Now that KPOJ has announced it will not be airing the Ed Schultz show live 9-noon on KPOJ (with Sam Seder on tape replacing Al Franken during that time), I wonder if Schultz will dump KPOJ (if contractually possible) and move to AM 970 Solid State radio, following Stephanie Miller? That way he can be on live in Portland again, instead of on tape noon-3.

Coincidentally, Schultz spent an hour today almost screaming about Air America radio in the first hour of his show. I can guess he might welcome the opportunity to get off a station (KPOJ) that won't carry him live anymore, even with an easy opportunity to do so, and carries only AAR programing besides his show. Plus I assume Schultz would welcome the opportunity to be on right after Miller, also syndicated by Jones Radio Network.

Rick Emerson would have to give up the first hour of his show on AM 970 - but if I were in charge, I'd probably do it.

Andrew

I was glad to see Sam get the 9-noon slot, especially after Big Eddie's rant today against Air America Radio. Schultz is a great broadcaster, but I think he lets his ego show too much at times. I really like Sam Seder and I think he has grown and is the perfect replacement for Al Franken, but that's just me.

Stephanie Miller's show is currently delayed one hour and I think its the first hour that is replayed for a total of four.

I love Ed Schultz and I pains me to have to listen to AA just to hear him. For the love of God I hope he dumps that hole in a bucket station and moves to another channel.



Air America is a train wreck and I don't want to see big Eddie gown down with it.

What is it with KOPJ and the tape delays anyway?

Sort it out and put most of the shows on live, I want to hear the PDXers on the shows.

Missing, you should email KPOJ directly with this feedback if you want more live shows on KPOJ. I have - but obviously my one voice hasn't made much difference. (And I know my email was read - I've received personal replies.)

As of now, there are only four hosts on KPOJ weekdays: Hartmann, Seder, Schultz, and Rhodes. We really ought to be hearing more voices than that on such a sucessful station.

Andrew

I'll do it, because it's just silly that we don't have live shows here.

If live shows are so important, why is KPOJ so successful? There are a lot of Air America stations that take the shows live and they don't even show up in the ratings.

IMHO, this town has plenty of potential listeners. Enough that there is a clear vacuum in terms of lefty oriented talk.

So, they succeed because there are no other choices. If you are interested in, or happen to identify with, lefty talk, KPOJ is your station.

The initial line up made a lot of sense, but things have changed since then.

Changing the line up now has to happen, so why not explore if live programming would improve things? It would be no biggie to go back, using the next lefty talk shake up as cover.

It's way too soon to know how KPOJ will do with only one live show/3 hours a day. Three months ago, both Al Franken and Ed Schultz were live along with Hartmann. Since then, Schultz moved his show up 3 hours for the east coast market, and Franken is being replaced by Sam Seder on tape. We'll see in a few months.

KPOJ would be foolish to get complacent. Franken will be sorely missed in the lineup (his show was dry especially in the first hour, but he had terrific guests the rest of the time). Listeners who already listen to Seder in the evenings will now take the opportunity to hear Stephanie Miller 9-11a instead of having to listen to Seder twice. If by chance Ed Schultz moves over to KCMD/AM 970, many listeners will go with him and have to choose at noon to 3 to listen to Rick Emerson or whoever would replace Schultz on KPOJ. But, you can see how easily KPOJ could see their audience fragmented.

Franken's leaving adds a big hole. This is the time for KPOJ to shake everything up: move both Schultz and Randi Rhodes up 3 hours, live; add some new/previously heard voices 3-6PM (e.g. Rachel Maddow, whom I really like). Be a little bold. Instead, they are afraid of losing the audiences Schultz and Rhodes have now. They're playing defense, and that makes them vulnerable.

Andrew

Most of the Schultz listeners will follow the show.

Rhodes is harder because she is mostly afternoon drive. More risk in a daypart move, IMHO as not all listeners will get to continue to listen. Also, her style fits well at that time of day. Might not go over so well at work!

Still, I think it's the right thing to do. The interaction of Portland callers helps to reinforce the station identity here. I know they've got Thom and that's great, but there is a lot of other programming that could be working in that way.

Guess we will see how they value those tradeoffs!

Edit: They've gotta have a sizable mailing list now. So why not just ask? Assign somebody the task of sorting through the responses and see what shakes out. It isn't that hard. Just pose a coupla choices and let people choose. They will add extra commentary, so absorb that and see if there is a trend, then act.

Won't take but a week or two to cycle through that. Divvy up the incoming mail and check it out when there is time.