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Local Talker in Evansville

N

newzradiorow

I was curious what the consensus would be on a local news/talk station in Evansville? WGBF bills itself as "Evansville's News Talk Leader" but has little in the way of local programming...if any at all. The station got like a 4 in the last ratings period. Meanwhile, WIKY-FM continues to dominate with local news and hosts throughout the day. Evansville also recently went from three television news departments to two with the consolidation of WEHT/WTVW. So the market has a dwindling number of outlets for local news content.

Could Evansville support a station in the style of WHAS-AM, KMOX-AM, or WLW-AM, with local news, weather, and traffic accompanying local hosts?
 
Because it has never had a full time local talk station doesn't mean it never could. If it is going to work it needs to work at 1162 Mt. Auburn Road. This is the only local facility that could support it.
Television stations there don't have a sufficient news staff. But something like WHAS now? Yes, that's on any bird. I can't even tell you a name of a single talk show host there. Milton Metz? No, wrong guess.
WGBF ran Talk Net years ago and was music during the day. That was 15 years ago. At that time talk was received well. Where to find talent? Most stations have someone playing like a newscaster. WIKY has a smaller news staff than years ago. And even at that, try getting Randy Wheeler to talk extemporaneously. That would be a very long uncomfortable junket of news bite style reporting in a long form segment.
Because I still visit I watch television also. Pull from television for radio news? I joked that Channel 25 had better buy a new supply of polo shirts. Even when 7 had a budget their style and presentation was more Marcia Yockey than David James. When the two worked together was nothing short of train meets train wreck.
The last time I watched a Channel 14 morning newscast the breaks were promoting a yet unopened handbag shop on green river road. Because money is tight they were doing a WIKY radio remote on television.
Where would the station be? WIKY gave away 820 to USI. They sold WEOA, formerly WROZ. WGBF is owned by Cumulus. The places talk might opportunistically go aren't there. THE AM signals are either daytime, graveyard, or with WGBF have their radiators covered by a mini mall and asphalt. The signals on AM don't exist to be useful.
WYNG doesn't cover Evansville well. Wat other FM group is willing to do this? Dan Egerski is still available, and could do a local news show rather than sports. The cost for a local news staff without satellite are too much.
As there has never been a full time talk station doesn't mean it can't happen. The possibilities and the revenue don't make this the next go to format, like Urban on FM.
 
It will happen sooner rather than later. News/talk is one of only a few formats that can't be easily duplicated by new media. I'm afraid there will be very few music-intensive formats in 10-15 years (perhaps even sooner).
 
There are really only two groups in Evansville: South Central (WIKY, WABX, WSTO, WLFW, WEJK) and Townsquare (WGBF-AM/FM, WJLT, WDKS, WKDQ, WBKR)

WLFW, WEJK and WDKS are all pretty bad signals. I can't imagine a scenario where SCC blows up WIKY, WABX, or WSTO for all-news.

I don't see Townsquare hiring a couple dozen reporters, hosts, and producers for any of their signals because they're one of the groups who doesn't believe in spending money.
 
Good luck with that. WGBF AM just tossed out their only local hour of the week.
I'm afraid that local talk radio would just sound like the public service type interviews that the morning shows on WIKY and WJLT do. There is nobody in the market who cold pull off entertaining talk on a daily basis.
 
WGBF's "Live with Les" generally consisted of railing on the Democratic mayor of Evansville. Now that a Republican is in office, it would have been hard to impossible for Les Shively to come up with anything to talk about.
 
I appreciate the feedback. Finding a place on the dial to put the station has been mentioned as a problem. On the AM side, what about WVHI 1330AM? It's a Christian station. It broadcasts at 5,000 watts during the day and a 1,000 a night. That's exactly what WGBF (AM) is broadcasting at and more powerful than WEOA (1,000 watts D/N), which carries the Icemen games. WVHI is owned by Word Broadcasting Network, which is based in Louisville.

http://radio-locator.com/info/WVHI-AM

Townsquare clearly doesn't believe in local news/talk. Just look at WGBF. South Central has no reason to experiment with the format because of successful WIKY (#1) and WSTO (#3). The local news and information station I'm talking about would take big bucks to put on the air. But I think it would be a winner eventually. Just pull the numbers for Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis. All have talk stations with locally produced programs and news at the top of the ratings. And as mentioned by others...music radio is dying but talk radio is the one format that has yet to be duplicated by new media. So there's a future there.

If Word was willing to part with WVHI, what would the estimated price tag be? Couldn't another big national player who doesn't have a footprint currently in the Evansville market...say CC, Cumulus, or Emmis put the station on the air? Though cost is the obvious obstacle to a smaller player getting the format up and running, what about a regionally based broadcaster/family owned company?
 
newzradiorow said:
I appreciate the feedback. Finding a place on the dial to put the station has been mentioned as a problem. On the AM side, what about WVHI 1330AM? It's a Christian station. It broadcasts at 5,000 watts during the day and a 1,000 a night. That's exactly what WGBF (AM) is broadcasting at and more powerful than WEOA (1,000 watts D/N), which carries the Icemen games. WVHI is owned by Word Broadcasting Network, which is based in Louisville.

http://radio-locator.com/info/WVHI-AM

Townsquare clearly doesn't believe in local news/talk. Just look at WGBF. South Central has no reason to experiment with the format because of successful WIKY (#1) and WSTO (#3). The local news and information station I'm talking about would take big bucks to put on the air. But I think it would be a winner eventually. Just pull the numbers for Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis. All have talk stations with locally produced programs and news at the top of the ratings. And as mentioned by others...music radio is dying but talk radio is the one format that has yet to be duplicated by new media. So there's a future there.

If Word was willing to part with WVHI, what would the estimated price tag be? Couldn't another big national player who doesn't have a footprint currently in the Evansville market...say CC, Cumulus, or Emmis put the station on the air? Though cost is the obvious obstacle to a smaller player getting the format up and running, what about a regionally based broadcaster/family owned company?
Click to expand...

First off, when in parameters WVHI's night time signal has no coverage to the southeast from the transmitter site. Once you get east of 41 on the Lloyd they are lost in skywave. Second, Word wants too much money as in they are out of their minds. Third, take a leisurely drive out St Joe and over to Mohr Road and look at the site. It's a regulatory mess that will cost more than the signal is actually worth to bring it back to a legal operation.
 
CCU, Emmis, and the like would be out of their minds to purchase a standalone AM in Evansville. No matter what format they put on it, they'd never make any money.

I think its amazing that 1400 the Pump has survived this long.
 
WVHI has had an ill rental agreement for years. The ground system is currently farmed. Deep till and ground system do not mix. Emmis and CC don't want small beans Evansville. Wait for someone in radio to win the Lottery or hit a big payoff at the Casino.

The best way to end up with a million dollars in radio is to start with 2 to 5 million. Word is out of it's mind.
 
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