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No Sale Looming, ESPN 98.7 expected to pivot to Music

I suspect 98.7 will not go silent for any length of time.

The Indy situation involved a station on the AM band (1070 WFNI). That station went dark, I believe, because the land on which the towers sat was sold. Most listeners had already migrated to 93.5 & 107.5 FM, which carried the same programming as 1070.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The power bill for a roughly 6 KW ERP station is less than that for a residential home's central air conditioning in the summer. The saving would be less than $1000 a month, if that.

Nobody, not political, not agencies will buy a brand new format with no ratings. That is not how the business works.
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The power bill in the grand scheme of things is a de minimus expense. The only significant ongoing cost to stay on the air is the rent on ESB. But again, we are talking about a station that is for sale in the $40 million range. Emmis can afford to keep paying the rent.
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
The power bill in the grand scheme of things is a de minimus expense. The only significant ongoing cost to stay on the air is the rent on ESB. But again, we are talking about a station that is for sale in the $40 million range. Emmis can afford to keep paying the rent.
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And the ESB master antennae are not like hotels; you can't come and go at will (something the Pacifica folks failed to understand).
 
DavidEduardo said:
They did that because the highly directional AM's transmitter site land had been sold, and no prospective "approvable" site had been found. This is not that kind of situation.
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MarkW said:
The Indy situation involved a station on the AM band (1070 WFNI). That station went dark, I believe, because the land on which the towers sat was sold.
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I know. I was responding to someone who suggested "dead air" as a solution.
 
MarkW said:
I suspect 98.7 will not go silent for any length of time.

The Indy situation involved a station on the AM band (1070 WFNI). That station went dark, I believe, because the land on which the towers sat was sold. Most listeners had already migrated to 93.5 & 107.5 FM, which carried the same programming as 1070.
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Yeah, last night when WCBS signed off, there was only about 30 seconds of silence
 
TheBigA said:
Yes I know. As I've said in the past, they are two heritage stations that have built there audience over decades. New York has no real history with the format other than non-commercial WFUV of Fordham University. If iHeart thought they could duplicate KBCO somewhere, they'd start with some of their low-rated alternative stations. iHeart owns WAXQ and it does very well in demo because it sticks to what it does. It takes lots of time and lots of money to start this format, and the result is an audience that is mainly over 55.

But the real fundamental question is who would pay $50 million to do this format on 98.7. The only companies that could are already maxed out in the market because of FCC ownership rules. Anyone else would be coming into the market as a single station owner, and doing an older skewing white male format in an ethnic city would be financial suicide.
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From my research, WAXQ is strongest in Queens, Staten Island, “rich old farts” in southern Manhattan, and the suburbs. It’s a place to start, ethnic city or otherwise.

The X factor for a commercial AAA in NYC is Brooklyn. That borough has gentrified a great deal, and AAA is a hipster-friendly format that attracts a lot of the cat mom types that have happened to move into Brooklyn. If you can get gentrified Brooklyn to sign on with the core WAXQ locations, you have a chance at carving a niche.

The format is a careful balancing act between beloved rock, indie, and soul classics, new music of all kinds, and an occasional crossover or two (the big crossover doing well on AAA is Teddy Swims’ “The Door”, and his hit single “Lose Control” topped AAA a while back). No AAA sounds alike due to this; you can’t nationalize the format, which is probably why iHeart has never tried to make more AAAs. What would exist in NYC would have to be unique.

It would still be a massive risk, mind you. The balancing act to make it work in NYC would be brutal. You’re still giving up a great portion of Manhattan and The Bronx. But maybe if you do manage to push all the right buttons a format hole will get plugged and a stable listenership can be developed.

Maybe. And ultimately you’re probably right that the risk/reward ratio for a radio company moving in and having only one station in the market may be way too high to be worth it.
 
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TheBigA said:
Unique equals expensive, which is why no one has done it, and why it's impractical as a commercial format in NY.

Nobody with a brain is willing to risk $50 million PLUS expenses on a format that will attract mainly over 55 men.
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As I said, you’re probably right. Though in my experience commercial AAA can pull in a lot of women and younger men too, not just older men. I don’t think it’s as impractical personally, it’s certainly not as unrealistic as Alternative or Country in NYC, but it would still be exceptionally risky.
 
macattack said:
As I said, you’re probably right. Though in my experience commercial AAA can pull in a lot of women and younger men too, not just older men. I don’t think it’s as impractical personally, it’s certainly not as unrealistic as Alternative or Country in NYC, but it would still be exceptionally risky.
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It's not going to happen. For all the reasons I've given, starting with ownership rules.
 
TheBigA said:
It's not going to happen. For all the reasons I've given, starting with ownership rules.
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As I said, you’re probably right. Just because I said it’s not as impractical doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, especially in this specific situation.

I would like to believe I’ve found a hole and a way to market and pivot such a theoretical station. That doesn’t mean it can happen especially with financial realities in consideration. And ultimately this is a format whose commercial viability is in question besides.
 
macattack said:
As I said, you’re probably right. Though in my experience commercial AAA can pull in a lot of women and younger men too, not just older men. I don’t think it’s as impractical personally, it’s certainly not as unrealistic as Alternative or Country in NYC, but it would still be exceptionally risky.
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Honestly, more mainstream country or alternative would be likely more commercially viable than a niche AAA format. A format hole does not equal a viable business.
 
DJ Mo said:
I have always dreamed of being a temporary stunt DJ, since I always enjoy reading & even giving my 2-cents on what the next format will be of a radio station that is rumored to flip. My show, "DJ Mo Radio", is a part "mix show", leans Rhythmic Variety, but also includes Rock, Indie, Alternative, Pop, lost classics that corporate radio used to play, underground music that never made it to the mainstream. I sometimes break format like a College radio DJ, so if an owner wants to do a fancy "wheel of formats" stunt, but with an actual radio personality, this would be an interesting approach. I have hours of archived shows I can send that are FCC compliant for both commercial & non-commercial radio stations to provide, if this is even possible, to anyone who needs a placeholder format that will keep the audience guessing & generate more buzz for an upcoming format/brand.
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So as not to overquote and lose the point, while I applaud your intentions it doesn't really work that way. If a station decides to do stunting prior to a format launch -- and that happens less and less often these days ... usually it's just a cutover as happened this morning on 880 -- the in-house programmer will throw something together that the automation can run for a few days.

When we put KRKE on two years ago, we first ran a 15-minute mashup of 80's song segments with crossfades and sound effects over and over for a few days. (Sort of a mini-mix show.) Then the day of the launch, I put an admittedly annoying electronic tick-tock effect on for 12 hours before we launched at noon. Cost: essentially zero as the mashup was something a friend had already done for a project several years earlier.

But no one goes "outside" for stunt programming. It doesn't air long enough to justify the expense or the risk that the outside programmer will leak something before the actual flip.
 
luperm said:
Honestly, more mainstream country or alternative would be likely more commercially viable than a niche AAA format. A format hole does not equal a viable business.
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I getcha. I was just doing a thought exercise to see if another format could be placed instead of Alternative or Country especially if flanking WAXQ was doable. I appreciate being humored on this, and I would like to think that I was looking at this with a more educated and strategic standpoint than blindly throwing darts at the wall like some others do.
 
macattack said:
And ultimately you’re probably right that the risk/reward ratio for a radio company moving in and having only one station in the market may be way too high to be worth it.
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I'm afraid you are correct. No one is going to pay $50 million and then play a hunch. Whoever ends up with 98.7, a full signal in market #1, will research the proverbial seven days from Sunday to find the option that has the greatest potential to recoup the investment.

Whatever ends up there is going to be mass appeal and mainstream.
 
Weiserguy said:
Edit: Let me write this more clearly. Did 880 drop carrier at 12M, even for a moment, or was it a carrier-on, control room switchover?
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They did not from what I could tell. Around 30 seconds of silence and then they brought up the ESPN feed. Not sure why you'd want to drop the carrier.
 
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