When ABC radio announced it was bringing dethroned radio powerhouse Don Imus back to the airwaves, there were some casualties left in the wake. In New York to make room for Imus ABC radio fired an eight year old program hosted by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby.
Ironically, Sliwa and Kuby had better ratings than Imus in NYC. But the appeal of Imus for ABC is the potential national appeal. The ability to syndicate. ABC is paying the big bucks betting that Imus can bring in the bacon.
Syndicating Imus means that ABC is no longer going to syndicate the Satellite Sisters. Their Monday- Friday program ended last Friday. They will continue their Saturday show until January 5th. With one million listeners, Satellite Sisters was the most successful woman issues focused radio program on the air.
But talk radio is not interested in women focused programming . The conventional wisdom in radio land is that men listen to talk. Women listen to music.
There is just one radio station in the entire country that offers up talk focused on women;s issues. That's FM107 in Minneapolis with the slogan Living Life Out Loud.
Yes,s there are some successful women talk show hosts and a handful of semi successful women who host political slanted programming but talk radio as an industry is not female friendly.
Last Thursday, the day before their weekly program was going off the air, I talked with Liz Dolan, one of the Satellite Sisters. You can read her thoughts and plans at my post on Blogher.