Monday, March 18, 2013

Corporate Radio's Double Standard Exposed

When WTDY canned their staff, including the legendary John "Sly" Sylvester, the right wingers tried to claim it was related to poor ratings.  But it wasn't.  They were actually seeing an uptick in their ratings the last two years.

Last month, when WMCS fired their on air staff and decided to switch programming, again came the claims that it was because liberal radio isn't popular and doesn't bring in the money.

This too is so much poppycock.

If it was all about money and ratings, they would have taken Rush Limbaugh off the air a long, long time ago as his misogynistic comments have cost them scores of sponsors.

More proof of this double standard broke over the weekend, when we learned that WTMJ-AM isn't doing so well in the polls either:
Local broadcaster Joe Scialfa was ousted Friday as WTMJ-AM (620) program director after 15 years with the station. He joined the station as a producer in 1998 and became assistant program director in 2008.

He replaced the late Tom Land as program director in July of 2011.

He had also worked as a producer of Charlie Sykes show.

In a memo sent to the staff announcing his departure, Scialfa attributed it to the fact "the station has been underperforming for the last year."
It's pretty easy to surmise that the stations poor performance had anything to do with Scialfa. Sykes' White Wisconsin, predictably, is bombing out. And Sykes is not a real draw himself either:


If changes like this was really about ratings and money, Sykes would have been the one getting bounced.

What it is really all about is the corporate media needing to control the message.  And for better or for worse, they've chosen to make the adulterous, self-admitted liar Sykes their face and voice on Milwaukee radio, so they're not about to oust him until he really screws up.

What they haven't realized yet is that more and more people are seeing through their lies and distortions.  By the time they do realize this, it will be too late for them.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks capper.

    Steve Smith let Sykes give away millions a year in ad revenue to wing nut candidates and causes. #unreal

    ReplyDelete
  2. "legendary" sly?

    LMAO!!!!!!!!!

    You forget -- this was a local version of rush limbaugh until it became clear that this wouldn't sell in the madison market.

    And while he makes a few good statements about labor, its really more grandstanding than doing anything that will actually, you know, make a difference.

    You lionization of a wind-bag radio personality that has no backbone and can be demonstrated to have shifted his schtick 180 degrees when it helped ratings in the morning drive-time in Madison is funny.

    But given this site's propensity to spread disinformation about the john doe probe 24/7 for more than a year and now the way this site has de-evolved into a daily and untrue rag about an African American Senator that speaks clearly and forcefully for her district, not unexpected.

    sly = entertainment and the ratings game.

    cogdis?

    increasingly irrelevant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If we were becoming increasingly irrelevant, you would have stopped worrying about us long ago. You prove yourself a troll, and a very poor one at that.

      Delete
    2. It was hard to get through that troll's ramblings without laughing.

      Delete
    3. Meg, no one else is even trying anymore. Sir Troll is so ridiculous, you can't help but laugh.

      Delete
  3. I could give more credibility to Anon 6:13 pm if the signed his name. Just another troll.

    ReplyDelete