Future of Small Town AM stations Upstate

[dustintv]

Just curious, with all this talk radio's slow death and with not much happening upstate what is the future like for small town AM stations upstate, like WJTN in Jamestown or WTNY in Watertown or the Elmira-Corning stations?

 

[SirRoxalot]

You might want to check the Syracuse/Utica board for info on Watertown. Try the Binghamton board for lots of current discussion on Elmira-Corning-Horseheads.

 

[raymond_shaw]

Indie owned small town stations like WLVL, Lockport and WBTA, Batavia keep on going and going, so it's a safe bet they are making money. I think AM is still alive and well in many small markets, simply because there's still a place for community radio. One of the mainstays of small town radio is local sports. You don't need to be in FM stereo to enjoy a sporting event on the radio and you can't download it on your ipod. The same goes for local news, weather and talk. I wish these indie owners continued good luck.

 

[Savage]

Thanks, Raymond. One can make the argument that the continuing success of small-market AM stations is that they haven't forgotten localism and being relevant to their listeners and those listeners' lifestyles. This is a truism lost on corporate group radio, which instead preoccupies itself with nonstarter concepts like HD radio and "branding" (corporate-speak for cookie-cutter McFormats delivered via voicetracking from remote markets from jocks who don't know your Main Street from the corner of Walk & Don't Walk.)

How many times have you been in an Upstate New York market and heard not even a local weather forecast all weekend on corporate AMs, much less a live local voice or other content?

It's ironic that in some cases XM's "60s on 6" has more local content than corporate-owned "local" terrestrial radio!

 

[Radknowski]

It's ironic that in some cases XM's "60s on 6" has more local content than corporate-owned "local" terrestrial radio!

Slightly exagerated, but still...

A few days ago I found myself listening to a local suburban station that was airing a nationally syndicated satellite program. The local breaks left much to be desired. Other than the local commercials, there was no localism to speak of. It sounded like "set it and forget it" radio. It saddened me to hear this because there was nothing there to remind listeners what station they were listening to and give listeners a reason to listen to other shows on the station. Unfortunately, there's more of this going on in small markets than we'd like to admit. Not every radio station is produced as well as WYSL Avon.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

The owners of WYSL and WBTA and the station in Warsaw should be congratulated for sticking it out and providing a local service to their listeners. Over the years a number of small market stations in Western NY have been sold to what I call 'mini-me' conglomerates which have turned these stations into automated operations. Take a look at what happened in the Corning-Elmira, Canandiagua-Geneva markets as an example. Unfortunately some of these stations can’t be heard after sunset either because they are protecting some large 50kw giant, or now because IOBC is causing interference problems.

 

[JakeLongwell]

Well said, everyone! I completely agree that it is stations like WYSL, WBTA, WCJW, and those in other markets, like WMCR Oneida, and WCDO Sydney, among others, that will be the last "holdouts" and will keep radio alive for as long as can be expected.
It is just so unfortunate that we still have, and will continue to have, Clear Channel "wanna-bes" who may be "locally owned", but have a monopoly on radio advertising in a given market.

I think one thing that definitely needs to happen if small market radio is to remain afloat, is to allow these AM stations to operate FM translators. This would especially help daytimers like WCJW who could do even more to serve their community by operating 24/7, or at least, until midnight.

As more and more technologies come on board that make AM radio listening more difficult, if not impossible, FM allocations for these small stations will be essential. This could be done, if the FCC relaxes the third adjacent, or maybe even second adjacent protection for existing stations.