Not just over the air but how many listen to their streams as well. They have air talent and a good playlist and I wonder how they would do with a FM translator. I know that Gaylord just uses them to promote the Opry but I would be curious to see how they can do.
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I was wrong!
- Thread starter Murfradiojim
- Start date
As I posted in another thread, I was told by someone on the inside that the online streams exceed the on-air listening, which is why they've discontinued with Nielsen. They see themselves primarily as an online radio station.
There is a lot of expenses keeping full-power AM on the air. They could easily sell it or shut it down and keep their online listeners.
That makes sense. I belong to a few Facebook groups devoted to country stars of the '80s and '90s, and every time one of those veteran acts is scheduled to appear on the Opry, you can count on links to the webcast on WSM being posted over and over as the date grows near.
Sure, but they're owned by the Grand Ole Opry, and that place is all about its history.
Figure somewhere in the $0.12 an hour electric rate (they are in the TVA area, right?) so that is $12 an hour or $300 a day or $9,000 a month, including A/C, tower lights and the rest of the site needs. Amortization on a recent 50 kw transmitter might be around $2,000 a month.
At any power they need an engineer, a transmitter site, etc. The station is guessed to bill about $50 thousand a month, so the tech costs are covered. The issue is more about how big the history of WSM (AM) is to the Opry.
Give it a decade or two more.
(As reference, the highest market biller does about $200 thousand a month)
The Grand Ole Opry is a radio show first. They are intertwined. The call letters and frequency are all over the stage. They even do a legal ID live from the stage.
My mother still listens to WSM over the air, but that was mainly because my dad did, and apparently for no other reason. She will be 85 in a couple of months.
We watched "Coffee, country, and Cody" many mornings while we were at home due to the pandemic. But almost none since then. (Noticing even then that they were promoting younger upcoming performers, and not their established stars, although they played a few of them, as well.)
We watched "Coffee, country, and Cody" many mornings while we were at home due to the pandemic. But almost none since then. (Noticing even then that they were promoting younger upcoming performers, and not their established stars, although they played a few of them, as well.)
This is another revenue stream for WSM. In addition to streaming audio, they also have streaming video.
They are finding ways to repurpose and merchandize their content on multiple platforms. Not just AM radio.
It's the nostalgia gig and old school marketing that keeps the connection. IF it was only an "online station" it would fail sooner than without the "marketing" of the station. You walk by the station in Opryland Hotel. That's a ton of eyes and it translates to listeners. The majority find it online. Then the presence on the stage and on TV and downtown Nashville signage drives more branding. There is some local advertising. I would venture to say less than $50k on average now, David. Pull about $12k to $18k off that in lean months. BigA, I fully would expect a plan to located a physical studio to downtown Nashville in the next year to try to bring the station into this decade as The Wildhorse "repurposes" and 2nd Ave gets the makeover after the horrific bombing. No clue if that will all materialize. I would think properly done, the merchandise could bring in $100,000 a year or more.
That would be cool. Do you have the $$$ to pull that off? It would really be cool to maintain the Opryland hotel location while also having a presence downtown. I remember that a station in west TN tried to pull off something like that back in the '80s, with studios in two separate towns down there. But I don't think that it ever worked out for them.
What station was that?
The one in Trenton which tried to (also) have a studio in downtown Dyersburg. It only lasted for about 15 minutes, if that, so if you don't remember it, that would be understandable.
That would have been WTNE 97.5 (Now WYJJ 97.7) and was the one I had thought it might be. I worked at a hardware store a few doors down at that time and like you said it didn't last long.
I could not remember the call letters at the time, but I seem to recall that it was a country station at the time.
It's Hip Hop now.
I remember that it became a Jackson "move-in." Seems like there were already enough stations in Jackson, maybe even too many for a town of its size. But the Trenton-Dyersburg thing apparently didn't work out, so they became a Jackson "move-in." I remember all of that.
Back to the original topic of the thread. Y'all falls back to a 1.5 while WSM-FM sees gains.
That's a huge swing. Makes me wonder about the December numbers. Also I've heard that Christmas stations sometimes draw listeners from country stations. So we'll see if things stabilize for January.
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