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KB 1520 to ESPN

J

JimH

I see that WWKB is dumping progressive talk for ESPN's national feed..............definitely a bad decision on their part. Buffalo fans care about Buffalo teams....the BILLS, not the Supersonics, Chargers. Huskers, Bulldogs, etc. Yet another losing, temporary format Entercom is now putting on their 50kw blowtorch. Of course, they won't put anything really good, talk-wise, on 1520----it could dip into the ratings of WBEN..........for the same reason, they figure the national ESPN feed won't hurt WGR.
 
It's funny how often I read the comment that "If only Progressive Talk was on a better signal, it would succeed." Maybe not.

With regards to Buffalo fans, are you telling me that no one in Buffalo watches Sunday Night or Monday Night Football? Obviously the Bills don't get much national airtime. Are Buffalonians such homers that they can't watch another city's team? Today with fantasy leagues, everybody has players in other cities. I think sports has become a format that isn't restricted to home teams.

The real story here is Cumulus vs Entercom. Who wins? Probably neither.
 
Actually, progressive talk was just the latest failure on 1520.....due to a number of things....being on AM, little or no promotion of whatever format it had by the station owner(likely to continue), and (in the case of oldies or prog talk) too many other places to get the info/music you want.

Of course there are SOME people in Buffalo that care about other teams......but the question is, how much do they care?? And are they that many of them to support the station and advertisers, compared to the majority who mainly care about their own teams. And for those who do care, many of them will only care about CERTAIN outside teams, and not give a darn about many others. While Sunday/Monday football does get plenty of non-die-hard sports fans to watch, there's a big difference between watching a 3hr game on TV(often as a social occasion with friends, beer, etc), than listening for several hours 2 days later to some sports host talking about those same teams.
 
Sounds like Typical Entercom using a placeholder to secure that no one else in the market can steal any ESPN feed.
 
It isn't progressive talk that's a failure it's talk in general. Listener's are "waiting to die."

Speaking of Phil Hendrie I'm very disappointed to lose KB as his east coast anchor station. Big big loss in the overnight!
 
JimH said:
Of course there are SOME people in Buffalo that care about other teams......but the question is, how much do they care?? And are they that many of them to support the station and advertisers, compared to the majority who mainly care about their own teams.
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That's why you have WGR. So you program and sell GR as a local station, and you program and sell KB nationally. It's obviously a spillover station when you have conflicts between Bills and Sabres. And the combo is a better package compared to the Cumulus competition. What's the problem?
 
Maybe they'll simulcast the Sabres on 1520 to fill in their coverage gaps at night. That would be nice...
 
TheBigA said:
It's funny how often I read the comment that "If only Progressive Talk was on a better signal, it would succeed." Maybe not.
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C'mon, you know better than that.

I don't care how big the signal or how great/poor the format: You cannot stick any format on a dead AM frequency and expect listeners to just flock to it.

That station has been neglected by Entercom for quite some time. Hell, they hadn't even changed the most basic imaging liners for years, still proclaiming it to be "the NEW voice, the NEW choice" 6-7 years after it switched formats! It's hard enough to build audience, particularly in talk, under the BEST of circumstances, no less a scenario where a station has been nothing but a place holder/dumping ground for a long time.

Hardly "proof" of the viability (or lack thereof) of any format. Seriously.
 
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For those of us who remember the KB of 1958 through the 1970s, it is hard to imagine how the owner of such a station might regard it as a nearly worthless facility that runs up a big electric bill. The name of the game is to hang on to the license just to make sure that the sleeping giant never wakes up. It should be possible for another company to file a competing application for the channel but such an application would be routinely dismissed. WWKB is a shining example of how massive consolidation has destroyed radio from within.
 
I say shut it off and turn in the license.

When many FMs are having revenue problems....what shot does most AMs? Little or none except in very small markets...where many stations still thrive $$$-wise (believe it or not).
 
Tim said:
I say shut it off and turn in the license.

When many FMs are having revenue problems....what shot does most AMs? Little or none except in very small markets...where many stations still thrive $$$-wise (believe it or not).
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Massive consolidation made it possible to manipulate the most viable AM signals into a my-way-or-the-highway arrangement that has no doubt driven listeners away from the medium altogether.

If you don't want to hear about how bad Obama is 24/7, there is no talkradio for you in Buffalo.
There is no radio competitor for WBEN. They win by default. Their programming is stale...and it doesn't matter---unless you think long term, which I doubt they do at this point.

I've been a ta
 
N1WVQ said:
I miss the oldies on 1520 but am completely amazed libtalk lasted as long as it did.
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I agree, it was something different on the AM dial. I'm out of market so my listening wouldn't help their ratings.

Now going from 1520 to 1530 (WCKY) you hear the same thing.
 
flybynight said:
Massive consolidation made it possible to manipulate the most viable AM signals into a my-way-or-the-highway arrangement that has no doubt driven listeners away from the medium altogether.
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Radio by definition is "my way or the highway." So regardless of who owns it, or what they program, listeners get whatever attracts the largest audience for advertisers. Has it "driven listeners away?" Maybe, but they go to media THEY can program, rather than other forms of top-down programming.

The fact is that there have been attempts at local talk in Buffalo, and there is a news/talk NPR FM station in town. So there is a competitor.
 
The latest published ratings for Buffalo don't include WWKB. I know Arbitron doesn't like to see people quoting CURRENT ratings, but does anybody know what the rating was in prior months?
 
If they broke a 1-share 12+, it was an event. The problem with programming isn't that it's "top-down", it's that it simply doesn't strike local listeners as relatable. You're right - they can get the same content on-line from syndicators because there was no local content on 'KB. It didn't deal with local issues, or issues of particularly local interest. It's not that there's a lack of "progressives" locally, it's that there's a lack of hosts, local or national, addressing topics that actually impact that audience.
 
SirRoxalot said:
The problem with programming isn't that it's "top-down", it's that it simply doesn't strike local listeners as relatable. You're right - they can get the same content on-line from syndicators because there was no local content on 'KB. It didn't deal with local issues, or issues of particularly local interest.
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Yet that doesn't seem to be a problem for Rush or Hannity. And local content didn't help WECK.
 
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