Nearly a year after launching to much fanfare as New York and Chicago’s first all-news FMs, Merlin Media has dropped the format amid meager ratings. It has flipped New York’s “FM News 101.9” WEMP to “New Rock 101.9” at 10:05 this morning. The change returns rock to the former home of Emmis rock WRXP. In Chicago “FM News 101.1” WIQI flipped to hot AC as “i101.”
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Merlin Phasing Out All-News In Chicago; New York Next?
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
Do we really need more sports talk? And more Yankee talk? I bleed pinstripes but again you have the burnout factor.
Then, what do you do between the end of October and March? Not a very well thought out format. There will be a LOT of slow to no news days during those months. What then? Also no games to fill that time either.
Not gonna work, go back to the drawing board.
1250WTAE said:
Continuing along these lines, Chicagoland Radio and Media is reporting the following:
http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/2624-fm-news-1011-ends-flips-to-adult-hits-i101
Apparently, when describing Benjamin Homel a/k/a Randy Michaels, "coward" can be added among his other fine character attributes of arrogant and inept charlatan
If I was going to program a station that was designed just to be on all the time...
Mornings 6-9 would be interviews, in studio or on phone with stars. Nothing too raunchy, definitely Letterman sensibility. Two 15 minute spots, five minutes of commercials, traffic and an offbanothereat human interest, sort of a stare at the freak then six more minutes of commercials. 9-10 would be a get the "blank" out where some behomoth of rock or rap or both gets 40 minutes of airtime. 10 to noon would be 90s to today alternative and rap, with a focus on gold. Noontime would be a mix show of some sort, probably focusing on reggae and dub, one to three would be mostly rap and pop from the last five years, focusing on currents. Three to four would throw in more 90s rock. Four to six would be daily show, with weekly segments including conspiracy therories, advice from the hood, celebrity docks, and lesbian dial a date. Seven to nine would be r&b and disco. Nine to midnite the quite storm. Midnight to six, headbangers ball.
Suites my tastes as a very late 20 something male.
Mornings 6-9 would be interviews, in studio or on phone with stars. Nothing too raunchy, definitely Letterman sensibility. Two 15 minute spots, five minutes of commercials, traffic and an offbanothereat human interest, sort of a stare at the freak then six more minutes of commercials. 9-10 would be a get the "blank" out where some behomoth of rock or rap or both gets 40 minutes of airtime. 10 to noon would be 90s to today alternative and rap, with a focus on gold. Noontime would be a mix show of some sort, probably focusing on reggae and dub, one to three would be mostly rap and pop from the last five years, focusing on currents. Three to four would throw in more 90s rock. Four to six would be daily show, with weekly segments including conspiracy therories, advice from the hood, celebrity docks, and lesbian dial a date. Seven to nine would be r&b and disco. Nine to midnite the quite storm. Midnight to six, headbangers ball.
Suites my tastes as a very late 20 something male.
1250WTAE said:
Terry Sheridan, who had been with WINS for eleven years, was offered and ultimately accepted the position of WEMP FM News 101.9 newsroom manager. He began his duties on June 11, 2012. In a thread posted here on R-I, board member Mike called the move Career Suicide. 36 days later, Sheridan, along with multiple other FM News 101.9 staffers and on-air talents, were terminated.
I am wondering exactly how bad were the PPMs for WEMP. I know we throw around the 0.6 that is reported by Arbitron, but I am referring to key demographics. Was this station laying nothing but goose eggs in those all-important unreported key demos? Was this format, the entire on-air presentation, the whole thing... Was it all unsellable even by a really aggressive sales department?
I am guessing that internally there was much strife going on, and that recent hires, such as Sheridan, were not intended so much to improve the product as they were to pacify those at GTCR that Merlin was really committed to the FM News format. A format, by the way, which demands a large staff, and WEMP had NYC radio veterans, making format execution even more expensive. However, the repeated goose eggs were toxic to potential advertisers who wouldn't commit to buy time on a station with virtually no audience. The lack of positive revenue was not lost on GTCR, who demanded immediate action to stop the hemorrhaging in both New York and Chicago. And so the hammer dropped on the FM News format at 10AM EDT./9AM CDT. this morning.
To those in the know on the R-I forums, is this guess plausible?
As I said, I think the PPMs were horrific. If it is even possible to pull a negative rating, I think FM News could have done so successfully, even if that was the only success it could boast. The whole thing, from Chocolate FM to the amateurish logo (whatever that was supposed to represent, sure didn't convey news) to the poor audio chain and countless technical screw-ups were only a small part of what caused the failure of this FM News experiment.
The demo breakouts of PPM's are pieces of the whole .6, or cume of 575k or thereabouts where FM News was hovering for most of its life.
So, if you take a chunk out of 575k, that doesn't leave you with much in any key demo. No sales department is going to be able to sell a station that was most likely being beaten by WDHA or some other suburban signal.
I really hope they kept Jeff McKay, traffic still exists in the morning for alt listeners too. Why not utilize one of the best if you have him already?
So, if you take a chunk out of 575k, that doesn't leave you with much in any key demo. No sales department is going to be able to sell a station that was most likely being beaten by WDHA or some other suburban signal.
I really hope they kept Jeff McKay, traffic still exists in the morning for alt listeners too. Why not utilize one of the best if you have him already?
I have not heard a recording of the flip in Chicago, but the flip in New York seemed a bit brutal. It sounded like someone walked into the control room, flipped off the audio mid-sentence, and played a pre-recorded 45 second end-of-format announcement. I wonder if they hid the playlist in the automation or if they had something set up in another control room.
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