GreenStone Media, the company that championed "female-targeted talk programming" is closing its doors. In announcing the closing, CEO Susan Ness wrote, "We believed (and still believe) that women need a voice on commercial radio, and that radio needs women's voices."
The failure of GreenStone Media may be due to broadcasting's unwillingness to allow women to be heard. However, a more likely explanation is that Greenstone failed to offer any compelling programming that women wanted to listen to. While its programming wasn't widely distributed, it was on in several markets. If the company served an otherwise ignored segment of the market (women), then women should have responded. They didn't.
The fact is, that women do have a major voice in radio programming today. Their interests and needs play a significant role in molding radio, including talk radio. A politically oriented News-Talk radio station is typically 40-50% female. No station can succeed without serving half its listeners, which is why most News-Talk stations research women.
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