and as a radio geek from CT, while i listened mroe to 880 then 1010.... to me, what sticks in my minsd more is "WINS News time.......... give us 22 mintues well give you the world". I think the WINSD brand is much more valuable .. and anyone who things its WCBS is going on nostalgia and radio nerddom while associating it with CBS as a whole.
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Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End
- Thread starter lanceventa
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It's funny— this all is the opposite of what happened in Los Angeles 15+ years ago.
KNX was the "mostly news" station (e.g., WCBS). KFWB was the "22 minutes" all news station. They killed KFWB and rolled some of it into KNX because KNX was the stronger brand.
But I have to agree. WINS is clearly the better brand. And if the loss of WCBS means that WINS can survive a bit longer, I'm all for it. But in a not-too-distant decade we're gonna be burying KNX and WINS as well. And I hope to see that postponed as long as possible.
KNX was the "mostly news" station (e.g., WCBS). KFWB was the "22 minutes" all news station. They killed KFWB and rolled some of it into KNX because KNX was the stronger brand.
But I have to agree. WINS is clearly the better brand. And if the loss of WCBS means that WINS can survive a bit longer, I'm all for it. But in a not-too-distant decade we're gonna be burying KNX and WINS as well. And I hope to see that postponed as long as possible.
Didn’t help that KFWB had a poorer signal either.
Certainly possible, but I'm not convinced it's a given. When it comes to the next generation of radio, all news is a prime format for that. You can offer your news on demand and via multiple platforms. You could also even offer in depth versions of your headlines and potentially have audio and video streams of big interviews. You won’t incur much in royalty costs, and you can provide it without as much bandwidth, at least if you stay audio only. Granted, you still have to deal with the high overhead, and you have to figure out how to get either advertisers or listeners to pay for it, which is still a major unknown. All news, however, seems like a great format for a multi platform approach, and you have a massive amount of brand equity built up over multiple decades.
Ironically KFWB carried the biggest afterthought in L.A. sports, the Angels. I’m not saying I’m just saying. After the Dodgers left KFWB, they tanked. After the Yankees left WCBS, they tanked.
There's still a chance that music radio could get sucker punched with a fat new music royalty one of these days if the record label lobbyist groups finally get their way in Washington. These broadcast companies are going to wish they didn't kill their big heritage talk brands and blow off their loyal audiences and all that equity you mentioned, if and when that happens.
Then again, there is zero long term strategy in corporate radio world. It's all quarter-to-quarter. The distance of the executives' vision is limited to their next bonus check.
Actually, KFWB was the stronger brand. It's problem was limited power and coverage, not the quality of programming.
KNX also had a fast news cycle, but was encumbered historically by the need to run network news, its long period of doing editorials and other "features".
KNX actually looks fairly well now for a news station in the Sunbelt where all news traditionally and historically has not done as well as in the North and Northeast.
Remember, after KFWB had to be put in a trust due to ownership caps, they put on anything they could to generate revenue. I consider that KFWB stopped being a news station the moment the trustee took over.
Hubbard knows that WTOP owes much / most of its billing to being in the nation's capital. And they know that anywhere else, all news is not a promising future format.
I was always a KFWB guy over 1070, growing up. I never loved KFWB more than when they were The Beast. That station was amazing. Does CBS still own the rights to “The Beast”? I might use that when I get back into radio and launch a sports station again
I wish I could find more recordings of KFWB in its final (pre-talk) years. It was sharp. I do miss it. But I feel more nostalgia for KNX for some reason.
Probably the times I've found myself on a dark freeway at 2 AM the four-corners area of NE Arizona or central Wyoming with no cell signal— and knowing I could tune into a crackly 1070 and hear somebody alive and talking right now
I'm not aware that any radio companies are killing off "heritage talk brands." If anything, they're building and growing talk. WEPN is a sports talk radio station, so the news on WCBS is simply being replaced with another type of talk. Nobody is expanding all-news radio because it's so expensive, because the audience is declining, and mostly all over 65.
Weren't you the guy who complained when Audacy replaced music on 92.3 with a news simulcast? There's a case where broadcast radio expanded talk.
Now we have the news that Beasley will be leasing out WBOS in Boston to Bloomberg Radio. The classic rock station has rather poor ratings.
Perhaps we're seeing the beginning of a trend toward leasing some stations, rather than selling them outright.
Rock 92.9 to Bloomberg
Perhaps we're seeing the beginning of a trend toward leasing some stations, rather than selling them outright.
Rock 92.9 to Bloomberg
It's smart. Bloomberg is in the content business. Not the transmitter and tower business. Rent the distribution where you want it (other than WBBR, of course).
Disney did the same thing with ESPN Radio. Sell the transmitters and keep churning out content.
For the owner, it takes the day-to-day operations like sales and programming off the table and turns it into a reliable monthly check.
The same thing could be done with music. In 2005, the Country Music Association did a deal with WNYE to bring country radio to New York. Of course, there's very little interest in people connected to music for radio airplay anymore. But it would be very easy for someone like Steven Van Zant, who has a content deal with Sirius, to do a similar thing with a broadcast radio station. They just aren't interested.
Does anyone care about Rutgers? I’d imagine there are more UConn fans in NYC than Rutgers.
My bet is that Rutgers or the Big Ten pays the station to carry the games
Seems to me the Rutgers Alumni paid for the games on WOR.
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They don’t. But, since Rutgers is in the “new” Big 10 Conference they might spark interest
The team has to be good to spark interest.
Rutgers has been a member of the Big Ten since 2014. With only three universities in the NE with
JeeperOne
Banned
Except they can't just have the WCBS calls completely removed from the AM band either. They've got to put them somewhere other than just 101.1
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