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Imus on WILM?

W

WTUX

Guest
With Imus looking like a sure thing on WABC starting December 1st, could he possibly be coming to WILM? I raise this point not just to start a rumor, because my brain is probably the only one which has thought of this. But since they carry the WABC line-up from noon til 6pm, why not throw the I-Man on from 6-10?
 
My gut tells me that would not be a good move. WILM still tries to position itself as a local news station, based on a 30 year heritage in the format. Obviously, airing a national talk show in AM drive would end that positioning. I'm not sure management is ready to make a move like that, because it would probably drive away whatever local advertiser support the station still has. The other problem is that the signal is strongest in the city and neighborhoods just south of the city (areas with largely African-American populations). I assume many potential listeners in those areas aren't too thrilled with Imus these days. In my opinion, WILM's best asset is its ties to the city culture and its programming should do more to reflect that, not less.
 
Old Number 7's thought makes sense given where the signal's strength lies, but it seems to differ from what the station has been doing for their main programming needs. Most of WILM's weekday programming now is from the bird, all of it conservative, and all of it white.

However, the station does do quite a bit of local minority programming, with John Watson's weekday talk show, Saturday morning local talk with Harmon Carey a black political activist, and a Sunday evening local talk show with Charles Brittenham, the president of the Delaware NAACP, as host. So I'd have to say that WILM probably is doing more locally produced minority public affairs type news programming than any other radio station in the state. The other minority focused radio stations in Delaware are: WJKS 101.7 that is an urban station, 1510 WFAI a urban gospel station (their studios are in Downtown Wilmington, their transmitters and city of license are Canton and Salem NJ respectively), and 1600 Dover (don't know the calls as they've changed very often) that also airs urban gospel.

My guess is WILM's money is being made with the national satellite programming rather than the locally produced minority shows (possibly Watson's being the notable exception to that rule). However, Old Number 7's point about WILM's positioning as a local news authority in the morning would be lost if airing Imus from 6am-10am. To me it would make more sense to keep the local news from 6am-9am and then from 9am-12noon air Glenn Beck and drop Hannity and air Watson then (3pm-6pm). Granted Imus' show would probably draw a crowd if WILM was willing to lose that morning news position and allow WDEL to become the only news station in town, which seems to be what is happening more and more as WILM seems to be cutting more and more local news for satellite programming. So WTUX may have a point and who knows, we may just be able to hear "Don Imus in the Morning" in Wilmington come December.
 
Note of interest today. WILM's question of the day is "Should Imus be allowed back on the radio?"

Is there a reason they are asking this of their listeners (other than they couldn't think of another question to ask)?
 
It could be coincidence, but then again, if CC Delaware felt there was enough listener interest in Imus and possibly good spot revenue in Wilmington for the Imus show, would they take the plunge and get the new Imus show from ABC radio (they've already got Hannity and Levin from ABC so why not the I man). I'd say yes. If I understand correctly, the new Imus show would run from 6am - 10am. That would cut into Watson's show, but they could do that and still have John on from 10am to 11:30am or even to 12noon and cut out their 11:30 mid day report with Rush still at 12noon. In either case Wilmington would have Imus.

That might cut into WDEL's ratings, as my guess is, that many would tune in to hear this controversial show. Assuming they like what they hear and continued to tune in to WILM for Imus, that move could hurt WDEL's morning ratings. The down side is that WILM would be giving up the last vestage of their former supremacy as the news station in Delaware. That is kind of sad, to finally get a state of the art radio facility after all those years at 12th and French Street with the 30 year old equipment that didn't work quite often only to become mostly a satellite feed station which they could have done at 12th and French simply by adding the computer systems to do the satellite shows without needing board ops round the clock. CC Delaware must get a great tax break of some sort for constructing the new radio studios in New Castle. Because I see no other reason for them building the new studios given the changes in their programming.
 
During the WFAN days, Imus was syndicated for the entire 4 hours but many affiliates only carried the 6-9am portion, including MSNBC. Good reson for this. Hour number four was normally pretty lame. It was like the entire cew ran out of steam at 9 o'clock. He even commented on the air about affiliate complaints about that final hour.

There would probably be no reason that WILM could not opt out of that hour.
 
If that is an option, then Watson could keep his existing show. Sounds like a plan.
 
I've got it on good authority, that WILM will not be picking up Imus or Glenn Beck. The way it was put to me was, we are very happy with our Delaware This Morning Newscast and have no plans to drop our local drive time newscast or their local morning talker (John Watson). Remember Delaware This Morning airs on both WILM an WDOV. I wonder if Delaware CC ever considered that Watson's show could also be carried on WDOV giving it a more statewide stature. They'd have to have a 1 (800) phone number for the downstate callers. The bigger question would be would the expanded show pull in more spots or does WDOV do better spot wise with Glenn Beck.

WILM has recently hired back Ted Effaw adding to their stable of reporters. Wilmington is lucky that we are able to have a choice for local radio news. So it would appear that CC Delaware (WILM) isn't quite ready to just let WDEL become the radio news voice in Wilmington as the competition continues.
 
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