The Publicity Trap
by Brian Maloney, January 9th, 2007 at 09:23am
If you’re one of WRKO’s managers, the Tom Finneran “deal” must look wonderful right now.
After all, Boston’s news media outlets are tripping over one another to get the latest details on Boston’s political Felon du Jour and his impending radio gig.
And a couple of the columnists at local dailies are sure Finneran will be a hit. Meanwhile, their car radios are locked in on NPR for the drive home from Boston.
How can all of that Finneran publicity do anything but help WRKO?
In a nutshell, this is why talk radio stations occasionally fall into the publicity trap. It’s the same mentality that brought Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo to Air America.
The day Finneran kicks off his first show, the Globe can be counted on to be in studio to chronicle his initial moments on the air. Ditto for Channels 5, 7 and 25. Isn’t it great?
Beyond those first days, however, Finneran’s talk gig will become old news and local media outlets will get bored, moving on to the next topic.
At the same time, Finneran’s lack of real on-air experience will begin to show after these initial programs. While many people, politicians in particular, have one or two decent shows in them, keeping it going beyond that is the downfall of almost all of them in this medium.
The truth is that it takes years to learn how to do talk radio correctly and beyond that, it’s necessary to have a basic level of talent that most wonkish politicians don’t possess.
And worse, someone with Finneran’s sheer level of arrogance and thin skin isn’t used to dealing with people who disagree with him. In fact, this could very well become a show that simply can’t take calls, given that Tom would be forced to lower himself to the level of the little people.
As a result, after a one-month ratings spike as people tune in out of curiousity, the sad reality will kick in: there isn’t a constituency for a Finneran talk show and there never was.
Experienced talk radio programmers know all of this, but Julie Kahn does not.
ELSEWHERE: my Radio Equalizer site will be down until sometime after noon today.
Entry Filed under: Finneran Deal
3 Comments
1. Peter Porcupine | January 9th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Brian - I have one cavat to add. Tom Finneran often substituted for David Brudnoy as host on WBZ, as well as appearing as a guest. He was VERY good. He did take calls - I once asked him about hypocricy in the Legislature regarding affordable housing on places like Cape Cod - and he did NOT go off the deep end, but answered intelligently and calmly, even admitting it was true.
He is smart, and he has an enormous will to succeed. I take no stand about the appropriateness of his hire, afer years of enjoying G. Gordon, but I don’t think he’ll be the nut job you believe.
2. BigBish | January 9th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
The sad truth is Finnerian is nothing more than a hack. And not a very good one at that or he wouldn’t have been caught. There’s no way in hell he has the breadth to run a 4 hour show solo unless the plan is for him to take shots from RKO’s conservative base for the entire show. They better get a kicka** call screener too, cuz you know they’re gonna be trying to get to him.
Once the blush is off the rose ( and be honest, did you really care at ALL about the perjurer once he dissapeared from public view?) he’s just another talking head with little or nothing to add. Leftie radio is still out in Boston and the more Deval messes up, lies, backpeddles and what not the stronger the conservative voice will be on talk radio. In 5 days of Marjorie Claprood Buzzi, how long did anyone really listen before switching the channel?
I’ll miss RKO when its gone. 96.9 is a weak alternative, but at least theres some conservative talk.
3. Brian Maloney | January 10th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I think BigBish’s point is the most important here: is Finneran a fit for WRKO?
Would Rush Limbaugh fit in at Air America?
The right fit is as important as anything.
Unless almost all of the calls are screened out, the truth is that WRKO’s callers are going to skewer Finneran every day.
Or, even worse, they’ll simply ignore him and the show and he’ll get nobody at all phoning in.
Either way, he’s toast: his thin skin will have him storming out of the studio, or he’ll have three hours to fill with only the sound of crickets chirping.