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Game on: Riter/WECK declare war on Entercom

L

lchase

Guest
http://www.weck1230.com/2011/02/weck-manifesto/
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1636349547495&subj=1199421466

"Whenever they can automate they do automate, and that's not what we want to be here. We want to be local, and we want to be a product of -- and for -- Western New York."

Playing it as "hometown" vs. "corporate" radio, pointing out that other than morning and afternoon drive, WGR mostly runs ESPN stuff these days. He also said that in addition to Mendola and Griswold, Dan Cave will shortly be joining 1230's chapter of the WGR Alumni Association.
 
Beat me to it. No love lost between him and Entercom.
I like it. This could get interesting...
 
The tough thing for WECK is that it's only got 1000 watts on a heavily overpopulated channel which can't even cover Erie County, especially pre-sunrise and nights...while WGR even on night pattern blasts the core market and reaches all the way to Toronto, while by day it blows everyone else's coverage away. If the signals were closer to parity you'd have a pitch battle, but WGR probably figures it has relatively little to worry about. Low power stations have beaten big signals--but you have to be so dominant within your footprint to do it, it rarely happens any more. And it never happens between two stations running the same basic format.
 
This is going to sound like heresy, but with Web streaming and smartphone apps -- I've listened to both GR and WECK on my CrackBerry -- does the signal matter as much as it used to?
 
Here's the thing. I don't want to disparage WECK. They're trying to be a player. That's a good thing. I don't like the fact that Tom Schuh is no longer with WECK. He was a credible programmer. Sure, WECK remains stuck in the .5 share range in the 12+ audience. But you can't blame Tom for the station's shortcomings, given the budget he was given to work with. And this campaign -- or war -- isn't going to do it either. The fact is WBEN is a better news station. Until WECK launches a 24-hour-a-day local news presence, including street reporters, you can't claim to be the better news station. I enjoy tuning in Lorraine and Tom in the morning. They've got good chemistry. But I get much more substance on WBEN and the public stations. Maybe there is more of an argument that WECK can compete with WGR. But as long as 'GR hangs on to Howard Simon, Mike Schopp, Chris Parker and Paul Hamilton, I'm giving the edge to WGR. Again, I don't want to disparage WECK. They are what they are -- a locally-owned radio station trying to find a place in the local talk radio market. I wish them luck. But the claim Brad Riter is making in their Facebook audio presentation is just plain laughable to any serious follower of Buffalo radio.
 
Philip_Airtime said:
The fact is WBEN is a better news station. Until WECK launches a 24-hour-a-day local news presence, including street reporters, you can't claim to be the better news station.
Click to expand...

From the part I heard today, Brad was saying the exact same thing. He said WECK does not have the resources to do news like it should be done, so they are going to play to their strengths with more local talk.
 
I lasted through about 45 seconds of the 9 minute "Manifesto" on the WECK site. I made it all the way through the 1 minute video.

WBEN is a shadow of its former self. WGR would be in big trouble without the Sabres. For every plus, there's a minus. I like Howard Simon. Jeremy White? Not so much. The afternoon show is unlistenable. The syndicated stuff in between is blah. Rome's act has gotten old.

Does that mean WECK has the stuff to take a run at them? I don't see the morning show beating either Entercom product. Riter vs. Schopp & Parker? How about "none of the above"? I'll catch ESPN when I get home and actually hear something about SPORTS, not "lifestyle" BS.

I feel bad that Schuh got the boot, but he may end up looking like a genius before these guys get done.
 
There is a plethera of "really talented" radio people in WNY who are currently "between engagements". Dick Green should bring some of them back and create a power house operation that could make a mark. He has a some dreadful second rate voices that aren't ready for the Buffalo market and a locally originated morning talk show that is just plain "awful."

Keep Tom and Dennis Miller and purge the rest.

I'm just say'n.
 
This one might be interesting and the bravado of WECK is to be applauded, but this brawl can't be fought only with a manifesto and an attitude. It's going to take plenty of manpower and money, too. At one time a station could offer blocks of general interest talk and blocks of sports to compete successfully with WBEN. Recall the WGR-WBEN battles 1990-2000. This no longer is the case. The Sabres generate substantial cume which props up WGR in Fall and Spring books. WBEN has been Buffalo's only commercial-news talker since 2000. AM listeners 35+ know where to go to get what they need. Listeners 12-34 gravitated to FM and the Internet, to say nothing of their mp3 players. Since WECK's Dennis Miller has been mentioned in this thread, let's take a look at who he's up against: Rush/Beach on WBEN, Rome on WGR, an hour of Shredd & Ragan on the Edge, Talk Of The Nation on WBFO and WNED-AM, not to mention what's playing on 97 Rock, WHTT and WYRK. That's some heavy lifting.
 
SirRoxalot said:
I lasted through about 45 seconds of the 9 minute "Manifesto" on the WECK site. I made it all the way through the 1 minute video.

WBEN is a shadow of its former self. WGR would be in big trouble without the Sabres. For every plus, there's a minus. I like Howard Simon. Jeremy White? Not so much. The afternoon show is unlistenable. The syndicated stuff in between is blah. Rome's act has gotten old.

Does that mean WECK has the stuff to take a run at them? I don't see the morning show beating either Entercom product. Riter vs. Schopp & Parker? How about "none of the above"? I'll catch ESPN when I get home and actually hear something about SPORTS, not "lifestyle" BS.

I feel bad that Schuh got the boot, but he may end up looking like a genius before these guys get done.
Click to expand...

What didn't you like about the first 45 seconds of that?
 
I heard about 45 seconds worth of verbal diarrhea from Riter and Griswold, and moved on to the video. It was so contrived that it was painful. At least the video was relatively concise.
 
In Lancaster early this morning: WECK, barely listenable, on the fringe. WGR, marginal because of it's night pattern, but listenable. WBEN, rock solid. WBFO, clean. WNED-AM, nulled out because of its pattern. WECK has about as much of a chance of denting Entercom as the Cleveland Cavaliers have winning an NBA title this season. BTW, how long before WECK gets a friendly letter from Entercom's legal counsel advising the removal of WGR and WBEN logos from WECK's Facebook page?
 
I guess the Riter & Co. at least have sparked some discussion of WECK. Obviously, the point of the whole diatribe is guerrilla marketing. The best thing that could happen would be a C&D. Maybe they could even get their "media partner" to cover it.

Bottom line is that any attention they can get might cause some people to sample the station. What are they going to hear when they get there? Signal issues aside, the quality of the programming doesn't approach what Entercom has available. Chemistry on the morning show? Yeah - the kind of chemistry that produces sulfur dioxide. Bill O'Loughlin's got a niche, but that's the problem - it's a niche. He's hardly going to attract a sports audience, and not likely to make Tom Thumb quake in his boots.

Riter might have a shot IF he can stop talking about himself. He might be able to compete with Mr. Mensa and the Bullslinger IF he would actually talk about SPORTS. Sandy and Shredd & Ragan have the lifestyle stuff covered. If Riter actually assembled some credible guests and concentrated on local sports, he might compete - mostly because WGR is so inept. Everybody else is window dressing at this point.
 
Really, Brad?  Really?  You really believe that you will beat Entercom and corporate radio within the next 12 months?  Good, talented people are standing in line to come to work for you at WECK?  They're just waiting for you call, huh?  I can't wait to see where "this station" is a year from now.

Nice job of verbally throwing Tom Schuh, and the work that he's done over the past few years with limited resources, under the bus.  Schuh, on the other hand, appears to have handled his dismissal with class.

My guess - the resources that you have to work with are even more limited at this point.  This all sounds pretty desperate to me...a last hurrah!  Good luck!
 
I just want to note that I appreciate the work Mr. Schuh did for WECK. As someone said, Tom was a respectable voice that "glued" things together. He handled the news well, was a much needed intelligent addition on many topics from 4-7, and seems like a generally pleasant professional man. With the limited resources available, I thought you did a fine job building WECK from nothing.

Unfortunately, Riter and Griswold throwing you under the bus was not a surprise. Seems to be a habit when things don't go their way since they both pulled the same unprofessional nonsense when they left WGR.

I agree with SirRoxalot that WECK's best plan of attack would be to focus on being an alternative to WGR. I like O'Loughlin, but I do not see how he can make a significant dent into WBEN. His shtick is that "I'm conservative too, but I'm nice!" Eh... And it's grossly counterproductive to have national conservative radio like Dennis Miller and Laura Ingraham when the local hosts openly insult them, repeatedly.

Believe me, many local sports fans want another option instead of Mike Schopp and Jeremy White. The problem is that hiring WGR's B-teamers from Brad Riter's friend list isn't going to be the solution. I knew the writing was on the wall when Riter did that self-serving podcast last summer. When Andrew Filipponi, a Googling hack that knows absolutely nothing about hockey or Buffalo at all, gets opportunities and is quickly hired in Pittsburgh at the age of 24... Griswold, Cave, and a couple other probable narcissistic disgruntleds switching to WECK, it's not just because WGR is cheap, it's because you kinda stink. Mendola was the exception.
 
Let's look on the bright side. Maybe it'll force WGR to get off its collective duff and get a little better. I suggest that WGR lets Howard Simon do his own show with guests that actually know something about sports, puts Bulldog in Mid-days and see if he can recreate his WBEN sports days, and puts Jeremy White on with Schopp so we can watch both guys who are too smart for the room duke it out in public.
 
The evil "syndication" on WGR comes from ESPN, the benchmark of sports and arguably some of the best sports programming in America. Plenty of listeners would prefer listening to ESPN than what passes for local sports talk on WECK, which has access to Fox Sports and is making a name for itself, competing aggressively with ESPN. If Dick Greene is taking his Cheektowaga graveyarder up against WGR, perhaps Fox Sports syndication should play a more prominent role. As to the local programming? Blow up the morning show. It fought the good fight and failed. Put Riter on in morning drive. Assign the gifted and talented Tom Donahue to producing promos and commercials. Assign Ms. O'Donnell to traffic or sales. Bill O'Loughlin doesn't fit a sports format, nor does Dennis Miller, so put them on waivers. As if this will happen. O'Loughlin sells his own show and brings in money. And there's the weekend polka show, which also generates cash flow. A major market sounding sports station doesn't have a money show in middays or a polka show on weekends, but since these programs generate money, they'll long be a part of the WECK line-up. Does anybody seriously believe the people at Entercom are concerned about WECK?
 
"If this doesn't force Entercom to simulcast WGR or WBEN on 107.7, nothing will."

In WBEN's case nothing will, because it has no real signal issues at all when it comes to covering its core market, and can probably get a CP to push its main transmitter to the max to go 10 kW DA-N without too much engineering fuss to make the situatiion still better east of Batavia. It probably would need 50 kW DA-2 to pound into Rochester with a local grade signal, and that's not beyond the realm of possibility, but it's also a needless expense--they won't sell enough outside the core market to make it worthwhile. WBEN hasn't sold significant time east of its own market since before World War II, when it was the only fulltime NBC Red network affiliate between Albany and Cleveland (WHAM was predominantly NBC Blue with a few Red network shows, and I believe so was WSYR). Once WHAM went to the NBC Red network fulltime in the early 40s, that was over.

As far as WGR, maybe...but remember, 107.7's signal is effectively going to be a repeater and null-filler for the eastern part of the Buffalo metro and the western part of the Rochester metro because, given its TL, it's going to be weaker than anything else on the FM dial in the core of each market.
 
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