CBS Radio News Closure: Effects on KCBS and San Francisco

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

CBS Sports Radio Rebrands As Infinity Sports Network.

The CBS Sports Radio brand is coming to an end. Affiliate stations were notified that the network – which is programmed by Audacy and distributed by Westwood One – is

www.insideradio.com

Infinity Sports Network To Become Westwood One Sports In December Rebrand.

Cumulus Media’s Westwood One and Audacy are rebranding the Infinity Sports Network as Westwood One Sports, effective Dec. 29. The 24/7 network will deliver live coverage, expert commentary, and syndicated

www.insideradio.com

Listeners Mourn Loss Of WCBS-AM, A ‘Once Indispensable Part Of New York.’

In the wake of Audacy’s announcement that “Newsradio 880” WCBS-AM will end its 57-year all-news format Aug. 26 — when Good Karma Brands will move the programming of “ESPN New

www.insideradio.com

The previous examples of when Audacy had to remove the "CBS Radio" name due to a licensing rights deal expiration for their sports/talk network currently known as WestWood One Sports. Yes and the most notable comparison KCBS San Francisco has to face is when WCBS 880 had to remove those calls because of a format flip with ESPN Radio affiliate WHSQ. However KCBS has to deal with CBS News Radio shutting down and the question over those sets of call being removed when CBS News Radio ends on May 22 or the 2037 date thats been mentioned here. But the difference between the removal of WCBS 880 and this one is big.

In New York WCBS 880 had to deal with being killed off by their sister station WINS given how big they are there and Audacy's decision to put WINS on FM as the factor. In San Francisco KCBS has to deal with going after NPR affiliate KQED for the top 5 spots in the San Francisco Radio ratings. In this case we have to wait for Audacy to either find new affiliations or build their own radio network under the Audacy News or Infinity News name.

San Francisco

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings San Francisco (Market #6) Population: 6,600,600 Black: 430,500 – Hispanic: 1,605,200 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2024 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio audience estimates and...

radioinsight.com

SEP 25	OCT 25	NOV 25	DEC 25	HOL 25	JAN 26	STATION	NAME	FORMAT	OWNER	CUME
8.7	8.8	9.3	9.1	9.2	9.8	KQED-FM	88.5 KQED	Public News/Talk	Northern California Public Broadcasting	753,600
8.3	8.7	8.1	8.1	7.9	8.3	KCBS-AM	All News 106.9 & 740 KCBS	News	Audacy	677,700

 

[K.M. Richards]

What if Audacy simply decides to drop 740 AM and go FM only as KFRC? They wouldn't have to worry about the KCBS calls or operating an unprofitable AM anymore, and they could just make a clean break and ID simply as "All News 106.9, KFRC."

I expect them to do the same as KNX and transition to calling themselves "All News 106.9". By the time the call letters become an issue, it won't matter.

That is, if we even still have required use of calls under § 73.1201 in 2037 ...

 

[K.M. Richards]

But the difference between the removal of WCBS 880 and this one is big.

You're still hung up on the call letters. Give it a rest. That's not going to be an issue for another decade.

San Francisco

Nielsen Audio PPM Monthly Ratings San Francisco (Market #6) Population: 6,600,600 Black: 430,500 – Hispanic: 1,605,200 Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2024 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio audience estimates and...

radioinsight.com

SEP 25	OCT 25	NOV 25	DEC 25	HOL 25	JAN 26	STATION	NAME	FORMAT	OWNER	CUME
8.7	8.8	9.3	9.1	9.2	9.8	KQED-FM	88.5 KQED	Public News/Talk	Northern California Public Broadcasting	753,600
8.3	8.7	8.1	8.1	7.9	8.3	KCBS-AM	All News 106.9 & 740 KCBS	News	Audacy	677,700

San Francisco is a PPM market. It says so in the summary of the RI link. Call letters don't matter in PPM markets as much as they would in diary markets. If Audacy gradually moves away from the calls, they will have zero effect on branding by the time they would need to be changed.

Hell, if § 73.1201 is changed over those years to eliminate call letters having to be given once an hour, whoever owns CBS by then may not even care if 740's calls are still KCBS if they aren't used for branding.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Even before the simulcast began 17½ years ago, KFRC wasn't the KFRC of olden tymes. So I don't think there will be much nostalgia to deal with, outside bubbles such as this one.

Shoot, if they wait long enough, KZAC might be available. Or buy the KFOG calls from Cumulus and repatriate them from Arkansas. (Is Peter Finch still at KCBS? This might make him very happy.) Or KCBS could easily pick up KFRC calls for the AM as an interim measure and then change to something else later. Let a thousand theories bloom.

The more immediate challenge is to deal with the extra time for which KCBS will have to produce after May 22. Inconveniently, May 23 is a Saturday, so that's going to multiply the challenge a little bit since weekends tend to be slow for news anyway.

There's also nothing to keep KCBS* from discontinuing the CBS top-of-hour news and/or the updates at :31 ahead of May 22. CBS has given notice. But I expect KCBS will want to have some time to adjust to a paradigm that could either be slightly altered or substantially changed. Worrying about the call letters doesn't help meet that challenge.

* = or any other CBS News Radio affiliate, for that matter.

 

[Mark Roberts]

What if Audacy simply decides to drop 740 AM and go FM only as KFRC? They wouldn't have to worry about the KCBS calls or operating an unprofitable AM anymore, and they could just make a clean break and ID simply as "All News 106.9, KFRC."

I think it would be more likely for the station to simply stop mentioning KCBS and the AM frequency except for the top-of-hour ID. It could even stop mentioning the FM call letters, too, except for top-of-hour, and refer to itself as "All News 106.9" in lockouts, timechecks, etc. That's probably the simplest solution of them all.

(or..."Bay News 106.9"...or "FM News 106.9"...or "News 106.9 FM"...or....)

 

[K108 Sacramento]

Wouldn't it have been more productive to have just sold off the radio news division to another business organization? I guess they didn't care how valuable it might be. Do any of you radio professionals here have an idea what the radio news division is worth?

 

[TheBigA]

Wouldn't it have been more productive to have just sold off the radio news division to another business organization? I guess they didn't care how valuable it might be. Do any of you radio professionals here have an idea what the radio news division is worth?

What would they "sell?" They can't sell "CBS News," because they still want that brand for TV. Audacy has sales and distribution, so they have access to some rights in that way. They have the affiliation contracts. But remember what CBS did with the CBS Sports Radio Network. They allowed the name to be used for a few years, and then it expired. ABC did the same thing when they sold ABC Radio to Citadel. That name had a time limit on it, and then it went away, and ABC relaunched it.

You ask what is it worth? The NY Times says its revenue is about a half million a year. What would that be worth?

 

[ILOVERADIO]

KFRC has been a lot of things in the 102 years since the call letters were first assigned to 660 AM (the station moved to 610 in 1928).

Among them---from 1930 to 1936---San Francisco's first CBS affiliate. From 1936 to 1959 it was a Don Lee-Mutual network affiliate, carrying a heavy schedule of nationwide programs.

It was MOR (1949-1966) before it was Top 40 (1966-1986). It was adult standards from 1986-1993. The oldies thing, beginning in 1991 on 99.7 FM and then adding the AM simulcast in 1993 was only 15 years (1991-2006) and ended 20 years ago. And then there was the brief attempt at Classic Hits on 106.9 which lasted less than 18 months before it became the KCBS simulcast---18 years ago.

And honestly, the call letters are the smallest and quickest part of that branding: "All News 106.9 and AM 740 (calls)".



I would have argued that the call letters probably wouldn't matter that much, but I'm already seeing "What does this mean for KCBS?" from San Francisco people on social media. So maybe it does.

There is no WCBS news radio anymore. Maybe this is where they lose the KCBS calls too (though they're still on WCBS-FM in New York and KCBS-FM in Los Angeles).



Nah.



Not gonna happen. FOX News is on KSFO, and the KCBS audience would freak.

The only full-service radio network option would be ABC Radio News.

If I was programming and we did that, I would change calls. The confusion level of ABC on KCBS is just a little extreme. But the easier option is to just handle national and international news on your own...with audio from stations (or even freelance reporters) wherever in the world the news is happening.

Is AP network news gone?

 

[davideduardo]

I just had a radical and unsettling thought:

What if Audacy simply decides to drop 740 AM and go FM only as KFRC? They wouldn't have to worry about the KCBS calls or operating an unprofitable AM anymore, and they could just make a clean break and ID simply as "All News 106.9, KFRC."

The still AM gives decent coverage of areas that the FM does not reach... remember, the MSA extends from Gilroy up all the way beyond Santa Rosa.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Is AP network news gone?

No.

https://www.ap.org/content/formats/audio/

 

[Mark Roberts]

What would they "sell?" {...}

You ask what is it worth? The NY Times says its revenue is about a half million a year. What would that be worth?

Just to be careful here: the $800k figure I came up with was a linear extrapolation from the reported revenues for January. There are some assumptions in that extrapolation, particularly that revenue would be even month to month and that January was a month that fairly represented revenue. It's probably better to state revenue as a range. Let's say $500k to a million.

Otherwise, though, spot on: there's nothing to sell other than a name. If someone bought the name, the staff would be unlikely to be a part of the deal.

I think what kept the radio network going for so long was that no one wanted to be the one to shut it down. (This is true of more than a few radio stations, too.) Bari Weiss came in without that commitment. Tom Cibrowski may have the title of president and executive editor of CBS News but the reality is that Weiss is calling the shots and his role is to execute to her plan. If that plan fails, my guess is that he will take the fall before Weiss does.

 

[TheBigA]

Otherwise, though, spot on: there's nothing to sell other than a name. If someone bought the name, the staff would be unlikely to be a part of the deal.

I can't see how they can sell the name. They can license its use, but that's it. When Westwood One bought NBC Radio in 1988, the main thing it got was the affiliation contracts. They got a 25 year license on the NBC Radio Network name, use of the peacock logo, use of some space in 30 Rock, and a few other things for $50 million.

Westwood One to buy NBC Radio - UPI Archives

Westwood One Inc., announcing an agreement to buy NBC Radio Networks for $50 million, said on-air programming will sound the same after the sale but that...

www.upi.com

When the license expired, the name and assets went back to NBC Universal. The Citadel purchase of ABC Radio was similar, but also included all the stations and associated property. It was a much shorter license to the ABC Radio Network name.

Disney And Citadel Announce Completion Of ABC Radio Merger | The Walt Disney Company

thewaltdisneycompany.com

In this case, there already is a contract between Audacy and CBS that only has 6 months on it, so I imagine they have some first right of refusal.

I think what kept the radio network going for so long was that no one wanted to be the one to shut it down.

I agree. Shari Redstone didn't even want to sell the radio stations. Once she was gone, any impediment went as well.

 

[rx8driver2]

Better to go with KFRC. Start fresh once CBS News Radio goes away.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Better to go with KFRC. Start fresh once CBS News Radio goes away.

You missed all of the points made in the discussion, didn't you ...

The KCBS call letters' use is not dependent on whether or not there is a "CBS Radio News" report at the top of the hour. There is no reason to abandon them for what amounts to a new set of call letters, when the rest of the hour will not sound any different than it does now.

May 22 will come. KCBS will likely do something in that slot which approximates the network newscast that the audience is accustomed to. A big percentage of them don't actually realize it's not local in that six minutes anyway. Everyone will cope.

Without changing the call letters, or "starting fresh" when there's no need to.

And didn't you yourself say, when you started this thread ...?

The KCBS Radio call letters have nothing to do with this.

 

[michael hagerty]

You missed all of the points made in the discussion, didn't you ...

The KCBS call letters' use is not dependent on whether or not there is a "CBS Radio News" report at the top of the hour. There is no reason to abandon them for what amounts to a new set of call letters, when the rest of the hour will not sound any different than it does now.

May 22 will come. KCBS will likely do something in that slot which approximates the network newscast that the audience is accustomed to. A big percentage of them don't actually realize it's not local in that six minutes anyway. Everyone will cope.

Without changing the call letters, or "starting fresh" when there's no need to.

K.M., it's not @rx8driver2 's fault. I brought up KFRC. And l gave two reasons why they might want to make the switch:

1-If there's too big an audience disconnect with KCBS having 100% less CBS.

At most stations, in most cities, I'd agree that you could swap out networks and no one would know. KCBS and CBS are intertwined in their listeners' minds. It's more than a "network news service" there. This is something I've learned in 12+ years of living in the region and especially in the past year of spending most Saturdays in the Bay Area.

2-If Audacy wants to distance its brand from Bari Weiss' devaluation and destruction of CBS News' image and reputation.

To me, this is a bigger potential motivator than #1. Because this audience does associate the station and the network, if the network becomes a joke or a pariah, you have a problem.

I've said throughout the thread that Audacy may or may not make a change---but if they do, it would make sense just to carry the KFRC calls over to the AM and literally change nothing else.

If I were the person at Audacy making that decision---and if I decided that #1 and #2 mattered enough to make the change, I would do it exactly the way @rx8driver2 suggests---the first hour without KCBS would be the first hour with the new legal ID.

 

[michael hagerty]

-the first hour without KCBS would be the first hour with the new legal ID.

I meant to say “the first hour without CBS…”

 

[K.M. Richards]

2-If Audacy wants to distance its brand from Bari Weiss' devaluation and destruction of CBS News' image and reputation.

To me, this is a bigger potential motivator than #1. Because this audience does associate the station and the network, if the network becomes a joke or a pariah, you have a problem.

I must admit, I had not considered that aspect of the situation. Bari has been driving a steamroller through CBS News so hard, you'd think it was Elon Musk in one of his cybertrucks. If the "CBS Evening News" brand has not already gotten to the brink, it likely will very soon.

I can see Audacy thinking "why should we stick with the brand when the most recognizable part of it is going away?". I can even see them abandoning the calls in L.A., where they are just a throwaway at the TOH on Jack, just to be rid of the connection to Bari's war on those three letters.

But as I type this, I begin to wonder if the damage extends to the branding of 101.1 in NYC ...

 

[TheBigA]

I begin to wonder if the damage extends to the branding of 101.1 in NYC ...

No. The listeners there are in their own little world completely oblivious to the news wars taking place. To them the call letters are like the music, a connection to their past, when things were much better. To put it simply: They don't like change. They're still grieving over 880.

 

[K.M. Richards]

No. The listeners there are in their own little world completely oblivious to the news wars taking place. To them the call letters are like the music, a connection to their past, when things were much better.

Got it. You also just explained why those two years in 2005-2007 as Jack are generally regarded as one of the great missteps by CBS.

 

[TheBigA]

Got it. You also just explained why those two years in 2005-2007 as Jack are generally regarded as one of the great missteps by CBS.

One of the aspects the listeners hated about that time was that the station kept the WCBS call letters. They considered it sacrilege.

This discussion about replacing the KCBS calls seems to ignore all of the mourning that was done about the replacing of KGO.