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All news in Atl.

S

secondchoice

I guess the lack of market covering signals will keep Atlanta as the largest market without an 24 hour all news source. I will admit there are some over night hours in the Houston Radio One's all news station that are not news, but is Atlanta really only going to get it's afternoon Radio news in two 2 or 3 min. newscasts sandwiched between a Fox News infomercial*. Even the folks in the Triad market of Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point (Market #43 and or #46) are getting a hybrid:

http://www.radio-info.com/news/north-carolinas-curtis-media-makes-talk-changes-in-raleigh-greensboro


*I was mistaken, it was Hannity not a Fox News / GOP infomercial. Rush or Bortz are more entertaining.

I know this is a long post but I wish 1010 would get their night signal to cover the market. There is a "window" for a signal to cover ALL of the north part of the market with 1010 in Asheville going "D", land prices low and a successful All News operator (CBS) in the market to LMA or buy WGUN.

Or 750 all news, 95.5 remains Talk.
 
Secondchoice: Some may remember the attempt at "all news" the Rivers family did on WGUN back in the 80's. I am lacking sufficient vocabulary to properly describe what an abortion that attempt turned out to be.
I doubt CBS, or any other real radio company, would be interested in a signal which does not cover the entire market 24/7. Most major companies have no interest in acquiring new AMs anyway......especially those with no signal and/or billing.
Cox, IMHO, should split programming on the AM and FM after PM drive. Put all the junior league talent (Eric Erickson, overnight guy etc.) on the FM at night and find some national, first seed talent for the AM overnights. Maybe even do a whole new approach to AM overnights....dump the political talk and try something different.
 
CBS's Dallas all news operation is not all that old, less than 5 years IIRC. One thing about an AM operation, except for construction and land costs (which is still at a surprising low) you will not be in the hole mega bucks like a class C FM would cost.* I am afraid with WGUN's ownership's legal issues dragging out for years, they most likely can not get 250 watt translator @ 900 to 1000 ft like Cumulus has for 680.

*BTW How much would a C2 with decent Atlanta coverage sell for these days. Unless there is another bankruptcy of an over leveraged operator, or 94.1 is sold (either to Cumulus or CBS) I do not see any of the in-town C0 or C1's being sold.
 
Can somebody please explain to me this obsession some people have with the NEED of putting "all news radio" on the air in Atlanta?!?!?!

It seems to me that WSB does a pretty good job of providing all the radio news anybody in Atlanta needs and now has a pretty decent FM signal. I just don't see anyone else having the resources to compete with what WSB already has in place.

Am I missing something?
 
All News on WGUN???? :eek: Great daytime signal, after local sunset not so much ! 78 watts.. Decatur and Emory would have a signal, and if they ever stream again then maybe. All News would be nice to have again, but most disagree with my opnions anyway! AND by the way.. Taylor pegged another point of mine.. Erik Erikson needs to be put in overnights.. GOD Hes just annoying !
 
taylorengineer said:
Secondchoice: Some may remember the attempt at "all news" the Rivers family did on WGUN back in the 80's. I am lacking sufficient vocabulary to properly describe what an abortion that attempt turned out to be.
I doubt CBS, or any other real radio company, would be interested in a signal which does not cover the entire market 24/7. Most major companies have no interest in acquiring new AMs anyway......especially those with no signal and/or billing.
Cox, IMHO, should split programming on the AM and FM after PM drive. Put all the junior league talent (Eric Erickson, overnight guy etc.) on the FM at night and find some national, first seed talent for the AM overnights. Maybe even do a whole new approach to AM overnights....dump the political talk and try something different.
Click to expand...

When I moved to Atlanta in 1994, WGUN had just started a talk format. They had Larry King in afternoon drive and some stuff from the (then) WSB Radio Network, including (I think) Ludlow Porch. The format lasted a very short time. The station dropped it, announcing they didn't have the resources to market it versus WSB and WGST.
 
lilburncommunityradio said:
All News on WGUN???? :eek: Great daytime signal, after local sunset not so much ! 78 watts.. Decatur and Emory would have a signal, and if they ever stream again then maybe. All News would be nice to have again, but most disagree with my opnions anyway! AND by the way.. Taylor pegged another point of mine.. Erik Erikson needs to be put in overnights.. GOD Hes just annoying !
Click to expand...
Upping critical hours to 45k was a big improvement, but they have GOT to do something about nights, if they can, otherwise they will continue to be a bit player. 25k directional from the right location would do it...IF it can be done.

Is it possible that some big radio company could do some musical chairs and put a second class A clear in ATL? Kind of like what Inner City did with 1190 WLIB getting its class A (or at least the ability to up their power at night) from WOWO? Heck, could Salem grab it from (bankrupt) Inner City for WAFS?
 
lilburncommunityradio said:
All News on WGUN???? :eek: Great daytime signal, after local sunset not so much ! 78 watts.. Decatur and Emory would have a signal, and if they ever stream again then maybe. All News would be nice to have again, but most disagree with my opnions anyway! AND by the way.. Taylor pegged another point of mine.. Erik Erikson needs to be put in overnights.. GOD Hes just annoying !
Click to expand...

There was a post (when the ownership of WGUN was settled between the various factions of the family) that the manager was quoted as saying they were going to get 25KW nights. IIRC 1010 is a Canadian Clear. 1010 works in NYC with a 50 KW and a 4 tower pattern:

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WINS&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

The Asheville (Black Mountain) 1010 station is in the process of selling their land to the next door Ingles distribution center and will class D and duplex on another AM tower. That RF night time sky wave (space) will be open.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFGW&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

Just looking at a map , if WGUN builds a antenna farm around Cartersville (something close to WINS only aimed southeast) and can stay south of Greenville SC at night, they should pose no interference issues to 1010 in NYC or anything in Canada. They might have to go 50 KW to put the required signal over Atlanta. They could even "play" with their City of license, but they could have a good nighttime signal in most if not all the Northern suburbs plus Atlanta. Your mileage may vary.

Everything is in place for WGUN: ownership settled, cheap bank owned land, and a Class B to north giving up their night time sky wave. Even if somebody beat them to all news, they could run True Oldies, Comedy or even 24 hours of paid religion. I realize this up grade will some thing short of a million, but I bet they could make at least that much in a year after the construction costs.
 
I don't think anyone would spend the money needed even if another clear could be moved to Atlanta. Why would you spend millions for an AM? Same with the WGUN night potential.....sure...if you spend enough money you can probably get 50 KW at night. But how could you recapture the money invested?
WSB AM moved to FM because the AM medium is dying. Young people, as a group, do not listen to AM radio. Sports talk formats are the only ones with peeps < 54 and those are mostly white males. I just don't think Hogan, Dickey, and Mason are interested in acquiring more AM stations.....especially considering they can't figure out how to effectively program all of their FMs.
I agree that there is no further need for "all news" in Atlanta.
Why do we have so much trouble thinking outside the box when it comes to radio and programming? Is there anyone out there with a programming idea which doesn't involve playing music or reading news? Anyone? <crickets chirping......>
 
So why has no one attempted comedy in Atlanta?
Funny 102.5, in Kansas City, Missouri, had a 2.7 6+ in the last trend - down from a 2.9 in 01-12. It appears this is programming from the 24/7 Comedy Radio Network (who I can not find when I Google them.)
Kansas City is a different critter I admit. Top station 6+ is an oldies format and the #2 is a Classic Rocker. Lily white....church goin' Baptists....maybe K.C. offers the perfect demos for such a format.
But I still see comedy as a much better approach than the other formats Cumulus has offered in Atlanta - especially on the translators.
 
taylorengineer said:
So why has no one attempted comedy in Atlanta?
Funny 102.5, in Kansas City, Missouri, had a 2.7 6+ in the last trend - down from a 2.9 in 01-12. It appears this is programming from the 24/7 Comedy Radio Network (who I can not find when I Google them.)
Kansas City is a different critter I admit. Top station 6+ is an oldies format and the #2 is a Classic Rocker. Lily white....church goin' Baptists....maybe K.C. offers the perfect demos for such a format.
But I still see comedy as a much better approach than the other formats Cumulus has offered in Atlanta - especially on the translators.
Click to expand...

IMHO KC does have better BBQ.

KC is 12.6% Black, 6.2% Hispanic almost 20% minority vs. 30.4% Black, 8.5% Hispanic near 40% minority in Atlanta. So if only the "lily white Baptist" listen, then on half of 2.7 divided by 2 = 1.35 which would sandwich you between WGST and WNNX. Not to bad for an AM.

BTW does WGUN "encode" for Arbitron? I have never seen them listed in Arbitron.
 
WGUN used to encode for PPM - I'm not sure if they still do. There are other Atlanta stations who encode but do not show in the book.
I don't think comedy would work on an AM signal without lots of advertising to properly position the new format. Too much outlay for too little return. I do think Cumulus could gain some traction using that format on 97.9 but would still need to do lot's of guerilla marketing to build an audience.
The numbers for a comedy channel just have to be better than the ones they're getting with the current music formats. 97.9 has a reasonably good signal and has the ability to do much better. Wrong decision to challenge WSB-FM or any other established music station. I was surprised they did not put the comedy format on when they started.......it was whispered around town that they might go in that direction. 99X must have been the Dickey brothers favorite party station.....it's hard to believe they had solid research telling them that format was going to fly higher than what they have now.
I don't know much about KC BBQ - they use beef instead of pig....correct? I'm always ready to further my career through ongoing BBQ training.......
 
taylorengineer said:
I don't know much about KC BBQ - they use beef instead of pig....correct? I'm always ready to further my career through ongoing BBQ training.......
Click to expand...

KC is in the Beef BBQ triangle: Missouri, Colorado, Texas. There are a bunch great BBQ joints in KC. If a joint has bars on the windows or a dirt parking lot then the BBQ is great.
 
secondchoice said:
taylorengineer said:
I don't know much about KC BBQ - they use beef instead of pig....correct? I'm always ready to further my career through ongoing BBQ training.......
Click to expand...

KC is in the Beef BBQ triangle: Missouri, Colorado, Texas. There are a bunch great BBQ joints in KC. If a joint has bars on the windows or a dirt parking lot then the BBQ is great.
Click to expand...

KC barbecue and Texas barbecue are 2 different things. The third genre is North Carolina barbecue.
 
taylorengineer said:
So why has no one attempted comedy in Atlanta?
Funny 102.5, in Kansas City, Missouri, had a 2.7 6+ in the last trend - down from a 2.9 in 01-12. It appears this is programming from the 24/7 Comedy Radio Network (who I can not find when I Google them.)
Kansas City is a different critter I admit. Top station 6+ is an oldies format and the #2 is a Classic Rocker. Lily white....church goin' Baptists....maybe K.C. offers the perfect demos for such a format.
But I still see comedy as a much better approach than the other formats Cumulus has offered in Atlanta - especially on the translators.
Click to expand...

A format hole is identified based on two main research questions--whadyya like, and is there a "really good" station doing that exact thing now. So my guess would be (since there's no comedy station) that there's no demand for it (the whole "whaddya like" question). Meaning anyone going that way would likely fail.
 
Comedy might make some sense on one of the translator signals. Those small signals really need to do something different to gain any traction. And Cumulus just might have a vacant one soon.

What Comedy could bill, which probably would not be much, would not be in line with the billings potential of a full FM. But it might work on a translator.
 
The format has been demonstrated to work (to some extent) in at least one other market. So we could start with that.
How exactly could you determine demand for a product (or format) which does not currently exist. "Whaddya like" answers are defined mainly by what is familiar.
The execution of a comedy format would be critical. A Bill Mayher, abrasive, elitist, "if you're not laughing it's because you're stupid" approach would quickly fail in Atlanta and a booger eatin' Redneck Comedy Tour approach would struggle with demographics. Finding the right balance...and genuinely funny hosts who do not alienate people with political/social tripe is the secret.
 
So, what does a 50kw AM daytimer have that a 5kw or 1kw AM daytimer doesn't have?

They both have no listeners, so the answer is: A bigger light bill.

I guess you could cry about it or laugh about it. So, we have another vote for comedy. :D
 
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