Obama Radio Bites the Dust

A little experiment in liberal radio in Washington D.C. has failed:

President Obama may be riding high in Washington, but OBAMA 1260 is not.

The area’s only progressive talk station is changing formats, dropping such syndicated liberal hosts as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Bill Press in favor of financial news, starting next week.

The move by Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who purchased the station, WWRC, and others in Washington last summer, leaves the city without a liberal radio outlet. Program Director Greg Tantum says he thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election.

But ratings nearly doubled, he says, at Snyder’s conservative station, WTNT, which features Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett.

I wonder what the ratings look like over at the D.C. station that carries Rush Limbaugh?

This is another example of a phenomenon I've noticed in the last few months. Those who are enthusiastic Obama supporters just assume that everyone else is too, probably because everyone they socialize with is just as smitten. Consequently, they make marketing decisions based on their irrational enthusiasm (like this restaurateur in Anaheim, CA) and are shocked to find out the whole world doesn't share their excitement.

In the case above even naming the station after The One wasn't enough to make people suffer through liberal talk radio. It's a format that will only work on NPR where they don't have to worry about listeners and advertising revenue.