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Broadcast area | Worldwide via Internet andAmerican Forces Network |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Chatsworth, Los Angeles |
| Ownership | |
Key people | Jennifer Horn, VP of Sales & Marketing |
| History | |
| Founded | 1983; 42 years ago (1983) by Michael Horn, CEO |
Former names | Cable Radio Network, CRN Talk |
| Links | |
| Webcast | |
| Website | crntalk |
CRN Digital Talk Radio Networks, sometimes simply referred to asCRN orCRN Digital Talk, is a syndicator and distributor of radio programs and talk radio networks.
CRN was founded in 1983 asCable Radio Network to provide commercial radio programming to local cable television systems. CRN founder Michael Horn (who, at the time, was an on-air personality at Los Angeles’KFI AM) read an article in the trade publicationRadio & Records that mentioned Los Angeles radio stationKMET earned ratings points in the Phoenix market. Horn learned KMET was the audio source for a channel on a local cable system in Phoenix.
Horn brought the radio-on-television idea toSan Fernando Valley cable provider King Cable, where he soon programmed acountry music channel. Seeking a more mass appeal, Horn changed the channel's format tooldies music. Two other cable systems – Valley Cable and Falcon Cable – then became interested and was used on a fewElectronic Program Guides across America.
Broadcast hookups were initially conducted through phone lines before the method became cost prohibitive. Horn invested more money and switched to satellite transmission. A branding change from "Cable Radio Network" to "CRN Networks" eventually followed.
Noncommercial music channels from companies such asDigital Planet andDMX eventually were picked up by cable providers. Instead of competing with them, Horn switched CRN's programming to a talk radio platform. CRN Networks then became "CRN Talk" and, in 2007, "CRN Digital Talk Radio". The company's legal name remains Cable Radio Networks, Inc.
Horn commissioned a company that worked withArbitron (nowNielsen Audio) to determine CRN's listenership. Results indicated that CRN shared a similar-size audience asMSNBC,Cinemax, andFox Sports.[2]
In 2013, CRN Digital Talk Radio LaunchedCRN Digital Magazine, its own online magazine (no association withCRN Magazine) featuring lifestyle and entertainment stories written by CRN personalities.[3]
CRN programs are produced both in house and in collaboration with other broadcasters.[4] CRN broadcasts eight audio feeds: a main feed that carries mostly in-house offerings; direct network feeds fromSports Byline USA,The Answer,Compass Media Networks and others. CRN also airs asimulcast ofXEAAA-AM (a female-oriented Spanish-language station based inGuadalajara, Mexico); and a seventh channel that duplicates andtimeshifts some of the other feeds' programs. It is distributed, as its former name implies, mostly through variouscable television providers, much in the way the more widely availableMusic Choice is distributed. However, it is also available viaC band satellite, various terrestrial stations across the nation and on theInternet.
Some of CRN’s first talk offerings included “Polka Parade” with Dick Sinclair and television and radio personalityGeorge Putnam’s “Talk Back” (which became a CRN exclusive). FormerTonight Show Starring Johnny Carson co-hostEd McMahon also hosted his weeklyLifestyles Live program on CRN.[5]
Don Ecker’s “UFOs Tonight”,[6] and thepro wrestling themed “Squared Circle” hosted by James "Shadowe" Boone[7] were also CRN original programs.
CRN Digital Talk Radio announced in June 2015 it would become the home forlibertarian radio and television personalityLarry Elder’s show.[8] Less than two months later,Salem Radio Network announced it would add Elder’s program to its own national syndication lineup.[9]
ActorRobert Conrad hosted his own CRN program until his death on February 8, 2020, andBarry Farber hosted his own show until his death later that year. There are also several food and wine lifestyle programs, such as the "What's Cookin'" franchise.[10]
Some transmutation of the long-standing cliché that television is simply 'radio with pictures' perhaps triggered Cable Radio Network not only to come to fruition but also to thrive.
For example, former "Tonight Show" announcer and co-host Ed McMahon has a show featuring commentary and "information on living the good life." Even longtime commentator and "Talk Back" originator George Putnam is still doing a daily show at age 92. Putnam is a CRN exclusive. "When we started CRN 25 years ago, we wanted to try a program that no one else would think of carrying," said CRN president Mike Horn. "We found Dick Sinclair of the old 'Polka Parade' that once aired on KFI (640 AM) and KTLA Channel 5. He has been on the air as one of our only music programs since our beginning, and is a fan favorite." "Polka Parade" airs from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturdays.
Life-sized cardboard cutouts of Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy greet visitors who descend the stairs to the studios of Cable Radio Network. Every Sunday night, from the basement of a Sunland shopping center, a program called "UFOs Tonight" is beamed up and out across America. The host is Don Ecker, the self-assured, well-versed research director of an obscure journal called UFO magazine.
Such techniques are the mainstay of professional wrestling schools. There are perhaps 10 to 20 "legitimate schools"--such as the one in Simi Valley--across the nation, estimates James "Shadowe" Boone, semiretired grappler in the San Fernando Valley. He hosts the country's biggest talk radio show about wrestling, called "Squared Circle," on the Cable Radio Network.
