Country on WXBK HD-2

[101tm]

iHeart has more of a national programming strategy than Audacy. iHeart has Bobby Bones and the iHeartCountry festival. Those two things power the country format even in markets where they don't get great ratings (such as Boston). Audacy is a more traditional radio company, with a very limited national sales package. Audacy actually owns the top billing country station: KILT in Houston, but a lot of that station's revenue comes from its relationship with the Houston Texans football team.

I think a lot of the “issues” Audacy has had with the performance of some legacy stations since the Entercom/CBS deal was finalized is that they have to cut costs and adopt something like iHeart’s “hub and spoke” programming strategy, or something similar where there is centralized programming the individual stations pull from. Unfortunately for them, the changes they made were put in place entirely too fast and on too large of a scale in the case with the failed alternative experiment. Neither Entercom nor CBS utilized much voice tracking and neither had much of a central programming strategy. Both companies still had a lot of local staff that companies like iHeart and Cumulus cut ages ago. IHeart started with things like the Format Lab almost two decades ago and has been able to whittle down costs while not sacrificing station performance because they’ve had a long time to research and get it right.

Once the CBS/Entercom marriage was complete, they were left with a lot of expenses that had to be cut and I’m not sure if they can be faulted for some of their missteps. We see now where alternative is doing much better in Dallas since it has been handed over to a local PD, yet some of the cost synergies remain. While I think it’s quite hopeless, we now see them trying to do the same with KROQ. I think it’s definitely possible to cut costs while not crashing a station but it takes time.

Not that it would have changed anything, but I feel the time Entercom/Audacy took over WNSH was far from the best time for them to learn how to sell and program a difficult format in the country’s largest market. Cumulus had a lot invested in 94.7, Audacy did not.

 

[TheBigA]

I think a lot of the “issues” Audacy has had with the performance of some legacy stations since the Entercom/CBS deal was finalized is that they have to cut costs

What I've seen is that the economies of running a TV-Radio company like CBS is different from a radio only company. So yes, Entercom inherited a lot of expensive contracts that became boat anchors once that pandemic hit. They tried to economize, but they simply didn't have any experience or infrastructure to handle it. They still don't. The NY sales department is a very traditional team inherited from CBS, and they're used to money just showing up for their older-skewing formats. They had no experience at all selling the country demo.

 

[Barry]

The NY sales department is a very traditional team inherited from CBS, and they're used to money just showing up for their older-skewing formats. They had no experience at all selling the country demo.

It would not have been possible for Audacy to hire/bring over some salespeople that were successful in selling Country in other major markets?
Seems they should have done that before making a drastic format change.

 

[CTListener]

It would not have been possible for Audacy to hire/bring over some salespeople that were successful in selling Country in other major markets?
Seems they should have done that before making a drastic format change.

My guess is that the old-timers were protected from being let go by language in their old CBS contracts.

 

[TheBigA]

It would not have been possible for Audacy to hire/bring over some salespeople that were successful in selling Country in other major markets?

That sounds more like something iHeart would do. My sense is Audacy has no intent on keeping the station country. They might have flipped it sooner had there not been a pandemic.

 

[dcowboy7]

But even if that were true, if country listeners are unresponsive to advertising, then Nielsen should exclude country fans from the ratings of the other stations they listen to (CBS-FM, Lite, or Z-100 depending on the age, or WPLJ before the sale) as they artificially inflate the ratings, and the number of listeners they can actually reach. Advertisers shouldn't be paying for that.

Thats me.... im all over the map.
Radio i listen to Z100, KTU, CBS-FM.
Siriusxm i listen to todays country,y2kountry,80s,90s,pop2k,10s,yacht rock,smooth jazz,utopia.
Amazon i have playlists setup with those genres.

 

[101tm]

What I've seen is that the economies of running a TV-Radio company like CBS is different from a radio only company. So yes, Entercom inherited a lot of expensive contracts that became boat anchors once that pandemic hit. They tried to economize, but they simply didn't have any experience or infrastructure to handle it. They still don't. The NY sales department is a very traditional team inherited from CBS, and they're used to money just showing up for their older-skewing formats. They had no experience at all selling the country demo.

I will say, I’m still getting used to “Audacy” and I’m not too fond of the logo, but the app has drastically improved as far as bugs since it was Radio dot com. CBS was obviously not too interested in expanding in to mobile/other revenue streams since their expectation for a while had been to get out of the radio business.

Cumulus is smaller than iHeart but they also have internal resources and knowledge with the format, and they have WW1. Had Cumulus not gotten in the situation they did, they likely would still own WNSH and have country on it.

Seems to me, just from an outsider perspective, that Audacy has a much easier time selling older formats. The newer based formats seem to be a struggle in the long term CBS markets. The legacy Entercom stations generally leaned a bit younger than what was inherited with the CBS deal. Audacy NYC can sell WINS, CBS-FM, and WFAN all day long, but I don’t see that group suddenly grasping country.

Also: I felt the “New York’s Country 94 7” branding seemed pretty temporary, but they did build some of their national strategy off of the station.

 

[Barry]

I don’t see that group suddenly grasping country.

Audacy owns plenty of Country stations, such as the successful US 99 in Chicago. I don't understand why they couldn't borrow some of the sales and management talent from their other markets.
It was speculated in a post above that perhaps Audacy was not really interested in continuing the Country format on 94.7. Perhaps, but they did make the effort of giving the station a local morning show, with 2 hosts, something Cumulus didn't do.

 

[TheBigA]

Audacy owns plenty of Country stations, such as the successful US 99 in Chicago.

But those other country stations are managed and sold by LOCAL staffs, not the corporate office in Philadelphia. There are specific people who sell and manage those stations. The people in New York had no experience with that format.

Perhaps, but they did make the effort of giving the station a local morning show, with 2 hosts, something Cumulus didn't do.

The local morning show was launched by Cumulus in January 2019.

 

[101tm]

Audacy owns plenty of Country stations, such as the successful US 99 in Chicago. I don't understand why they couldn't borrow some of the sales and management talent from their other markets.
It was speculated in a post above that perhaps Audacy was not really interested in continuing the Country format on 94.7. Perhaps, but they did make the effort of giving the station a local morning show, with 2 hosts, something Cumulus didn't do.

Sorry, my comment of “that group” was directed at CBS/Audacy NYC - not the company as a whole, although outside of some markets like Houston and Chicago, it was a much stronger format for Entercom than it was CBS.

Also, it’s notable that CBS-Entercom/Audacy was willing to let go of the highly successful WXTU in Philadelphia to get WBEB, although I understand that was more about cluster strategy and both were highly performing.

 

[JoeBenjamin]

But the WYNY 103.5 was a full market signal, with antenna on the roof of the WTC. They were on from 1988-96.

It came on in 1987.

 

[JoeBenjamin]

I think that instead of buying 4 area stations to simulcast on 107.1, the owners of Y-107 should have just acquired the one by the Jersey shore. The other 3 were probably a waste of money.
I thought it was a much better country station than 94.7. They had some very good personalities, and it was all local. The decision to flip Y-107 to a Spanish format (which didn't last long) was dumb, as the 4 signals did not reach most of the Hispanic people in the area.
I recall seeing lots of Y-107 bumper stickers, and still spot them occasionally.

They did a lot of promotion in Brooklyn.They mailed out their prizes.I still have two of their metal key chains.

 

[AceBiscuits]

The local morning show was launched by Cumulus in January 2019.

The show launched initially with just Kelly Ford but expanded under Audacy.

 

[Jeffrey]

But those other country stations are managed and sold by LOCAL staffs, not the corporate office in Philadelphia. There are specific people who sell and manage those stations. The people in New York had no experience with that format.

if country doesn't sell in NY then no sales people would have success regardless of experience. Country not selling in NY is the issue at hand.

Do you have inside information to know that Audacy had a sales team in NY that didn't known how to sell country?

 

[TheBigA]

Do you inside information to know that Audacy had a sales team in NY that didn't known how to sell country?

I have their results. Their results show they didn't know how to sell country when compared to the Cumulus staff.

I can tell you this: When WYNY was on 103.5, their sales staff did a better job than both Cumulus and Audacy combined.

 

[Jeffrey]

I have their results. Their results show they didn't know how to sell country when compared to the Cumulus staff.

I can tell you this: When WYNY was on 103.5, their sales staff did a better job than both Cumulus and Audacy combined.

But was the Cumulus sales team local? Wasn't part of the whole Nash brand to be on a national level? Wasn't that how they got country on the air in the first place knowing country wouldn't sell.in nyc?

What was the reason for the demize of WYNY 103.5? I don't recall. If I'm not mistaken they pulled in about 1.7 in their last few books.

 

[TheBigA]

But was the Cumulus sales team local? Wasn't part of the whole Nash brand to be on a national level?

It was both.

What was the reason for the demize of WYNY 103.5?

Forced sale due to FCC ownership rules.

 

[Jeffrey]

Was definitely unaware of a local sales team.

I guess bottom line is country doesn't work here for whatever reason. It's the only mainstream format that never makes in in ny

 

[TheBigA]

I guess bottom line is country doesn't work here for whatever reason.

If you sell the format, it probably won't do well. If you sell the demo, it does better. The thing WYNY had was Jim Kerr in mornings. They also had Dan Daniels. Legendary NY talent that people knew and loved.

 

[MVB13]

If country ever returned they should bring back the WYNY calls.