Birmingham Now Has Five Spoken Word Commercial FM Stations

[Gregg.]

Isn't this odd? Most markets have one or no spoken word stations on FM. None in Houston. Los Angeles has one, a Religion station. And Dallas has one, a Sports station. But Birmingham now has three talk stations and two sports stations on FM...

105.5 WERC-FM...iHeart Media...Talk (Rush, Hannity, Beck)...30,000 watts
101.1 WYDE-FM...Crawford Broadcasting...Talk (local hosts, Ramsey, Ingraham)...100,000 watts
100.5 WJQX...Cumulus...ESPN Sports...70,000 watts
99.5 WZRR (simulcast WAPI)...Cumulus...Talk (local hosts, Savage, Levin)...100,000 watts
94.5 WJOX...Cumulus...Sports (local hosts, CBS Sports)...100,000 watts

That still leaves plenty of music stations on FM. But most owners believe it costs less and yields better demos to play music on FM, not talk. In the last couple of years, iHeart has withdrawn simulcast Talk formats in several markets such as San Diego and Tuscon, leaving Talk on the AM but putting a music format on the FM, figuring even if the FM does only so-so, it will still make more money selling different ads on two stations instead of having only one revenue stream from an AM-FM Talk combo.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

105.5 WERC-FM...iHeart Media...Talk (Rush, Hannity, Beck)...30,000 watts (COL Hoover, transmitter atop Red Mountain) Radio-Locator map
101.1 WYDE-FM...Crawford Broadcasting...Talk (local hosts, Ramsey, Ingraham)...100,000 watts (COL Cullman, transmitter near Good Hope) Radio-Locator map
100.5 WJQX...Cumulus...ESPN Sports...70,000 watts (COL Helena, transmitter in West Blocton) Radio-Locator map
99.5 WZRR (simulcast WAPI)...Cumulus...Talk (local hosts, Savage, Levin)...100,000 watts (COL Birmingham, transmitter atop Red Mountain) Radio-Locator map
94.5 WJOX...Cumulus...Sports (local hosts, CBS Sports)...100,000 watts (COL Birmingham, transmitter atop Red Mountain) Radio-Locator map

Could WZRR change its callsign to WAPI-FM? From an earlier thread:

Is "News Talk 99.5, WAPI-FM" just over the horizon? Citadel fared very well moving the 'Jox sports programming off of 100.5 to the stronger 94.5 signal. Since WAPI-FM [then on 100.5] seems to be stuck in neutral, would moving the WAPI talk programming to the stronger 99.5 signal work wonders as well?

 

[Poledo]

iHeart and Crawford's full power FM signals seem normal. The surprise is Cumulus' three 100kw FM Talk/News/Sports stations in a single market with viable AMs available.

 

[tomservo]

I expect the tend to continue in medium markets that are over saturated with signals. Music is slowly losing to online streaming and it's more profitable probably when it's on a 250 watt translator verses a 100,000 watt signal.

I think if you look at similar sized markets to Birmingham, you'll find a lot more FM talk than in major markets where signals are at a premium.

Huntsville has three talkers, Montgomery has three, Mobile three or four depending on how generous you're feeling.

 

[purpledevil]

None in Houston? 97-5 KFNC (ESPN) and 100-7 KKHT (Salem's The Word) would count as spoken word. Both are rimshots to Houston, coming from the Beaumont area, but serve the Houston/Galveston MSA. I'm actually surprised we don't have more of them in H-Town.

 

[Charles35080]

If the WAPI-FM calls were to end up on 99.5, it would mean a full circle for both the call sign and the frequency. Up until 1963 or 1964, the original WAPI-FM was on 99.5 before moving to 94.5, where those call letters remained until 1994, when CHR I-95 became Hot AC Mix 94.5 (WMXQ). Then in '96, the call letters were changed to WYSF before morphing to WJOX-FM in '06.

Given that the branding of the station is Talk 99.5, I don't know that it would be necessary to change to call signs to WAPI-FM. Even though the WAPI call signs have been in Birmingham since the '20's, they don't carry the same gravitas that they once did. WAPI has been an afterthought in this market for at least 20 years, either on 1070 or during the time WAPI was simulcast on 100.5 and 1070.

 

[passtheword]

I don't believe Cumulus is going to change 99.5's call sign to WAPI-FM. The article on al.com regarding the format change mentioned "the WZRR-FM/Talk 99.5 programming will be simulcast on sister station WAPI-AM/1070"....sort of a role-reversal of the situation when 1070/100.5 were paired, when the FM was considered a simulcast of the AM station. Also, I would imagine Cumulus wouldn't want any of the Birmingham stations trying to grab the WZRR call sign which has been in place on 99.5 for over 27 years time. Of course, Cumulus could dump the WZRR call sign on another one of their stations, either here or in another market, but it has yet to happen.

 

[Gregg.]

>>>None in Houston? 97-5 KFNC (ESPN) and 100-7 KKHT (Salem's The Word) would count as spoken word.<<< Yes, I guess I should have counted the Houston rim-shots. I also should have used the word "commercial" since most markets have an NPR station or two on FM with spoken word programming, although most are below 92 MHz.

Since they're calling the new station "Talk 99-5," I suppose they'll hardly mention the 1070 frequency anymore, even though in the daytime it's 50,000 watts non-directional. So I guess the need to switch the FM call letters to "WAPI-FM" may not be necessary, unless they want an easy reference for sales purposes and ratings stats, to simply call the station WXXX-AM-FM. Considering the history of the WAPI call letters (which refer to Alabama Polytechnic Institute, a previous name of Auburn University), I doubt they'd make 1070 into "WZRR-AM." And as said above, if Cumulus went with "WAPI-AM-FM", then it would probably have to park the WZRR calls in another market. It probably doesn't want a new WZRR competitor, even if Cumulus is out of the "Rock & Roll" format in Birmingham.

And while FM Sports stations may be proliferating (two in NYC, two in Boston, two in Philly, two in Detroit), it is quite rare still to hear Rush, Hannity, Beck, Savage, Levin and Ramsey on the FM dial in most of the U.S. I'm surprised to hear all those medium to small markets around Alabama have multiple FM Talk stations. I guess Talk on FM is more common outside the biggest cities. But I think most owners believe you can run a mix of conservative syndicated and local talk on your dying AM stations, producing a profit where no other format other than sports will work, and leave your FM stations to play music and produce revenue with a smaller staff and no "confiscatory syndication fees" as Rush may say. Of course, in this case, iHeart owns the Rush-Hannity-Beck station and Cumulus owns the Savage-Levin station, so they are each only paying themselves the fees.