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Merlin Flips New York and Chicago News Stations

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danman425

Merlin has flipped both New York and Chicago news stations after almost a years worth of poor ratings. Can't blame em. Good news is now New York has an alternative format again at 101.9! It's branded as New Rock 101.9 and in Chicago WIQI has flipped to adult hits branded as i101. Q101 (the original alternative format) has been at 87.7 as Q87.7 for a few months now.

Full Story Here:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...native-back-to-new-york-adult-h?ref=mail_arbs
 
danman425 said:
Merlin has flipped both New York and Chicago news stations after almost a years worth of poor ratings. Can't blame em. Good news is now New York has an alternative format again at 101.9! It's branded as New Rock 101.9 and in Chicago WIQI has flipped to adult hits branded as i101. Q101 (the original alternative format) has been at 87.7 as Q87.7 for a few months now.

Full Story Here:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...native-back-to-new-york-adult-h?ref=mail_arbs
Click to expand...

And this has WHAT to do with Atlant-oh right, Atlanta has an FM news station. Hey, WIQI and WEMP were poor news stations at first, were FULL of errors, had poor coverage DURING A HURRICANE, and lost potential listeners who did not come back to those stations when the quality went up. It was too late to gain any audience without completely tossing those stations.

WYAY, on the other hand, has good reviews and was more polished during it's launch then WIQI or WEMP. The ratings have a CHANCE to increase over the next few years. They are already higher then WIQIs and WEMPs were.
 
RBRadioWaves is spot on. AN106.7 has a much better shot and getting ratings. There is no competition for all news in Atlanta. They definitely have a much better product at the seven week mark than Merlin ever did. Does AN106.7 have the polished feel of a well oiled heritage station? No. HOWEVER, they are getting there. The mistakes are much fewer. They have done a great job for the couple of major news events they have had to cover in the first couple of months. Drew is a good example... one of his first live reports from the field was just awful, but apparently someone has been tutoring him. His reports are now polished and concise... he has even sat in the anchor chair a couple of times. Marshal seems to be nurturing the staff along so they are gelling together. (is gelling a real word???)
 
I hope Cumulus will give 106.7 time to grow and develop into a contender. They've got solid anchors and the Fox 5 reports are fine with me. Eventually, they'll have to generate more of their own local content. I tip my hat to WABE in this area. I'd love to see a good race between them and 95.5FM. I'm SO thankful they don't play Motown, The Eagles or any tired oldies. You can find that stuff down the dial or on Sirius/XM.
 
RBRadioWaves said:
danman425 said:
Merlin has flipped both New York and Chicago news stations after almost a years worth of poor ratings. Can't blame em. Good news is now New York has an alternative format again at 101.9! It's branded as New Rock 101.9 and in Chicago WIQI has flipped to adult hits branded as i101. Q101 (the original alternative format) has been at 87.7 as Q87.7 for a few months now.

Full Story Here:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...native-back-to-new-york-adult-h?ref=mail_arbs
Click to expand...

And this has WHAT to do with Atlant-oh right, Atlanta has an FM news station. Hey, WIQI and WEMP were poor news stations at first, were FULL of errors, had poor coverage DURING A HURRICANE, and lost potential listeners who did not come back to those stations when the quality went up. It was too late to gain any audience without completely tossing those stations.

WYAY, on the other hand, has good reviews and was more polished during it's launch then WIQI or WEMP. The ratings have a CHANCE to increase over the next few years. They are already higher then WIQIs and WEMPs were.
Click to expand...

I never ment to imply that all news is a poor format or one that is failing. Nor am I saying the same thing will happen to AN106.7. The Merlin news stations were just a poor product compared to other all news stations around the nation. I posted this because Merlin's all news stations' low ratings have come up a few times in our discussions about this format. AN106.7 has done a great job so far and I think cumulus dida great job starting it IMO.
 
The reason I think AN 106.7 will be around for a while is because I believe it will essentially become the flagship station for what will become Cumulus' national radio news network, which will be fed to other smaller markets with local news breaks.

But I could see a scenario where even if the All News format sticks around and doesn't have strong ratings, that they could move it to 100.5 down the road.
 
I don't see why everyone is so worried. AN 106.7 got higher raitings in the 1st month on the air than WEMP and WIQI ever did when they were FM News.
 
I am surprised News 101.9 lasted as long as it did. It was pathetic sounding. They couldn't touch legacy 1010WINS despie the greater city penetration of FM. I remember listening to CD101.9 in the early 1990's when their transmitter was on top of the WTC, and loved flying in listening to it on my Walkman (yeah, I know, your not supposed to operate an FM receiver on board a commercial aircraft because of the slight possibility of an IF image in the VOR band), there was something magic about hearing that station and seeing the skyline (RIP WTC :() hearing that music.

At least something other than hot air will be on 101.9 when I go back next month to help my sister move from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan.
 
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