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Market-by-market viability of AM radio

R

RadioDaze

On the Columbus, Ohio, board, there is an interesting discussion of when AM radio's viability died in that market. I've seen several discussions about this subject, as well as industry trends such as FM translators and simulcasts, but want to get a more-detailed perspective from individual markets across the country.

What's the state of AM in your market?

Which markets are most likely to see the demise of AM? (whether "demise" means its ratings viability or stations actually turning in their licenses)

Which ones have an economically healthy AM dial?

What factors in these market contribute to the AM band's success/failure?
 
Phoenix has 22 AM stations in the metro. Of those, only two are considered really viable - conservative news-talker KFYI 550 and all-sports KTAR 620. They are the only stations in this market with full-market (50 mile radius) coverage 24/7. There are many others with good daytime signals, but don't cover even most of the city at night. We also have two graveyard stations and one lampdaytimer.

Of the three 50 kW (daytime) stations - Talker/colonblower KFNX 1100, bible-banger KPXQ 1360, and Mickey Mouse Radio KMIK 1580 - the first two run 1 kW nights. KMIK is 50 kW fulltime, but is so directional at night that it can be heard better in Australia than in parts of the Phoenix metro.

Eventually, KFYI will move to FM. It has to. It's audience is about the age of our average temperature in June. KTAR already moved its former news/talk format to FM a few years ago. Sports is the only secular, English-language format that's still viable on AM....for now. Bonneville doesn't own enough FM sticks to move sports off of 620 (their KPKX 98.7 is still successful, and there are those persistent rumors about them buying the CBS all-FM cluster here).

Really, the only AM stations with real futures at least in the short-term are those 50 kW sticks at 1100 and down. That's NY, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco with more than two each (others? I can't think of all of them right now), plus the one or two apiece in several other cities.
 
As far as ratings..Tallahassee's AM market is dead and has been. Arbitron has not rated the market for a couple of years, so not sure of the axact numbers.

The only AM station with a pulse would be WNLS-AM 1270 "The Team," a Fox sports affiliate with some local programming. It had slightly under a 2 share in the last Arb I can find.

Christian WFRF-AM 1070, Catholic/EWTN WCVC-AM, Sheridan gospel WHBT-AM 1410 and Rejoice Musical Soulfood WTAL-AM 1450 failed to show in the ratings, although WSTT-AM 730, a Thomasville locally-programmed black gospel station, did have around a 1 share.

Which is funny..my first job at then 250-watts at night WTAL, with a hybrid light AC/country/oldies format, pulled a 4.1, even at night with 250 watts against the music FMs. That was in 1979-80.

I once helped manage WCVC before its conversion to Catholicism. It got some ratings, but nothing higher than a 1.9.
 
The business climate varies widely from market-to-market.

Some markets are more connected to local merchant advertising while other markets are connected to national product advertising in different ratios. Since it has been a number of years since I was "on the streets" making sales calls for media all I can offer a SWAG answer to the topic. In markets with strong retail merchant advertising revenues I would expect A.M. stations to hang on better.... if they are hip to what works in retail... and they have a legacy reputation with merchants.

In home-town small markets where local retailing has tanked when Walmart arrived...fah'git'about'it! In those small markets where retailers re-trenched, became innovative, and survived and thrived eating the crumbs that fall of the Walmart table, even A.M. radio may also have re-trenched and thrived.
 
Charleston is a market where AM is not very high on people's priorities. The top 13 stations on the Arbitron Ratings are FMs, and the highest is WTMA with a 2.4. They are the news-talker on AM, but news-talk is on 94.3 FM, which gets a much better rating because they have Rush and Glenn Beck.

There's four sports stations on AM, 910 WTMZ (ESPN, Kirkman), 950 WJKB (Fox/SNR), WSPO 1390 (Sporting News), and WQNT 1450 (Fox). None of them get a big rating. The highest is a 1.2 for 910 AM. WSPO has the help of a 250-watt FM translator at 99.3, but still gets only a .6.

There's a Spanish station at 980, beach music at 1340, Catholic stations at 730 and 810, and a bunch of religion. None of them get rated, though.

Only two AMs, 1250 and 1390, have signals strong enough to be heard through the entire area at night. The others are graveyarders or can barely be heard at night in the growing suburbs like Summerville.
 
Excellent perspectives on other markets. In the Raleigh/Durham market, the majority of listenership has progressively moved to FM, a move that was perhaps expedited by the move of the sports and talk formats to FM.

Of the 21 AM stations in or very near the market, three of them----50,000-watt WPTF 680, 5,000 watt day/1,000 watt night WDNC 620 and 10,000 watt day/5,000 watt night WKIX 850--have anywhere near viable signals day and night. Creedmoor-licensed WDRU 1030 is 50,000 watts daytime only.

Ground conductivity around here averages between a 2 and a 4 and the market is rather spread out.

WPTF was the big talk station and the only AM that ever cracked the top ten in ratings. However, Clear Channel moved Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to WRDU-FM, effectively cutting WPTF's share to a fifth of what it once was. The station is now emphasizing its news programming and local talk, and is usually the only AM station that clears the 1.0 ratings threshold.


Sports talk was formerly heard here at 850 AM, then WRBZ "The Buzz", which also aired a separate sports format on Durham's WDNC 620 AM, "The Bull". The two got an FM competitor in 2007 when Capitol Broadcasting's 99.9 FM WCMC went all-sports. Capitol would later make a deal with WRBZ/WDNC operator, Curtis Media subsidiary McClatchey that would pair 99.9 FM and 620 AM, with 850's programming being split between the two and 850 eventually going oldies as WKIX (its original call letters as a major Top 40 in the 1960s and 1970s). Capitol also got another AM station from Curtis, 1000 watt day/7 watt night WCLY 1550, on which they air ESPN Deportes (at that power, it's a non-factor outside the City of Raleigh (and likely some points within). WCMC-FM stays in the 2's while WDNC averages a 0.5.


Quite a few AM outlets air Spanish-language formats, seven by my count, but they have taken a hit as well since 100,000-watt FM 96.9 WYMY went Spanish in 2003. Christian talk WDRU 1030, which once aired a Spanish-language format as WFTK, actually did pretty well for a while pre-96.9.


While the band is definitely on the wane here, I don't see AM completely pulling the plug anytime soon. Rather, the stations there will target special audiences, sub-markets or air brokered programming.
 
AM here in Northeast Ohio pretty much begins and ends with Clear Channel talk powerhouse WTAM/1100 in Cleveland.

The only other reasonably successful AM player in Cleveland is sports WKNR/850 ("ESPN 850"), which has a sister daytime AMer (WWGK/1540) you can barely hear on Euclid Avenue.

Both are 50 kW, and WTAM is a non-directlional clear channel (broadcasting type) power that's heard in "38 states and half of Canada" at night. WKNR is a recent convert to 50 kW days, but is directional and a very poor 4.7 kW directional night signal that has trouble in the southern and eastern suburbs.

Everyone else on the AM band in Cleveland is an also-ran.

Salem has its usual AM signals, a conservative talker running the Salem network programming at 1420 that barely cracks a 1.5 share (if that), and the market's other 50 kW directional signal, talk and teaching at 1220 - the former home of WKNR, and even with its flaws, the second best 50 kW in the market.

Radio Disney camps out on 1260, upgraded slightly from its days as top 40 giant WIXY.

Radio One has two anemic AMs, gospel WJMO/1300 and brokered talk WERE/1490, both of which have been outgrown by the market. (The formats flipped recently from their historic homes, WERE was on 1300, WJMO was on 1490.)

That's about it, save for James Taylor's plaything on 1040, a horrible sounding gospel daytimer run out of a broken down house.

Then, there's a reasonable set of suburban AMs.

There's a talker on 930 in Elyria that does a decent job of covering that part of the market. Over on the east side, there's a small AM on 1330 that runs talk, brokered and polka (the owners are responsible for that, one of the co-owners has had a polka radio show in Cleveland for decades).

Akron has oldies/news/sports WAKR/1590, and Clear Channel's two AMs (mostly syndicated conservative talker WHLO/640 and sports WARF/1350). Canton has some low-end AMs surrounding long-time full-service-turned-talk WHBC/1480.

Canton just lost an AM - now-deleted gospel directlonal daytimer WINW/1520, which shared a frequency with Kent directlional daytime syndie talker WJMP/1520, the mostly ignored sister station of talk WNIR on the FM dial.
 
Here in Hartford we have one station that's 50 Gallons Day and Night. That's CBS's WTIC AM 1080 - News/Talk/Redsux Baseball/UCONN Basketball/Football/West Wood One Football. - Limbaugh, Hannity (on a 7 hour delay), Clark Howard, and Coast to Coast AM are the big name national talkers.

As for 5 Gallon Stations:

910 WLAT - Spanish Tropical "Mega 910" - This is the dominant Spanish Station in the market. There is no full-power FM Spanish Station. There's Bomba 97.1 which is a 100 Watt Translator east of Hartford that relays WMRQ 104.1 HD2.

1360 WDRC - The Talk of Connecticut - Owned by Buckley Radio, it's the bastardized brother of Oldies/Classic Hits 102.9 DRC-FM. Carries Beck, Savage, Laura Ingraham, and Joy Browne. Lots of crap on the weekend including Infomercials and Big Band Crap.

1410 WPOP - ESPN Radio 1410 - Owned by Clear Channel this station's 5 Gallon Signal leaves a lot to be desired, especially at night. Carries The Yankees and sports from Central CT State University and the NY Jets.
 
AM here in Northeast Ohio pretty much begins and ends with Clear Channel talk powerhouse WTAM/1100 in Cleveland.
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Same with WSB in Atlanta, a market with very poor ground conductivity and population spread that has outgrown the reach of almost all of its AM signals. WSB/750 and WDUN/550 in Gainesville are the biggest talk stations in N. Georgia, but when both start simulcasting on FM, you can pretty well guess that AM in Atlanta is suffering from extreme old age.

Presently, Atlanta AM is 22.85% NewsTalk, 22.85% Religion, 20% Spanish, 8.57% Sports, 5.7% Asian, 5.7% Variety and 14.35% Other
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
AM here in Northeast Ohio pretty much begins and ends with Clear Channel talk powerhouse WTAM/1100 in Cleveland.

The only other reasonably successful AM player in Cleveland is sports WKNR/850 ("ESPN 850"), which has a sister daytime AMer (WWGK/1540) you can barely hear on Euclid Avenue.

Both are 50 kW, and WTAM is a non-directlional clear channel (broadcasting type) power that's heard in "38 states and half of Canada" at night. WKNR is a recent convert to 50 kW days, but is directional and a very poor 4.7 kW directional night signal that has trouble in the southern and eastern suburbs.

Everyone else on the AM band in Cleveland is an also-ran.

Salem has its usual AM signals, a conservative talker running the Salem network programming at 1420 that barely cracks a 1.5 share (if that), and the market's other 50 kW directional signal, talk and teaching at 1220 - the former home of WKNR, and even with its flaws, the second best 50 kW in the market.

Radio Disney camps out on 1260, upgraded slightly from its days as top 40 giant WIXY.

Radio One has two anemic AMs, gospel WJMO/1300 and brokered talk WERE/1490, both of which have been outgrown by the market. (The formats flipped recently from their historic homes, WERE was on 1300, WJMO was on 1490.)

That's about it, save for James Taylor's plaything on 1040, a horrible sounding gospel daytimer run out of a broken down house.

Then, there's a reasonable set of suburban AMs.

There's a talker on 930 in Elyria that does a decent job of covering that part of the market. Over on the east side, there's a small AM on 1330 that runs talk, brokered and polka (the owners are responsible for that, one of the co-owners has had a polka radio show in Cleveland for decades).

Akron has oldies/news/sports WAKR/1590, and Clear Channel's two AMs (mostly syndicated conservative talker WHLO/640 and sports WARF/1350). Canton has some low-end AMs surrounding long-time full-service-turned-talk WHBC/1480.

Canton just lost an AM - now-deleted gospel directlonal daytimer WINW/1520, which shared a frequency with Kent directlional daytime syndie talker WJMP/1520, the mostly ignored sister station of talk WNIR on the FM dial.
Click to expand...

The OP alluded somewhat to Columbus ... we have a similar situation to Cleveland with our AMs. When you get down to it, we have two pretty viable AM stations in our market and a third from nearby that always plays in.
Our Clear Channel talker, WTVN (610) always is among our top-rated stations ... it has an excellent signal that covers the entire market (and almost all of Ohio) daytime but suffers in some areas from a quite directional northbound nighttime signal.
WOSU (820) is the only other really viable AM here. It's the Ohio State-owned NPR talker that at one time was rumored to have been in the wings to take over 1460's all-sports signal. Two years ago, that talk died when the Fan moved to 97.1 and kept 1460 for most of the ESPN and spillover programming that couldn't fit on the FM.
WLW also gets a good deal of listeners in this market; its signal is very strong here day and night across the metro (and might be the best signal here at night in some areas the directional signals miss). I haven't seen their places in recent ratings, but in addition to carrying Reds and Bengals games (the latter for now at least), you can hear at least a few Columbus callers on pretty much all of their shows.
The rest is slim pickings. There's standards station WMNI at 920 (a highly directional station that I don't know ever has cracked the top 15 in the rarings), CC's WCOL at 1230 which has been all-sports for a while but is pretty much all satellite in whatever format, and WVKO down at 1580. For years it was the African-American community's heritage station, but then came hard times which saw it go off the air for a while. Lately it's been a Catholic station. Signal isn't so bad, though.
I won't get into a few rimshots that try to claim reaching Columbus, i.e. those in Marysville and Delaware. They seem to be in constant flux.
As I said in a recent post on the Columbus board, some of these signals don't have to be as irrelevant as they are. Run better, they could be bigger players.
 
Pittsburgh AM in a nutshell ... These stations either are in Pittsburgh or seek to tie in to the city with programming and/or signal. Major players here would be WBGG, KDKA, WJAS and KQV. Also a good deal of suburban influence from stations not directly beaming into Pittsburgh. Notable, except for KQV all the major AM players have FM affiliates.

540 -- WWCS, Canonsburg-Pittsburgh, simulcasting Mexican-themed "La Explosiva" music programming from a Birach Broadcasting sibling near Detroit.

620/FM 94.1 -- WKHB, Irwin, Broadcast Communications inc. (Robert Stevens), health talk dominates its daytime schedule, oldies at night, ethnic and religious programming weekends.

660 -- WPYT, Wilkinsburg-Pittsburgh, Langer Broadcasting's National Radio Network talk shows daytime-only; soon scheduled to shift under new owner Tim Martz to urban music with FM 100.1 translator for nighttime service.

730 -- WPIT, Pittsburgh, Salem Communications, ministry mornings, talk shows otherwise, ethnic shows on weekends.

770 -- WKFB, Jeannette-Pittsburgh, BCI sibling of WKHB, largely oldies (bartered from Frankie Day), also some health shows and weekend religion and ethnic programming; will go 24-hour with scheduled shift of FM 97.5 translator from Monroeville and K-Love to the WKHB-WKFB tower near Irwin.

810 -- WEDO, McKeesport, Judith Baron placed this station in irrevocable trust but station since was taken off block, religion, oldies, health talk, ethnic shows including daily Italian hour. Evening shows in summer have included in the past Monday night "Rappin' on Racin'" show aimed at local car racing circuits.

860 -- WAOB, Millvale, part of "We Are One Body" Catholic-themed network with WAOB-FM 106.7 and WPGR-1510.

910 -- WAVL, Apollo-Pittsburgh, Evangel Heights Assembly of God, "Liberty 910" with conservative and financial talk, also ABC news and NASCAR on Sundays.

970 -- WBGG, Pittsburgh, Clear Channel, ESPN affiliate. Sports talk and some simulcasts of FM sports play-by-play, also West Virginia University play-by-play and minor league baseball.

1020 -- KDKA, Pittsburgh, 50,000-watt CBS Radio with local and/or live talk also local news 18/5.

1080 -- WWNL, Pittsburgh, 50,000-watt Wilkins Communications daytimer, bartered religion and informercials.

1150 -- WGBN, New Kensington, Rev. Loran Mann's flagship of Rejoice gospel music network, also AURN and CNN news, Bev Smith's Pittsburgh-based talk show has its flagship here, too.

1250 -- WEAE, Pittsburgh, Disney O&O, Radio Disney.

1320 -- WJAS, Pittsburgh, Renda, CNN affiliate, nostalgic-oriented music with local hosts 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

1360 -- WMNY, McKeesport-Pittsburgh, Renda, on the air 5 a.m.-11 p.m., WTAE-4 morning news simulcast, bartered local business talk and news segment in afternoon drive, Bloomberg, various money-oriented talk shows, Lou Dobbs and Sunday morning polka.

1410 -- KQV, Pittsburgh, Calvary Inc., AP radio, Radio Pennsylvania, all news during the day, variety overnight and on weekends but staffs newsroom 24/7.

1510 -- WPGR, Monroeville, see WAOB-AM. Daytime only.

1550 -- WLFP, Braddock-Pittsburgh, Business Talk Radio Network's Lifestyle Talk Radio flagship but many of BTRN's own Business Talk Radio shows, also Dobbs, also Woodland Hills High School football and basketball.

1590 -- WZUM, Carnegie, soon to be deleted, silent since March 22, 2010.
 
Birmingham, AL
The strong:
WAGG - 610 - Powerful signal for black gospel
WJOX - 690 - Separate programming from FM at night. FM has ESPN Radio, AM has Fox Sports Radio. AM also carries high school football
WATV - 900 - R&B oldies, with local talk during the morning
WQCR - 1500 - Spanish language, with that growing demographic largely to itself

Relayed on FM:
WXJC - 850 - Relayed on 92.5, with occasional separate programming
WVVB - 960 - Format converted in 2011 to active rock in order to feed an AM-on-FM-translator at 103.1
WAPI - 1070 - Synchro with 100.5 FM
WJLX - 1240 - Translator on 101.5
WYDE - 1260 - Relayed on 101.1
WENN - 1320 - Translator on 102.1
WJLD - 1400 - Added FM translator on 104.1
So a large portion of the AM band exists for no other reason but to provide a primary for a translator or an occasional outlet for overflow programming from an FM.

The back bench:
Gospel outlets: WURL 760, WAYE 1220, WBYE 1370, WQOH 1480
Out in the Country (literally and figuratively): WIXI 1360, WFHK 1430, WKDG 1540, WCRL 1570
 

ABC sold the Rejoice network to Urban Choice Media of Dallas in 2006. The Pittsburgh station is apparently an affiliate of Rejoice. Maybe it's the flagship of Rev. Mann's organization.
 
jh said:
ABC sold the Rejoice network to Urban Choice Media of Dallas in 2006. The Pittsburgh station is apparently an affiliate of Rejoice. Maybe it's the flagship of Rev. Mann's organization.
Click to expand...

See, I never figured out who "Urban Choice Media" is. I'm pretty sure Rev. Mann has no ties to that group, other than being an affiliate of the format.
 
KeithE4 said:
Phoenix has 22 AM stations in the metro. Of those, only two are considered really viable - conservative news-talker KFYI 550 and all-sports KTAR 620. They are the only stations in this market with full-market (50 mile radius) coverage 24/7. There are many others with good daytime signals, but don't cover even most of the city at night. We also have two graveyard stations and one lampdaytimer.
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To elaborate:

English-language (17 stations)
Political talk: 550 (Rush/Hannity/Savage + Local), 960 (Salem), 1480 (Liberal)
Sports: 620 (Local + ESPN), 910 (FSR/WW1), 1060 (Local + SNR)
Oldies/brokered: 1440 (daytimer)
Soothing sounds for senior citizens: 1230
General talk/brokered/colon-blow: 1100 (50 kW D), 1260
Business news/talk : 1510
Religion (all faiths): 860, 1010, 1280, 1310, 1360 (50 kW D)
Radio Disney: 1580 (50 kW)
ASU student-run rock: 1330 (Part 15 - when it's on)

Spanish-language (6 stations)
Sports: 710 (ESPN Deportes)
Various secular: 740, 1190, 1400
Religion: 1150, 1540

OK, that's 24 stations, but still only two have anything close to full-market coverage. Not my idea of a viable frequency band. All but maybe 550, 620, and 710 could disappear tomorrow and few would notice (although we'd certainly miss our lamptimer/lumberyard jokes about 1440 on the Phoenix board. ;D ).

And "local" means more than one live show per weekday. That rules out XTRA 910, which is local only in PM drive.
 
In San Francisco we have a few still viable AM's. The main one is KNBR, a mostly local sports-talker with Giants baseball. KNBR covers the whole market with a strong signal 24/7, and can be heard from Redding in the North, to Fresno in the South. Other viable AMs are KSFO, The Limbaugh/Hannity affilate, KCBS(Which is also on FM at 106.9) and KGO, which despite going downhill in recent years is still a strong station
 
I'm sorry, I tend to believe what someone says in print, the way Will Rogers did (all I know is what I read in the newspapers). This is from the Valley News Dispatch, Tarentum, PA (Trib Total Media and ... yes ... a version did run in my favorite McKeesport paper) Oct. 15, 2009 ...

It expands what WGBN does as flagship for the Rejoice Soul Food Network.
"We are the largest satellite gospel (music) network in the country," Mann said. "We are in 52 markets."

I think in this case flagship means principal station, the way Clear Channel and CBS stations here are flagships for various sports networks but control of the network may remain with the provider, not the station.
 
I think the onus is on Rev. Mann here...using the word "we".

Here in Northeast Ohio, talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron"'s Howie Chizek often talked of "us working with CBS Radio" (or ABC, now), when all he was doing was turning up the network radio news pot at the top of the hour.

Then again, I don't know "Rejoice's" affiliate base, though it appears to be run out of Dallas and not Pittsburgh.
 
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