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ALL NEWS FM--NYC

J

jayedwards

Guest
anyone recall WNWS-FM--97.1 -- all news in the 1970's? it was quite bad and lasted only two years I think. it was the NBC news and information service. some other stations picked it up too around the country. good idea-- but poorly executed. maybe stations will try news on FM--HD2 and HD3 channels and even HD1 in years to come! hope so!
 
I had mentioned this in the thread moving CBS-AM to their FM. I would say by today's standards it wasn't all that great, but there were stations that went with the format and executed it well. I have an aircheck in my collection of a station in the Midwest (the tape is packed up so I can't be more specific) that sound very professional and wasn't "all over the place" with the formatics. Unless the aircheck was a fluke in the station's programming it was very listenable. I have to admit my memory is a little hazy on the former WNWS. I think the only snippet of an aircheck I have of it was an anouncement stating "... if you're looking for WNBC-FM have we got news for you - this is NewsTalk 97, WNWS-FM" which is the only audio I have from the day. I do have the NBC News & Information service jingle package I got on a trade with another collector but nothing else specific from WNWS-FM.



Bill
CapitalRadio.us
 
WCBS would lose out greatly by going to FM...the 880 signal has a HUGE radius. We pick it up like a local here in Northern CT.
 
jayedwards said:
anyone recall WNWS-FM--97.1 -- all news in the 1970's? it was quite bad and lasted only two years I think. it was the NBC news and information service. some other stations picked it up too around the country. good idea-- but poorly executed. maybe stations will try news on FM--HD2 and HD3 channels and even HD1 in years to come! hope so!
Click to expand...

I remember WNWS-FM quite well. Seeing the success that CBS and Westinghouse had with all-news formats on their key O&O stations, NBC decided to try an all-news network as a way to allow stations in small and medium markets to try that format. The high cost and labor intensiveness of the all-news format deterred a lot of stations from trying it on their own; in fact, it took ten years for Westinghouse to turn a profit on WINS and sister station KYW after flipping them to all-news. NBC's news network was called the News and Information Service (NIS). Since New York already had two successful all-news AM stations, nobody wanted to take the NIS affiliation, so NBC put it on WNBC-FM, which had minuscule ratings at the time. The station, which became WNWS-FM, was branded as "News FM" and "Newscenter 97", the latter designed to resemble the "Newscenter 4" branding of the WNBC-TV newscasts at that time.

NIS was a dismal failure. The biggest problem with NIS is that the network was very stingy with avails. Affiliates were allowed only eight local minutes per hour. Those eight minutes would include local spots, news, and weather. Since people want local news on news-oriented radio stations, NIS offered them little, especially in markets like New York, where competing all-news stations served up plenty of local news, weather, and traffic.

NBC pulled the plug on NIS in New York before discontinuing the service nationally and WNWS-FM quietly changed to AC-formatted WYNY, "New York 97". Country did not come to WYNY for about ten or eleven years after that switch.

Don't look for any new all-news stations in New York. The format is very expensive to produce and there are already three such stations on the air in the market: WCBS, WINS, and WBBR. Mega Communications tried to add one in Spanish, WNNY (1380 AM, "Noticias Nueva York"), but it failed after a very short time. WBBR remains only because Mayor Bloomberg has deep pockets and it is a promotional tool for his financial news service. Eventually, the bean counters at CBS might wonder if it is worthwhile to combine WCBS and WINS into a single all-news service on the stronger of the two frequencies (880 for signal coverage, although 1010 gets better ratings) and either sell the other station or flip it to a different format.
 
I think the question is not whether there should be another News station in NYC but whether WCBS FM should simlulcast the AM.

Or consider this... WCBS AM converts to News Talk (taking some of the Free FM shows), and WCBS FM becomes the full time News station, simulcast WINS?

But the quesiton of the hour is, what will happen to CBS FM, since everyone agrees that the current format is a dog.
 
Is it hard to get WCBS 880 while in the office at all? So would it be easier to listen to them on FM instead of AM. But I think News Talk WCBS should stay on 880 as at night AM goes far. I can hear WCBS 880 in SC when I am down their. Even when I am home on Central Connecticut it comes in great.

Now what to do with WCBS-FM its been said before by me and others. CBS Radio has just got to wake up and do something big which they can but don't want to for some reason. WCBS-FM would be a great place for CBS Radio to build at strong AC to compete with Clear Channel's 106.7 Lite FM WLTW. Sunny 101.1 "New Yorks soft rock from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and Today". Sunny 101.1 lets burn out Lite FM from your #1 present and make Sunny your new #1 for Soft Rock Hits.
 
Ken said:
Is it hard to get WCBS 880 while in the office at all? So would it be easier to listen to them on FM instead of AM. But I think News Talk WCBS should stay on 880 as at night AM goes far. I can hear WCBS 880 in SC when I am down their. Even when I am home on Central Connecticut it comes in great.

Now what to do with WCBS-FM its been said before by me and others. CBS Radio has just got to wake up and do something big which they can but don't want to for some reason. WCBS-FM would be a great place for CBS Radio to build at strong AC to compete with Clear Channel's 106.7 Lite FM WLTW. Sunny 101.1 "New Yorks soft rock from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and Today". Sunny 101.1 lets burn out Lite FM from your #1 present and make Sunny your new #1 for Soft Rock Hits.
Click to expand...

Funny, why does this "Sunny 101.1" thing keep on comming back up?
 
YES--I too wish some station would at least try to challenge---LITE FM! (I make my dentists and doctors flip from LITE FM to WQXR when I'm there!) (my lawyer already airs WQXR in his office!)
 
Sounds like CBS could maximize the all news punch by combining the 2 stations under the WINS call sign, and running the 1010 format on 880. They then could sell off 1010 to someone else...880-WINS, ayone??


Dave Gardiner

WVCH 740/WNWR 1540

Philadelphia
 
I doubt WCBS-am880 will flip to another format such as news/talk. Their ratings with all-news are not great but the station still makes good $$$$!!!!! (just for my information-- does anyone count the number of errors John and Sue make during Yankees games? seems to be getting worse! but they do provide needed humor! I love it when Sue says something like--- Jeter's balls go to all fields!!!!!!)
 
WCBS 880 might not be big in New York City but WINS 1010 takes care of that. WCBS 880 gets it ratings from out of the city such as in parts of Connecticut, on Long Island, New Jeresy.
 
O'kay here what they should do:


WINS 1010 - becomes WINS 1010 - Oldies/Yankees or All Talk/Yankees

WCBS 880 - stays the same minus Yankees

WCBS FM - becomes WINS FM 101.1 - All News

WNEW FM - Stays the same...

WFNY FM - becomes Liter than Lite-FM


1010 WINS with the greatest music of all time...
 
i rather a talk fm with like glenn beck and local stuff something less newstalk then wabc but 100x better than wor ans throw sports on it like the giants or devils mke it good. nyc has wabc and wor and they air boring shows it be better with a fm talker not like free fm thats airs trash. free fm should kill off the afternoon talk pay rock with O-A in the morning like when stern was on. hopefully the stations change and nyc has good radio soon.
 
wabc860 said:
O'kay here what they should do:


WINS 1010 - becomes WINS 1010 - Oldies/Yankees or All Talk/Yankees

WCBS 880 - stays the same minus Yankees

WCBS FM - becomes WINS FM 101.1 - All News

WNEW FM - Stays the same...

WFNY FM - becomes Liter than Lite-FM


1010 WINS with the greatest music of all time...
Click to expand...

Or switch the calls between 1010 and 880, so you have:
WINS 880 - All News, All the Time
1010 WCBS - The Greatest Hits of All Time
 
as long as I get my 10 min traffic and live WEATHER updates on one of the stations, which would include fairfield county CT I could care less if any swiches uccur on 880 or 1010

JoeyBagODonuts said:
wabc860 said:
O'kay here what they should do:


WINS 1010 - becomes WINS 1010 - Oldies/Yankees or All Talk/Yankees

WCBS 880 - stays the same minus Yankees

WCBS FM - becomes WINS FM 101.1 - All News

WNEW FM - Stays the same...

WFNY FM - becomes Liter than Lite-FM


1010 WINS with the greatest music of all time...
Click to expand...

Or switch the calls between 1010 and 880, so you have:
WINS 880 - All News, All the Time
1010 WCBS - The Greatest Hits of All Time
Click to expand...
 
WINS 1010 - same

WCBS 880 - same

WCBS FM - rock with a change in call letters something 2 incorperate this : 101.1 The Edge New York's NEW Rock!

WNEW FM - Oldies with a call letter change to incorperate this: Fox 102.7 Good Times...Great Oldies!

WFNY FM - Country- Y-92 New York's Country!
 
It does seem funny that Infinity has allowed both news stations to operate seamingly intact for so long without much futzing. They can obviously sell them and their audience reach is quite good, garnering ratings well into the Connecticut area. With that in mind, unless they were to simulcast the AM on an FM channel I would doubt they would completely move the news format off of AM.

WTOP in Washington DC simulcasts on AM and FM, but from what recall their FM took a beating for awhile before they decided to kill the music format on it.

I can pretty much bet on one thing - CBS Radio/Infinity isn't bringing back oldies to the NY market until Manhattan freezes over like a ice cube!


Bill
 
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