As tipped off in this article, it is expected that iHeart will bring the Black Information Network to NYC by leasing an AM in the city. The one signal that jumps out to me would possibly be WLIB due to it's history of serving the Black community, but I'm curious as to what y'all think the potential station might be.
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BIN Coming to New York
- Thread starter AceBiscuits
- Start date
Premiere Radio Networks, owned by iHeart, is offering BIN as a syndicated service outside of iHeart owned stations. So they don't have to "lease" a station, just enter into a network syndication deal. The deal might involve some cash or barter.
As you pointed out in an earlier thread, BIN is currently airing on WWPR's HD-3. That could be an audition.
Premiere only offers 60 second hourly newscasts. As I reported, this will be a 24/7 feed of the network on an AM station that iHeartMedia will be leasing from a third party starting on or around September 1, just like they will be doing in Philadelphia and a few other markets.
iHeart is not maxed out on stations they can own in the NYC market.
They own the following:
On FM:
100.3 WHTZ
103.5 WKTU
104.3 WAXQ
105.1 WWPR
106.7 WLTW
On AM:
710 WOR
Being as the total limit is 8 stations with no more than 5 on one band (AM or FM), in theory they could purchase two more AM outlets.
iHeart has no TV stations in the market - that would have limited the amount of stations they could own (as was the case with CBS Radio years ago).
Likely they do not want to make an outright purchase if they do not have to. In general, they prefer FM to AM -
exceptions being for news/talk (mostly to clear their Premiere Network programming) and sports (mostly to clear their Fox Sports Radio programming).
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Emmis has experience leasing outlets in NYC - they are currently leasing 98.7 WEPN to Disney/ESPN Radio.
Thus, a similar arrangement for WLIB seems feasible.
They're maxed out on FMs, not AMs. I'm guessing it might make more sense to just lease the station rather than buy it if BIN ends up flopping.
I thik pjc's suggestion was leasing 1190 AM, which is the only station Emmis still owns and operates in NYC. But it is still located along with the Urban and CHurban FMs, now separately owned so there is a gray area there.
I mean that's the only station that comes to mind for me logically, the only others are ethnic or religious stations. Emmis wouldn't mind giving over operations to it, I'm sure
I wasn't aware of that. I figured they'd also offer the 24/7 network. That may come later.
No matter how many times I try to read this sentence, I still can't comprehend what you're trying to say here.
1190 AM, still owned by Emmis. But it is located with two of the FMs that Emmis sold to Mediaco. So you have two Midiaco and one Emmis stations in the same office space.
Two owners, one office.
Emmis still operates Hot 97 and WBLS, I’m guessing slimming their operations down further would be of benefit.
I am not sure I understand iHeart's interest in leasing a station in NYC for BIN. The service is a worthy one. I'm glad there is a network devoted to news for the African-American community. As a national service on the iHeartRadio app, a few underperforming AM stations iHeart already owns and some of their FM HD signals, it makes sense. Not unlike iHeart's Pride Radio for the LGBTQ community. But not if iHeart has to pay to lease a station.
Stories are repeated over and over, not just for a day, but features get repeated again and again over many weeks. Nothing is live. If something new happens, it takes hours for the service to update it.
After a tropical storm hit NYC, downing trees, causing several deaths and blacking out thousands, the service was playing a story where Mayor DiBlasio was warning we should take precautions that a storm is coming and it could be bad. When a black man was executed in Alabama, the service was still telling us his lawyers were appealing to the Supreme Court to stop the execution. When Nick Cannon had tweeted something thought to be anti-Semitic, the service told us he had decided to take himself off the air for a few days. By then, he had already been fired from his syndicated morning radio show.
Then there was the feature on French author Alexandre Dumas (Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo), who had a black Haitian grandmother. The reporter kept pronouncing his name with the final S sound. Like saying the S in Illinois. His name is "du MAH," not " du MAS." I must have heard this feature four or five times over several weeks. Nobody heard the mistake and took it off the air?
I just don't know if people want to listen to a network where everything is prerecorded and everything fits into brief segments repeated and repeated for days at at time.
Stories are repeated over and over, not just for a day, but features get repeated again and again over many weeks. Nothing is live. If something new happens, it takes hours for the service to update it.
After a tropical storm hit NYC, downing trees, causing several deaths and blacking out thousands, the service was playing a story where Mayor DiBlasio was warning we should take precautions that a storm is coming and it could be bad. When a black man was executed in Alabama, the service was still telling us his lawyers were appealing to the Supreme Court to stop the execution. When Nick Cannon had tweeted something thought to be anti-Semitic, the service told us he had decided to take himself off the air for a few days. By then, he had already been fired from his syndicated morning radio show.
Then there was the feature on French author Alexandre Dumas (Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo), who had a black Haitian grandmother. The reporter kept pronouncing his name with the final S sound. Like saying the S in Illinois. His name is "du MAH," not " du MAS." I must have heard this feature four or five times over several weeks. Nobody heard the mistake and took it off the air?
I just don't know if people want to listen to a network where everything is prerecorded and everything fits into brief segments repeated and repeated for days at at time.
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They need a signal in NYC. One that's not an HD. One they don't have to buy. A lease is tax deductible, so they get that.
It's a national network, so they're not looking for ratings in the traditional sense. It's about reach, not ratings.
It's about clearance of their network.. the bigger markets they clear in, the more markets.. the better off they are
But they no longer own those stations. While Emmis has a minority equity position of 23.8%, Mediaco Holdings bought control of the two stations for $96.5 million, closed on in November, 2019.
This is definitely cause for concern. That reminds me of a TV ad for The Wall Street Journal that I watched many years ago. Comparing the newspaper to a weekly business magazine, a reader said, "If you had to wait a week to read the news, maybe it's not news anymore."
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As mentioned in the above quotes: from Inside Radio on 8/20/2020: "Business Model Of Black Information Network: Quality Journalism, Not Ratings."
Article link below:
http://www.insideradio.com/free/bus...cle_5df52712-e2a9-11ea-83e2-4322b904a118.html
BIN President Tony Coles also mentions that
"...some (radio) groups would like to use some of BIN’s content, which is another goal of the network."
“I want to find a way to make our content available to other broadcasters.”
They have their work cut out for them. Replaying viral video audio isn't what I'd call "quality journalism", but maybe in 2020, it is.
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