This guy who is hosting tonight sounds a little like Adam carolla. Have any of the hosts got dropped? I mean they've got a ton of people now. Maybe the blood in the water is attracting more interest in hosting. This guy though, does sound a bit bored. Good thing I'm not listening to Long, I'm driving now and don't want to fall asleep.
Didn't listen, but according to the C2C site, last night's host was Ryan Wrecker. He's been with C2C as a rent-a-host for a couple months. Wrecker is an experienced talk host, for a few years he even hosted a syndicated overnight show out of St. Louis that ran opposite C2C. Mostly light conversation and current events discussion, seemed like a pretty amiable guy. Nothing too hardcore or contentious, a perfectly mindless way to spend the night listening to the radio. I wound up there on a number of occasions when the C2C guests were not worth listening to.
I think IHeart might be looking to divest themselves of the paranormal shtick when Noory departs. They sorta did the same thing when Mike Seigel took over for Bell in 2000, but the paranormal was the hot ticket at the time. With the ghost hunting, crypid chasing, and UFO investigating shows all over the TV, the interest in those topics was at an all-time high. Seigel was let go when Bell ended his retirement, and the show reverted back to what it was.
Don't have numbers to back it up, but I'd guess interest in paranormal topics is significantly less than what it was in Bell's heyday. There also weren't the number of paranormal radio/podcast options there are today for the real hardcore types, so C2C isn't the only game in town. Seems to me going to mainstream topics with a pleasant conversationalist like Wrecker would bring in both new listeners and advertisers.