Bob CollinsFriday was a tough day to be an old guy on the radio.
Joe Soucheray, the Pioneer Press curmudgeon, has apparently been fired from his KSTP talk show after about 25 years on the air, the Pioneer Press reports.
Also leaving the airwaves is Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse, he announced via Twitter.
Garage Logic (1-3 p.m.), Sports Talk (3-4 p.m.) & Ride w/ Reusse (4-6 p.m.) will end Sept. 7. First Monday Night Sports Talk was Sept. 12, 1983, so that's very close to 35 consecutive yrs Joe and I will have been on air together. Hubbards have been fabulous employers.
— Reusse (@1500ESPN_Reusse) August 10, 2018
I will make this guarantee: When I return Monday, @ChrisReuvers, @MannyHill84 & I will work extra-hard to make the last month of The Ride a fine radio show.
Of course, if we had worked extra-hard earlier … who knows?— Reusse (@1500ESPN_Reusse) August 10, 2018
Soucheray and Reusse were among the first newspaper people in Minnesota to get a radio gig, a practice that exploded in the ’90s as talk radio made a comeback. But talk radio — particularly AM talk radio — attracts an older, male demographic that is declining. And broadcasters are finding it hard to make money with a dying demographic.
“The AM radio format is changing,” Soucheray said before Friday’s show, according to the Pioneer Press. “More and more young people are not tuning into the AM dial. The way that content is going to be delivered is changing, with more digital platforms.”
The station changed to an all-sports format a few years ago and fired most of its non-sports hosts were fired, but Soucheray stuck around with a loyal following that wanted to rally around complaints about the “PC culture.” Soucheray called it “garage logic.”
He’ll be around on the air for another month.
“It’s a sign that the station has had great respect for the show and it’s more than generous they’re allowing us to end it this way,” Soucheray said. “The usual way it happens is you are told ‘Your last show was yesterday.’ They’ve told us we can handle this any way we want.”
Soucheray says he’ll start a podcast.
And he’ll still have his newspaper column.
