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At What Point Will 94.7 WFME Be Sold?
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
The plot thickens as Family goes back into Philadelphia by buying 950 AM:
http://www.greatermedia.com/?p=4068
Does this mean they don't need the money from selling WFME anymore...or that they've lined up a buyer for WFME and will have some cash left over from that sale for other things?
http://www.greatermedia.com/?p=4068
Does this mean they don't need the money from selling WFME anymore...or that they've lined up a buyer for WFME and will have some cash left over from that sale for other things?
WNTIRadio suggested: said:
I think a more likely scenario is a swap with Fanmily Radio and CBS, with Family Radio getting 1010 and CBS getting 94.7. WINS could move to FM.
The company may decide to stop running two competing all-news stations and either:
(1) Move to or simulcast WFAN-660 to FM (perhaps running WFAN-FM as 24/7 local and 660 as 24/7 CBS Sports Network plus "overflow" games)
(2) Simulcast WCBS-AM (maybe becoming WZBS if those call letters are available)
While WBAI-99.5 is in deep financial straits and might be sold off, I'm not holding my breath. I think Pacifica is going to "go down fighting" to keep a station in the nation's largest metro area.
Rick B. said:
Let them buy AM 620. Isn't that station still for sale? Heck, I would rather they buy 930 if they want to keep a presence here.
With Family Radio returning to Philly I do not see them leaving NYC with out some form of replacement for WFME... I would guess they acquire a decent powered AM in the market as others have said in trade for their FM..
Joseph_Gallant said:
... and lose half its listeners between incomplete MSA coverage and not as good a signal in the high density apartments and condos and high rises in the City and surrounding areas.
Why would they kill either the 5th highest or 8th highest billing stations in the entire USA?
Any move to FM by CBS of WINS, WFAN or WCBS would probably be done in a simulcast transition form... meaning a sacrifice of one of the music formats. Unless, of course, they could get 99.5 in some form of three way deal.
Let's be real. CBS will never part with 1010. It is massively successful. Nobody is going to compete with them in all-news. Why move it to FM?
FightingIrish said:
Because they want to please Madison Avenue by attracting a younger audience?
TheBigA said:
Merlin failed by tailoring its product to a nearly non-existent demographic: young women who listen to commercial news stations. If WINS were to move to FM, it would be the same station, same format, same content, just on a band more people listen to and -- increasingly -- have equipment to tune in. Go ahead. Keep believing AM has a future. To me, the writing on the wall is hard to miss. Check back in five years.
Look, I'll miss nighttime skywave DX too. I still enjoy listening to stations from other markets. But advertisers in New York aren't buying WINS to reach people in Hartford any more than advertisers in Cincinnati are buying WLW to reach me. If the listeners are getting everything else radio offers -- music and sports, especially -- on FM, and fewer radios are being manufactured with an AM band, and kids who listen to radio are listening exclusively to FM, how does AM have a future, even in a market with entrenched "institutions" like WINS?
CTListener said:
No one is saying AM has a future, so don't make crap up.
The deal is that you can't take an older leaning format, stick the same 1960s presentation on FM, and expect the demos to drop.
WINS works at 1010 because it's audience knows where it is, and goes there for news. That's it. And they seem quite content with where it is. If it ain't broke, you don't have to fix it. CBS has much bigger issues to deal with.
TheBigA said:
Exactly. Look at WEPN. Everyone was clamoring that they MUST move to FM. They moved to FM and there was no rise in the ratings, and a sports format is a much younger leaning demo than all news. Now I'm even reading on the other board that they should have kept a simulcast on 1050. WINS is fine just where they are.
True, but look at WTOP in Washington. Like WINS, they had it on an AM signal that didn't cover the whole metro due to a directional pattern that was designed before the population spread outside the city. They put it on an FM with a full market signal and it is one of the top billers in the country.
WINS is all but useless west of the city at night. Even an improvement to 660 would help it.
WFAN would have the "prestige" of being on an FM. Of course that means the Mets are on an FM and the Yankees are not. But in any case, the billing WILL go up.
Merlin failed because the product was crap, unfocused and changed its approach every month. And there were already two excellent all news products in the market with four and a half decades of heritage each. Putting Brand X cola on in the front of the store still won't make it sell any better if Coke and Pepsi are there and taste way better. Or if Bloom-nutrition-nazi-berg decides you can't sell them anymore...
WINS is all but useless west of the city at night. Even an improvement to 660 would help it.
WFAN would have the "prestige" of being on an FM. Of course that means the Mets are on an FM and the Yankees are not. But in any case, the billing WILL go up.
Merlin failed because the product was crap, unfocused and changed its approach every month. And there were already two excellent all news products in the market with four and a half decades of heritage each. Putting Brand X cola on in the front of the store still won't make it sell any better if Coke and Pepsi are there and taste way better. Or if Bloom-nutrition-nazi-berg decides you can't sell them anymore...
You are correct! Product is the only thing that matters.WNTIRadio said:
WKTU and Z-100 did not just kick butt when they came on because they were on FM, they offered something that people wanted.
I did not have an opportunity to hear "FM News" in its native environment, since it did not last that long. I sampled them, and with a News station, it isn't fair to make a judgement based solely on a sample. But, I do know WINS, since WINS is a "Pavlov's dog" of a product - and the only game in town, for the town - I would say, they could put that signal on WNYZ and it would have listeners better than an upstart stand alone FM.
This PPM is something of a mystery to me when it comes to methodology and implementation over traditional books and phone calls. In New York, there are just too many commuters and travelers in and out of the signal of Empire for there to be an accurate consistent sample. WINS, even with its signal deficiencies, is still a 50,000 signal and outruns the FM's. But, you don't have consistent FM signal inside the Subways for FM, either. If you live on the opposite (south-eastern) side of the building in Brooklyn, you are going to have a problem if you live below the 10th floor. That is true with the south sides of buildings in Lower Manhattan. Add short-spacing to that.
None of these problems exist, in magnitude, in other markets to be a factor.
I can't help but wonder what the radio discussion landscape would look like if we had adopted Kahn's system...
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
My problem with PPM is that it counts so many people who aren't really listening as listeners. You're waiting for your car to be fixed at the garage and the sounds of one of the local classic rock stations drift over from the work area. You're barely aware that they're there but your PPM sniffs them out and voila, you wind up "listening" to that station for an hour, even if you hate classic rock and can't make out the ads over the buzzing and banging of auto repair equipment or the TV that's on in that waiting area. You stop by a neighborhood bodega for 15 or 20 minutes and the guy at the counter has his radio tuned to a Spanish-language pop station. You neither enjoy Spanish-language pop or even understand Spanish, but you, and people like you, are "listeners" as far as that blasted meter is concerned. In both situations, there's hardly a chance that advertising pitches are even being subliminally absorbed, so you are useless to the advertisers.
And yet ad agencies sell these phony-baloney numbers, full of non-listening "listeners," to their clients, and their clients accept them as gospel. Idiocy, pure idiocy. **** sapiens seems to be getting closer to scraping the bottom of the common sense/intelligence gene pool every day.
And yet ad agencies sell these phony-baloney numbers, full of non-listening "listeners," to their clients, and their clients accept them as gospel. Idiocy, pure idiocy. **** sapiens seems to be getting closer to scraping the bottom of the common sense/intelligence gene pool every day.
B
Bob1370
Guest
Interesting what people are saying about AM. Actualy, it can still be kept alive and well if it has the programming people want to listen to. (From personal experience--I work for a regional AM signal that's the main NPR affiliate for the region that does well in the Arbitrons in total audience and 35-64 demos, regularly among the top ten in a 30+ station market and higher-rated than any of its FM counterparts statewide.)
What do we need to do? In addition to programming spoken-word content intelligently, we push for the best possible technical standards we can. Forget IBOC, which works well only with the broader spectrum footprint of an FM signal. Instead, let AM stations once again transmit 50-15,000 hZ audio, allow them to at least double their power to cut through the growing amount of electrical noise generated by everything from lighting to computers, use skywave-reducing antennas to cut interference, AND police the band to make sure people actually live within their license parameters. (Too many these days are either staying on day power after dark, staying on the air past licensed signoff time, or going through the fiction of a momentary carrier cut at sunset and going right back to day pattern/power rather than doing a true pattern/power change.)
The power hike will be the most controversial but I think we'd all trade slight additional interference in fringe areas outside our markets, for a better and stronger signal within our target area.
What do we need to do? In addition to programming spoken-word content intelligently, we push for the best possible technical standards we can. Forget IBOC, which works well only with the broader spectrum footprint of an FM signal. Instead, let AM stations once again transmit 50-15,000 hZ audio, allow them to at least double their power to cut through the growing amount of electrical noise generated by everything from lighting to computers, use skywave-reducing antennas to cut interference, AND police the band to make sure people actually live within their license parameters. (Too many these days are either staying on day power after dark, staying on the air past licensed signoff time, or going through the fiction of a momentary carrier cut at sunset and going right back to day pattern/power rather than doing a true pattern/power change.)
The power hike will be the most controversial but I think we'd all trade slight additional interference in fringe areas outside our markets, for a better and stronger signal within our target area.
WNTIRadio said:
There was not an all news operation that "covered" the market with a decent 24 hour signal. CBS has 880 doing that in NYC right now.
IMHO if WINS gets 660 sooner or later there will be duplication and cannibalization and within 10 years either WCBS or WINS will not be doing all news.
Would CBS make more money by "swapping" 660 for and FM signal? A 50 KW non directional in the #1 market on a low dial position might be attractive for a Religious Operator. You could raise funds locally and have a killer signal at night.
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