950 WPEN AM to dump ESPN and Sports Format

[SportsRadio8288]

I've heard some rumblings from a few very credible execs in the market...and 950 has until Jan 1 to improve or they will be done.

Revenue wise they are awful...

Ratings wise, the same.

Station Manager Bob DeBlois has not been able to land a PD that could raise ratings.
Which obviously leads to low revenue streams.

In my opinion, no PD will succeed in this market vs WIP. WIP is a beast...regardless of what people think...they are so etched in that the only way to beat them would be by going local 24/7.

However...that wont happen b/c WPEN doesnt have enough $$$$ to invest in 6 LOCAL shows that go around the clock 24/7..

It's a shame...but Greater Media won't put enough effort into 950.

 

[WTUX]

WPEN could make it if they could land at least one Philly sports team and could run some local host tie-ins.

But GM is going to stick with this as ESPN is intent on having a major Philadelphia outlet.

And what else can GM do with WPEN? Bird-fed oldies like WCTC? Yeah, oldies sure worked with local hosts. It sure would not work with satellite programming.

 

[DToTheJ]

I've heard some rumblings from a few very credible execs in the market...and 950 has until Jan 1 to improve or they will be done.

Revenue wise they are awful...

Ratings wise, the same.

Are you sure we're talking about the 950 in Philadelphia and not the 950 in Rochester?

 

[Jul]

But GM is going to stick with this as ESPN is intent on having a major Philadelphia outlet.

I can't imagine WIP taking the ESPN affiliation if sports on WPEN goes away, so yeah 950 should stick with ESPN forever.

 

[wprt949]

oh dear lord dont get julius upset

 

[Rockin Rob]

Maybe it would just be wise for Greater Media to sell 950 ESPN outright to Citadel/ABC and wash their hands of it.

 

[davideduardo]

Maybe it would just be wise for Greater Media to sell 950 ESPN outright to Citadel/ABC and wash their hands of it.

I don't think Citadel is buying anything right now, and the ESPN network is owned by Disney, anyway.

 

[Rockin Rob]

Maybe it would just be wise for Greater Media to sell 950 ESPN outright to Citadel/ABC and wash their hands of it.

I don't think Citadel is buying anything right now, and the ESPN network is owned by Disney, anyway.

David, I stand corrected. Anyways, something's gotta give.

 

[cooptulsa]

A native of South Jersey, I write from Tulsa, where I've been working since '81. Catching Mike and Mike on a local station here...tuff to believe they haven't gotten any traction in Philly! Or have they? They don't draw well here...sports radio as a whole doesn't fly that high, not being a major league city. If it ain't the Sooners...it ain't gonna happen!

 

[jimbradley]

in my market the sporting news stations kills the espn station.

 

[qtpieislit]

I'm hearing AM is not a growth industry anymore. In fact, statistically, most people under 30 do not listen to AM, and in some cases, have not even heard of it. Y’know, there's this talk about this new thing, and I know it’s just a rumor, but I think it’s called the internet. It’s like it’s three whole syllables, but that’s what I hear they’re callin’ it. And I’ve heard that there’s these little wireless devices too, where you can access, this internet, or whatever they call it, and you get really exciting choices. And then on these, like, little wireless devices, when you’re listening to HyLitRadio.com, with 57 minutes of music every hour, you can even make phone calls and get this really strange thing called e-mail. It’s like a letter without the paper. Wow, isn’t that scary? What will they think of next? It’s kind of like, listening to terrestrial radio is like using Morse code to communicate, except of course, Morse code has fewer commercials.

 

[athegymtday]

Wow Sam! Your like really knowledagble in like high tech stuff. Thank you for that like sort of hi tech info!!

 

[Rockin Rob]

I would not be surprised if some owner with a little insight and risk taking ability would start to PARTNER with some of the webcasters to put their webcasts on their stations 24/7. The website gets a free promo tool to push listeners and potential advertisers to the .com side of things and the owner outsources the station and merely helps pay for the programming and equiptment.

I could see a deal between some tanking AM station and HyLitRadio.com to bring one of Sam's channels "to the masses". Yes, the advent of internet radio will be interesting, and terrestrial radio could stand to benefit from it, as well. THEY CAN CO-EXIST, PEOPLE!!!

 

[radiohater]

I posted on the general Philly radio board earlier and just saw this 950 thread. First off, PD's have zero control of sports radio stations, so PEN could hire 50 Pd's in a row and it won't matter if management has no desire to compete.

ESPN is a cop-out - like taking bartered programming. If you don't want to compete, you don't win. We all know radio is now run by bean-counters with no radio background or knowledge except selling numbers.

It's ludicrous to think that there isn't room for another sports station in this great sports market. Dreadful sports towns like LA, Phoenix and Miami have multiple sports sticks because you can sell sports with minimal and in some cases, no numbers.

I remember when WIP was a dying MOR station and Ed Snider bought it solely to have a frequency to air Flyers and Sixers games with CAU ruling the roost with the Phillies at night. How many geniuses thought WIP would ever survive and later have a local morning guy grabbing 7 figures?

Philly is a provincial town and old bad habits die hard, but if you put a major talent on PEN in morning drive and it was compelling, PEN would get numbers and revenue. WIP had no ratings or revenue when they flipped to sports. Think Infinity wants to flip it to progressive talk or another one of the contrived "formats due jour" that music radio goes through to stay relevant?

Just look at music radio in this town. Every 6 months, multiple stations will get desperate and flip to some contrived "Alice" or "Ben" or "Jack" crap to make a ratings impact for a book or 2. We all know music radio is dead - over the air - and all dj's are eventually going to be replaced by a voice tracked guy in LA somewhere.

These boards are loaded with YSP and other stations desperation moves to find an audience, yet spoken-word is the only format that is alive because it's talent-driven and not reliant on "joe six-pack" needing to hear the same tired "classic rock" or Oldies hydrid drivel with insignificant jocks saying nothing to listeners who tune out anyway when they talk.

This ain't the 70's where dj's and catchy names of stations matter to listeners. If that were the case, stations wouldn't flip so often to grab the drifters for a few months with something "new". The WIP's and other stations with traction for decades are few and far between anymore and that is why PEN could succeed with sports if they get serious about competing.