Five New Affiliates :: Big Networks FAIL
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Ian Freeman
Jul 1, 2011, 4:40:38 PM7/1/11
to Free Talk Live : Industry Edition Newsletter
Free Talk Live welcomes our newest affiliates to our live Saturday
show, Clear Channel's WILM AM in Wilmington, DE, Cumulus' WBCK FM in
Battle Creek, MI. Also carrying our Saturday show on delay is WSFE AM
in Somerset, KY and WNCO AM in Ashland, OH - both Clear Channel
stations. WBCK, WSFE, and WNCO are all replacing the Allen Hunt show
with FTL. Independently operated WHUB AM in Cookeville, TN also signs
on for a delay broadcast of our Saturday show.
That takes our total to 105 affiliates. I look forward to announcing
more soon!
Now, a short story about the customer service of those big networks:
It comes from our longest-running six-night-per-week affiliate, WVNA
AM in Florence, AL. A few weeks ago, WVNA's satellite dish somehow
came out of alignment from being pointed at AMC-8 and therefore they
had nothing to air except their local morning show. Desperate to put
something on their air, Brian Rickman, the Regional Director of
Programming for URBan Radio contacted his daytime program providers,
Premiere and Dial Global. Brian had this to say regarding his
customer service experience:
"Since the loss of this dish meant that we would be losing our morning
shows on our FM stations and EVERYTHING on our News/Talker, I
immediately contacted Premiere & DG to ask for solutions. The
affiliate relations guys were friendly enough but had nothing to bring
to the table."
Here's a summary of his conversations with the affiliate reps at these
companies:
Brian: "Do you have an emergency stream that we can access?"
Rep: "No."
Brian: "Can I join Glenn/Rush/Ramsey/Schultz/etc's VIP club online and
then stream it from there?"
Rep: "No. Our network spots won't run."
Brian: "Your network spots aren't running now."
Rep: "I can't authorize it, I'm sorry...plus some of that content is
uncensored and you wouldn't want to air it anyway."
Brian: "OK...do you have archived shows that I can use?"
Rep: "No." (in fairness, Glenn's guy had ONE he could offer & Ramsey
had a few...but we exhausted those pretty much immediately)
Brian continues: "So, after realizing that we were up shit creek I
made a mad dash to other Limbaugh/Beck, etc. affiliates' websites
hoping that one of them had paid the fee to stream these shows.
Nope. Not even major markets."
After striking out with the big boys, guess who came through for
Brian?
Free Talk Live has full archives going back to 2006 available free on
our website to anyone who wants them. No login. No membership fee.
No hassle. Bookmark this link for emergencies: http://archives.freetalklive.com
Not only that, we live stream the latest episode around-the-clock in
high-quality 64kbps mono mp3 at http://high.freetalklive.com . There
are no restrictions on streaming Free Talk Live. No fees.
But that's not all! Since Free Talk Live is just one show, I also
told Brian about my little hobby talk network, LRN.FM. It has eight
hours of live content per weekday, 10 on Sundays, and six on Saturday
(with more coming soon). LRN.FM isn't really ready for prime-time, as
far as its ability to be professionally delivered to radio stations
(it's not on XDS, frankly because I can't afford it yet), but in a
pinch, it was a big help for WVNA. Brian tuned into the high quality
64kbps mono mp3 stream at http://high.lrn.fm and instantly had live
programming on-the-air. No agreement necessary. He used LRN.FM's
content plus FTL through the rest of the week before the satellite
techs could arrive to re-align the dish. If you're curious about
LRN's content, you can learn more at http://affiliate.lrn.fm .
As you know, it's never certain when technical emergencies will occur,
but it's pretty much certain that they will at some point, so feel
free to bookmark the above archive and stream links to save-the-day
when such an emergency arises!
I hope you find that information useful! Please let me know if you
have any questions.
Need a refresher on Free Talk Live? We're available via XDS (Citadel)
live Monday-Saturday from 7-10pm Eastern. Free Talk Live has been
syndicated since 2004 and now has over 105 affiliates from coast-to-
coast. FTL is preemptible with no makegoods, plus we're streamable and
flexible - so you can air us whenever and however is best for your
station. Visit our Program Director's website: http://PD.freetalklive.com
- there you'll find full archives, a shortform demo, promos, ratings,
testimonials, our show clock/satellite info, easy one-page agreement,
and more!
As always, please let me know how I may be of assistance,
Ian Freeman
Host, "Free Talk Live"
603-513-2449
show, Clear Channel's WILM AM in Wilmington, DE, Cumulus' WBCK FM in
Battle Creek, MI. Also carrying our Saturday show on delay is WSFE AM
in Somerset, KY and WNCO AM in Ashland, OH - both Clear Channel
stations. WBCK, WSFE, and WNCO are all replacing the Allen Hunt show
with FTL. Independently operated WHUB AM in Cookeville, TN also signs
on for a delay broadcast of our Saturday show.
That takes our total to 105 affiliates. I look forward to announcing
more soon!
Now, a short story about the customer service of those big networks:
It comes from our longest-running six-night-per-week affiliate, WVNA
AM in Florence, AL. A few weeks ago, WVNA's satellite dish somehow
came out of alignment from being pointed at AMC-8 and therefore they
had nothing to air except their local morning show. Desperate to put
something on their air, Brian Rickman, the Regional Director of
Programming for URBan Radio contacted his daytime program providers,
Premiere and Dial Global. Brian had this to say regarding his
customer service experience:
"Since the loss of this dish meant that we would be losing our morning
shows on our FM stations and EVERYTHING on our News/Talker, I
immediately contacted Premiere & DG to ask for solutions. The
affiliate relations guys were friendly enough but had nothing to bring
to the table."
Here's a summary of his conversations with the affiliate reps at these
companies:
Brian: "Do you have an emergency stream that we can access?"
Rep: "No."
Brian: "Can I join Glenn/Rush/Ramsey/Schultz/etc's VIP club online and
then stream it from there?"
Rep: "No. Our network spots won't run."
Brian: "Your network spots aren't running now."
Rep: "I can't authorize it, I'm sorry...plus some of that content is
uncensored and you wouldn't want to air it anyway."
Brian: "OK...do you have archived shows that I can use?"
Rep: "No." (in fairness, Glenn's guy had ONE he could offer & Ramsey
had a few...but we exhausted those pretty much immediately)
Brian continues: "So, after realizing that we were up shit creek I
made a mad dash to other Limbaugh/Beck, etc. affiliates' websites
hoping that one of them had paid the fee to stream these shows.
Nope. Not even major markets."
After striking out with the big boys, guess who came through for
Brian?
Free Talk Live has full archives going back to 2006 available free on
our website to anyone who wants them. No login. No membership fee.
No hassle. Bookmark this link for emergencies: http://archives.freetalklive.com
Not only that, we live stream the latest episode around-the-clock in
high-quality 64kbps mono mp3 at http://high.freetalklive.com . There
are no restrictions on streaming Free Talk Live. No fees.
But that's not all! Since Free Talk Live is just one show, I also
told Brian about my little hobby talk network, LRN.FM. It has eight
hours of live content per weekday, 10 on Sundays, and six on Saturday
(with more coming soon). LRN.FM isn't really ready for prime-time, as
far as its ability to be professionally delivered to radio stations
(it's not on XDS, frankly because I can't afford it yet), but in a
pinch, it was a big help for WVNA. Brian tuned into the high quality
64kbps mono mp3 stream at http://high.lrn.fm and instantly had live
programming on-the-air. No agreement necessary. He used LRN.FM's
content plus FTL through the rest of the week before the satellite
techs could arrive to re-align the dish. If you're curious about
LRN's content, you can learn more at http://affiliate.lrn.fm .
As you know, it's never certain when technical emergencies will occur,
but it's pretty much certain that they will at some point, so feel
free to bookmark the above archive and stream links to save-the-day
when such an emergency arises!
I hope you find that information useful! Please let me know if you
have any questions.
Need a refresher on Free Talk Live? We're available via XDS (Citadel)
live Monday-Saturday from 7-10pm Eastern. Free Talk Live has been
syndicated since 2004 and now has over 105 affiliates from coast-to-
coast. FTL is preemptible with no makegoods, plus we're streamable and
flexible - so you can air us whenever and however is best for your
station. Visit our Program Director's website: http://PD.freetalklive.com
- there you'll find full archives, a shortform demo, promos, ratings,
testimonials, our show clock/satellite info, easy one-page agreement,
and more!
As always, please let me know how I may be of assistance,
Ian Freeman
Host, "Free Talk Live"
603-513-2449
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