• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End

Status
Not open for further replies.
It was because of union contracts that the stations co-existed for as long as they did. I know that's a pesky little detail that gets in the way here, but undermining the union like Audacy did greased the skids for WINS to move to FM and WCBS to be left behind. Simple as that.

That's what happens when you fail to innovate and expose yourself to the younger demos in the first place. Both stations were on AM-only for far, far too long.
When Entercom now Audacy bought CBS radio stations we knew there would be change. They chipped away During Covid & Now They are Demolishing a Very Good News Station. Are you really that surprised? A little bit up the road people will be saying. News Radio What ? And then they’ll dismantle something else 🤷
 
It's rare to see the same company own two stations with the same format in the same market. I thought it might be doable in NYC, but apparently not.
 
I've seen elsewhere that perhaps Madison Square Garden–or James Dolan specifically–may have influenced Good Karma into finding an AM signal of better quality than 1050, now that Knicks and Rangers games are moving off FM. That possibility is wholly plausible. And "Guitar Jimmy" wants to make sure he can listen to his teams when he's out East.

Remember that the two teams' primary outlet was WFAN prior to moving to WEVD/WEPN in 2002-03 or thereabouts. The move to 880 puts the Knicks and Rangers on a signal with pretty much the same exact reach as 660.


This has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, by myself and others: Only men's basketball is affected, not football (which airs on WFAN). And it depends on the contractual terms Audacy has with Rutgers and its media partner, Learfield. (The **assumption** is that 1050 could take any Rutgers games that conflict with Knicks or Rangers broadcasts, if that would be allowed and amendable to all parties involved.)

Really though, we'll have to wait for the full schedule–with Big Ten games on it–to be released to see how it really shakes out. And remember that the league's tv partners are the ones setting those game times for in-conference games. The non-conference portion of the Scarlet Knights' men's regular season starts on Nov. 6, so it's not a huge priority at this point.

Guitar Jimmy? Whoever he is, I guess he's a Laker and/or Ram and/or Dodger fan.
 
When Entercom now Audacy bought CBS radio stations we knew there would be change. They chipped away During Covid & Now They are Demolishing a Very Good News Station. Are you really that surprised? A little bit up the road people will be saying. News Radio What ? And then they’ll dismantle something else 🤷

One again, the format is available on co-owned WINS-AM/FM. It's not as if the format has gone away.
 
One again, the format is available on co-owned WINS-AM/FM. It's not as if the format has gone away.
Okay I will admit I need to be completely correct on this. You mean the news format is still available On WINS-AM/FM or The CBS format. Because WINS has a faster paced approach & CBS was always more conversational
 
Okay I will admit I need to be completely correct on this. You mean the news format is still available On WINS-AM/FM or The CBS format. Because WINS has a faster paced approach & CBS was always more conversational

The news format. The fact is that after 2022, the two stations have shared personnel, and shared facilities.

If you want an all-news format, it's available on WINS-AM/FM. It's not like country or alternative, that are gone completely.

WCBS ceased to be an all-news format when it began adding sports.

If WINS is too fast paced, try WNYC. They're a whole lot slower.
 
Last edited:
Okay I will admit I need to be completely correct on this. You mean the news format is still available On WINS-AM/FM or The CBS format. Because WINS has a faster paced approach & CBS was always more conversational
"More Conversational approach to news" if one is asking the answers are going to circle around public radio like WNYC, Connecticut Public Media, New Jersey Public Radio or WLIW-FM. In the past we mentioned how WCBS-AM aimed for a suburban audience/median demo. How much of this has changed not just because Audacy added WINS-FM as part of them promoting their flagship station but also the suburban audiences listen to public radio stations like WNYC and the others mentioned here.

https://ratings.****************/content/arb001




 
Aside from what GKB now does with 1050 AM and the still unknown future of 98.7 FM, who takes up the CBS Radio News affiliation in NYC? It will be weird for some one other than 880 to run CBS News on the Hour.
I wouldn't be surprised if no one does. After all, no station in NYC currently carries the top-of-the-hour ABC News Radio newscast.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if no one does. After all, no station in NYC currently carries the top-of-the-hour ABC News Radio newscast.

Carrying national network newscasts is another throwback to the radio network days of the 1930s. KYW doesn't carry TOH network news either. The networks allow these stations to use their national news audio and brand it with their local call letters.

Why all the stress over music stations carrying national syndication, but it's OK when we're talking about news? Don't you want live & local?
 
Does this move automatically turn WCBS-FM/101.1 into "WCBS", similar to what happened when WNEW/1130 got sold to Bloomberg and the "-FM" suffix disappeared from WNEW-FM? Or would Audacy specifically need to file for a change of calls, assuming they even wanted this to happen?
No, the CBS-owned-and-operated TV station would be able to get the simple WCBS call sign.
 
Both signals are 50 kw. The difference is that 1010 is directional but the FM fills in any lacking coverage in the MSA.

Why the FM? It is not for sale and not available. It is the reinforcement to the AM.



A station is not going to lose money waiting for a repeat of event... as horrific as it was... that has happened once. It's a business.

Nobody in the general audience cares that any station is 100 years old... generally, not even the owners. We care about today's listeners and today's billing. Accent on billing.
I'm not sure about no one caring about a station turning 100. Surprisingly up in Hartford Full Power Radio did a special presentation for WDRC's 100th Anniversary back in 2022. And currently Audacy is doing specials leading up to the 100th Anniversary of WTIC 1080.
 
WCBS ceased to be an all-news format when it began adding sports.
Yeah WCBS used to air the Yankees for decades, right? I think CBS/audacy may have been telling us all along which station they favored for delivering news. I still think an outright flip isn’t a good idea. I do think WCBS incorporating more sports shows (like WWL) would be the better idea. I’m sorry, but that’s a lot of money WCBS/Audacy is leaving on the table with this LMA
 
Does this move automatically turn WCBS-FM/101.1 into "WCBS", similar to what happened when WNEW/1130 got sold to Bloomberg and the "-FM" suffix disappeared from WNEW-FM? Or would Audacy specifically need to file for a change of calls, assuming they even wanted this to happen?

No, the CBS-owned-and-operated TV station would be able to get the simple WCBS call sign.

Neither station is required to drop its suffix. I doubt WCBS-FM would since their on-air branding is "FM 101.1" and the TOH calls have a reinforcong effect. Still, the calls sans suffix could be legally applied for on the FM; there is no FCC regulation prohibiting it now that the AM has relinquished same.

WCBS-TV really has no need to change since they only superimpose the legal ID with them at the TOH, in very small font size. No point paying a filing fee to change something that viewers would ever notice.
 
Yeah WCBS used to air the Yankees for decades, right? I think CBS/audacy may have been telling us all along which station they favored for delivering news. I still think an outright flip isn’t a good idea. I do think WCBS incorporating more sports shows (like WWL) would be the better idea. I’m sorry, but that’s a lot of money WCBS/Audacy is leaving on the table with this LMA

The LMA excludes Yankees game broadcasts. Audacy pre-empts the LMA to air those, and they still get the ad revenue from same.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom