I doubt it. Media buyers may tend to be young, but they're old enough not to be fooled by peek-a-boo.
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WCBS 880 to have early morning simulcast on WCBS- FM
- Thread starter DavidZ
- Start date
CBS-FM is the third highest billing music station in the market and 14th in the US. It is not doing anything to destroy that revenue stream.
WAXQ is the 5th highest billing music station in the market. It is not going to change anytime soon, either.
Note: Alternative was dropped as a significant format offering and exiled to an HD channel because the format was neither generating adequate revenue nor ratings.
We seem to be going through a period when the WCBS=suburbs and WINS=The City is being revised.
Can someone who actually listens "a lot" to both tell use how the two are differentiated today? There is some talk in industry trades that WCBS is less headline & condensed stories, but it would be good to have a comparison.
I listen to CBS a lot and WINS sometimes. It might just be the power of suggestion that makes me think that WINS is more focused on the city than WCBS and that WINS adheres to a quicker “headline” format. But what I do know is that WCBS traffic reports often include the Thruway up to Newburgh, the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, and Interstate 84 in Danbury and Putnam County. Also random temperature checks in places like Fishkill or Newburgh. A shooting at a Marriott Hotel in Poughkeepsie drew some detailed attention as well but I don’t remember if Peter Haskell was on the scene or not. As a resident of the area, 880 is a pretty clear signal in Poughkeepsie but 1010 needs the Audacy app.
The formats were based on signal. 880 is a full 50kw signal. 1010 has a directional signal. Now with the FM, they technically don't need to do this anymore. They still can if they want to, but I can imagine WCBS eventually adding more talk and sports and less straight news at some point in the future.
I know WINS had a Spanish service for awhile online. I don't see them doing that fulltime however. They could in the future
I know WINS had a Spanish service for awhile online. I don't see them doing that fulltime however. They could in the future
And keep in mind 50kw on AM is very different from 50kw on FM. Especially on the left end of the AM dial.
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Excellent discussion. I love the old CBS-FM back in the good old days. I love the jocks like Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Bobby Jay, Norm N Nite, Don K Reed, Marc Summers, Gary Clark, Bob Shannon and the rest as well as my favorite, Scott Shannon, and I still missed the station so much since I stopped listening to Scott Shannon after his final show back on December 16th. I flipped to WMTR and I got Allan David Stein and did a fantastic job there, he is the same guy who hosted “Doo-Wop Drive” every Friday night, and on fill-ins where I turned to my other fill-in favorite host, Bob O over at WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” since it got 4.9 in the Poughkeepsie Fall 2022 ratings book since it was released recently. I have airchecks from WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” including Bob O where he filled in for Allan David Stein at the other station where he took a vacation down to Austin, TX where his show was pre-recorded both his morning show and “Doo-Wop Drive” as “Robo-Stein”. Plus 4 airchecks with Sunny Joe Allen on Saturdays for two hours before Warren Lawrence comes on at noon over at WKNY for his Saturday afternoon oldies show.
And speaking of oldies, over at WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5” in Albany, they made some minor changes since they got rid of the “Greatest Songs of All Time” moniker and replaced it with “Good Times And Great Oldies” moniker which has been known for their catchphrase on oldies stations for years and years, and got rid of the JAM’s “Do It Again” jingles that CBS-FM used to have that for years along with the classic PAMS and TM’s “You” jingles which has been part of “Magic” for many years. As of the change, “Magic” brought in a new voiceover and new imaging which were OK, and the format remains the same, and I’m listening to John Gabriel right now which is way better than Randy Turner over at WBPM. It comes on right after JJ Carter on WBPM.
And back to WROW, “Magic” dropped the CBS hourly newscasts all day and added a “10 In A Row” music segments right before the top of the hour, except in mornings where they carried the CBS hourly newscasts only in morning drive, and of course, Josh Tesh in evenings. As you know, John Tesh is also on WHUD, WKXP’s “Lite-FM” and WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5”. Not bad at all.
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I never agreed that WCBS=suburbs and WINS=The City was an entirely accurate description.
It's more like WCBS=a broader range of news -- the top-hour CBS News network feed with national/international stories, more syndicated features, more depth to many of its reports, more entertaining, personality-driven 2-anchor morning show, top headlines only twice per hour.
WINS=more tabloid-like presentation, emphasis on local news, shorter reports delivered with more simplistic language, more rigid format clock, repetition of headlines every 20 minutes.
I think it's true that WCBS has a little more tri-state focus compared to WINS with more NYC focus, but in my opinion the difference is more nuanced than that. If you were to compare the radio stations to the local papers/media, WINS is probably more like the NY Post, WNYC is NY Times and WCBS falls somewhere in between -- closer to WINS but perhaps more on the level of the local newscasts on WNBC TV.
I agree that it remains to be seen what happens now. With staff resources being combined, some of the same reports are being heard on both WINS and WCBS now, just with different taglines. WCBS is no longer a 24/7 live news station outside of the PBP sports programming. The erosion began some time ago with the addition of infomercials on the weekend and now taped news running overnight. Staff is still being shuffled and of course the previously level playing field between the two AM stations has now been thrown completely out of balance with WINS on FM and WCBS still only on AM, facing a significant disadvantage as a result.
I've always preferred WCBS because I find WINS sounds dumbed down by comparison, but it's unclear to me what the corporate strategy is ultimately going to be now.
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All news in Spanish died in Latin America about 25 to 30 years ago. A few stations have news blocks, but all news is gone.
When there was all news in Latin America, it was initially focused on people who could not read... that goes back to the first all news station anywhere, Radio Reloj in Cuba in 1948.
As literacy increased, news focused on upscale listeners as advertisers did not like buying low income audiences. in fact, ratings in much of Latin America are based on multiple socioeconomic (income) levels, from high, upper, upper middle, lower middle low and "nonproductive". But by the 90's, the format was mostly appealing to very old people and it died.
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That is even how they formerly pitched the combo to agencies. It was all due to the signal issues of 1010 kHz. They also differentiated to try to get buys on both stations.
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Major markets obviously not. It's not PPM friendly. But in some smaller markets, some music stations still carry network news. In small towns many of them do even though they don't technically have to. Information elements in major markets like weather and traffic are now basically commercials. More commercial, less actual weather or traffic. If it can make money and blend in with the stopset, it's fine.
Morning shows got rid of news in the 2000s. Some major market stations still had a news person on staff for their morning show well into the 2000s. A few into the 2010s
There only two music FMs around here (eastern Vermont) that have news on the hour, and one is a '60s-'70s oldies station (using ABC news) and the other does classic country (mostly '70s through '90s), with stories ripped and read either from the AP wire or from the local newspaper. That tells me all I need to know about the music radio listeners who want to hear news, not even one minute of it.
Do they carry satellite feeds? A lot of stations that run satellite formats run news because it's an option for them. They don't have to, but it's built into the network clock and they can if they want.
I used to feel that way ... when I was a radio newscaster. It wasn't that long ago I was annoyed that "A Prairie Home Companion" didn't have a pause in the program for a newscast.
What changed? Well, a few things:
First, I got out of the business, so I no longer had a pecuniary interest in how much news was on the radio.
Second, technology changed. My smartphone went from "useful sometimes" to "has coverage just about everywhere I go."
Third, the quality and variety of the news seems to have declined significantly in the last five years, presumably due to staff cuts.
The oldies station carries Pure Oldies programming in some day parts. Most of the time it's local, either with or without DJs. ABC News runs at the top of the hour 24/7, even overnights. Does that make sense if it's mainly running the branded Pure Oldies music programming on weekends?
That would NEVER happen. Q104.3 bills well and CBS FM is a top station.
CHR B104 (104.1) WAEB-FM in Allentown does traffic and weather and news on every ten minutes.
What does this "news" element consist of? One sentence?
I'm on a music station that has ABC News for 60 seconds at 5 minutes after the hour
The same station also has state wide news or sports several times a day at the bottom of the hour
the same station also has local news at 5 after the hour 7am, 8am, noon and 5pm.
why 5 after? We're playing music when the other guys are doing spots and news.. and we keep ours shorter than they do when we run them.
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