The demos and the 12+ benefited enormously in San Francisco.
The effect was less in Chicago, but there was also some significant 25-54 improvement and the overall numbers, which had been softening, improved.
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The demos and the 12+ benefited enormously in San Francisco.
The effect was less in Chicago, but there was also some significant 25-54 improvement and the overall numbers, which had been softening, improved.
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FredLeonard
Guest
So it sounds like demos may or may not improve with all news on FM.
Have there been any other changes in style or content to enhance the money demo appeal in the Bay Area? KYW has a geriatric sound and feel to it. As is, I remain skeptical that just moving to FM would do much for it in the money demos. And making changes would almost certainly alienate current listeners.
And there's the more fundamental issue of what essential value all news radio offers people who grew up with new media?
While it's hard to see on paper, I've been told the Philadelphia market covers a large enough geographic area that FM (at least Class B FM) can't reliably cover all of it. If that's the case, KYW could still need the AM.
What "Essential Value" does a music radio station offer? You can hear your favorite music on your phone or tablet or computer without even being connected to the internet. As time goes on, the best advantage that radio (broadcast or web delivered) has is live and often local. Sports and news radio are ideal for radio. Plus, users are actually paying attention to content (and commercials), not just using the station for background music. Plus Plus, you can squeeze in a lot more commercial breaks on an all news station, with an ad adjacent to program content, not buried in the middle of a long stop set.
Well, in those two cases, they did. And that was the entire reason for making the move in SF and keeping it in Chicago.
Do you mean the "sales demos" (25-54 and the subsets) or the demographic information about income levels?
I can't tell any significant difference in the pre and post FM programming on KCBS. Understanding that all such formats slowly evolve, and changes are more likely due to natural refreshing of the format.
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Jul
Guest
it would be huge for KYW to be on FM. I hope it happens.
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FredLeonard
Guest
None. Neither does all news. I've got the AP and Reuters wires on my smartphone. What do I need them for?
Guys its obvious that if cbs is putting kyw on FM it will go on 96.5, haven't you guys seen Wired's ratings lately? q 102 is kicking their ass big time. I don't think they will do any changes to Xtu, xtu is a very successful philly station and it would be very dumb of cbs to get rid of it.
Here are some facts... KYW is one of the biggest revenue-producing stations in Philadelphia, if not the top earner. As an All-News station, it can run more spots per hour than any FM music station, and its listeners probably earn more money than most music station audiences.
Any argument that KYW sounds old, or you can get all the news you need from your personal device, is not relevant. Old sounding stations can evolve. To my ears, KYW doesn't sound any different than CBS's other All-News stations. And we can get anything a radio station offers from a personal device, be it music, news, weather or traffic. But while we're driving, the law says we shouldn't be using personal devices to scan news websites. So my guess would be a station giving us local news, weather, traffic, etc., coming out of our speakers with no work on our part, will last longer in the new media world than one giving us music.
Someday CBS will have to move all its successful All-News stations to FM. They make too much money to be left till the AM band withers away. I also think it's interesting CBS has NOT put its Sports network on KCBS-AM or WBBM-AM, leaving those 50,000 watt stations as simulcasts, for the audience that never switched to FM or those in the far suburbs who can't get the FM signal. So I'd assume when the day comes that KYW gets an FM simulcast, 1060 will stay All-News too. Is that day coming January 1? Or is it somewhere in the future?
CBS got outbid for 106.9 by a religious organization, so obviously CBS didn't think last year that an FM simulcast was vital to KYW's survival. But KYW's ratings have slipped this year. So now that CBS finds itself in possession of several new FM frequencies, it may decide 2015 is as good a time as any for KYW-AM-FM. I guess we'll know soon enough!
Any argument that KYW sounds old, or you can get all the news you need from your personal device, is not relevant. Old sounding stations can evolve. To my ears, KYW doesn't sound any different than CBS's other All-News stations. And we can get anything a radio station offers from a personal device, be it music, news, weather or traffic. But while we're driving, the law says we shouldn't be using personal devices to scan news websites. So my guess would be a station giving us local news, weather, traffic, etc., coming out of our speakers with no work on our part, will last longer in the new media world than one giving us music.
Someday CBS will have to move all its successful All-News stations to FM. They make too much money to be left till the AM band withers away. I also think it's interesting CBS has NOT put its Sports network on KCBS-AM or WBBM-AM, leaving those 50,000 watt stations as simulcasts, for the audience that never switched to FM or those in the far suburbs who can't get the FM signal. So I'd assume when the day comes that KYW gets an FM simulcast, 1060 will stay All-News too. Is that day coming January 1? Or is it somewhere in the future?
CBS got outbid for 106.9 by a religious organization, so obviously CBS didn't think last year that an FM simulcast was vital to KYW's survival. But KYW's ratings have slipped this year. So now that CBS finds itself in possession of several new FM frequencies, it may decide 2015 is as good a time as any for KYW-AM-FM. I guess we'll know soon enough!
And I think that's the key. If this simulcast story is true, they've concluded that an FM simulcast can revive their sagging ratings. The main thing about CBS is it runs its radio stations as a bundle with local TV. So if they can use the KYW brand to promote all of their platforms as a news leader, that is a brand that can be far more valuable than simply being another music station.
While not specifically pointing out KYW, it seems that keeping a large coverage AM, is only an advantage, if there are additional listeners, within the market but outside of the FM coverage area. What are these big cities, with Class B stations going to do, when the AMs become useless? It would be nice, if someone saw this coming 50 years ago and took steps, to create something closer, to a Class C allotment.
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FredLeonard
Guest
You're talking about a few fringe areas which are sparsely populated. Actually, Wired and KYW have similar contours - except Wired gets into Bucks County and it's a dead zone for KYW.
People did see this coming. They did nothing.
50 years ago, they were pushing to STOP AM/FM simulcasting. FM allocations were going begging. AM stations were turning in their FM licenses.
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The industry was not pushing 50 years ago to stop simulcasting... it was the FCC that made the simulcast decision. The owners of simulcast FMs did not want to create competition for themselves. The owners of independent FMs did not want new competition.
You are also off on the "surrendering of licenses"
From 1945 to 1950, the number of FM licenses grew from less than 50 to over 1000. But by 1960, it was down to about 700. It then stabilized and began to grow to the point that in nearly all the rated markets everything available on the table of allocations was snapped up and we saw petitions for rulemaking to add channels in many areas. In fact, AM stations that had surrendered licenses in the 50's began reapplying for new facilities in the 60's, or ended up buying the weaker independents.
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FredLeonard
Guest
I didn't say it was the industry. Typically short-sighted, the industry fought this until their FM properties started bringing in the bucks.
Then you should improve your writing skills: as written, you don't say that it was the that FCC wanted to end simulcasting. You just vaguely said "they" wanted to end it.
Nonetheless, you were off by a decade regarding the surrender of FM licenses.In fact, in the 60's the number of FMs tripled, going from 753 in 1960 to 2,070 in 1970..
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This has been discussed as a potential issue for FM for at least the last 20 years. One of the biggest factors in the demise of AM, possibly even bigger than the inferior sound quality, was that markets outgrew AM coverage contours. As suburbs exploded in population and inched farther and farther from downtown, AM stations, many of which were directional away from the suburbs, just couldn't put a usable signal over those listeners. I seem to remember hearing the average top-100 market only has 2 AM signals that provide complete coverage day and night.
Even 20 years ago, people were commuting more than 50 miles one way to jobs that had also left the central city for the suburbs, and the number of both super commuters and suburban jobs have increased since then. I remember reading a Sean Ross article talking about this problem in either '95 or '96 and suggesting an out of band solution would be needed to solve this problem. He wasn't the first to recognize it.
A friend of mine is GM at my local NPR affiliate, and he thinks the solution is for broadcasters to see themselves as content providers first and foremost, which means giving your potential audience what they want both when they want it and how they want it. He's been pushing streaming and mobile devices hard as well as podcasts, which, of course, are on demand delivery, to accomplish that goal.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Sounds good. If your friend really means it, maybe the station A-reps should stop firing every NPR CEO who tries to move the "content provider" into the digital age and otherwise pressuring management away from any online or digital initiatives.
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Unregistered
Guest
WXTU...NOT A CHANCE! Wired 96.5 will turn to Amp Radio, so no to that.
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