Feder: 105.9 To Flip To WBBM Simulcast

[radioman148]

One source on the Chicago radiotv board says Monday. At this point why wait until Aug 1st?

 

[pjc1961]

Chicago Tribune article with statement from Rod Zimmerman, CBS Radio Chicago Senior VP & Market Manager:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...lcast-on-wcfsfm-1059-20110714,0,4658401.story

 

[radioman148]

http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/1777-fresh-1059-to-be-flipped-to-simulcast-of-wbbm-am

 

[LouPickney]

Thanks for the article link, radioman148.

Call letters mean very little in PPM markets, but newspapers tend to almost always refer to a radio station at least once by it's call letters, typically on first reference.

CBS does have precedent from the San Francisco KCBS simulcast on KFRC-FM, though it's a bit different since KCBS-FM (Jack FM in Los Angeles) isn't located in the market.

 

[DToTheJ]

Kudos to Feder for asking Rod Zimmerman, among others, this important question:

Q. When the simulcast starts, what are you doing with the WCFS call letters?

A. Keeping them the same. The call letters really aren’t an issue anymore in how the ratings are gathered. It’s all measured electronically now, so call letters don’t mean anything.

So, looks like it's gonna be "WBBM and HD, Chicago and WCFS and HD1, Elmwood Park/Chicago".

 

[radioman148]

Kudos to Feder for asking Rod Zimmerman, among others, this important question:

Q. When the simulcast starts, what are you doing with the WCFS call letters?

A. Keeping them the same. The call letters really aren’t an issue anymore in how the ratings are gathered. It’s all measured electronically now, so call letters don’t mean anything.

So, looks like it's gonna be "WBBM and HD, Chicago and WCFS and HD1, Elmwood Park/Chicago".

So now we know.

 

[BRNout]

It's an inconvenient mouthful to have to go through at every TOH.

As it's known as Newsradio 780 WBBM (and the 780 will surely be changed), I'd respectfully disagree with Mr. Zimmerman in stating that call letters "don't mean anything". He's being too one dimensional and I am surprised that he'd phrase it that way. The "WBBM" calls are more than mere call letters, they're your branding. And branding, as anyone who knows squat about marketing will tell you, is everything. CBS has a significant investment tied up in that brand. To say that the call letters "don't mean anything" is like telling Coke how their name doesn't mean anything because people just pick red or blue (Pepsi) and the cash register reads it on the way out so the customer need not bother with that.

I am curious as to Mr. Zimmerman's age. Based on the comment, he sounds like a 24 year old kid with a limited depth of knowledge about the history behind the meaningless calls. Yes, I could be wrong and he's just a suit who's worn his tie too tight for too many years. But it was somewhat of a dumb comment.

And he gets paid the big bucks for stuff like that?

 

[FightingIrish]

It's an inconvenient mouthful to have to go through at every TOH.

As it's known as Newsradio 780 WBBM (and the 780 will surely be changed), I'd respectfully disagree with Mr. Zimmerman in stating that call letters "don't mean anything". He's being too one dimensional and I am surprised that he'd phrase it that way. The "WBBM" calls are more than mere call letters, they're your branding. And branding, as anyone who knows squat about marketing will tell you, is everything. CBS has a significant investment tied up in that brand. To say that the call letters "don't mean anything" is like telling Coke how their name doesn't mean anything because people just pick red or blue (Pepsi) and the cash register reads it on the way out so the customer need not bother with that.

Any decent imaging voice talent can handle that task.

And they have no problem with the KCBS/KFRC-FM thing in San Francisco. And not only are the KFRC calls very well known in the Bay Area, they also have an AM station in the market with the KFRC calls (playing True Oldies Channel). They have no problems with it whatsoever.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

He's being too one dimensional and I am surprised that he'd phrase it that way. The "WBBM" calls are more than mere call letters, they're your branding. And branding, as anyone who knows squat about marketing will tell you, is everything.

But the WBBM branding will remain, and will be heard on BOTH stations all the time.

It's not the WBBM call letters that don't "mean anything"...they mean everything.

It's the WCFS call letters that don't "mean anything". They come from an AC format station that is going to be killed off on August 1st.

So, you have WBBM on both AM and FM (WBBM-FM doesn't use its calls except for legal IDs, no?), all the time, with the new branding "Newsradio WBBM 780 and 105.9" - though they'll start with the clumsier "and now on 105.9", like they do in San Francisco on that simulcast.

And once an hour, you'll hear the WCFS legal ID.

Call letters mean a lot to me. I love legal IDs and am a proud Friend of Toppy, aka tophour.com.

But Mr. Zimmerman is right. They could have any call sign on 105.9, and it doesn't matter, the PPM picks it up.

Calling WCFS-FM "WBBM Newsradio" is no different than calling WBBM-FM "B96", and they've been doing that for years. And the WBBM calls on 780 are not going anywhere.

 

[uncamark]

He's being too one dimensional and I am surprised that he'd phrase it that way. The "WBBM" calls are more than mere call letters, they're your branding. And branding, as anyone who knows squat about marketing will tell you, is everything.

But the WBBM branding will remain, and will be heard on BOTH stations all the time.

It's not the WBBM call letters that don't "mean anything"...they mean everything.

It's the WCFS call letters that don't "mean anything". They come from an AC format station that is going to be killed off on August 1st.

So, you have WBBM on both AM and FM (WBBM-FM doesn't use its calls except for legal IDs, no?), all the time, with the new branding "Newsradio WBBM 780 and 105.9" - though they'll start with the clumsier "and now on 105.9", like they do in San Francisco on that simulcast.

And once an hour, you'll hear the WCFS legal ID.

Call letters mean a lot to me. I love legal IDs and am a proud Friend of Toppy, aka tophour.com.

But Mr. Zimmerman is right. They could have any call sign on 105.9, and it doesn't matter, the PPM picks it up.

Calling WCFS-FM "WBBM Newsradio" is no different than calling WBBM-FM "B96", and they've been doing that for years. And the WBBM calls on 780 are not going anywhere.

I would expect that the jingles are going to be redone to either have nothing or "Chicago" replacing "780"--and the tags on reports will now be "...Newsradio Chicago, WBBM." Remember that when the jingles were "WBBM-AM--Newsradio 78!", they were redone with the "AM" taken out.

 

[BRNout]

They have to re do the jingles, no matter what. But for the sake of continuity, it would just be simpler to change the calls to WBBM-FM. In a PPM world where "calls mean nothing" it should be no problem to change calls at 96.3 then. I don't care what anyone says, it's still awkward when the majority of people are listening to WBBM on which is actually WCFS-FM. It's just an unnecessary administrative pain.

As for comparisons with San Francisco, the situations are different enough that you can't compare them very well. For one thing, yes, KCBS is the brand - but KFRC is an important and well known set of calls in that market. They don't want to lose them to someone else. And, KCBS-FM is in a different market. That's a more complicated scenario than what CBS in Chicago has here.

It's not as much about PPM as it is about simplicity and common sense. And the simplest solution (which may be a pain up front) is the easiest to live with long-term. My suspicion is that they may change their minds going forward. Especially once different people are in charge of the decision-making process over there.

 

[FightingIrish]

They have to re do the jingles, no matter what. But for the sake of continuity, it would just be simpler to change the calls to WBBM-FM. In a PPM world where "calls mean nothing" it should be no problem to change calls at 96.3 then. I don't care what anyone says, it's still awkward when the majority of people are listening to WBBM on which is actually WCFS-FM. It's just an unnecessary administrative pain.

As for comparisons with San Francisco, the situations are different enough that you can't compare them very well. For one thing, yes, KCBS is the brand - but KFRC is an important and well known set of calls in that market. They don't want to lose them to someone else. And, KCBS-FM is in a different market. That's a more complicated scenario than what CBS in Chicago has here.

It's not as much about PPM as it is about simplicity and common sense. And the simplest solution (which may be a pain up front) is the easiest to live with long-term. My suspicion is that they may change their minds going forward. Especially once different people are in charge of the decision-making process over there.

They wouldn't lose the KFRC call letters to anyone anyway. Again, the KFRC calls are also parked on 1550. My prediction is they do nothing in Chicago in regard to changing calls. 105.9 will remain WCFS. Granted, it doesn't make sense to radio geeks, but they really don't need to change.

 

[jhacker]

Just a stupid thought here. Perhaps CBS could keep the same call letters on 105.9. They would stand for 'Chicago's First Source' for news. ;D

 

[Rusty Muck]

They have to re do the jingles, no matter what. But for the sake of continuity, it would just be simpler to change the calls to WBBM-FM. In a PPM world where "calls mean nothing" it should be no problem to change calls at 96.3 then. I don't care what anyone says, it's still awkward when the majority of people are listening to WBBM on which is actually WCFS-FM. It's just an unnecessary administrative pain.

When "WCFS-FM and WCFS-FM HD-1, Elmwood Park/Chicago" is recorded as a liner by their imaging voice under hushed tones and buried at a :57 spotset, it no longer becomes a pain. Few will know that WCFS-FM even exists after August 1. It's no longer important in either the short or long term, as evidenced by the dozens of FM simulcasts around the country that don't share the parent AM stations' calls.

At least we aren't Canada, where TOH IDs aren't even given.

 

[billalm]

Wow... a few of you are sure hung up on legal IDs. It doesn't matter!! In Florida we have no less than at least 3 radio stations in 3 different markets calling themselves "WFLA", and they're not even a simulcast. Example: WFLF Pine Hills/Orlando... NEWSRADIO 540 WFLA. Image however you want... it'll take 2 seconds to identify WCFS legally and that'll be it. No big deal.

And furthermore... you seem to think that WBBM-FM is useless to 96.3. Wrong. WBBM-FM is known by trades, music labels, national ad buys, and others as 96.3 FM in Chicago. Taking those away from a heritage CHR isn't as smart as it sounds. Perfect example in this case is Atlanta where WSB-FM still resides on the adult contemporary station and not the FM news simulcast of WSB-AM.

 

[radioman148]

They have to re do the jingles, no matter what. But for the sake of continuity, it would just be simpler to change the calls to WBBM-FM. In a PPM world where "calls mean nothing" it should be no problem to change calls at 96.3 then. I don't care what anyone says, it's still awkward when the majority of people are listening to WBBM on which is actually WCFS-FM. It's just an unnecessary administrative pain.

When "WCFS-FM and WCFS-FM HD-1, Elmwood Park/Chicago" is recorded as a liner by their imaging voice under hushed tones and buried at a :57 spotset, it no longer becomes a pain. Few will know that WCFS-FM even exists after August 1. It's no longer important in either the short or long term, as evidenced by the dozens of FM simulcasts around the country that don't share the parent AM stations' calls.

At least we aren't Canada, where TOH IDs aren't even given.

Few knew that WCFS previously existed. ;D

 

[Tom Wells]

They have to re do the jingles, no matter what. But for the sake of continuity, it would just be simpler to change the calls to WBBM-FM. In a PPM world where "calls mean nothing" it should be no problem to change calls at 96.3 then. I don't care what anyone says, it's still awkward when the majority of people are listening to WBBM on which is actually WCFS-FM. It's just an unnecessary administrative pain.

When "WCFS-FM and WCFS-FM HD-1, Elmwood Park/Chicago" is recorded as a liner by their imaging voice under hushed tones and buried at a :57 spotset, it no longer becomes a pain. Few will know that WCFS-FM even exists after August 1. It's no longer important in either the short or long term, as evidenced by the dozens of FM simulcasts around the country that don't share the parent AM stations' calls.

At least we aren't Canada, where TOH IDs aren't even given.

Few knew that WCFS previously existed. ;D

;D

The unmentioned and unheard-of seldom becomes well-known.
Never in all my tuning around have I heard of WCFS.

And of course, "everybody with an adult parspective" of say 25 and up here, if they are radio aware in the
least little bit, "knows" the that 105.9 is WCKG. Since they went to that "lady music", they don't seem to
have any stated identity or identify themselves at all...oh well, you'll know it...it's that "lady music" station on about 106.

 

[radio station scanner]

CBS should have put the FM simulcast of 780 WBBM Chicago on 104.3, and move WJMK’s K-Hits to 105.9, and change the calls for B96. That way the Chicago news station will have the same calls and COL for both AM and FM. Problem solved. CBS also should have done this a while back in San Francisco, by moving the KCBS-FM calls from 93.1 JACK FM Los Angeles, to the 106.9 frequency in San Francisco. Calls probably mean more for news and talk stations than they do more music stations.

 

[radioman148]

CBS should have put the FM simulcast of 780 WBBM Chicago on 104.3, and move WJMK’s K-Hits to 105.9, and change the calls for B96. That way the Chicago news station will have the same calls and COL for both AM and FM. Problem solved. CBS also should have done this a while back in San Francisco, by moving the KCBS-FM calls from 93.1 JACK FM Los Angeles, to the 106.9 frequency in San Francisco. Calls probably mean more for news and talk stations than they do more music stations.

IMO--too many changes. Why bother taking K-HITS off 104.3? The call letter thing for WBBM I buy.

 

[milton77]

Too bad CBS didn't park the WMAQ call letters somewhere when WSCR took over. Then they could now move the WMAQ calls to 105.9fm - would have been an interesting top of the hour ID. I'm not seriously suggesting it, just one of those "what ifs".