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Are you ready for all-comedy Radio? According to a press release that landed in my inbox this past week, "ACR", All Comedy Radio, will be officially launched in July, 2003.

The new service, to be syndicated to affiliate Radio stations, says it has "for the first time, merged professional comedy with AM and FM radio in a compelling, entertaining and funny new full-format presentation. The programming utilizes standup routines from superstar comedians and up-and-coming touring comics, as well as exclusive interview segments from ACR's Hollywood studios. News parodies, parody songs and morning show-type radio comedy rounds out the topical and relevant programming."

There are many Internet Radio stations that already stream all-comedy formats. A quick search at Live365.com shows at least 70 stations have "comedy" as part of their description. Of course, many of these are run by hobbyists and their idea of humor can be a very personal, eclectic final result culled from prank calls, standup, album cuts, old and new school comedians, old-time radio shows, etc. At Shoutcast.com, no comedy-formatted stations even show up in the top 60 streams.

XM Satellite Radio already offers 3 comedy channels and Sirius Satellite Radio provides 1 to its subscribers.

I wonder, then, is comedy programming still a niche format or is America ready to support comedy all-the-time on traditional Radio outlets?

It was tried before on a smaller scale in the early 1980's. The first all-comedy Radio station in the nation was WJOK-AM, Washington, D.C. I remember it vividly because I was offered a job there but turned it down. A good friend of mine at the time, Mike Morin, was also wooed to join up and did. WJOK-AM, Mike and the rest of the staff had a short-lived and limited success but then the operation ceased to be. The great comedy experiment was over.

One has to wonder why it failed in a city the size of Washington. Was it ahead of its time? Were people not ready for a comedy format? Was the comedy programming presented the wrong mix? Was the station's signal not strong enough? I don't know. It just didn't work.

Maybe ACR, All Comedy Radio, will be able to capitalize on the ferocious increase in listenership that talk-radio has seen over the past 10 years.

ACR believes it's audience will be adults, 25-54 years-old and positions itself as a "morning show in every day-part." (Personally, I think categorizing an all-comedy format as a "morning show" is an over-simplification of what a great Radio morning show is really comprised of. But, I'll reserve that for a future article.)

The question begs to be asked: Is America ready for ACR's version of a "morning show" all day long? Only time will tell.

- Corey Deitz

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