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Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End

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Loverofradio said:
I fully believe listeners will definitely jump ship over that. We listen to sports to get away from news. WFAN wouldn’t do that
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As was pointed out several posts back, WFAN did have TOH news at one point in its history.

I don't think the number of sports listeners that avoid the news is as big a percentage as you might believe.
 
K.M. Richards said:
As was pointed out several posts back, WFAN did have TOH news at one point in its history.

I don't think the number of sports listeners that avoid the news is as big a percentage as you might believe.
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But as David often points out, what was the demographic of the NYC market from when WFAN launched, to now? Would today’s sports talk listen, ranging from different demographics, be willing to sit through news at the top of each hour? I sure wouldn’t. In fact, if I didn’t know anything about radio, I’d be confused as to why news is airing on a sports station. Why have live events on radio and tv done so well? Because it’s not news. So now I’m wondering if some of the 880 clients will actually stick around for sports after all? I surely hope this is just a rumor and/or Audacy could get rid of that requirement.
 
charlestondxman said:
New Orleans is a much more parochial market with the Saints than with NY and WCBS. The Saints are a major part of the culture, and you have to have Saints coverage there and WWL is the flagship. And the majority of their listenership is on FM. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina they added the FM simulcast with 105.3 (that was a struggling hot AC before the storm).

Even with that their night programming is all Infinity sports talk after 8pm. They do Dave Ramsey at 1am CT and Gordon Deal's morning news at 4am.

When I was growing up (even until Katrina and a few years after), they had trucking shows on there overnight.
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105.3 The Zone flipped to Classic Rock, WKBU earlier in the year. During the hurricane, all of them were simulcasting WWL. WKBU's studio was damaged in the storm considerably. They had a 60s-70s Oldies format on the 95.7 frequency, Kool 95.7. After the storm they decided to get WKBU back on by using the 95.7 frequency and they relaunched the oldies format on 105.3 when the studio was repaired. It didn't last long, couple days or a week before they put WWL on and made Kool 105.3 internet only.
 
Loverofradio said:
So now I’m wondering if some of the 880 clients will actually stick around for sports after all?
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As has been pointed out more than once in the course of this thread, Audacy is 99.9% certain to move its own advertising clients over to WINS.

We are talking about a network commitment here, and I don't think Audacy has a say in that. Since they do not own the network and the station is not changing ownership, the existing CBS affiliation contract (which specifies 880) has to be honored.
 
Rollo-Smokes said:
Speaking of network...

Effective Friday 8/16, Mets broadcasts on 880 are now branded as the "Audacy Mets Radio Network".

Of course, the network is just the one station.
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Maybe they'll try to build a network of affiliates interested in carrying the games ... wait, what am I thinking? These are the Mets!
 
I’m not going to through 26 pages of discussion lol, but has anyone pointed out that Metropolitans broadcast deal with Audacy ends next season? New York Mets Move Radio Broadcasts To WCBS/Entercom next season GKB can work on getting the surrounding programming pre/post game shows, hot stove shows and be in very good position to grab and control the rights after next season, I would be completely shocked if Iheart or Audacy are the rights holder and not GKB after next season.

The yankees previous deal that ended last year with WFAN was reportedly worth between 15-20 million dollars, if that’s accurate the Yankees new deal is even more. We all know that the Yankees and Giants dominate the NY sports market. this could be a situation like ESPN tv has, in the last few years they are paying much higher rights fees for the major leagues so they are letting go of the lesser ones, you got broadcasters like the CW and ION gaining rights to leagues that get way smaller viewership but still making some money off of it. Yankees agree multi-million dollar radio deal - SportsPro

I actually don’t think Audacy actually is making much of a profit on the Mets deal, at least how they present it. The real money maker is the surrounding programming that’s why most NFL teams have 3 hour pre and post game shows. WCBS goes right to traffic and weather right after the last pitch. The news listeners turn off the station when the Mets are on and mets fans only listen to the game broadcast. Back in the day it likely made sense when WCBS aired the Yankees because after games Listeners would turn on WFAN and hear yankee talk all day (when there wasn’t any Mets pbp). Just like music radio, sports talk is all about playing the hits so it’s mostly Yankees and Giants.

We all know that WCBS’s listeners are getting older but Audacys rights fees are significant and likely not going to go down at least in near future. For GKB there is more value for them then anyone else in having a summer pbp team being a sports station, they may not set the ratings world on fire but they can get some serious revenue with the 880 signal, mets and digital.
 
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bobjim45 said:
I’m not going to though 26 pages of discussion lol, but has anyone pointed out that Metropolitans broadcast deal with Audacy goes until the end of next season?
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You only had to go back a couple of pages from the end.

I misspoke about which team and was subsequently corrected, but the fact remains valid. And GKB will not be getting the revenue from Mets games; as you correctly pointed out, that contract is with Audacy.
 
Long-term, doing two newsradio formats (with one solely being available OTA on the ancient modulation band) makes little sense when another, profitable use for one of the stations is available.

The threat of someone else launching a competing newsradio brand successfully is nearly zero, so it's not as if two separately programmed stations were required to protect Audacy's turf.

Doing two all-news stations makes about as much sense as doing two classic rock stations, two Hot AC stations, or two Reggaeton stations within the same cluster. In other words, it makes no sense! Why compete against oneself?

Audacy telegraphed its desire to ultimately move the WCBS brand out of the newsradio business when it awarded WINS an FM simulcast but not WCBS. Many of you refused to believe such a scenario as a probable scenario solely based on a revenue number that was likely fudged.

I am just thankful 880 isn't flipping to some sort of fringe format (brokered foreign language, sports betting, fundamentalist preaching, etc.).
 
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secondchoice said:
They are in Bankruptcy. Almost everything has to be approved by the Court Appointed Trustee who answers to the judge. If you want to remain a trustee you don't do things to decrease positive cash flow. On paper this increases positive cash flow.

Apparently 880 didn't have that much cash left after expenses
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This is a Chapter 11 proceeding. Trustees are seldom appointed in a Chapter 11 case. There is no Trustee for this particular case.

It would not surprise me one bit if the LMA of 880 does not even require court approval. The company's ability to conduct transactions of the sort contemplated here was likely affirmed as part of First Day Motions at the start of the bankruptcy case.
 
MarkW said:
Doing two all-news stations makes about as much sense as doing two classic rock stations, two Hot AC stations, or two Reggaeton stations within the same cluster. In other words, it makes no sense! Why compete against oneself?
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Generally no. If, however, a market has a large enough audience to support multiple stations in the same format, providing your own competition to keep someone else from doing it can make sense. Admittedly, that's not the case with most formats or in most situations, but it can be beneficial at times.
 
bobjim45 said:
GKB can work on getting the surrounding programming pre/post game shows, hot stove shows and be in very good position to grab and control the rights after next season, I would be completely shocked if Iheart or Audacy are the rights holder and not GKB after next season.
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I would tend to agree with this. They carry the second tier baseball teams in Chicago and LA as well as the Brewers in Milwaukee.
 
MarkW said:
Long-term, doing two newsradio formats (with one solely being available OTA on the ancient modulation band) makes little sense when another, profitable use for one of the stations is available.

The threat of someone else launching a competing newsradio brand is nearly zero, so it's not as if two separately programmed stations were required to protect Audacy's turf.
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The two stations weren't originally both owned by the same company. It was the result of the culture of mergers and acquisitions and deregulated media concentration that led to that.

Obviously you're right, it makes no sense for one company to own two stations in the same format in the long run. It worked out for a while because both stations were heritage brands with top talent and established audiences and they were two of the top billing radio stations in the nation. But I wish these two stations were competitors owned by different companies all along. I highly doubt WCBS would be going away right now in that scenario.

MarkW said:
I am just thankful 880 isn't flipping to some sort of fringe format (brokered foreign language, sports betting, fundamentalist preaching, etc.).
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Don't count your chickens before they hatch. We don't know what 98.7 will be airing next and Lance has already telegraphed that we won't like it. Sounds like it's still going to be a net loss.
 
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