The WTAM Afternoon Commercial Show

This isn't even the first time we've commented on the high commercial load on the afternoon show hosted by WTAM motormouth Mike Trivisonno...but waiting for the start of Triv's show, after "Paul Harvey's Rest of the Story" today, we noticed something.

Virtually EVERYONE ON THE SHOW has a commercial endorsement/live read.

Triv's list of sponsors is up to about a half-dozen now, including spots for car dealers, hardware stores, restaurants, beer makers, a gutter cover system, and more. Co-host Kim Mahalik has done spots for a dog food maker, and others.

But the list doesn't stop with Triv and Kim, or with sports director Mike Snyder (a car dealer), who's normally on the show, but is doing morning drive sports in place of the recuperating Casey Coleman.

No, Triv's show is the only talk show we've ever heard where BOTH PRODUCERS have a regular live read spot. We've been involved in news/talk radio for most of our 15-plus year career, but this is the first instance we've seen where the support staff gets live reads.

For studio producer/engineer Marty "Big Daddy" Allen, it's a local chicken restaurant chain. And producer Paul Rado shills for a car company. This afternoon, both those spots aired back to back before the start of the show. Of course, both Allen and Rado appear on air occasionally...apparently enough to garner sponsors wanting them to read copy on the air.

Is it any wonder that the commercial load is high in afternoon drive on WTAM? Heck, the time needed for all 10 or so "live read" sponsors alone bulks up the commercial content on Triv's show!

And frankly, it makes the Triv show a difficult listen. (And that's not even counting its host, who, without any commercial content, can be a "difficult listen" all by himself.) To our ears, at least as far as we can tell, Clear Channel's "Less is More" commercial load reduction initiative hasn't made it to 1100 AM in Cleveland...

We don't begrudge either Rado or Allen for taking advantage of the opportunities presented them. When we were on-air weekends at a major news/talk radio station, we'd have jumped at it ourselves. But when the overall "live read" commercial load is already so high, even just counting the two main hosts...it's like the proverbial final straw for listeners.