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KB

>maybe a progressive change could happen

The kb1520.com site has been taken down. Please post what
> you hear.
>
 
Uh-oh

Could Entercom be reacting to the WHLD news with a proactive strike? Could we end up with Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz on the Might KB in order to protect WBEN's flank?

Wouldn't it be ironic if we ended up with TWO lib-talkers in town?

Filthy Susan would be orgasmic.
 
Goodbye, KB (Re: Uh-oh)

I'm afraid you're correct. WWKB is going "liberal talk" as of three P.M., per the operator at Entercom Buffalo. I knew something was wrong when the website went down. Geez, not even a chance to say goodbye to the folks at KB/1520. This sucks.

> Could Entercom be reacting to the WHLD news with a proactive
> strike? Could we end up with Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz
> on the Might KB in order to protect WBEN's flank?
>
> Wouldn't it be ironic if we ended up with TWO lib-talkers in
> town?
>
> Filthy Susan would be orgasmic.
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
What about Danny?

> I'm afraid you're correct. WWKB is going "liberal talk" as
> of three P.M., per the operator at Entercomm Buffalo. I
> knew something was wrong.

Wow. I wonder if Danny will try to do the talk format, or if he'll finally hang up his headphones?

How about Danny doing lib-talk opposite Sandy's neo-con PM Drive. THAT would be interesting.
 
Re: Goodbye, KB (Re: Uh-oh)

Wrong move....they should have picked up WECK's old format....Boy, I'm gonna miss those weather jingles.
 
> The kb1520.com site has been taken down. Please post what
> you hear.
>
Check them out now !!!
 
Re: Goodbye, KB (Re: Uh-oh)

> I'm afraid you're correct. WWKB is going "liberal talk" as
> of three P.M., per the operator at Entercom Buffalo.

Well, I have come to the conclusion that the people running the three major clusters in Buffalo are all a bunch of morons who know absolutely nothing about radio. Anyone of us on this board could run a station more successfully than these people. I don't like to engage in name calling. But I'm at my wits end here. What is Entercom thinking? Sure, KB never reached its potential with the oldies format. But with the recent demise of WECK, I guarantee some of those listeners migrated to KB. Now we'll never know. But I do know this. KB, with liberal talk, will be relegated to the bottom of the ratings barrel just like it used to be during the days of Business Talk Radio -- a .5 share if they're lucky! Is Entercom that worried about the impact of WHLD on WBEN? First of all, Air America is the franchise when it comes to liberal talk. The edge goes to WHLD. The presence of Ray Marks in the morning? The edge goes to WHLD. We still don't know what kind of local presence KB will have. But knowing Entercom, they'll do it on the cheap with all syndicated programming. I hope the crew at WHLD beats the pants off them. People like Ried, Wenger and Silver are ruining our industry, and hopefully, someday they'll be held accountable with the loss of their jobs.
 
Danny's done--What about Tom Donahue?

I think Dan Nevareth will retire. There's no other place to put him, unless WECK wants to take a run at him (highly unlikely).
What about Tom Donahue? Where does he go from here?
 
Programming Genius

Phil, I couldn't agree more. WTF are they thinking? AAR will be lucky to earn the ratings that KB did as a music station - and a badly-programmed music station at that. Now, they're going to SPLIT a 2.0 share? Genius, I tell you. Programming GENIUS!

> People like Ried, Wenger and Silver are ruining our industry, and
> hopefully, someday they'll be held accountable with the loss of
> their jobs.

Ried has Wenger to throw under the bus, so he's isolated from the problem. In fact, wasn't Hank Dole programming KB after Hank Nevins left? I assume that it will now fall under Wenger's domain, so this is the first time he'll really assume responsibility for KB. Do you think he'll protect WBEN at all costs?

Silver is safe as long as WYRK and WJYE keep bringing in big dollars. Corporate supposedly made the decision to dump WECK's format for Classic Country. As far as his leadership skills and broadcasting savvy are concerned, I only have one thing to say - WBUF, WBUF, WBUF. 100,000 watts of FM power that's had ten formats in as many years.
 
Re: WWKB?

This has to be one of the most stupid format changes in radio history, and the most stupid flip ever in Buffalo.

Had KB become the market's only "progressive" talk station, they probably would have been able to get away with it.

I know it won't happen, but I wish at 3 P.M. it would be announced that this was all a smokescreen and that "The Mighty KB 1520, WWKB Buffalo" would have continued as before.

While WHTT-104.1 is still an oldies station, they (based on a recent look at their playlist as published on Yes.com) play very few songs from the 1960's or early 1970's. They now seem to be focused on the 1975-1985 period. WWKB-1520's playlist (based on listening to it a few times) seemed to be focused on the 1960's, with some 1950's and early 1970's songs tossed-in.

A sad day for Buffalo. And saddest of all is I think KB's oldies format could have worked, given it was a strong signal.

:(
 
It's over

> This has to be one of the most stupid format changes in
> radio history, and the most stupid flip ever in Buffalo.

It's called "money," Joseph, and it rules the world, apparently.

The new format, if they run it anything like WROC here in Rochester, will have no local staff in Buffalo, and will be all automated.

They could have at least given the old format a little nicer sendoff - it went right from Chad and Jeremy's "Yesterday's Gone" into the new ID ("Buffalo's Left Channel") and CNN news, then Ed Schultz, with no goodbye or anything.

Sad...but inevitable.<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2006 JUST RELEASED! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
 
The Real Day the Music Died.

OK....

It is now after 3pm...

For the benefit of those not able to hear KB right now...What is going on?????

What do you hear????
 
Re: Goodbye, KB (Re: Uh-oh)

This (the race between WWKB-1520 and WHLD-1270 to introduce "progressive" talk to Buffalo) reminds me of last year, when stations all over the country were racing each other to get a "Jack"-type format launched. In three markets (San Francisco/Oakland, Boston, and Philadelphia), CBS was rumored to be about to flip (oldies) stations in each city to "Jack", only to see other companies abruptly flip stations to "Jack" clones less than 24 houts before CBS would have introduced "Jack FM" to those cities.

Yes, WWKB has the best AM signal in the Buffalo area, but on the other hand, I think Entercom made a stupid decision to dump oldies just to try to launch a liberal-talk station "before the other guy does".

Could WHLD decide to back off, seeing that they were "beaten to the punch"??
 
Re: The Real Day the Music Died.

> OK....
>
> It is now after 3pm...
>
> For the benefit of those not able to hear KB right
> now...What is going on?????
>
> What do you hear????
>
Crap! That's what I'm hearing. Crap! This guy is talking about the Super Bowl, as if we needed more of that today. This is so sad. We had a true icon, Jack Armstrong, doing great radio. Now we have this.
 
Re: It's over

The reason I called the WWKB-1520 flip "stupid" was that someone else (WHLD-1270) had announced plans to launch a liberal talk station. That should have given Entercom second thoughts.

There are very few markets (yet) where liberal talk is doing well in the ratings. If Buffalo gets two such stations, I can't see either being successful, even if both are 24/7 syndication/birdfeed.

If WWKB needed a format change, they should have adopted a format like WBZ-1030 in Boston: all-news during the day (including Buffalo, both Niagara Falls, Bufalo's suburbs and even St. Catharines with local traffic reports for all these regions) and locally-produced talk during the evening/overnight hours, taking advantage of the huge nighttime signal.

Yes, it would have cost a lot of money to do, but it might also have been very successful.

But here, WWKB seems to think that they could make a bigger profit by cutting costs to the bare minimum. Even with reduced revenues, their expenses would be so much lower that they could make more money....maybe.

Personally, I doubt WWKB will make more money with liberal-talk programming, even if it is done on the cheap.
 
Re: It's over

> > given the old format a little nicer
> sendoff - it went right from Chad and Jeremy's "Yesterday's
> Gone" into the new ID ("Buffalo's Left Channel") and CNN
> news, then Ed Schultz, with no goodbye or anything.
>
> Sad...but inevitable.
>

"Buffalo's Left Channel," on the right side of the dial. Clear as mud.

Here's a poser. Could E'Com have pulled this off over the weekend, in response to the WHLD announcement, or would it have had to have been already in the works?

Obviously, thoughts are with Dan, Tom D., Mitch, Jack, John Jarrett, Hank N., et al. All great guys. Sadly, I think this is truly, finally, irretrievably, the end of old-school Top 40 radio in a market where it always ruled.
 
Re: It's over

> The new format, if they run it anything like WROC here in
> Rochester, will have no local staff in Buffalo, and will be
> all automated.

And lacking local presence, it will probably drop to a 0.8 or less AQH share just like WROC, and struggle to pay the electric bill on Big Tree Rd. Hard to see any way in which that isn't penny wise while being totally dollar foolish. I like progressive talk, and have been known to do some myself. ;-) But this isn't going to fare well, especially when it's displacing a beloved lineup and faces competition from a like-minded station with substantial local content and presence. My bet? WHLD will beat it before the end of the year if it goes through with its announced plans.

> Sad...but inevitable.

Sad, yes. Inevitable, no, especially if the front office shows even a scintilla of understanding of the market.
 
Maybe the Dominoes are not done falling.

Flips.....in the Buffalo market___________________________________________

WECK, WHLD, WWKB.....maybe more to come to shake up this stagnant market.



I NEED to believe that we have not heard the last from Danny and others on KB.

I wish them well. I remember ( as I am sure many of you remember) how it is to

get a phone call or be called into the general managers office to discover that

some changes are being made.

I feel like I have just been fired.
 
I just don't get it

Entercom is nuts. I keep hearing how stations can't sell older demographics. Like all this political pap brings in the younger set?

Wow look at the success stories with the "Liberal Talk" format like WCKY 1530 who now has a whopping 1.3 or WINZ Miami with a 1.9. Wow these are great numbers?

Great job Entercom and CBS now the people who listened to WECK and KB can turn off their radios.

MikeM
 
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