I recently took a new job that requires commuting. During the morning, I am entertained by several different morning shows. I have to admit, I actually enjoy this part of my day. On the return trip, however, there is nothing but music and news. How come there are no evening talk shows to entertain us on our way home?
Thanks.
Switch over to AM radio. Lotsa talk radio 
Morning FM makes me barf. The “Zoo” guys are on the air for 3 or 4 hours. For the rest of their workday, they cut up the tape of that day’s show to make a promo for the next day – so that people will tune in to hear them generate material for the next day’s promo!
In other words – why would you want it in the afternoon?
Why do you need it in the morning??
–Grump “freakishly modulated” y
OK, let me clarify:
I am not interested in talk shows that focus on god, nor am I interested in hearing about the opinions of financial analysts. I am looking for a Howard Stern or something similar. So although AM offers some “choices” in the afternoon, they are not the kind of shows I am talking about.
As for TheeGrumpy, I am sorry you live in a city that has a loser morning show. Maybe this answers the question after all. There are just not enough talented hosts to fill the position.
Anyway, thanks for the replys…
Morning is when most people listen to radio.
Morning Drivetime in most cases costs the most for
commercial placement.
That’s where radio stations will spend the most to
attract an audience (whether or not you think the morning
zoo is worth the salary, somebody thinks that.)
Often this is one of the few areas that are still “live.”
In this world of a few mega companies purchasing all the frequencies and then cutting back budgets (and it still ain’t over), the afternoon
drive shows died shortly after many of the mid-day jocks
were fired and the stations automated.
Don & Mike have a shtick somewhat comparable to Howard Stern in that their show is more or less straight talk/comedy, as opposed to being oriented toward politics, sports, or news. Their show runs 3-7:30 PM est in sixty markets nationwide.
National Public Radio is on in most markets morning & evening. It’s not just news, all sorts of topics are covered. In Denver there are several AM variety type talk shows for the evening commute, both local & syndicated.
If you like the “morning zoo” type shows, I can’t help you. I absolutely loathe those, and refuse to listen to 4 minutes of commercials every few minutes.
Hunt & peck around the AM dial.
Don and Mike: what assholes!
When they were local DJ’s at WAVA in DC, their “comedy” turned from sophomoric to downright cruel. At one event they were MCing, they berated an audience member who didn’t want to play a game until he complied (by getting on all fours and barking). Then they denied him the prize.
They also kept calling Phil Collins’s hotel room the morning before a Genesis concert, pissing him off to no end. Phil got the final laugh, though. He waited until the radio station had set up their giant boombox/balloon in the venue. Then he kicked them out!
Back to the OP: Look for a station that advertises “news/talk” as their format. They’ll have the most intelligent conversation.
Well, it appears my question has been more than answered. I didn’t realize this board was comprised of such an opinionated lot. Next time I ask a question, I’ll be sure to include a “Please judge my tastes” section.
I would like to especially thank Doug Bowe for actually attempting to answer my question - something I thought would be a given on a board like this. Thanks also to JBirdman12 for the lead, I’ll be looking for them.
AWB, Carina42, and TheeGrumpy apparently missed the concept when they came here to post. This site is trying to FIGHT ignorance, not propogate it. Next time keep your irrelevant opinionated posts relegated to the flaming section where other like minded individuals will be able to more fully appreciate the nature of your jabber.
Again, I truly appreciate all of the information provided that was relevant to my question.
Until next time,
Heembo
Well, I mean there IS a forum called In My Humble Opinion. And if you want your tastes judge, visit the Pit.
Anyhoo. I also love talk radio, it’s all I listen to all day, because music on the radio well…it sucks. Where do you live? In chicago we have WCKG, 105.9, which is an FM talk station. Howard Stern, Buzz Kilman, Steve Dahl (the best) and Pete McMurray…all fun, non pretentious, non God related, often hilarious talk.
My goal in life is to have a radio show, actually, i’ve been listening to talk radio almost all my life, an odd practice when you’re fifteen…
jarbaby
I feel your pain, Heembo. I’ve got a morning show I’ve listened to for over 15 years, they’re quite good. But the trip home has nothing comparable. I steer clear of AM, 'cuz I don’t like shouting at the radio in response to their idiotic comments. I generally listen to NPR, as they can have some interesting stuff. Or I go to all news stations, or books on CD, which I load into my CD changer just for these experiences. It’s especially important to me to have something to listen to because the drive is usually at least 45 minutes.
Quoth jarbabyj:
I think that the OP already knew this. Unfortunately, it would appear that many of the more experienced posters in this thread did not know this. Allow me to take this opportunity to remind you all: The OP asked a factual question. If you happen to feel that he should’t have bothered asking, on the premise that he really doesn’t want to listen to more talk radio, then you’re perfectly free to refrain from posting. The responses he got, however, were just plain rude. Play nice, kids.
I think it’s because the morning drive-time is considered more prestigious. There are occasionally good afternoon shows, but if they’re good enough, they get moved to the morning.
Something like that just happened here in New York City. I loved Rocky Allen & Blaine Ensley on WPLJ 95.5 FM in the afternoons. They were popular enough that WPLJ’s parent company, which also owned WABC 770 AM, decided to promote them to morning, on that station. They failed in that time slot…either the competition was too much better than them, or the move to AM made them have to come up with more material than they were used to producing, since on FM, they had the music as filler. In either case, after they bombed in the morning, they were not given back their old afternoon job. They were just cut, period.
I guess it’s kind of like asking why no one’s ever hit 700 home runs in the minor leagues. If they were good enough, they’d make it to the majors, and if they can’t make it in the majors, no one wants to keep them in the minors.
If you’re in the New York City area check out Opie and Anthony from 3-7pm on 102.7. They aren’t syndicated…yet. Howard swears they’re ripping him off. They’re very entertaining/outrageous/whatever.
I listened to them too but once O&A came on it was no contest (for me). I wish Rocky was still on in the mornings…Howard has been boring me to tears the past few years.
By the way, Blaine recently joined The Sports Guys, also on 102.7 but 5-9am.
Whatever happened to Rocky anyway?
I may have missed the point of the OP which was apparently “Why are there no evening drive time talk shows.” If you read the OP, though, it could also be construed as “I would like to listen to an evening talk show that is non-religious or dry & boring, any suggestions?” I tried to answer in that spirit, and actually think I did a pretty fair job of it.
Excuse me for having an opinion, I was just agreeing with TheeGrumpy on the morning zoo type shows. I don’t think anyone was castigating heembo on his/her tastes
Looking over the answers to my post, I realized that my question remains unanswered. I think the general consensus is that:
Morning radio time slots are more valued than afternoon time slots, so if a radio host is any good, they will always end up on a morning show.
However, this is essentially my question, albeit dressed in a different suit. It doesn’t explain why this phenomenon occurs, only that it does.
Why is it that morning time slots are more valuable than afternoon or evening ones? Do people lose interest in being amused as the day goes on? If so, explain why sit coms are so popular during the evening?
WAG - during morning drive time, people are more likely to be listening to and paying attention to the radio, since they are just starting their day. During evening drive time, they are thinking about what happened at work all day, making arrangements for the evening on their cell phones, etc. The evening drive time is also more spread out since people stay late to get work done, run errands on the way home, and so on, so the audience isn’t as concentrated.
Well, heembo…I still can’t definitively answer your question. Perhaps because people tend to go to work at a more uniform time of day than they leave; hence a larger drivetime audience in that time slot?
However, there are a lot of talk shows (here in Denver, anyway) during PM drivetime. While it is true there are no “Morning Zoo”/ Howard Stern type shows then, there is absolutely a plethora of religious/sports/news/general/Phil Hendrie/political talk all over the dial during that time slot.
Having said that, I have also wondered why there are no “Evening Zoo”/humorous/popular/lite PM drive time radio shows. I don’t watch TV generally…isn’t the PM news more “substantial” in content than morning news?
Basically, morning is big because everyone who listens to the radio is listening in the morning; You need to have that powerful 6am-10am (or so… definition of ‘morning’ depends on the listener base) show so that you can win the biggest market of the day.
In the morning, everyone who’s on the way to work is wondering what roads are closed, where traffic’s bad, who won the hockey game, what countries were annexed overnight, who the president is/is doing, etc. etc. etc. Ad nausem. People want to talk about this crap around the cooler at work. School announcements happen in the morning. On our station, the morning is the only really unscripted time of day.
The other big time is, naturally, afternoon rush hour. The two big ‘drive’ times during the day are important… in the morning, you want a motivator, someone who can give you the energy to face the day. In the evening, it’s thought that people won’t want the same mania, because now they’re tired from working and would rather get the news, and some decent music to relax to.
That’s the theory… I don’t have any cites, so other stations may use different approaches. That works here in Newfoundland. We’re #2 in our market, behind (WAY behind) our sister station.
FD.
In agreement with FunkDaddy. The actual term I’ve heard
to descrive the public is: “They’ve just fought World War 3. Give 'em the music.”
This is a sweeping statement that hides a lot of sin.