Comments on: The Sports Animal replaces Progressive Talk

By: Bryan in Miami

Bryan in Miami — Sun, 03 May 2009 04:15:11 +0000

I saw some people talking about WFTL as a new home for liberal talk. Don’t get your hopes up.

I sent them an email soon after WINZ went off the air, and they basically said they’d rather be Florida’s second best conservative talk station than the top liberal talker.

By: my2bucks

my2bucks — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:35:26 +0000

I sent 850 an email and was quickly shot down. We’ll definitely need a different option. Obviously 850 management would prefer to have bad ratings with their second tier conservative programming than have strong ratings with progressive programming.

At least we have 5 choices for sports programming [said sarcastically]

By: Hands And Dreams

Hands And Dreams — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:00:28 +0000

Wow, thanks for doing all the footwork on this one. I was outraged that my morning commute with Stephanie Miller had been cancelled, and wondered just what the blazes happened. I second that notion to ask 850 to do progressive, I can hardly listen to them currently. I’d rather listen to 610.

By: my2bucks

my2bucks — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:13:11 +0000

I had gotten the same email about Defede and Ritter that you received – word for word. Except mine, interestingly, didn’t include the ratings comment. My email to Ken Pauli included ratings numbers so I assume that he didn’t want to challenge the numbers.

They will not drop their conservative talk format – for obvious reasons.

By: Fernando

Fernando — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:05:47 +0000

I sent an email to News Talk 850 and surprisingly I got a response from the director, here is what he said:

Fernando,

Thank you for your feedback.

It is unlikely we’ll be adding more “progressive” programming on WFTL. We experimented with it once, with “The Jim Defede Show.” It was a bomb. Not only were his ratings abysmal, but people actually stopped listening to the other shows on the station, too.

We’ll probably stick to the two shows we currently have, The Stacy Ritter Report on Saturdays at 11am and Andre Eggelletion on Sundays at noon.

Also, please realize that if ratings on 940 were really that good, they would not have changed format. Progressive talk was not making money for them. We would not likely pick up a format that failed.

Thank you for listening

Ken Pauli
Director of News & Operations
News-Talk 850, WFTL
WFTL 640 Sports
WFTL 1400 ESPN
Fort Lauderdale/Miami/West Palm Beach
office: 954-315-1525
http://www.850wftl.com
http://wftlsports.com
—-
James Crystal Holdings Inc.
WFTL-WMEN-WLVJ-WFLL

—–Original Message—–
From: fruiz0466@gmail.com
To: ken@850wftl.com;
Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 3:23 pm
Subject: Response to form: General Inquiries

Form Name: General Inquiries

Submitted information :
————————–

Question: Name
Answer: Fernando

Question: Question/Comment
Answer: I would like to encourage you all to drop conservative talk which has brought your station weak ratings, and adopt the format that used to be on 940 Winz, which was progressive talk. They used to have very high ratings until they were switched to a sports network. Thank you

By: my2bucks

my2bucks — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:01:35 +0000

Mark,
I’ve frequently been to the western Pines Blvd area near Silver Lakes and I get 850 with no problem. The problem is finding a station that would be willing to change formats and one that actually has decent coverage. I am open to suggestions.

By: MarkA

MarkA — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:17:01 +0000

Are you sure that 850 would be the best place for progressive to move. I live in West Miramar, which is fairly central to the three county area. I tuned in 850 and had almost no signal.

By: my2bucks

my2bucks — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:56:06 +0000

The following comment was written on my other post on this subject. Thank you Beau.

This is the Internet – where no one can hear you scream. Let’s not simply roll-over here folks.

To make change (Yes, we can), simply call, write, or email WFTL 850 radio and let them know they have a ‘Progressive Audience’ waiting for them and their advertisers.

James Crystal Radio, Inc. dba 850 WFTL Radio
6600 N. Andrews Avenue Suite 160
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309

Phone: 954-315-1515
Fax: 954-315-1555

E-mail directly from their web site:
http://www.85owftl.com/pages/1716367.php

By: my2bucks

my2bucks — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:54:09 +0000

I’m not sure but I suspect Ed Schultz’s show is ending because he is on MSNBC.

By: Annette

Annette — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:45:06 +0000

Ed Schultz is another progressive voice.. He is good.. the link to his site is http://www.wegoted.com/ Of course there is always AirAmerica to consider….