embodies everything wrong with KMBZ. She’s a low information reporter. She’s loud, rude, rambles on. She’s an air head who doesn’t know anything. When you listen to her you wonder who did she sleep with to get her job?
Lets be honest, Wright is an aging beauty queen who saw the writing on the wall. She left Channel 5 before she was escorted out in the same way Karen Fuller was unceremoniously dumped.
KCMO finally took radio seriously, knew Parks and Wright were bad and can be beat. KC has a local alternative during their show.
If I was KMBZ: I’d fire New Boss and Wright now. Keeps Parks until you offer Chris Stigall the world to come back to KC. If he says yes, fire Parks and get Jaye and Wier filling until until he comes back or you find a replacement.
Spot on. I don’t know who told these PR folks that all millennials are liberal, but they are wrong. I don’t doubt, that as a whole, millennials lean left, but there is plenty of money to be made on the large base of conservative millennials.
I absolutely can not stand listening to Dana Wright. That is why I turned the dial. I found the quality of our news talk radio to be dismal. So I switched to 610 and sports-talk. I don’t understand the “dumbing down” of news-talk. People that want to listen to politics aren’t usually rolling around smoking blunts, and skipping school. They are usually retired or have jobs (not unempoyed) and some form of education.
I like Dana as a person, and think her and Ketz are a cool KC couple. But she is NOT a politically competent. She doesn’t even have a basic understanding of Constitutional Law, government, or geopolitics. She would be better as a pundit that does a few segments on “public opinion”. And Scott shouldn’t get off the hook either, I haven’t figured out if Dana is dragging him down, or if she is just so bad he looks OK.
Last thing, another reason I quit listening was due to their lack of coverage of local issues. They do cover local issues and that is their bread and butter. But they spend too much time talking about topics which they lack the authority to talk about. They have not researched these topics enough and come across as uninformed on the topics.
As I said before, Dana Wright is who she is.
The reason why she is on the radio is because she was an aging former beauty queen who saw the writting on the wall. She left Channel 5 before she was fired for being too old. Much in the same way Karen Fuller was.
She’s no longer the pretty girl on TV so she became the annoying woman on the radio. And by doing so, drove people to 710 once they finally gave us a local alternative.
Exactly. 98.1 isn’t a tea party station, anything but and yes, “New Boss” is a complete idiot who has done everything he could to insult his stations’ conservative base until they simply tuned them out. Under his direction, what was once solid programming was replaced by the moral equivalent of a fart joke. I long ago changed the presets on my car radios to KANU instead of 98.1 and 710 instead of 980.
In fact, I would go so far as to put the blame for the stations’ decline directly on “New Boss”. While there are certainly problems with some of the talent(less) on air personalities, “New Boss” set the tone for the station programming. First it was removing the political content from the shows even on shows like Darla Jaye’s show. Then came the crudeness, the childish vulgarity that gave license to idiots like Scott Parks to become even more moronic than he had been when paired with solid broadcasters like Mike Shanin.
I would argue that were Dana Wright paired with Darla Jaye and actually allowed to have an intelligent conversation, you’d have a good quality show. But paired with a juvenile mediocrity like Parks, Wright also is reduced to a giggling teeny bopper.
Unfortunately, I suspect the changes are pretty irreparable now. the damage done to the relationship between KMBZ and its traditional base and I don’t think the motivation is there to get it back, certainly not from the moron who destroyed those relationships.
its political season boys.
all talk radio goes up.
And as the world turns more to the left…an people can get their politics on
the internet minute by minute….fewer people listenin to radio.
but the ones to survive are talk and sports radio if they keep fine tuning
their programming.
Limp paw is dying.
NPRis on the rise.
talk radio is boring because the announcers know nothing.
Hearne…tell thos radio guys to put harleyon andtheir ratings will skyrocket!!!!!!
There are many “issues” killing off KMBZ 98.1 FM.
Ellen Shenk is a pillar on the morning news, just as she was solid for many years with Noel Heckerson. But she’s paired with E.J. Becker who knows little about anything and demonstrates his stupidity on a daily basis. After several years, he still can’t read a clock without making the listener feel like he/she is listening to a Denver station. And the phony “horse laugh” is sophomoric to hear repeatedly when EJ thinks his own comments are funny. Even, small market WIBW (580-AM) Topeka, produces a much more professional news/talk morning show.
The midday show is a complete Kansas City misfit accentuated by the fact there are no listener calls taken. Two people talking monotonously between them selves for four hours will drive away almost dedicated listener. No entertainment; less content.
Then…it’s the 2-6 p.m. hours that drives away the “tea party”/conservative listeners who should be the heart of KMBZ 98.1’s audience. Dana and Parks are neither interesting nor entertaining. It’s four hours of “dumb and dumber” — you decide which one is which! Specifically, what drives away the potential listener most is the crude talk, rude comments and the general “air head” aspect of the whole show.
KMBZ 98.1 FM is a fine old radio station with tons of potential. A complete housecleaning is badly needed.
KCMO finally gave conservative’s an alternative show on 2-6. And slowly but surely they’re going there. My bet is if Greg Knapp’s show ratings rise and Dana and Parks show declines more, look for Knapp’s show to be from 2-6 sooner then later.
Joe, trainor (mike) here… I sooo miss Noel Heckerson. I’m sure at the time Larrimore had good reasons to hire Becker – younger, more energetic, etc., but I’ve never, ever gotten the sense that he’s a NEWS MAN. i don’t suppose they could entice Nick Haines to do …. ah, never mind… he’d never want to get up at 2 a.m….. more later….
They should scrap this garbage that hardlu draws any listeners that were born after 1950 and play some music.
There are plenty of music stations you can listen too. I happen to like the AM band and talk-radio, and I was born after 1950.
Just curious, why are these dang radio ratings so important every month? Personally, I couldn’t care less.
etc.O SOME RAP MUSIC…
that stuff sells product…..like payday loans….bad credit cards….fast food….etc.
simple to run and makes lots of money
I suspect that the millenials are all listening to Sirius radio, or Spotify and could care less about regular radio.
This post is nearly unreadable.
Hearne, you write like a 14 year old girl who can’t read, nor write.
I can’t listen to Dana Wright. But I could watch her in some granny porn.
Maybe they should just flip-flop the staffs from 98.1 and 810. 810 talks about the Royals like it is negotiating the end of WWII, and 98.1 talks about news like talking about the Royals. What has the world come to?
The worst part about the morning show on 98.1 is the young female on the street reporter. She sounds like a very nice person, but she can not go three words in a row without stuttering or stopping or saying the wrong word.