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Alt 92.3 to Become WINS Simulcast

WCBS-AM has not been "all news" for a long time if we're going to split hairs. Prior to the Mets, they aired the Yankees. On weekends they'd clear CBS News Radio programs instead of news. 1010 WINS is exactly what it advertises: all news, all the time.

Believe it or not I heard both WCBS and WINS briefly doing sports pbp a week or two ago. Apparently there was an unusual overflow situation. I was going to jokingly post something here about WINS being All news Most of the Time but decided against it because it didn't last long.
What you were likely hearing on 1010 WINS were promoted live cut-ins to New York Yankees games (already airing on 660/101.9) for coverage of at-bats by Yankees player Aaron Judge as he was chasing the Yankee and American League home run record. After he hit the record-tying 61st homer on Wed. Sept. 28 in Toronto, it was a while before he hit the record-breaking 62nd homer in Arlinton, TX vs. the Rangers on Tues. Oct. 4th. Thus, there were 5 games + 1 inning of the live cut-ins on 1010.

When conflicting with Yankees games on 101.9, 660 airs Rutgers college football and NY Giants pro football.
(On occasion, the frequencies are switched around.)
880 is the exclusive radio home of the NY Mets.
 
That alone is why I have a hard time believing that WCBS will remain as-is. This looks like a repeat of KNX de facto merging into KFWB, with the “lesser station” (in this case, WCBS) getting out of the format altogether or assumes the WINS 92.3 simulcast as 1010 gets tossed aside.
But, as has been posted by Michael, the KFWB decision was based on the requirement to sell KFWB. So they "gutted" KFWB before selling it to transfer the news audience to 1970.
 
If anything, that’s more of a testament to how unpopular those two stations are. Hence, why one of them will be exiting their current format.
NYC has 3 NHLs; plus 2 NBAs, NFLs, MLSes, and MLBs along with WNBA and college sports, is it worth it to add another sports radio to NYC with a lot of teams to play live.
 
If anything, that’s more of a testament to how unpopular those two stations are. Hence, why one of them will be exiting their current format.
And the other has excellent billing numbers because it is sports.
 
There are exceptions to everything, of course, but historically there's been far, far less black affinity for rock (or country or classical) music than there's been white affinity for genres generally considered "black." The story of the white kid in suburbia hiding the transistor radio under the pillow to hear a distant R&B station at night in the '60s is a familiar one. Nobody talks about the black kid in the inner city doing the same thing to listen to distant pop or MOR or country station, not because there weren't any but because it was highly unusual back then. Black interest in those genres continues to be minimal to this day. White interest in "black music" continues to grow.
Steve Lacy is black. He was interested in the guitar at the age of seven. He is a key subversion of what you’re talking about and has the #1 on the Hot 100.

Stop. Stereotyping.
 
But, as has been posted by Michael, the KFWB decision was based on the requirement to sell KFWB. So they "gutted" KFWB before selling it to transfer the news audience to 1070.
This is true. That signal disparity was around for a long time and made it easy for CBS to give up KFWB when they had to, albeit taking nearly a decade to do so.

Being on AM only is unfortunately going to create a similar disparity between WCBS and WINS, and it’s insane to say that about a Class A AM in New York City.
 
It's not. It's the second-adjacency to 94.3 on Long Island.
I did not realize that was the more limiting factor. So really there are multiple things holding this one to that small area in NY. I understood that there was an attempt to engineer a directional on the new Tower, but (again, third hand) the rent and the power reduction were considered too severe.

Have you heard reports on the coverage from the new site? Everything I hear is that to the east there is no improvement except on the far southern side of LI near Manhattan... will help if there are meters at Coney Island.
 
To save money during the pandemic. It wasn't the "entire country." Just the alternative stations owned by Audacy. I think some of it was regional too, for the time zone differences.
I wonder if something like krbz will ever revert back to local (as 96.5 the buzz again with lazlo as pd)? They still air Kevan Kenney at night.
 
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I wonder if something like krbz will ever revert back to local? They still air Kevan Kenney at night.

Audacy stock closed today at 34 cents. It started the year at $2.75. So I don't see a time soon when they can afford local night hosts.

It may be hard for casual readers to grasp just how bad this situation is. But these changes aren't being made casually.

The market cap for Audacy is $49 million. That's how much it would take to buy the entire company. That's 10% of what it was worth 5 years ago.
 
Audacy stock closed today at 34 cents. It started the year at $2.75. So I don't see a time soon when they can afford local night hosts.

It may be hard for casual readers to grasp just how bad this situation is. But these changes aren't being made casually.

The market cap for Audacy is $49 million. That's how much it would take to buy the entire company. That's 10% of what it was worth 5 years ago.
a merger with beasley or cumulus or hubbard or urban one perhaps
 
Wow, I knew WINS would be the brand that would ultimately survive and that Alt would be kept until it was put on FM. I had no idea that would be announced today!

This does make me wonder about some of Audacy’s other struggling Alt stations. NYC was a case of trying to shore up the existing news audience on their all news stations and probably cost cutting too. Yeah, they lose the Alt 92.3 revenue stream, but they also get to cut costs as well being a simulcast as well as combining WCBS with WINS. They just announced they’re offloading an FM in Vegas “Alt 107.5.” The San Francisco one flipped last year. Looks like Audacy’s patience with the alternative experiment has peaked.
 
I did not realize that was the more limiting factor. So really there are multiple things holding this one to that small area in NY. I understood that there was an attempt to engineer a directional on the new Tower, but (again, third hand) the rent and the power reduction were considered too severe.

Have you heard reports on the coverage from the new site? Everything I hear is that to the east there is no improvement except on the far southern side of LI near Manhattan... will help if there are meters at Coney Island.
We were supposed to have gone down to the city this past weekend, but obviously circumstances intervened and instead my daughter has been up here.

I'll be down in a couple of weeks for NAB New York and will be very interested to hear how the signal performs in her dorm near Penn Station and while driving around other parts of the city.
 
Who thinks WINS will go FM permanently and 1010 will go BetQL? A stretch...but given KGO...???
 
Eventually, I could definitely see WINS going FM only, though I think we’re quite a ways from that point. It takes time to move a big enough portion of the audience to FM to nix the AM part of the simulcast.

After all, KCBS in SF started simulcasting in 2008 and it’s still simulcasting. WSB in Atlanta has been simulcasting since 2010.
 
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