Last Of The Mohicans
by Brian Maloney, September 3rd, 2008 at 01:05pm
What’s it like to be one of the nation’s few remaining overnight radio talk show hosts? That’s the situation facing WBZ’s Steve LeVeille, who has a lot of wee small hours of the morning to fill each week.
Over at Radio-Info, one commenter notes that LeVeille’s show seems to have taken a lighter turn recently, with joking around and open phones becoming the norm.
Having worked this shift elsewhere, I can tell you from experience it is one of the most challenging, yet lowest paying, timeslots on the schedule. It actually requires more prep work, as there are fewer breaks for news and commercials than during cluttered drivetime shifts.
Even with a overnight signal reach on the order of WBZ’s, there just aren’t that many people up at 3am. That makes the potential caller pool small and the temptation to allow regulars (often weirdos) great.
If I were in his shoes, I probably would do whatever necessary to keep the show fresh and keep enough callers moving through to prevent having to talk to the walls all night long. Avoiding key news topics would be a serious mistake, however.
Though the overnight slot isn’t a big revenue generator, maintaining local talk there is a good thing for any station wishing to develop a live and local 24/7 reputation. Instead of phasing it out, there ought to be a few more guys like Steve providing overnight programming.
Entry Filed under: WBZ
8 Comments
1. Celtic Frost | September 3rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Betcha the Real Barbara is up listening at 3am.
2. Dave | September 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I listen to Steve’s show all the time, at least the parts of the first hour or two, and it hasn’t changed at all.
3. Jim from Boston | September 4th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Hi Brian,
Yesterday you wrote:
“What’s it like to be one of the nation’s few remaining overnight radio talk show hosts? That’s the situation facing WBZ’s Steve LeVeille, who has a lot of wee small hours of the morning to fill each week.
“Over at Radio-Info, one commenter notes that LeVeille’s show seems to have taken a lighter turn recently, with joking around and open phones becoming the norm….
” If I were in his shoes, I probably would do whatever necessary to keep the show fresh and keep enough callers moving through to prevent having to talk to the walls all night long. Avoiding key news topics would be a serious mistake, however.”
Thanks for the link to Radio-Info, re the commentary about Steve LaVeille and late night radio. I am an avid listener to nighttime Talk Radio from about 4 to 5 AM. I usually listen to Coast to Coast AM, except when it goes off the deep end or has open lines (usually just callers with “ghost stories”); then I listen to Steve. I also really like Jordan Rich on WBZ on weekends. I’m listening to Steve right now as I draft this note, and while he is exuberant, it seems to be a typical show.
Both Jordan Rich and Coast to Coast have interesting and unique guests, and I think this is the antidote to exclusively call-in shows in the wee hours. C to C announces its lineup for the week on its website, and uniquely usually has one guest for three hours. I often record XM streams of the interesting programs, to listen at my convenience, like when WRKO does sports.
I’ve not yet explored late night XM talk radio because the above-mentioned broadcast shows are pretty good, IMO. The late night XM talk shows seem to be mostly rebroadcasts of daytime shows. BTW, on Sunday early AM until 5:00, WCRN has Tammie Bruce, whom I’d like to hear more regularly.
I think the most dead time on Boston talk radio is from about 7:00 to 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings (weekday evening sports broadcasts on WRKO vs NIghtside on WBZ notwithstanding).
4. Dan Zee | September 4th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Well, if you remember Larry Glick doing late nights on WBZ, most of the callers in the wee hours are drunk or crazy, so it seems natural to go with the flow. Glick use to make quick comments that someone drunk or crazy wouldn’t get, so that was part of the fun of the show.
I wonder how many talk show hosts syndicated programming has eliminated in this country. As you say, there are very few talk stations that broadcast live at night.
5. raccoonradio | September 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Yes kudos to Jordan Rich; one regular feature of his show every couple months is the “movie panel”
or “TV panel” with Frank Ochieng and Garry and
Marilyn Armstrong. In the 90s, Frank, a longtime
friend of mine, used to come onto my college
radio blues show (WMWM Salem) to talk movies
or TV once in awhile. One night he was the guest of Morgan White Jr (another friend of ours) on
WBZ and Jordan liked what he heard so…
6. bob | September 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I am disappointed in general in Boston Radio (the felon, the racist guy from wrko who is now in Providence, ect)but I do find Steve, Jordan and Morgan to be fun and easy to listen to. I also think Dan Rae has been doing a fine job. I like that they are our Boston guys.
7. V | September 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
you’re calling them weirdos? How about those weirdos that say they’ve got “no balogna” just because it rhymes?
same old crap.
8. Bob Osgood | September 13th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Hello,
Just read your article. I like the fact that we have Live Local Talk. Whether it is Dan Rea on WBZ 0ur Michelle McPhee on WTKK. Overnight I look foward to Steve, Jordan etc on WBZ.
I also found out I can pick up WCRN out of Worcester. It is so nice not to have to listen to the Felon, a Black Racisist, or the nonsensical ravings of mad lunatics.
Regards
Bob Osgood Salem, NH