10 Questions with ... Walter Sterling a/k/a Walter Sabo

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

A creator of Adult Contemporary Radio while EVP of the NBC FM Stations. Grew the ABC Radio networks while VP/GM in revenue and audience through innovations such as hiring Ringo Starr to Host a 24 hour BEATLES special. Consulted the RKO Radio stations in All Formats for 8 years leading most of them to their highest share in history.

Worked on-site at Sirius Satellite Radio from pre-launch to profits to build-out all formats, music and talk. Started the industry changing negotiatins to bring Howard Stern to Sirius. Made partnerships for Sirius with Graceland, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, BBC Radio 1, and many more.

Started hosting a weekly show on CBS' WPHT and often achieve #2 Adults 25-54 by not talking politics.

1. Since we last talked, you've become an on-air host for the first time, I believe, since the 99X (WOR FM New York) days in the '70s. How did the new show come about?

Chris Oliverio, in a lapse of judgement, asked me to host a show on WPHT. I believe Chris was looking for the format to find options outside of political talk, or he may just have wanted to get out of eating lunch with me.

2. One thing that's interesting about the weekend show is that, despite being late on Sunday night, you generate calls, lots of calls. What's the secret? How do you get people to call in a time slot that usually doesn't get that kind of action?

In show-prep, I hyper-focus on what two friends would probably have talked about that afternoon and present that conversation. I also ask for calls and give the phone number -- surprisingly, many hosts do not.

3. You've been vocal for, well, decades about the need to develop talk radio that doesn't focus on political talk. First of two questions on that: What's your response to the programmers and executives presently crowing about ratings increases due to the "Trump Effect"? They're asserting that hard-core conservative political talk is back with a vengeance. Are they in for a letdown or can political talk still win over the long haul?

I've had some experience reading Nielsens and I don't see a bump. The few talk stations that have actual increases -- not a tenth of a share wobbles -- cover a wide range of subjects all day. KMOX, for example, lept to number 1 because of a flood.

4. One of the speakers at a conference we both attended recently dismissed non-political talk as "fluff talk" and suggested that it was all about talking about the Kardashians (okay, his references are a few years behind, but the intent was clear). You've consulted less political talkers before and your show is something apart from conserva-talk; what kind of topics and issues DO you talk about? What are winning areas of discussion for those who don't want to talk about Trump and more Trump?

The closer to home, the better the subject. If you care passionately about a subject, it's not fluff, it's important.

Parent teacher conferences, losing weight, finding romance, putting out the engine light and realizing that once again you have no spare cash are subjects that elicite passion from many people.

5. Compare talk radio as it was when you started to where it is now. What are the most striking changes in the format -- positive and negative -- between the '70s-'80s and today?

The key difference is the end of the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine made political talk almost impossible. As a result, the successful talk stations of the day such as WOR, WGN, KABC, KGO, WIOD, KDKA, WCCO, KMOX talked about a very wide range of very local, home and family subjects, the same subjects that rake in 4 billion dollars a year for daytime TV talk: health, romance, celebrity gossip, family dynamics, shopping! If you knew a host's politics, they were predominantly liberal: Michael Jackson at KABC, Sherrye Henry at WOR, Sally Jessy Raphael and Alex Bennett at WMCA, Lee Leonard at WNBC, Larry King at WIOD, Neil Rogers at WIOD. But they rarely talked politics; it had nothing to do with their stardom.

6. The debate over measurement is apparently never going to end, so... in a nutshell, what's your thought about Nielsen, the PPM methodology, and sample size? Will radio ever effect changes in any of that, or is it something the industry needs to accept as is and move on from there? Should the industry be pushing for better or is this measurement as good, and as accurate, as it's going to get? And do you, as a consultant, put a lot of stock in things like breaking numbers down to the day and minute?

The methodology does not yet tolerate a minute by minute breakdown. I was and am a strong advocate of the PPM. Anything that gets us closer to reatlity is a plus. But part of the PPM Promise was simultaneous monitoring and REPORTING of all electronic media. One report would show us all TV, Radio, Cable and Internet consumption. I'm waiting for that report.

Based on their own press releases, Nielsen seems constantly shocked that RADIO is so vibrant, successful and accepted by Americans. Who knew? And they are super-stunned that unlike TV executives, radio executives do their jobs and challenge every single Nielsen action. Bravo Radio!

7. What's the origin of the Midnite Misfits? Are they related to the Night People? Describe who you think the Misfits are....

It grew from the program director of WPHT, Jared Hart, saying I didn't fit in with the rest of the station. I ran with that and realized that any one listening to me on AM Radio at 11 at night doesn't fit in either. These listeners are very busy parents with young kids who only get time to themselves late at night. Second and Third Shift workers -- I'm their morning drive show. Everyone who listens is out of synch with society. Let's give them a media place of their own.

8. A question I've asked before, open for an update for 2017: Of what are you most proud?

I'm proud that I always bake from scratch. In my work as an executive, consultant or talk show host, I don't set out to copy anyone. I believe urgency, immediacy is the best way to create compelling radio -- radio that sells like hell---and that must come from an original strategy and production.

9. From the perspective of being on the air as opposed to being a consultant, who on the radio right now inspires you, if anyone? Who out there is doing talk radio the way you want to hear it, as a listener and as a fellow host?

Howard Stern. Elvis Duran. John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou on KFI, Mike Trivisonno on WTAM Cleveland. WTAM is a production machine that sweeps listeners through the day better than any other station today, Ray Davis is the PD. And although I do work there, the fact is that WPHT's Dom Giordono, Rich Zeoli, and Chris Stigall are stunning, innovative hosts whom I greatly admire.

10. Weekends and late-nights have been consigned to infomercials and replays by talk radio management for years, yet there you are getting calls and ratings on a Sunday night. What argument can you make for NOT throwing on infomercials, replays, and other filler in those "off hours"? WPHT took a chance on you and others on those weekend nights; why should others be following suit?

Infomercials rob a station of about 1/3rd of its potential cume. Saturday 10-3 PM is the second highest HOMES USING RADIO daypart. Putting infomercials on during that time easily cuts a 1 share from the total week audience delivery. A BEST-OF in talk is very much like bad fish. The point of the format is to be 100% current and to take live phone calls, a repeat sounds hundreds of days old, not 24 hours old. For WPHT, the result of the weekend investment in local live, with NO repeats, is that in two years it has grown from a 1.4 total week share to a 4.0+ total week share. I can't find another AM Talk station in America with anything close to that growth--can you?