LOS ANGELES, May 13, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Worldwide Radio Network's new two-hour offering, "Recovery Radio," now being beamed via ABC Satellite to an expanding list of the nation's most highly competitive -- and saturated -- call-in radio markets, has seen its market share steadily increase since its debut about a month ago, company officials said.
On the eve of its sixth broadcast week, executives at the Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based radio broadcast company said the show's success is driven by a trend away from stale, Conservative-dominated, "politics-only" programming to a more dramatic and listener-involved format with topics like alcoholism and drug addiction.
"Our listeners hear the genuine pain caused by alcohol and other addictions from callers who often don't know where to go or who to turn to for help," said long-time broadcast marketing expert and disc jockey John Tomkinson, who co-founded and co-hosts the show. "But the true purpose for me being back in the broadcast booth is, first and foremost and knowing that I am a recovering alcoholic, the one thing that stopped me from getting help was the belief that anyone could truly understand what I was going through. Secondly, I was stopped by my own fear, which was overpowering and paralyzing.
"As a result, I try to provide the caller with a comfort zone, or an understanding, that no matter how bad he or she may feel emotionally and physically, I've been there, I truly have -- rehab centers, jails, broke, homeless, you name it. I try to let them know there is nothing to be afraid of in reaching out for help, especially over a completely anonymous medium like radio."
"Put it this way," added Bob Munck, the program's co-host and co-founder, "our listeners may, in fact, be listening from objective or even cynical points of view, but after they hear one or two callers, they get involved and they seem to stay with us to hear more callers." A noted adviser and speaker on alcoholism, addiction and sobriety issues, Munck has been sober for 14 years.
Dr. Stephen J. Groth, M.D., a Harvard-educated and featured member of the broadcast team, is a practicing and board-certified emergency medicine physician. He has fought his way back from opiate addiction to sobriety, while battling a debilitating chronic pain condition of his own. For 14 years, he was the head of emergency and trauma care at a busy urban medical center in the nation's largest metropolitan area.
"It is about the most powerful and emotional show I've heard on the radio in a long time," said Tracy Queen, who was listening to last Saturday's two-hour program on KKLA-FM (99.5) in Los Angeles. In addition to the Greater Los Angeles Basin, the show can be heard on KFNX (1100 AM) in Phoenix and KNUU 970 NewsTalk in Las Vegas, as well as on the Internet.
"You were able to hear that poor woman's desperation about her compulsive gambling even through her tears," said Ms. Queen. "When they (the broadcast team) convinced her to give Gamblers' Anonymous (GA) a second try, a meeting that was taking place within 25 minutes of when and where she was, and then arrange for someone from the GA group to even give her a ride to the meeting, it was great and really very emotional."
Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California near Los Angeles, Recovery Radio is owned by Worldwide Radio Network. At present, it can be heard live every Saturday evening at 6-8 p.m., on KKLA-FM (99.5) in Los Angeles, KFNX (1100 AM) in Phoenix and KNUU 970 NewsTalk in Las Vegas, as well as over the Internet.