For sure. They have found different ways to maximize their reach with their limited budget. Social media has helped out, too.
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98.7
- Thread starter Radio-Bored-Op
- Start date
But whether or not there's a need for a radio station isn't the issue. There's no need for there to be two all-news stations in NYC. Yet there are. There wasn't a need for additional religious stations in NYC. Yet there are. We see a number of ethnic groups around NY starting pirate radio stations to serve their specific group, and that demonstrates a need. Yet we don't see the government requiring that such a need be filled.
The way radio stations are assigned is simply on the basis of someone having the resources to buy a station, and then use those resources to present certain programming. The current owner of 98.7 has said that whoever meets his price will get the frequency. No other qualifications are required.
To be overly simplistic, the only "need" is someone or some organization to have about 30 million, and be willing to spend it on an FM frequency. That's all that's required.
Agreed but based on everything I'm reading here, no one can afford 98.7 and no one wants it. No formats will work. So either kill.the signal, go ethnic (at least Russian would be useful to someone or perhaps a Caribbean oriented station. There are hundreds of Caribbean pirates in NYC) Maybe time for a real Caribbean station...yes, no money, I know. Maybe EMF will buy it and simulcast K-love so they have 2 full power fms to push their agenda.
That's not what the owner of the signal, Jeff Smulyan, is saying. I'd believe him more than anyone here:
Ahead of Station Sale, Good Karma To End LMA Of WEPN-FM And Move ‘ESPN New York’ To AM Next Year.
With Emmis Corp. planning to divest its final two radio stations – WEPN-FM and WLIB-AM New York – Good Karma Brands will move the programming currently airing on “ESPN New
No, what you are reading is that nobody who doesn't really understand all the business mechanisms at play has identified a buyer for a station that hasn't been sold yet. Under what circumstance would anyone just surrender an asset still worth tens of millions of dollars?
There are plenty of parties that will be interested but because they don't fit snugly in the linear thinking of most participants here and know the specifics of how radio station sales work in the 2020s, they cannot identify one, that's all...
Isn't there an issue of assimilation? Yes, there are 600,000 Russian-speaking New Yorkers, who -- with their children -- fled Russian/communist oppression and, for many of them, blatant anti-Semitism. That big immigration wave took place during the '80s. Now, 35-40 years later, how many of those former Russians have mastered English (or had children that grew up speaking English) and have, as Jews, Italians, Poles and other non-(or limited)-English-speaking immigrants did in the previous century, melt into the general population and use traditional English speaking media?
While Florida's Cuban-Americans have held faster to the Spanish language -- and many believe they can return to their country once the remnants of Castro-ism are overthrown, I posit that a lot fewer former residents of Russia and Ukraine believe themselves to be only temporary US residents. As time moves on, as other immigrant groups had, their descendants will have less use for Davidzon 620, much as our we, the descendants of other European immigrants, no longer need a WOV or WEVD.
I’m merely speculating as I have zero ties to NYC. But, has anyone checked on the owners of pulse 87 and see what they’re up to nowadays? did they/do they have enough money?
Where's my J. Jonah Jameson laughing gif?
Perhaps it may make sense for WNYC to buy 98.7, use it to return WQXR to a full power signal, and then sell 105.9.
Back when they gave up 96.3 for the inferior 105.9 signal, full power stations were far more expensive. Now WNYC may be able to afford the superior signal, especially with the proceeds from selling 105.9.
Naturally an important consideration would be whether there are enough suburban fans of classical music that are willing to make donations for the opportunity to listen to it over the air.
Back when they gave up 96.3 for the inferior 105.9 signal, full power stations were far more expensive. Now WNYC may be able to afford the superior signal, especially with the proceeds from selling 105.9.
Naturally an important consideration would be whether there are enough suburban fans of classical music that are willing to make donations for the opportunity to listen to it over the air.
Didn't you bring this up before? Where would they get the money? The sale of 105.9 wouldn't do it.
They just laid off 12% of their staff.
New York Public Radio To Layoff 12% Of Its Staff - RadioInsight
New York Public Radio, the parent of Public News/Talkers 820 WNYC and 93.9 WNYC-FM New York, Classical 105.9 WQXR Newark NJ, the four station "New Jersey Public Radio" network, Gothamist.com, and the WNYC Studios podcast and syndication arm, will layoff 12 percent of its staff. In a memo shared...
radioinsight.com
To gain what exactly? Keep in mind the costs of brand awareness and getting the listeners to move when stations now have their digital platforms to reach what few listeners it would benefit.
These may be Fort Collins rimshots (Larimer and Weld counties, whose northern border is the Wyoming state line). From what I can tell from a quick search, Fort Collins-Greeley is a separate radio market but the aforementioned counties are in the Denver television DMA.
It actually is quite possible for someone in Denver to hear a station in Wyoming - I've done it - but it's not great and most listeners wouldn't put up with it. Cheyenne, in particular, is just an hour and a half away.
WFAS is about a half hour from downtown Manhattan.
Much worse ground conductivity than this part of Colorado, though.
Not the Cuban-Americans. Those are the children or, now, grandchildren of the first generation immigrants who are Cubans.
First generation immigrants in their vast majority will always be primary speakers of their birth tongue. Any English learned is secondary and seldom becomes the primary and dominant language.
That is true among those now in their 70's and 80's. The rest know the country has been utterly and thoroughly destroyed physically and mentally and would never return
Again, few if any Cubans in Florida would return now if the government changed. More likely to return are the Nicaraguans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Ecuadorians who might find at some moment that it is now safe to return and who would liklely live to a much higher standard of living "back home" than in the US. Over half of the under-55 Hispanics in Miami are not of Cuban heritage.
And we are seeing that the stations appealing to first generation Puerto Ricans (WADO) or Cubans (WQBA, WAQI, etc.) with talk and news are now nearly without listeners. Instead, to most, the "old country" is the same as the "new country": the USA.
And which Caribbean subset? The Dominicans and, to some extent, the Puerto Ricans already have their own Spanish language stations. And the coastal Venezuelans and Colombians who have totally different tastes? There is a Francophone group of Haitians (and the few from Martinique and Guadalupe who would give up being full French citizens) and the Dutch/Papiamentu speakers of the ABC Islands and part of St Martin, and Suriname. Or the English speakers of Jamaica, The Caymans and the Virgin Islands and a bunch of Lesser Antilles Islands like Trinidad?
I could go on, but there are so many subsets that share no common language or musical taste that finding a viable group to serve would be hard.
When people mean "Caribbean" in New York City, they mean non-Hispanic, English-speaking people from the Caribbean and the group of genres that they enjoy: reggae, soca, calypso, and the like.
I know radio programmers like to get hung up on details, but that kind of response kind of feels like playing dumb in context.
Those pirate stations we hear playing "Caribbean" music in the NYC area sound pretty much the same to me. I suppose it is dominated by Jamaica, with some other island nation ethnic groups like Trinidad, Bahamas, etc. I'm sure they don't all have the exact same taste in music and they can probably distinguish their accents down to the island, but one station, if programmed right, could likely please them.
After all, WSKQ seems to capture Spanish-speaking listeners from different countries. I was in a Lyft recently and the driver had WSKQ, WXNY and WPAT as his station line up (with WKTU and WQHT in the list as well). When WSKQ went into a break, he'd switch to WXNY or WPAT. I didn't ask where he was from but now I wish I had.
Side note: It was a two days before Christmas. I was surprised to hear WSKQ play "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee while I was in the car! It was the only English-language song I heard.
After all, WSKQ seems to capture Spanish-speaking listeners from different countries. I was in a Lyft recently and the driver had WSKQ, WXNY and WPAT as his station line up (with WKTU and WQHT in the list as well). When WSKQ went into a break, he'd switch to WXNY or WPAT. I didn't ask where he was from but now I wish I had.
Side note: It was a two days before Christmas. I was surprised to hear WSKQ play "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee while I was in the car! It was the only English-language song I heard.
The issue here is how many English speaking Caribbean folks are there in the metro? And how many like the same kind of music? I suspect that, as others have mentioned, these are groups best served with streams and not OTA radio.
Mostly Dominicans. The music is highly focused on Dominican tastes, and Dominicans make up the vast majority of Spanish speaking people in the 18-49 demo (the one most used for Black and Hispanic buys). There are relatively few Spanish dominant Puerto Ricans in New York in that demo, as the migration from the Island ended in the late 1960's. And the other groups, like Ecuadorians, Mexicans, etc. are all too small to support a station. Again, within each national origin, there are many different subsets of people who like totally different kinds of music and radio programming.
Betcha' the person was Dominican. About 4 to 1 odds that they were, and if listening to those stations, even higher odds.
Strange. It was not a hit anywhere in Latin America; back in the 60's "Christmas trees" were pretty much unknown in that region and the holiday was Reyes (Three Kings Day) and not Christmas. Christmas was a religious date like Easter Sunday, but gifts were given on January 6th.
Very strange song to have played!
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