Once upon a time people used to sit around their radios at specific times to listen to their favorite programs. These programs would be repeated, and some would become classics (e.g. The Goon Show). The only radio network that still attempts to produce programming of this quality on a regular basis is Public Radio (or its overseas equivalents, e.g. ABC Radio National or the BBC), specifically NPR. Commercial radio is wall-to-wall disposable content — music acquired “off-the-rack” (versus live performances, for example) dense with annoying and intrusive advertising, and forgettable comedy (usually two guys enthusiastically making obvious jokes and a woman whose job is to laugh at them).
Last year, NBC made a bold move towards following this model with free-to-air commercial TV by putting Jay Leno in prime time. They probably have the right idea but, but since the other networks still believe in producing actual programming (or at least well-proven disposable content, like American Idol), the result was a ratings fiasco and now NBC is attempting to ham-fistedly reverse course (does this mean we’ll be getting three new Law and Order franchises?). Indeed, either deliberately or accidentally they appear to be pushing Conan O’Brien to move to Fox (also from Daring Fireball), further consolidating NBC in fourth place.
Reading between the lines in Conan’s open letter (in the article linked earlier), it seems like NBC had no choice but to find a new home for Leno based on their contractual obligations. But, obviously, those contractual obligations don’t seem to be operating right now (or perhaps the contract has escape clauses based on Conan’s poor ratings, although this seems a little unlikely). One clear problem Conan faces is that going head-to-head with Letterman is less than ideal for him — Letterman and Conan appeal to the exact same demographic (not-too-old, smart, left-leaning), while Leno appealed to a different demographic (old, not-so-smart, right-leaning — yes, feel free to hate my characterization, but even if you disagree you will probably agree that most folks who like Letterman also like Conan and don’t care for Leno and vice versa). So Conan inherited the wrong audience — basically the wrong time slot — and even in the best of all worlds has to split his audience with Letterman.
It might be interesting — I’d be astonished if this happened — if Conan tried for a pure online move. Perhaps some kind of online-first or online-centric option might be more doable. He’s already richer than anyone needs to be, and it might just give Hulu — say — serious credibility among advertisers. Indeed, if NBC had wanted to try insane do-or-die experiments, that might have been worth it.
Online, there are no time slots.