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It's official. RED APPLE MEDIA owns WABC.

D

DonMatsen

Red Apple took over at 77 WABC this past Saturday. It will be interesting to see what local ownership does. The fun begins.

What would you like to happen? For me, live and local in afternoon drive would be a top priority. Get rid of Ben Shapiro or, at least, put him on late nights or overnights until something better comes along. How about Hot Talk? Let's have some fun and perhaps get some younger listeners?

Oh ... get an FM and simulcast. 103.9 (Cumulus) or 99.5 (Pacifica) perhaps?
 
There's a reason WABC is a perennial ratings bottom-dweller and I don't see how a new owner running the kind of same red meat programming will make any difference. Other than a vocal but tiny audience of old men who are out of the advertising demo, there's no demand for it here.
 
TheBigA said:
The new owner is among them, so he's programming to an audience of people like him.
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Exactly, he bought his own echo chamber, a hobby station to broadcast his dogma to his fellow senior citizens, but it won't be fun and it will never attract younger listeners.

If he had planned to simulcast on WNBM he surely would have bought it at the same time. But that station probably doesn't throw a 65 dBu signal outside of the Bronx, the bluest district in the whole country, so that makes no sense for his programming. And WBAI is still not for sale. Even if it were, they wouldn't sell it to him.
 
Maybe the new owner should consider adding oldies music to the weekends instead of infomercials, similar to what NJ 101.5 is doing. Bring back old jingles during their "Musicradio" heydays, and if possible, air some full-length airchecks that includes Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, Cousin Brucie, and more.

If they do that, then it would help boost WABC's ratings, since almost the majority of their audience is over the age of 50.
 
CurtisNEPA said:
Bring back old jingles during their "Musicradio" heydays,
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I've read where some tribute sites do that. It's been my experience in dealing with jingle houses that they don't give blanket licenses to their jingles so that may be difficult to obtain.
 
CurtisNEPA said:
If they do that, then it would help boost WABC's ratings, since almost the majority of their audience is over the age of 50.
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That is a Pyrrhic victory. The may get increased ratings, but few advertisers buy 55+ in transactional markets like NYC.
 
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CurtisNEPA said:
Maybe the new owner should consider adding oldies music to the weekends instead of infomercials, similar to what NJ 101.5 is doing. Bring back old jingles during their "Musicradio" heydays, and if possible, air some full-length airchecks that includes Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, Cousin Brucie, and more.

If they do that, then it would help boost WABC's ratings, since almost the majority of their audience is over the age of 50.
Click to expand...

Wait...what? So the idea is that the station should move forward by going backwards and trying to appeal to a demographic that is of no interest to advertisers? How do you suppose that they keep the lights on? It's a radio fan fantasy. WABC has been a talk radio station for almost 40 years. There are probably more people alive who either never heard of WABC/770 or know if it as a talk station...as opposed to those who listened in the Musicradio days.

Music just will not work on AM. Better to come up with some programming that's consistent with the overall format, or run paid programming that at least generates some revenue.
 
DonMatsen said:
Red Apple took over at 77 WABC this past Saturday. It will be interesting to see what local ownership does. The fun begins.
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Ummm...newsflash.
WABC's engineer just posted on the NYRMB that the sale has not yet closed. WABC still appears to be under Cumulus ownership.
Considering the definitive nature of your post, it seems like you have some first hand knowledge...what do you know that the CE doesn't?
 
I don't understand why people think this will happen in secret. Same with the antenna move for WNSH.

When these changes happen, paperwork will be filed with the FCC, and it will all be public.
 
CurtisNEPA said:
Maybe the new owner should consider adding oldies music to the weekends instead of infomercials, similar to what NJ 101.5 is doing. Bring back old jingles during their "Musicradio" heydays, and if possible, air some full-length airchecks that includes Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, Cousin Brucie, and more.

If they do that, then it would help boost WABC's ratings, since almost the majority of their audience is over the age of 50.
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Not that I mean to pile on but...

You have a better chance of winning powerball, then getting struck by lightning on the same day.

Ain't gonna happen... No one would buy advert time.

*Unless* someone decided to buy a couple of hours on the weekend and do their *own* musicradio oldies show, which, by the way... also aint gonna happen.

Musicradio WABC is dead. Time to move on. Be thankful it came back for an encore in the early 2000s.
 
drksd4848 said:
Not that I mean to pile on but...

You have a better chance of winning powerball, then getting struck by lightning on the same day.

Ain't gonna happen... No one would buy advert time.

*Unless* someone decided to buy a couple of hours on the weekend and do their *own* musicradio oldies show, which, by the way... also aint gonna happen.

Musicradio WABC is dead. Time to move on. Be thankful it came back for an encore in the early 2000s.
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Well said. To add ...

The only way to get that oldies fix in the third decade of the 21st century is to go down to the basement ... unpack those boxes of vinyl singles ... cassettes ... and 8-tracks and go wild. Oh ... and hope the equipment still works. :)

-- Don Matsen ... Fellow Baby Boomer ... Already moved on.

P.S. - That 8-Track tape just unwound all over the basement! Grrrrrrrrrr :)
 
DonMatsen said:
The only way to get that oldies fix in the third decade of the 21st century is to go down to the basement ... unpack those boxes of vinyl singles ... cassettes ... and 8-tracks and go wild. Oh ... and hope the equipment still works. :):)
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Or you could easily create a playlist on any of the streaming music services (Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.) As I recall, the playlist on a traditional oldies station was only about 300~350 songs deep and it's not like they change once you get it set up.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Or you could easily create a playlist on any of the streaming music services (Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.) As I recall, the playlist on a traditional oldies station was only about 300~350 songs deep and it's not like they change once you get it set up.
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Yeah, but that doesn't scratch the itch though. Not even close.

Stringing a big playlist of oldies together is not even close to a real, living breathing radio show, with a living breathing Disc Jockey who moves you though it, entertains you, informs you, and keeps you company. Those dumb song after song streaming services can't be your friend. Radio people nowadays don't understand this.

And this is also something you will NEVER hear again on radio. What music DJs that are left today don't have the talent, intelligence, and gravitas to pull it off. Whatever is left of the ones that do, they are shackled by management or smothered by focus group programmed set lists.
 
drksd4848 said:
Yeah, but that doesn't scratch the itch though. Not even close.

Stringing a big playlist of oldies together is not even close to a real, living breathing radio show, with a living breathing Disc Jockey who moves you though it, entertains you, informs you, and keeps you company. Those dumb song after song streaming services can't be your friend. Radio people nowadays don't understand this.

And this is also something you will NEVER hear again on radio. What music DJs that are left today don't have the talent, intelligence, and gravitas to pull it off. Whatever is left of the ones that do, they are shackled by management or smothered by focus group programmed set lists.
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More nostalgia for entertainment that no longer appeals to most Americans. Listening to a gabby, hip local DJ spin those groovy tunes while talking over the intros and outros, then telling you a funny story and plugging the local used car emporium in a live read between songs? Sorry, that horse not only has left the barn, it's now on some Frenchman's dinner table.
 
But can't we bring back the Ed Sullivan Show?



CTListener said:
More nostalgia for entertainment that no longer appeals to most Americans. Listening to a gabby, hip local DJ spin those groovy tunes while talking over the intros and outros, then telling you a funny story and plugging the local used car emporium in a live read between songs? Sorry, that horse not only has left the barn, it's now on some Frenchman's dinner table.
Click to expand...
 
SiriusXM isn't that expensive if you negotiate a good deal. They have a channel that does just that.




drksd4848 said:
Yeah, but that doesn't scratch the itch though. Not even close.

Stringing a big playlist of oldies together is not even close to a real, living breathing radio show, with a living breathing Disc Jockey who moves you though it, entertains you, informs you, and keeps you company. Those dumb song after song streaming services can't be your friend. Radio people nowadays don't understand this.

And this is also something you will NEVER hear again on radio. What music DJs that are left today don't have the talent, intelligence, and gravitas to pull it off. Whatever is left of the ones that do, they are shackled by management or smothered by focus group programmed set lists.
Click to expand...
 
drksd4848 said:
And this is also something you will NEVER hear again on radio. What music DJs that are left today don't have the talent, intelligence, and gravitas to pull it off. Whatever is left of the ones that do, they are shackled by management or smothered by focus group programmed set lists.
Click to expand...

Sounds like what you really want is to listen to cassettes of radio as it was 40-50 years ago.
 
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