Atlanta's Lack of News on the Radio

[Gregg]

I hope the new All-News station in Houston works out. I can't imagine a large market with no All-News station. Even if you don't care much about news, what about Traffic & Weather Together Every Ten Minutes? You could be listening to Rush or Neil Boortz on WSB and drive right into a major traffic jam because WSB won't break in for traffic 6 times per hour as an All-News station does.

That said, the South and Southwest are terrible places for All-News stations. The only All-News station in a large Southern or Southwest city is CBS's KRLD Dallas which is #21. That's it. No other All-News station exists in a large Southern or Southwest city, not Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, etc. Why can CBS figure out how to do All-News so successfully in other regions but can't figure it out in Dallas?

And there's no Talk station in the Top 10 in any of the largest Southern or Southwest cities except for WSB. No Talk station makes the Top 10 in Dallas, Houston, Miami or Phoenix. (I'm leaving LA and San Diego out of my definition of large Southern and Southwest cities.) We could debate why. But it seems to be true that Southern and Southwest radio listeners only want music from their radios.


Gregg
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[secondchoice]

How long KRLD been all news? IIRC it has been less than 3 years.

 

[littlejohn]

It's interesting how posts diverge.... The mention of country was initially a 'here's one which wopuld do as well as or better tthan all news and it's cheaper', the same could be said of several fornats. The point being, someone who wanted to try all news while Cox own the perception best have very deep pockets. From a business point of view it wouldn't be a good choice. As to the Praise signal, I notice it's been third or fourth in the market 12+ fopr a while now. If you build it, they <will> come.

 

[jabba17]

#2 What if the 1010 AM proposed night time 25 KW signal works out to cover most of the market at night* would CBS buy or LMA it for all news? I personally think 92.9 would work better but for some reason ( I guess somebody has pictures of somebody doing something) CBS still trying music.

*I personally feel it could. 1010 in NYC works and they are closer to Canada.

I'd love to see WGUN do it...but can they for a reasonable amount of money? They couldn't do it from their existing facility...they'd have to go north/west of town to put in a multitower array, at least at night (they could keep the existing stick for day/CH).

If they can get a decent pattern with decent northside coverage, that signal will be worth a lot of money (albeit not what it would have been worth 10 or especially 20 years ago). AM is slowly dying, but a lot of that is due to interference and poor quality night signals. But a 25kW DA night signal in this town still ought to be worth a decent amount, as long as the pattern is decent and doesn't omit, say, most of Gwinnett County (I'm looking at you, WCNN) or stay mostly south of I-20 (well hello, WAOK and WQXI).

I'd see such a signal get snapped up by CC or Cumulus or CBS directly. But for all-news? Here's what I would predict: Such a signal would become a sportstalker (unless CC picked it up and put Beck/Rush/Hannity on it and did something else with WGST, maybe all-news or sportstalk, but I doubt that since WGST booms during the day with its bottom-of-the-dial signal and I don't think CC would put their talk lineup on a weaker station), and then Quixie or WCNN would go all-news.

 

[FLjack2]

#2 What if the 1010 AM proposed night time 25 KW signal works out to cover most of the market at night* would CBS buy or LMA it for all news?

Anyone who put an all news station on an AM signal today is destined to fail. AM is dead. I defy anyone to find an "unknown" AM station that changed format and made it big in the past 10 years. Even heritage stations like WSB, WTOP and WBBM are moving to FM.

 

[secondchoice]

#2 What if the 1010 AM proposed night time 25 KW signal works out to cover most of the market at night* would CBS buy or LMA it for all news?

Anyone who put an all news station on an AM signal today is destined to fail. AM is dead. I defy anyone to find an "unknown" AM station that changed format and made it big in the past 10 years. Even heritage stations like WSB, WTOP and WBBM are moving to FM.

I agree AM is limited (especially with the soil conditions in North Georgia), but there is a severe lack of market covering signals (AM and FM) in Atlanta. WCNN got an FM translator but still is not really increased in the 6+:

http://www.radio-info.com/stations/wcnn-am

WQXI with out a FM translator has increased (6+) even with the on set of early sunset making them go directional early:

http://www.radio-info.com/stations/wqxi-am

IMHO Unique programming (in this case the Falcons pre and post game shows) will "make" interested listenors put up with a little static. I personally would stream and have a good app. WGST, WVEE, and WHTA's stream showed up in the last 6+ arbitron. Even with the "colapase" of station prices any market covering 24 hour signal in Atlanta is of great value. There are less than 15 of them.

BTW WTOP AM (now WFED) had "challenged" night time signal to the western suburbs

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

Don't worry Jabba: David Eduardo (who lurks these boards) might post soon with all kinds of reasearch and figures to prove me wrong!

 

[secondchoice]

From today's (Friday Dec. 2 2011) big story on this site this morning: Cumulus has flipped KGO to all news. That gives the #4 market 2 all news outlets. 106.7 (a full class C) without the stereo pilot would work better than 95.5. I just never thought of Cumulus as a all news operator. Assuming Citadel did not severely mess up the old ABC radio news gathering abilities, this might work.

 

[secondchoice]

That said, the South and Southwest are terrible places for All-News stations.

But it seems to be true that Southern and Southwest radio listeners only want music from their radios.

Atlanta has a lot of transplants. Of my neighbors, two are from Michigan (I can't blame them!), One from Pittsburgh, an two from New England via Florida. My wife and I are the only adults born South of the Mason Dixon Line on our street. I know this is extreme but just what is the percentage of "southern born" folks are in the Atlanta Market?

 

[amos]

Atlanta has a lot of transplants... but just what is the percentage of "southern born" folks are in the Atlanta Market?

yeah the old joke went "people from atlanta don't know how to drive" answer: "how would you know? nobody FROM atlanta lives there anymore."

 

[FLjack2]

From today's (Friday Dec. 2 2011) big story on this site this morning: Cumulus has flipped KGO to all news. That gives the #4 market 2 all news outlets. 106.7 (a full class C) without the stereo pilot would work better than 95.5. I just never thought of Cumulus as a all news operator. Assuming Citadel did not severely mess up the old ABC radio news gathering abilities, this might work.

Not really. KGO will be all news from 2pm-12mid. Of course, morning drive is all news, too, from 4am-9am. From 9am to 2pm they are still running talk.