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Bet the farm PEN flips to Real Oldies once again

S

StemCell

Guest
Probably by Labor Day, GM will pull the plug on Sports and go either satellite or VT, with the cheaper oldies format to run.....Oldies is a prime target to relish and with no other game in town but OGL keep a watch on 950. I just hope its done better than before and they play a nice variety circa 1970's when they were reborn.
 
Bet the farm they have to honor a contract with ESPN before they decide to go in another direction.
 
StemCell said:
Probably by Labor Day, GM will pull the plug on Sports and go either satellite or VT, with the cheaper oldies format to run
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Sounds unlikely to me. ESPN has been doing what it takes to improve its coverage in the Northeast and with WPEN now holding a CP to increase its daytime power to almost 50 kW, ESPN's letting WPEN get away seems highly improbable. Here in Boston, the local ESPN affiliate, the simulcast of WAMG (Dedham) and WLLH (Lowell and Lawrence), has been STRONGLY rumored to be definitely flipping several times in the past year. Never happened. And WAMG recently increased its night power from 3.4 kW to 6 kW. Down your way, WEPN 1050 in NYC (I know its an ABC O&O, which is not true of either WAMG/WLLH or WPEN) is LMAing 1040 in central NJ and an FM in eastern Long Island to beef up WEPN's coverage in areas where WFAN has a decent signal but WEPN does not. ESPN needs the Philly market; ABC will do what it has to do to keep WPEN in the fold. I believe you can bet on THAT!
 
Nah. I think Greater Media has invested too much in this sports format. something i do think would be funny is if WJJZ and WPEN swapped formats. it would make sense. put the sports format on the much better but still not great 97.5 FM signal and then keep the few, aging smooth jazz fans happy by keeping the format alive on AM.
 
Interstate 78 said:
Nah. I think Greater Media has invested too much in this sports format. something i do think would be funny is if WJJZ and WPEN swapped formats. it would make sense. put the sports format on the much better but still not great 97.5 FM signal and then keep the few, aging smooth jazz fans happy by keeping the format alive on AM.
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That makes no sense at all. Say what you want about Smooth Jazz and its anemic ratings and aging demos, but it's music and sports is talk. If one is going to suffer in sound quality, it should be talk. If a station owns an AM and an FM, it makes absolutely no sense to put talk on the FM and music on the AM, no matter what the demos of each.

Sports on FM might make sense, but not with music on a sister AM.
 
GM made the switch to oldies on lower powered AM's with dwindling revenue. Especially on WCTC, where they were running the expensive N/T format.

ESPN needs the Philadelphia affiliate. I'm sure WPEN was given a sweet deal to drop Fox for the equally low rated ESPN.

They are not upgrading their signal in order to air music on AM. They are going after the broadcast rights of a major franchise, like the Phillies or Eagles.
 
As long as Disney is paying the bills, bet the farm 'PEN ain't goin' nowhere but where they are right now.

They have equally as many problems on WJJZ. You want cheap oldies? Put it there. Smooth Jazz isn't cutting it, either.
 
A format like smooth jazz would sound like crap on AM (without HD), since that format is made for high fidelity. A format like oldies would work on AM since many of the songs were made for AM radio and records. Sports would work because if it's the only outlet for a game, fans will listen, and AM stations go far at night.
 
78...First of all, Cincinnati is a LARGE market, not a major one. Secondly, living in Cincinnati as I do, I can tell you that WCIN is a complete NON-factor. They cume about 25-30K per week and there's no sign of any growth. This station was the first African-American station in the market dating back to the late 40s. It's been mostly abandoned by that demographic, but it's audience is now 70% African-American. WCIN at 1480 kHz has a third-tier daytime signal, and a terrible nighttime signal. They'd be smart to go to a talk format, but someone in that organization has a Smooth Jazz Jones and isn't thinking clearly.
 
Interstate 78 said:
The major market of Cincinnati has a smooth jazz station on AM ...
It's not so far fetched. See www.wcinam.com
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That AM in Cincinnati is the only station that company owns in that market. So, it makes much more sense than what's speculated here - moving a sports format to FM and a Smooth Jazz format to AM within the same cluster.
 
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