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Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End

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K.M. Richards said:
Actually, they could have moved them back to S.F. if they had wanted to. Here in L.A. they have only been TOH mentions, going all the way back to 1993, when 93.1 was Classic Rock as "Arrow 93".

But as you said, they needed to put the KFRC calls somewhere in order not to lose them. (For all the good that has done, since enough time ha passed that those calls no longer have any kind of emotional attachment to the average listener.)
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Also true given that the median and average demos as of 2024 for San Francisco Radio Market was either not born yet or was too young to understand KFRC 610 AM when it was the home of Bobby Ocean, Dr. Don Rose, Jack Friday, Broadway Bill Lee, I can see how KFRC in 2024 no longer has any emotional attachment to the average listener.

www.audacy.com

Broadway Bill Lee - Mon-Fri: 3PM-7PM | WCBS-FM 101.1

Able to rhyme on a dime in perfect time, fool around on the phone and get your mind blown with a blast from the past, you’re listening to Broadway Bill Lee on WCBS-FM 101.1!
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com

He went on to jock at great stations like KFRC in San Francisco, WLOL in Minneapolis, and KPKE, Denver, before landing in afternoon drive in New York City.

During the late 80s, Bill maintained prominence in New York before heading back to San Francisco. By the spring of 1996, the urge to come back home to New York was too irresistible!
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K.M. Richards said:
But as you said, they needed to put the KFRC calls somewhere in order not to lose them. (For all the good that has done, since enough time ha passed that those calls no longer have any kind of emotional attachment to the average listener.)
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You are correct, they let KFRC atrophy on the shelf for so long that it's now virtually worthless, except maybe because it sounds like "FRanCisco". But unless they got relaunched for another in-market station or transferred to Frisco, TX, that buys their owners nothing anymore.

The average 34-year-old is at the top of the 18-34 demo and was born in 1990. By the time they were paying any attention to radio (which in itself is questionable these days), KFRC's calls were attached to either the Free FM failure or the 70's-era recreation in the mid-2000's, neither of which was likely to hold their attention. You'd need to be at least a decade older to even remember the "Oldies 99.7" era of KFRC, and a decade beyond that to recall the Dr. Don Rose (et al) glory days. And as we all know, if someone is two decades older than 34, their market value to a broadcaster or advertiser is nil.
 
It is interesting that with Michael Wallace and Steve Scott both off this entire week on pre-planned vacations, Wayne Cabot, Paul Murnane, and Brigitte Quinn worked their last shifts Thursday with the three hour farewell.

Today, Friday, the last day of news operations on WCBS, has been all fill-in anchors - Tanya Hansen, Suzanne Colucci, Ray Hoffman, Ashok Bhalla.
 
KMan said:
Today, Friday, the last day of news operations on WCBS, has been all fill-in anchors - Tanya Hansen, Suzanne Colucci, Ray Hoffman, Ashok Bhalla.
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Today isn't the last day. Local newscasts will continue until Mets pregame at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon.
 
lanceventa said:
And now I'm being told the last live newscast is right now... They were going to re-air yesterday's tribute show a few times this weekend along with other pre-recorded shows until ESPN takes over.
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Not just the tribute show but also a heavily produced two hour retrospective. I had seen elsewhere that Levon Putney's one hour newscast before the Mets game was going to be it.
 
Wayne and Paul now hosting a retrospective (started at 8:00 AM) called WCBS Through the Years. Also has some national ads, PSAs, 880 promos, traffic and weather on the 8s, and CBS news updates. The special is a bunch of historic clips going back to the 1920s interspersed with narrative from Wayne and Paul. Also noteworthy that they are running promos telling listeners to tune over to 1010 WINS on 92.3 starting Monday morning.
 
It's sad to see WCBS go. Being in suburban Northern New Jersey, they were reliable for traffic on the 8's when NJ 101.5 didn't come in too well and WINS only stuck with the city traffic reports most of the time. WCBS covered Connecticut and New Jersey.
 
KMan said:
Today, Friday, the last day of news operations on WCBS, has been all fill-in anchors - Tanya Hansen, Suzanne Colucci, Ray Hoffman, Ashok Bhalla.
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I did re-listen to some of the shift change points on both Thursday and Friday.

Again, with lots of fill-in/weekend talent working the last two days, there were lots of final sign offs.

Tom O'Hanlon took his last traffic report to say goodbye.
Tanya Hansen - who apparently has been at WCBS for 28 years - kept it short and together during her last block until Tracy Johnke's voice started to crack delivering her last business report - and then both of them could barely get to the lockout.
Anita Bonita had a particularly poignant one - well written with her rapid fire delivery - noting how she's literally worked everywhere in a long radio career but WCBS was where she always wanted to be.
 
KMan said:
Anita Bonita had a particularly poignant one - well written with her rapid fire delivery - noting how she's literally worked everywhere in a long radio career but WCBS was where she always wanted to be.
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Kent said:
Remember when New York had easy listening on 93.1 and 105.1? Seems like there was a third easy listening station, too, but I can’t remember which station. The market also had two commercial classical stations until the early 90’s. It had an FM station that specialized in Yiddish, Greek, and Italian programming until 1989. It sauntered over to AM and continued for a few more years, but a for profit operation can’t be a charity service forever. All of those stations saw their audience age out and no longer be in demand from advertisers.
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Don't forget, they also have the ratings pit in the middle of the dial that is WBAI.
 
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