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Bye Bye WEMP!!!
- Thread starter mrbrightside
- Start date
NJ 101.5, which only reaches part of the New York Metro, has a .8, compared with .6 for WEMP. A few other stations which reach only part of the area, such as WDHA, Thunder Country, and The Peak, are close, at .5.
The fact that Merlin just hired Mark Austin Thomas, with his background in news/talk, as VP of Programming for WEMP is an indication that the station probably would either continue to try getting all-news to work, or would evolve to news/talk. A drastic format change to say, music seems unlikely with Thomas just getting on board.
The fact that Merlin just hired Mark Austin Thomas, with his background in news/talk, as VP of Programming for WEMP is an indication that the station probably would either continue to try getting all-news to work, or would evolve to news/talk. A drastic format change to say, music seems unlikely with Thomas just getting on board.
I'll buy in... IF the two news stations flip, look toward their Philly property as a tip for the direction the two stations will go.
Merlin did buy the 87.7 in Chicago and brought the alternative format back there. 87.7 in Chicago has a better signal than 87.7 in NYC. The Chicago 87.7 is on the John Hancock building, which is the second tallest building, so the signal isn't blocked by other taller buildings. The NYC 87.7 on "that big blue building in Queens" is blocked to the west by the tall buildings of Manhattan. Its pattern is also constrained by the channel 6 in Philly. The 87.7 signal in Chicago is omnidirectional, and I could hear it up to Kenosha (halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee). The 87.7 in NYC is staticy after Newark and gone by New Brunswick. If it were omnidirectional and not blocked by the skyscrapers, it could reach up to Trenton. Yeah, it would be nice to have Pulse back on 87.7, but considering Island Broadcasting wants to sell it for $15 million or lease it for $500,000 a year and Pulse billed a million a year, Merlin will lose on 87.7 because it will have to shut down in 2015. So I can't see Merlin picking up WNYZ.
As for 101.9, if they were truly growing an audience, their ratings should be steadily increasing, kind of like Pulse 87's ratings increased every month. Instead, FM News seems to have peaked and it's on a slow decline. So much news happened in the past year in NYC when FM News was on: the earthquake, the hurricane, Occupy Wall Street, Republican primaries, scandals, etc. yet FM News didn't gain much audience. They were beaten by out of market stations that can't even be heard in New York City. Family Radio had 2-3 times their ratings despite their botched prediction last year. WBAI was coming close to beating FM News. They should have had at least a 1 share in their 10th month.
Perhaps it might switch to a conservative talk format like WWIQ, but even that's not a proven success in Philly. But I can't see a conservative talk format doing well smack in the middle of the blue states. My guess is Merlin might put 101.9 on the market. That would also lower the price of 94.7, should Merlin wish to bid on that. It's obviously not a good time to sell 101.9 until 94.7 is sold. It would be a good idea for Merlin to flip 101.9 to Urban AC since 98.7 Kiss FM was in the top 5, and then buy 94.7 and put their conservative talk format there.
As for 101.9, if they were truly growing an audience, their ratings should be steadily increasing, kind of like Pulse 87's ratings increased every month. Instead, FM News seems to have peaked and it's on a slow decline. So much news happened in the past year in NYC when FM News was on: the earthquake, the hurricane, Occupy Wall Street, Republican primaries, scandals, etc. yet FM News didn't gain much audience. They were beaten by out of market stations that can't even be heard in New York City. Family Radio had 2-3 times their ratings despite their botched prediction last year. WBAI was coming close to beating FM News. They should have had at least a 1 share in their 10th month.
Perhaps it might switch to a conservative talk format like WWIQ, but even that's not a proven success in Philly. But I can't see a conservative talk format doing well smack in the middle of the blue states. My guess is Merlin might put 101.9 on the market. That would also lower the price of 94.7, should Merlin wish to bid on that. It's obviously not a good time to sell 101.9 until 94.7 is sold. It would be a good idea for Merlin to flip 101.9 to Urban AC since 98.7 Kiss FM was in the top 5, and then buy 94.7 and put their conservative talk format there.
Or maybe Merlin should go back to what is now called "FM New" where they will play some AC music as well as some sort of "Chocolate" thrown altogether to make it a "Chocolate" format. They tried it last summer, and they will do it again sooner than you think.
If all you nostalgia freaks want a return to something on 101.9, how about we go all the way back to W55NY, and dig up old William G. H. Finch to send out faxes over 45.5mHz. The station later became WGHF on 101.9 in about 1947, then in 1955 Muzak bought it and made it beautiful music WBFM for years, where Muzak used the station's SCA to pipe in all that store music throughout New York.
HHH said:
Muzak actually transmitted the store music on a simplex basis prior to 1961, when the FCC banned that practice. WBFM would transmit a subaudible tone at the end of a set of music. This would mute subscribers' receivers in stores and offices so they would not hear the commercials and other announcements. At the end of the stopset, WBFM would transmit a second subaudible tone which would unmute the receivers, allowing the music to come through. That was the reason for the beautiful music format. In 1961, the FCC required FM stations to transmit "storecasting" music over an SCA subcarrier.
Early experiments with simplex "storecasting" were done over Major Armstrong's experimental W2XMN/W2XEA/KE2XCC and the Muzak Corporation supplied the music recordings. Muzak bought WGHF after the Armstrong station was shut down in 1954.
It WOULD be nice to have a beautiful music station again somewhere on the FM dial. I used to listen to that stuff in the background while doing things around the house.
101.9 to Country as WYNYNick said:
94.7 to Alternative Rock as Radio 94.7
or
101.9 to Alternative as Radio 101.9
94.7 to Country as WYNY
Two formats NOT in NYC right now:
Alternative Rock or any form of current based rock
Country
Why flip to a format that EVERY other station is playing or covering?! NYC has the WORST variety of radio stations!
XCountry285 said:
How many times do you have to be told that neither "alternative" rock nor country are viable formats in New York with no history of success?
And if you want "alternative," the real alternative rock in New York is WFMU or college radio--not commercial stations that play Nirvana and Pearl Jam every hour.
Mark Jeffries said:
You know, summer is coming, you can have a good drive down the shore with these two alternative stations that do better than the commercial side as Mark stated.
WFMU:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFMU&service=FM&status=C&hours=U
WBJB: 90.5 The Night
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBJB&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
For Alternative how about "The Alternate Side" weekdays 6-AM until Noon, WNYE 91.5. It is commercial free and its on a full NY market signal.
In North Jersey, WNTI 91.9 offers a lot of Alternative.
In Westchester, the Hudson Valley, and Northeast New Jersey, WXPK, The Peak, 107.1 with more alternative.
In North Jersey, WNTI 91.9 offers a lot of Alternative.
In Westchester, the Hudson Valley, and Northeast New Jersey, WXPK, The Peak, 107.1 with more alternative.
My problem with college radio is that you may hear some alternative shows, but then you'll hear espanol standards, christian rap, garage metal, and another station playing LMFAO and Lady Gaga. I'd hardly classify college radio as alternative just because it may have a couple of alternative-playing shows. You might as well consider PLJ and Z100 as Alternative, since they play a few tracks on the Alternative chart.
How many times do you have to be told that neither "alternative" rock nor country are viable formats in New York with no history of success?
And if you want "alternative," the real alternative rock in New York is WFMU or college radio--not commercial stations that play Nirvana and Pearl Jam every hour.
[/quote]
RXP was performing quite well in the ratings after it moved more towards a Modern Rock sound (still sounded like a bloody mess though)-if Emmis didn't have some bills that had to be somehow paid in the near-future, I'm positive RXP would still be around AND be hovering around a 3.0.
And if you want "alternative," the real alternative rock in New York is WFMU or college radio--not commercial stations that play Nirvana and Pearl Jam every hour.
[/quote]
RXP was performing quite well in the ratings after it moved more towards a Modern Rock sound (still sounded like a bloody mess though)-if Emmis didn't have some bills that had to be somehow paid in the near-future, I'm positive RXP would still be around AND be hovering around a 3.0.
TimeIsTight said:
91.5 is NOT a full market signal. It doesn't even go into areas such as West Milford Rockaway & other areas of Morris & Passaic Counties and it doesn't even come in well in Northern Bergen County.
Alternative & Country ARE viable formats in NYC if they are done correctly! Who says that it isn't? Yeah history says so. But history hasn't been made yet when Alternative Rock/Rock & Country Stations programmed well for NYC do well in the ratings...just watch you'll see it happen. 94.7 doesn't need to be a talk or sports or news signal it needs to serve rock or country. 101.9 again doesn't need to be sports or talk or news, it's not working on it anyway! Make it rock again!
I want to also add to this the #1 Market in the Country! And we lack a Country and a Rock station on terrestrial FM radio (Non HD-2s) ?! Why?! How?! Come on areas like Philly and Boston have every format imaginable I feel like! We don't need to Pop Stations: Cut Now FM out of it and make it the Fan. KTU needs to go to dance, Fresh should go back to Rock or become the Fan, I still don't understand why CC hasn't launched an Alternative Station in NYC it worked in Philly-Radio 104.5 is an excellent station & look at XTU great station! Why can't we have this?! Look at WRRV in Hudson Valley & WRWD there too! It CAN work! Even a Polka station could work here! Nothing is impossible if it happened before!
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