Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End

[Kent]

Not only that but it would appear the WCBS call will now only exist on 101.1 (The Classic Hits station in NYC)

As previously mentioned, they will also be on WCBS-TV.

If I were Audacity, I'd take the WCBS call & move it to 1010 despite the long legendary history of the WINS call, which dates back to 1932. Add the location of the WCBS call on FM at 101 & it's only natural that the WCBS call be moved to 1010 as well as then the station can boast an image of something like "AM or FM, you're listening to WCBS"

Audacy probably can’t. The agreement when it took over the CBS stations outlined what it could and couldn’t do with calls that CBS owned TV stations shared. Besides, it already decided the WCBS calls weren’t a strong enough brand. We'll find out if that was a good decision or not soon.

They can keep the WINS call on 92.3 if they want if for no other reason than to warehouse it somewhere but that's it

WINS has been the stronger brand for a long time now.

As for Audacy's "Excuse" for the format change on 880, I don't buy their "Broadcasting landscape" excuse although since Audacy also owns WINS, they at least get rid of a redundancy that's existed FOR YEARS if nothing else

It's really not that hard to figure out. It got a deal that it thinks will let it keep the bulk of its revenue on 880 (a combination of sports rights that it has been getting and LMA fees it will start getting) and will let it relieve the headache of having a large staff and high overhead. It probably also thinks it can increase the revenue at WINS.

 

[TheBigA]

I don't buy their "Broadcasting landscape" excuse

So you think everything is just peachy in broadcasting?

 

[davideduardo]

If I were Audacity, I'd take the WCBS call & move it to 1010 despite the long legendary history of the WINS call, which dates back to 1932. Add the location of the WCBS call on FM at 101 & it's only natural that the WCBS call be moved to 1010 as well as then the station can boast an image of something like "AM or FM, you're listening to WCBS"

But in recent years, the dominant news station has been WINS. Outside of the sports play by play, the all news hours were well behind the audience size of WINS.

In radio, it's all about today's usage. WCBS (AM) had fallen behind WINS in the news category. Nobody says, "I'll listen to them because they were great 30 years ago". Radio is all about now.

They can keep the WINS call on 92.3 if they want if for no other reason than to warehouse it somewhere but that's it

Again, for years WINS was winning in a news hour to news hour comparison. It's a Yankees to Mets comparison at best

As for signing WEPN off on 98.7, I fail to see the logic of that because FM signals are better suited to handle live sporting events like those broadcast by ESPN Radio than AM is (The days of broadcasting live sports have LONG since been numbered since Sports Talk stations either began MIGRATING FROM (Or SIMULCASTING ON in whole or in part) AM frequencies

The reason for that migration is, of course, that listeners prefer FM in most cases due to audio clarity and lack of most man-made noise. These decisions are made, to a greater extent, by the team and not the interested stations.

As for Audacy's "Excuse" for the format change on 880, I don't buy their "Broadcasting landscape" excuse although since Audacy also owns WINS, they at least get rid of a redundancy that's existed FOR YEARS if nothing else

It's pretty obvious that the news operation was not profitable or only minimally so. They kept the sports rights which were and got rid of an albatross while, at the same time, getting a monthly LMA fee.

 

[wabc860]

No one has mentioned this. Where is Audacy going to roll off Monday Night Football Games etc... now that WCBS is gone. Many sporting events were rolled to WCBS radio lately. Also mentioned above I feel Audacy put the Mets Baseball Games in Good Karma's Lap after the 2025 season unless by then they break the simulcast of WINS and put them on WINS AM.

 

[TheBigA]

No one has mentioned this. Where is Audacy going to roll off Monday Night Football Games etc... now that WCBS is gone.

Officially MNF airs on WFAN, but they are selective about the games. It may be one of those things where they split the AM & FM, put MNF on the AM, with the regular programming on FM. But it's a similar situation to Good Karma. They have arrangements with smaller AMs in the area for overflow.

 

[JeeperOne]

Not only that but it would appear the WCBS call will now only exist on 101.1 (The Classic Hits station in NYC)

If I were Audacity, I'd take the WCBS call & move it to 1010 despite the long legendary history of the WINS call, which dates back to 1932. Add the location of the WCBS call on FM at 101 & it's only natural that the WCBS call be moved to 1010 as well as then the station can boast an image of something like "AM or FM, you're listening to WCBS"

They can keep the WINS call on 92.3 if they want if for no other reason than to warehouse it somewhere but that's it

As for signing WEPN off on 98.7, I fail to see the logic of that because FM signals are better suited to handle live sporting events like those broadcast by ESPN Radio than AM is (The days of broadcasting live sports have LONG since been numbered since Sports Talk stations either began MIGRATING FROM (Or SIMULCASTING ON in whole or in part) AM frequencies

It will be interesting to see what is done with WEPN as a music formated station now

As for Audacy's "Excuse" for the format change on 880, I don't buy their "Broadcasting landscape" excuse although since Audacy also owns WINS, they at least get rid of a redundancy that's existed FOR YEARS if nothing else

As previously mentioned, they will also be on WCBS-TV.

I wasn't counting TV when I made my comments as WCBS 2 is owned by CBS/Paramount & isn't a part of the deal whereas the radio stations belong to Audacy

Audacy probably can’t. The agreement when it took over the CBS stations outlined what it could and couldn’t do with calls that CBS owned TV stations shared. Besides, it already decided the WCBS calls weren’t a strong enough brand. We'll find out if that was a good decision or not soon.

You obviously don't remember the Old Time Radio era when WCBS AM was known as (Ironically) WABC before changing them to WCBS after WCVS (A Radio station in Springfield, MA which is now WFMB gave up the WCBS calls in 1946

WINS has been the stronger brand for a long time now.

No question about it. Both are legendary. However WINS AM has a history as a Top 40 Radio station (Albeit not since 1965) whereas WCBS does not so (IF Audacy were to do this, they could swap the Classic Hits format ALONG WITH the WINS calls to 92.3 in exchange for the WINS calls & its All News format on 101.1 BUT the keyword here is IF)

It's really not that hard to figure out. It got a deal that it thinks will let it keep the bulk of its revenue on 880 (a combination of sports rights that it has been getting and LMA fees it will start getting) and will let it relieve the headache of having a large staff and high overhead. It probably also thinks it can increase the revenue at WINS.

Not to mention the redundancy of having to run two All News stations which FOR YEARS have just been beating each other over the head which they will soon no longer have

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Not to mention the redundancy of having to run two All News stations which FOR YEARS have just been beating each other over the head which they will soon no longer have

The "competition" should have been between two different operators all along.

I think it would be hilarious if Hubbard were to swoop in, acquire 98.7, put an all-news competitor with the WCBS alumni on it and give Audacy some real "karma". Not that I expect that to happen in the least but hey, they do pretty well with WTOP.

 

[Larry]

Officially MNF airs on WFAN, but they are selective about the games. It may be one of those things where they split the AM & FM, put MNF on the AM, with the regular programming on FM. But it's a similar situation to Good Karma. They have arrangements with smaller AMs in the area for overflow.

We don’t know how high (or low) the listenership is on WINS-AM. They could broadcast an occasional game on WINS-AM as long as they continue the news on WINS-FM. In Philly they have occasionally put an overflow game on WOGL-FM (the sister station to WCBS-FM.)

 

[Kent]

You obviously don't remember the Old Time Radio era when WCBS AM was known as (Ironically) WABC before changing them to WCBS after WCVS (A Radio station in Springfield, MA which is now WFMB gave up the WCBS calls in 1946

I wasn't alive back then, but I know about it. I've even been inside the WCVS/WFMB building. It's irrelevant to what Audacy can do with the WCBS calls. When Entercom bought CBS, the deal specifically said CBS kept the rights to the call letters and branding it had in common with CBS owned TV stations. Audacy can't move the WCBS calls without getting permission from CBS. It doesn't need, doesn't want, and can't afford a lawsuit over something relatively trivial. That's likely why 103.9 in Philadelphia is still WPHI instead of KYW-FM. With Paramount likely changing hands in the next year, Audacy might have an opportunity to get those rights, but that hasn't happened yet.

Not to mention the redundancy of having to run two All News stations which FOR YEARS have just been beating each other over the head which they will soon no longer have

The two had obviously made money in tandem for the last 25+ years. As we've discussed before, sometimes, providing your own competition to keep someone else from doing it makes sense. It probably doesn't for two all news stations anymore, though.

 

[Kemosabe]

You obviously don't remember the Old Time Radio era when WCBS AM was known as (Ironically) WABC before changing them to WCBS after WCVS (A Radio station in Springfield, MA which is now WFMB gave up the WCBS calls in 1946

Wrong Springfield. WFMB is in the Land of Lincoln.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Here is the aircheck of the 1970's promo jingles of WCBS-AM when they were in the early years of all news radio.

 

[CTListener]

Officially MNF airs on WFAN, but they are selective about the games. It may be one of those things where they split the AM & FM, put MNF on the AM, with the regular programming on FM. But it's a similar situation to Good Karma. They have arrangements with smaller AMs in the area for overflow.

Do the Mets take priority over MNF on both WFAN AM and FM? And when MNF involves either of the New York teams, does any New York station carry the national feed or is only the local broadcast available?

 

[TheBigA]

Do the Mets take priority over MNF on both WFAN AM and FM?

You mean Yankees? I'd say yes. MNF is nationally syndicated. Yankees is local.

And when MNF involves either of the New York teams, does any New York station carry the national feed or is only the local broadcast available?

Giants are on WFAN and they run the local coverage. Jets was on WEPN, now on WAXQ, and WFAN carries the national feed.

 

[davideduardo]

No one has mentioned this. Where is Audacy going to roll off Monday Night Football Games etc... now that WCBS is gone. Many sporting events were rolled to WCBS radio lately. Also mentioned above I feel Audacy put the Mets Baseball Games in Good Karma's Lap after the 2025 season unless by then they break the simulcast of WINS and put them on WINS AM.

Full season ball games would lose them the SLR qualification. I doubt they would do that.

 

[CTListener]

You mean Yankees? I'd say yes. MNF is nationally syndicated. Yankees is local.



Giants are on WFAN and they run the local coverage. Jets was on WEPN, now on WAXQ, and WFAN carries the national feed.

Yes, I meant the Yankees. My age is showing. To me, WFAN will always be "Let's Go Mets ... F-A-N!"

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Officially MNF airs on WFAN, but they are selective about the games. It may be one of those things where they split the AM & FM, put MNF on the AM, with the regular programming on FM. But it's a similar situation to Good Karma. They have arrangements with smaller AMs in the area for overflow.

When WFAN started splitting the simulcast, it allowed them to rely on overflow stations less. Westwood One's MNF games stay on the FAN regardless.

The main issue is where does Rutgers men's basketball go when 880/1050 has the Knicks or Rangers, and 660 and 101.9 are booked. Rutgers hasn't released their Big Ten conference schedule yet. We'll have to wait for that before matching up with the pro teams.

 

[davideduardo]

When WFAN started splitting the simulcast, it allowed them to rely on overflow stations less. Westwood One's MNF games stay on the FAN regardless.

The main issue of splitting an AM and FM simulcast is that Nielsen only allows a small amount of weekly hours to be split... otherwise the two stations are listed separately in the ratings releases. And losing Single Line Reporting (combined ratings) is rather deadly for overall billing.

 

[CTListener]

The main issue of splitting an AM and FM simulcast is that Nielsen only allows a small amount of weekly hours to be split... otherwise the two stations are listed separately in the ratings releases. And losing Single Line Reporting (combined ratings) is rather deadly for overall billing.

Why? Aren't the agencies smart enough to combine the two without Nielsen doing the job for them? They don't care who's listening to AM, who's listening to FM or who's listening to the stream, just as long as lots of people are listening to whatever's on all three at any given time, right?

 

[davideduardo]

Why? Aren't the agencies smart enough to combine the two without Nielsen doing the job for them?

No. They use computer programs that bring up Cost Per Point or Gross Impressions based on Nielsen listings. With some buys going over a hundred markets deep, they don't have the time or motivation to look at "potential combos".

They don't care who's listening to AM, who's listening to FM or who's listening to the stream, just as long as lots of people are listening to whatever's on all three at any given time, right?

Correct. They buy impressions, not transmitters.

 

[K.M. Richards]

If I were Audacity, I'd take the WCBS call & move it to 1010 despite the long legendary history of the WINS call, which dates back to 1932. Add the location of the WCBS call on FM at 101 & it's only natural that the WCBS call be moved to 1010 as well as then the station can boast an image of something like "AM or FM, you're listening to WCBS"

As I understand it, the CBS/Entercom agreement on the use of the call letters precludes their use anywhere but the stations they were on at the time of the merger.

So ... not legally possible.