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.
