Odd Timing: Las Vegas Right-wing Radio Changes Formats During Primaries

As I've mentioned before, I often partake in the swill that is right-wing talk radio on my short drive to and from work.  We have no liberal radio in Las Vegas, so what the hey. I figure it's opposition research for the blog.

The radio business is very changeable, with format changes occurring in the blink of an eye, usually with no warning.  Many markets that have had success with liberal talk radio for instance, have had their stations become all sports, all news, or even right-wing for no discernible reason.  But it's another thing altogether when a popular right-wing station shakes things up in the middle of primary season.

KXNT-AM 840 in Las Vegas is the home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. To give it a little local flavor, they had Alan Stock in the mornings, and two winners of the American Idol-like "Radio Star," Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd in the evening drive time.  Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin are harshly anti-Obama, Reid and Pelosi needless to say.  Stock, Hendrickson and Kydd offered little difference in that regard.  Stock has a bit of D-list celebrity for having been featured on Hannity and Colmes and other FOX "News" programs.  Hendrickson and Kydd have been on for a while, but both were youthful, and seemingly a little too certain of their far-right views for their relatively young ages.  Whippersnappers, my grandpa would have called them.

The latter two were jettisoned late last week, and Stock was switched to late afternoon/evenings.  This bumped Levin's show to the late-night replay hours, and opened up the morning show for a news program.  I discovered this on my morning drive, where I was surprised to hear the news reporters--previously relegated to brief updates--running the whole show.  It was clear that the seams were still showing, with some rough transitions, and former bit performers becoming full-fledged hosts.  One segment, called "Strip Tease," was a 90-second report on the happenings on the Las Vegas Strip.  It was a potentially cool feature with a tragically lame name, and it was repeated in Stock's evening show.

Alan Stock is an arch conservative, and I have locked horns with him in the past (when KXNT had a message board). He seems to have softened a bit in recent years, but still functioned as of last week as a Limbaugh-lite.  Now, he's been shoe-horned into a "news" program, so it remains to be seen if it will be more punditry or actual news.

All of this comes at a curious time, politically speaking.  In Las Vegas, we're currently in early voting for the 2010 primary.  On June 8, the primary proper will be held.  Up for consideration are embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Congresswoman Dina Titus and Shelly Berkely and our wacky Governor Jim Gibbons.  The entire former lineup was solidly in the hard-right conservative camp, with little tinges of Tea Bagger.  Things are heating up right. This. Minute.  So why would KXNT, the voice of Nevada's segment of Teabaggistan, change formats now?

To be sure, "Newsradio" KXNT's old motto: "Voices you know, news you trust" was never a very good fit. The only news they had was CBS on the hour (a news source right-wingers do not trust) and local news every half hour.  Maybe 4-1/2 minutes per hour were relegated to news?  Now at least, they have the morning news program, and Stock's questionably newsworthy evening show. 

And whither Hendrickson and Kydd?  If they follow in former Stock co-host Heidi Harris's footsteps, they'll land at a different right-winger station, and do well.  I'd lay higher odds (this is Vegas, after all) on Hendrickson than Kydd.  Hendrickson has developed into a pretty good radio professional, despite my 180-degree difference in his politics.  Kydd on the other hand has never felt completely cooked.  She's pretty though, so maybe she could end up as a FOX "News" Anchorbabe.

My biggest happy dance is because of the fact that Levin has been banished to late-night.  This loud-mouthed, whiny, incredibly hard to listen to ("there, I said it!) scumbucket is only half a notch better than the vile, contemptible Michael Savage. Ironically enough, Savage plays at the same time--on a different station--from Levin's old slot. So if Stock loses ratings to anybody, it will be to Michael Weiner Savage! Schadenfreude, baby.