I read your post after I posted. I can see using it to broadcast national shows. Seeing that country is one of the formats that Audacy is trying to syndicate many shows, it's obviously possible. But keep in mind that when then-Entercom sold WAAF in Boston to EMF, they updated the imaging on the website to indicate that it's on (in Boston) 104.1 HD-2 and 93.7 HD-2, yet left the on-air section untouched with the last remaining shows still listed on the station prior to the sale and format flip. Those shows were never on the HD-2 version. The website finally removed that section when Entercom became Audacy and the web addresses were changed from radio.com to audacy.com.
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94.7 is changing formats today
- Thread starter erwin33
- Start date
It can be reasonably argued that it’s the core reason why Lew and John Dickey lost outright control of Cumulus and are industry pariahs.
The Schedule section of the website for WNSH HD2 removed the local shows that were on the original WNSH, and left the national ones. That leads me to believe this listing was not just left on due to an oversight. And the fact that they are not playing any songs that were not previously on the station gives the appearance the programmers are aiming for consistency with the songs aired on the national programs.
Carrying the national shows on WNSH HD2 probably costs Audacy next to nothing, and does provide clearance in the #1 market. Let's not forget that WNSH did have the largest cume of any Country station in the U.S.
"Country For Life" may tie with "We All Grew Up to Be Cowboys" on KHJ for most stupid ever
I'd amend that to say "At one time." In this last book, they were down to about 725K. But when they were over a million, they had the largest cume.
I based my statement on this, from last Friday's article about the format flip in InsideRadio: "WNSH is the country format’s top-cuming station in Nielsen's most recent National Regional Database (spring 2021), with a weekly cume of 903,300 reflecting both in- and out-of-market on-air and streaming listening."
That is correct, in June 2021, they were #1, but in July they dropped to under 800K, and as I said were in the mid-700s this month. Since June the #1 cuming country station is KPLX in Dallas. That's why I said "at one time." A lot of this is by virtue of the size of the market. From time to time, KKGO LA is #1 cume too.
The Nielsen chart I referred to also included streaming. It is unclear whether KPLX had more listeners than WNSH with that in the mix.
But we're splitting hairs. The significant conclusion is that NYC is one of the biggest markets for country music, due to its size. As a result, Audacy may want to clear its national Country shows on WNSH HD2.
The problem is the highest cuming HD 2 is WKTU-HD2 with 35K and WNYL-HD2 with 22K. Substantially lower than the broadcast stations.
But if im in my car alot of times i just want to let the radio do the work i dont want the phone.
If they play the hits that all i care about.
What your saying is like if a restaurant slogan was "we have the best ribs" -- but they really didnt.
But you love the burgers so then you dont go there because of the rib thing.
If you love the burgers who cares about the rib thing.
Also djs are annoying with their inane jargon & talking over the song intros.
Eventually they just get fired & replaced with a clone anyways.
& just an adendum to my prev post....
i did have an ohio st/bama teaser (yes i know it wasnt a wong teaser) that did cash so i do pick winners too.
ESPN pays a bundle to clear their national sports programming on WEPN 98.7, despite consistently poor ratings. Country-themed Circle TV leases 2 over the air TV channels in the area, also to clear national programming in the New York metro.
Clearing national Country programming on WNSH HD2 probably costs close to nothing.
That's definitely better than the previous owners where even mentioning RadioInsight could get you banned. It happened to me but I was able to come back under another name. Thanks for giving us more freedom to mention them.
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No dispute there. All I was saying was the station was not #1 in cume in September.
The reason the format was dropped was not because of cume. It was because of sales. I doubt that situation will improve with the programming now on HD-2.
Unless Audacy buys a translator to feed the HD2 programming onto so people can actually hear it, it’s not going to reach much of anyone.
And if there’s nothing to distinguish it from any other generic country format on Audacy’s streaming platform (like “WAAF” is it’s own distinct stream) it’s an exercise in futility.
I am not sure how you would find WSM being run as a museum piece. They have a morning show 5:30 to 10 and apparently live DJ's throughout the day. A lot of FM's do the same thing. What is different is the REALLY live program on Friday and Saturday nights, which I will agree is the one historical thing that has kept music on this AM facility all these years. It would be interesting to know how much of their listening is done over digital devices.
Regarding NYC, Audacy ought to consider there is a built-in audience for country music via WNSH that they are throwing away. Maybe not enough saleable audience to warrant an FM signal, but one that is there nonetheless. They have a very decent, unused/underused facility at 660 that could try to retain those listeners, some of whom in the suburbs will have less than an optimal replacement signal-wise on FM. Putting the WNSH 94.7 programming and hosts on 660 will cost them virtually nothing, especially if they had to otherwise throw away DJ contracts with severance pay.
An AM station in the car is a simple thing to access, probably two button pushes. This I would suggest is excellent for getting casual potential listeners to try them out. Setting up Bluetooth or other devices is more work that is an obstacle. If it were not, AM stations would/should be thriving. In the office or at home, tuning in any radio station is easier than using an actual radio - just speak the name to Alexa, and it is in crystal clear sound. To make a WNSH.com work, it would have to be marketed like that - easy Apps or Alexa, with crystal clear sound. AM stations don't market themselves this way currently. Instead they suffer along with the bad reputation, or try to spout off a bunch of translators that may or may not work depending on where you live.
If 660 were to be relegated to sports gambling programming, I can't believe they would get more listeners and quality advertising than a market unique country station would. It will be intersting to see how a sports gambling 850 fares against two FM sports talkers. My bet (no pun intended) is that it will be an afterthought down with 1200 WXKS.
That's a nice idea, but doesn't solve the inherent problem which was that the sales department couldn't sell the format. They CAN sell sports and sports gambling.
They have announced they're moving the format to an HD-2 channel, which doesn't have the need for the sales department. The DJs will continue to do their syndicated shows and likely VT shifts for other country stations around the country.
If WNSH had flipped to "Soft AC hybrid" that would be competitive against Lite.
No one in any salable demo listens to AM for music, and certainly not in the largest, most transactional media market of all.
WSM is a museum piece. They don’t draw any ratings and certainly cannot compete with WKDF, WSM-FM and WSIX… but the Opry is still a big-time moneymaker so they can afford to staff it as such. If Ryman ever offloads it—actually, WHEN they ever offload WSM—it’ll switch to spoken word in an instant.
My prediction....94.7 The Block won't last long....Give it 1 year booking.
I had a question...Which Audacy station would have flipped first....Country or Alternative?? How did both formats do in billing????
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