KPOJ needs some re-programming
Contemplating KPOJ’s line-up, which is a horrible schedule. It is a mish-mash on-the-fly re-working from previous scheduling, and simply needs to be chunked.
2-3: Mike RileyÂ
3-6: The Young Turks
6-9: Thom Hartmann, local
9-12: Sam Seder, 3 hours delayed
12-3: Ed Schultz, 3 hours delayed
3-6: Randi Rhodes, 3 hours delayed
6-9: Sam Seder, rebroadcast
9-12: Thom Hartmann, national, 12 hours delayed
12-2: Rachel Maddow, several hours post.
So it is, a full 12 hours — half a day — of 2 hosts, one of which is simply a show repeated, and a mere seven hours of live programming.
Explaining the contours of this schedule and its reason for being: Ed Schultz is now tape-delayed because he just changed his show up 3 hours to be available to replace Al Franken. I don’t much like Schultz, but I congratulate him on his savvy business sense. KPOJ has not followed suit, and has replaced Franken with Sam Seder, which has been airing at roughly the slot of his old show at 6 pm. Perhaps this is due to them rescheduling before Schultz made his move? Thom Hartmann’s national show was Air America’s replacement for Franken — and you cannot abide by six straight hours of Thom Hartmann, which KPOJ appears to have quickly fixed by tossing Seder into the slot. (Hartmann’s national program came on KPOJ roughly replacing Mike Malloy when Air America canned him.)
Randi Rhodes has been tape-delayed from the start to situate her into the drive-time slot the Eastern Standard time has her properly programmed into. Rachel Maddow has been an after-thought, tossed in at midnight, running straight into Air America’s morning programming up to Thom Hartmann.
Playing the part of ametuer program director and jiggling the jigsaw pieces together, I have three basic premises and one unsettled problem. #1: Rumor is that KPOJ is planning to pick up Mike Malloy from the new syndication network he is now affiliated with. I assume this to be the case. #2: Rachel Maddow should be moved from her dead-zone to the light of day, not simply because I want to hear her but because I think she fits Portland’s personality. #3: Ed Schultz will be obliged and moved to 9:00. Smart bastard, that asshole.
The matter of Randi Rhodes is a tricky one. Which trade-off is the better deal: live — and, mind you, directly competing against Lars Larson — something that apparently pleases her local fan base, or on drive-time. With her in mind, I have 2 schedules:
2-3: Mark Riley
3-6: Young Turks
6-9: Thom Hartmann, local
9-12: Ed Schultz
12-3: Sam Seder, 6 hours delayed
3-6: Randi Rhodes, 3 hours delayed
6-8: Rachel Maddow
8-11: Mike Malloy
11-2: Thom Hartmann, nationl
OR
3-6: Young Turks
6-9: Thom Hartmann, local
9-12: Ed Schultz
12-3: Randi Rhodes
3-4: Politically Direct
4-6: Rachel Maddow
6-9: Sam Seder
9-12: Mike Malloy
12-3: Thom Hartmann, national
I may have bungled the “Politically Direct” / Rachel Maddow block. In that scenario, it is preferable to slot Rachel Maddow to 4-6, for better drive-time cohesion, but if not possible, oh well. It does make an interesting NPR-ish slot up against… NPR at the time they are doing the news.
Also, it may be pushing it to have a somewhat too-stale by then Sam Seder delay on the prime-slot of noon to 3.
Thom Hartmann’s national program becomes a bit of an after-thought, but that seems appropriate enough because he has six hours here.
None of this is perfect, but I think it makes more sense for their bottom line than what they have now. Mind you, this is mostly a parlor game on my part — I’m not listening to Ed Schultz or Randi Rhodes.