CNY Talk Radio

[WalterCummings]

I have to say that WFBL sounds good to listen to. It's alot better than their competitor. The only thing is that there seem to be a large amount of PSA's on the air rather than spots. Must say that I am a little tired of hearing the same forest fire prevention psa every break. I also notice that sometimes when they go into a syndicated program there are a series of tones that go over the air before the show. However, noone is perfect and once they work out these kinks and start selling their lineup they will get better. Dennis Miller is alot better than slush bimbo and mr. vannity.
Also, they might want to consider: moving Alvarez to morning drive, putting Fred Thompson on at 12pm filling the 2pm hour with something and putting Dennis Miller in the 3pm-6pm time slot. They should also offer weather and traffic. In the end, it might give reith and wsyr a run for their $$$.

 

[Element9]

I have to say that WFBL sounds good to listen to. It's alot better than their competitor. The only thing is that there seem to be a large amount of PSA's on the air rather than spots. Must say that I am a little tired of hearing the same forest fire prevention psa every break. I also notice that sometimes when they go into a syndicated program there are a series of tones that go over the air before the show. However, noone is perfect and once they work out these kinks and start selling their lineup they will get better. Dennis Miller is alot better than slush bimbo and mr. vannity.
Also, they might want to consider: moving Alvarez to morning drive, putting Fred Thompson on at 12pm filling the 2pm hour with something and putting Dennis Miller in the 3pm-6pm time slot. They should also offer weather and traffic. In the end, it might give reith and wsyr a run for their $$$.

Shlock and dreck do not trump live and local, no matter how disjointed WSYR might sound from time to time. The constant PSAs and net tones are indicators the WFBL doesn't have it's ship together. WFBL: We'll Forever Be Losers.

 

[BobRoss]

A couple of things:

1) It's common internet etiquette, if you're going to quote a previous post, you don't need to quote the entire thing. We all read the original post the first time, and we don't need to see the entire thing a second time. Please trim the quote down to the few lines you're directly responding to. If you're replying to the entire thing in general, quoting's not necessary. Sorry to sound pushy, but I've noticed this happening a lot here lately and I finally had to say something.

2) Another thing I'm sick of is when people make up childish nicknames for hosts they don't like, such as "Slush Bimbo" or "Jim Grief." A post that started out sounding like a reasonable and fair review immediately lost all credibility. I don't care who you like or dislike; let's just be adults about it.

Also, they might want to consider: moving Alvarez to morning drive, putting Fred Thompson on at 12pm filling the 2pm hour with something and putting Dennis Miller in the 3pm-6pm time slot. They should also offer weather and traffic.

Guessing they can't put Alvarez on morning drive because radio isn't Alvarez's first job -- selling real estate is. The station is working around his schedule, not the other way around. I wouldn't be surprised if he bails out the moment the economy recovers; he could literally be losing thousands in commissions for each day he hosts his show instead of going out to show properties.

As for the other shows, I agree with putting Thompson on at noon; mostly because it would mean he'd be carried live. I know it's difficult for stations to carry every single show live, but it should be done whenever possible. As for Miller, he's on tape-delay either way, whether it's his current 1pm slot or your recommended 3pm slot... six vs. a half-dozen.

Weather and traffic would be nice, but that would require hiring people... and when you're playing Smokey Bear PSAs every break, you're probably not making enough money to hire new people. It's too bad WSYR already signed with the Weather Channel because that's probably all barter... so it could have allowed WFBL to get weather on the air without paying anything. Are there any other services that offer weather for barter? Either way, there's no way to get traffic on the air for free, so they'd still have to hire a few people to do traffic. I don't see it happening in the near future.

Almost a month with the new format and they still don't even have a website! It's 2009, people!! Get with the times. Such a basic promotional tool for a radio station in 2009 and they don't have one. The domain cnytalkradio.com was registered on August 31st by owner James V. Johnson himself, but put the address in your browser and you get a GoDaddy.com "domain parked" page. The domain was registered a month and a half before the launch, another month has passed since the launch, and still nothing? Element9, I may not agree with your quoting methods, but I agree with your assessment of the WFBL call letters.

 

[doctorcomputer3]

Forget beating the Locals on WSYR....aint gonna happen. Well, I take that back, Galuski has the thing down cold and beating Reith would be like ripping a tooth out. It could be done but it would be a pain in the A$$. I would almost rather run the board for Reith and get the numbers up by ribbing on him constantly than to take a signal and flat-out beat him in the ratings. Add the fact that their are just too many hands in the pot on Terra radio these days, I would go back to YOU couldn't beat the locals, referring to many of the available talent, in and out of the buildings, in CNY Radio.
The ONLY thing you could do to beat WSYR would be local. "nuff said.

 

[therealjm12]

The fact is local is better, but local cost $$$. So enough said on that. There is nothing on WFBL from what I have been told -haven't listened, that would generate any ratings or revenue. It's all 3rd rate right wing stuff. Been there done that. All the hosts they have don't generate any ratings elsewhere. Dennis Miller, Not funny and just arrogant. The rest of the hosts are just nasty. They criticize but have no solutions. Some day a station in Syracuse is going to program a station to serve the 30 thousand plus up on the S. U. hill. Bring in Stephanie Miller, Ed Shultz, etc. It would bring a much better demographic, younger, more educated and more money to spend. The likes of Laura Ingrahm and Fred Thompson just don't bring in an audience and what they do bring in are over 55 and live in trailers.

 

[postmaster]

There are certainly ways to get that stuff...call your local tv affiliate not working in partnership with radio and put together a weather deal...straight trade...they need you, you need them, win win! There are ways to get the traffic info, you can barter and sublet with someone already suscribing or transcribe and repeat! Beg, barrow and steal...get it done and sound great! By the way...non of what I have just suggested is new...duh...find a way to make it happen, don't throw your hands up and throw in the towel!

 

[BobRoss]

There are certainly ways to get that stuff...call your local tv affiliate not working in partnership with radio and put together a weather deal...straight trade...they need you, you need them, win win!

To the best of my knowledge, all the local TV weather personalities are already locked up with radio stations. You even have 2 people who are no longer on TV full-time (Eichorn and Hauf) still doing radio station forecasts.

Not to mention, TV/radio weather deals aren't always a straight trade. You need them, yes. Do they need you? Not when you're WFBL, still fresh out of the gate with everything to prove. Even then, for many of these weather people, it's not an arrangement directly between the stations. In many cases, it's a direct arrangement between the radio station and the weather guy. Consider someone like Dave Longley doing weather for B104.7, even though their morning show doesn't overlap with his normal evening work hours. He's up until midnight or later from TV, and then waking up earlier than he'd probably like to, in order to give them the weather. I don't know if he's getting cash or some other compensation (gift cards, etc.) but I'd be willing to bet anything he's not doing B104's weather solely for the chance to get the name of his TV station mentioned on the radio every day. And that's reasonable... many of these evening TV meteorologists are on their own time when they're expected to call into morning radio shows.

I encountered a similar situation at an old job many moons ago, where the consultant suggested we get a "personality" for our weather, instead of having the jocks read it themselves. We asked around, but nobody was willing to do it unless we provided beaucoup bucks. While corporate usually loves consultant ideas that save money or don't cost anything, they weren't too upset when we explained why we weren't going to be able to fulfill that one particular request.

There are ways to get the traffic info, you can barter and sublet with someone already suscribing or transcribe and repeat! Beg, barrow and steal...get it done and sound great!

There are only two traffic providers in Syracuse: Clear Channel and Tony Bombardo. And it's not a big market -- either one would easily find out if someone was "subletting" or otherwise stealing their services. It's not like NYC where there are dozens of radio stations, and some low-ranked obscure station can get away with regurgitating what was said on WCBS or WINS.

Besides, again, transcribe and repeat would require hiring an additional body. And if you're going to hire someone to regurgitate the competition's traffic... that person would be just as capable as WSYR's Kathy Denman to listen to the police scanners and keep an eye on trafficland.com's live camera feeds to generate your own, original traffic reports. But that brings us back to the original point -- WFBL doesn't have (or refuses to invest) the money to hire people.