KYW No Longer Says "1060", Only "103.9."

[Gregg.]

1060 KYW is a Class A, 50,000 watt station. Surely, it makes sense to include that dial position when identifying the station. Only a few months ago, 1060 was the only place you could tune in the station on a conventional radio.

But since KYW started simulcasting on 103.9 MHz in November, the number 1060 is not heard on promos or other identifications. Field reporters sign off their stories with "John Smith, KYW NewsRadio." The jingles used to be "KYW, NewsRadio, Ten-Sixty." Now they only sing "KYW, NewsRadio."

Audacy owns other AM-FM large market simulcast stations. On All-News KCBS San Francisco and WBBM Chicago, if you hear the FM frequency, you also hear the AM dial position. In NYC, Audacy owns All-Sports WFAN-AM-FM, which also lists both dial positions in its promos. And in all three cities, the FM counterpart is a full power signal. Although it's on a tower at 1,109 ft. HAAT, WPHI-FM is only 270 watts. There are plenty of suburbs around Philadelphia where only the AM station can be picked up.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Personally I’d wonder why the other examples still list AM but that’s just me. Doing the jingles and reporter sign-offs without a frequency makes perfect sense. That’s the brand now.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Personally I’d wonder why the other examples still list AM but that’s just me.

I agree. Granted, WBBM/WCFS has had the shared brand for over 10 years now and WFAN for almost as long - but they would have no problem dropping the AM frequencies from the branding if they wanted to go to the trouble of updating all the logos and such.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Fair points on the time difference, for sure. Here, they had an opportunity to make a faster cutover. And different people in charge. I’m all for ripping the bandaid off, proverbially.

 

[Signal Geek]

Here in California, many full-signal AM news/talks with FM simulcasts only mention their FM frequencies. KFBK/Sacramento is one example; I believe KMJ/Fresno and KNZR/Bakersfield are two others.

 

[TheBigA]

One of the most notable is WSB Atlanta. They too have a 50K clear channel signal at 750kc. And they too have stopped including it in their imagining.

95.5 WSB | Atlanta's News & Talk – 95.5 WSB

Atlanta's News & Talk

www.wsbradio.com

 

[b-turner]

One of the points I made when AM stations got FM translators was that at some point the AM stations will ask the FCC if they can have the translator made a primary signal and turn in the AM license (or sell it). Given AM listening is only, what 5 to 15% of all radio listening, a translator covering 25% of a market could have more listeners than an AM reaching 100% of a market. I would think this is the reasoning behind only pushing the FM counterpart. I suspect any AM listening is mostly in car and likely a long established selection, possibly the only AM option chosen by the radio user, making dial position less important. For certain, a percentage of news or news/talk listeners on the FM translator came directly from the AM counterpart.

 

[JBraddock]

One suspects that KYW is concentrating on promoting the new FM signal and streaming as that's where the audience growth is. The (diminishing) AM audience already knows where to find it (56 years at 1060).

 

[SCMcKinney]

One of the points I made when AM stations got FM translators was that at some point the AM stations will ask the FCC if they can have the translator made a primary signal and turn in the AM license (or sell it). Given AM listening is only, what 5 to 15% of all radio listening, a translator covering 25% of a market could have more listeners than an AM reaching 100% of a market. I would think this is the reasoning behind only pushing the FM counterpart. I suspect any AM listening is mostly in car and likely a long established selection, possibly the only AM option chosen by the radio user, making dial position less important. For certain, a percentage of news or news/talk listeners on the FM translator came directly from the AM counterpart.

I doubt that any owner of a decently powered AM signal would turn in the license or sell it for the simple reason that somebody might DO something with it that could endanger other stations in their respective clusters. An example I can think of is Cox WOKV 690. As a sports station, they are coming in dead last in the public Nielsen listings, even with the demise of one of their sports competitors. If Cox sold it, the solid daytime 50KW signal could be used to do damage to the cluster leading Classic Hits or Talk stations on FM.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

It's hard to imagine a pure AM signal, at any power level, gaining enough traction to do damage to an FM competitor in 2021.

The reality of 2021 is that very few people tune to AM, except for those who are dedicated listeners of an established station on the band.

 

[SCMcKinney]

WOKV 690 used to be the AM rocker in Jacksonville. If I had unfettered control over it, I would certainly consider putting some kind of oldies on it. That would likely do better than dead last but could impact market leading Classic Hits WJGL. Income is what ought to count in any business - I wonder how much money a better demographic sports station that gets a .1 earns versus a demographic challenged oldies station would get with a (for instance) .7?

690 also successfully spawned today's market leading talker WOKV-FM. There is a lot of talk programming available not heard in Jacksonville, and I would bet the last thing Cox would want is somebody competing with their talk station. Therefore, the safe thing to do in Jacksonville is to sit on the signal with unlistened cheap sports, or in the case of Philadelphia 1060, a simulcast.

 

[Gregg.]

I don't think you folks are taking into account that the FM signal does NOT cover all of the Philadelphia area. Would you staff an all-news station with dozens of anchors, reporters, producers and other support personnel on a 270 watt FM signal?

Sure, if you are getting a clear signal on the FM frequency, that's where you tune in. But if you are further away from Center City, you use the AM signal. 270 watts only goes so far.

 

[TheBigA]

I don't think you folks are taking into account that the FM signal does NOT cover all of the Philadelphia area. Would you staff an all-news station with dozens of anchors, reporters, producers and other support personnel on a 270 watt FM signal?

Exactly, which is why they won't sell the AM. But a big chunk of the FM signal sits on top of the western suburbs, and there's a lot of money there. And image-wise, the FM signal, along with audacy.com, is the image they want to market.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I don't think you folks are taking into account that the FM signal does NOT cover all of the Philadelphia area.

It doesn't cover the whole Philadelphia market, but it does cover the Philadelphia area with 60dBu, the people who most likely to be invested in Philadelphia news and traffic.

WPHI-FM is clearly an inferior signal to KYW, but in the core of the market, it is robust.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

And not ditching the AM doesn’t mean you need to reference it. Your die hards know it’s there. They aren’t going to suddenly forget. So use the brand sans frequency. clean and easy.

 

[semoochie]

In a related matter, due to an antenna issue with my wife's car radio, we get exactly three AM stations clearly, the 50KW ones that are a mile or two away. The rest are varying degrees of weakness or gone completely! On the other hand, there's a two watt LPFM atop a hill that comes in just fine, as do the rest of the FMs!

 

[kenglish]

Is the antenna plugged in to the radio at all?

 

[semoochie]

Is the antenna plugged in to the radio at all?

I have no idea but it used to be. If it isn't connected at all, you'd think it would have more effect on the two watt station. I have very little interest in finding out. It isn't like there's anything worthwhile on any AM station.

 

[MarcB]

In a related matter, due to an antenna issue with my wife's car radio, we get exactly three AM stations clearly, the 50KW ones that are a mile or two away. The rest are varying degrees of weakness or gone completely! On the other hand, there's a two watt LPFM atop a hill that comes in just fine, as do the rest of the FMs!

Your issue with the AM radio reminds me of the radio that my Mom had in her '06 Chevy Malibu. I'm from Connecticut and the AM was barely usable. The 50KW WTIC AM 1080 was about the only listenable AM station. Even the local 2,500 Watt AM station whose antenna is about 6 miles from where we live had staticy reception. (Of course back then they were running Spanish language programming so we didn't listen to it anyway). After the Malibu was totaled in 2014 (My Mom fortunately was uninjured) she got a 2010 Civic and the AM reception compared to the Malibu's AM reception is as different as day and night.

As for myself I don't care whether or not the radio in my next vehicle has AM or not. I don't listen to it at all. I do all my listening on FM. Using my phone is too much of a hassle since there is not one universal app that carries all the stations I listen to - one station I like to listen to is only on Audacy. Another is only on Tune-In. A third istation I like is only on the i-Heart app.

 

[CTListener]

WOKV 690 used to be the AM rocker in Jacksonville. If I had unfettered control over it, I would certainly consider putting some kind of oldies on it. That would likely do better than dead last but could impact market leading Classic Hits WJGL. Income is what ought to count in any business - I wonder how much money a better demographic sports station that gets a .1 earns versus a demographic challenged oldies station would get with a (for instance) .7?

The sports station, with its younger audience, probably does better, and more importantly, clears Jacksonville for the syndicated programs it carries. I assume that's why other shells of former AM powerhouses are still useful despite having a barely detectable audience. WEEI(AM) 850 Boston was left with ESPN sports talk and overflow play-by-play after primary programming was moved to WEEI-FM 93.7, which dropped variety hits. The AM hovers around 0.1 now, but there are no signs that music will be put back on it or that the license will be turned in.