KTRH pulls the plug on longtime news duo

[douglas9]

Veteran KTRH (740 AM) news anchors Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard are being replaced by Ohio radio personality and Tea Party rally host Matt Patrick, signaling a format change for Houston's longest-running morning newscast that station officials say will reflect talk radio's move toward a combination of news, conversation and commentary.

KTRH appears to be following the lead of many talk stations in repositioning programs to boost ratings, said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, which reports on the industry.

"They appear to be going to a more subjective, opinionated approach to talk radio than an objective, journalistic one — more like an editorial page than a news page," Harrison said. "It's all about tweaking and positioning and doing what they think is best … based on the audience they think they can get."

Hughes and Pritchard, both 63, had hosted KTRH's four-hour morning news block for 27 years and were inducted in 2009 into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. They were told after their Thursday show that they were going off the air, effective immediately.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7633844.html

[w8liftinglady]

1. aw,man. That just sucks.

we had a similar thing happen in dallas with ALL our progressive stations.
We have KERA radio as the only "true news" station.

[plumbob]

2. So a Yankee teabagger is being brought to Texas by the media?

What? Couldn't find a LOCAL loon?

Clear Channel - why am I not surprised, and why hasn't somebody prayed them out of existence?

[TxVietVet]

3. I'm sure they could have found some local yokel conservanazi to be just as dumb as the one from Ohio

We have a one-party system in Texas. There are a lot of true believer reichwing nuts here. They even believe Prettyhair Perry is the new prophet of somewhere else. The only growth industry in my area is prisons. Man, we got prisons. It's a shit job that at least has health care benefits. Not much else. You should here some folks whine about those guards getting health benefits and not much in pay. I'm telling you, here in Texas, these bible-thumping toothless wonders are something. Believe me. :rofl:

[plumbob]

4. Oh, I'm a multigenerational Texas native, I know.

Except here, the growth industry is nuclear waste.

Forklift jobs putting cardboard boxes in a plastic lined hole.

[TxVietVet]

5. I left Texas for 22 years. When I came back, it was a whole different country.

I was first generation Texan from a Union family. What is amazing to me is how based on their fears and prejudices, these clowns vote against their own self interests. :shrug:

[WolverineDG]

6. Clear Channel will never learn

they completely fucked up WOAI in SA. They had an afternoon drive team that was great. I loved listening to the show as I drove to SA on Friday nights.....then they started going full-metal conservative whacko & fired one of the guys & put the other guy on a morning show, bringing in some Yankee conservative asshole who in his first show, completely insulted every woman in the audience....needless to say, he did not last very long, but they never brought back the team that made their afternoon drive show great.

Sad to see they're dragging KTRH down the toilet too. :(

dg