Mix 102.5 stream gone for good?

[icycool7227]

I know Mix 102.5 used to stream, anyone know why it went off and not coming back? Was it because it changed companies? That was a really good sounding hot AC last I remembered.

 

[BobRoss]

I know Mix 102.5 used to stream, anyone know why it went off and not coming back? Was it because it changed companies?

Pretty much, yeah. The format was started under Clear Channel ownership, and CC generally made a point of streaming all of its stations, regardless of market size. In late 2007, the station was sold to locally-owned Galaxy Communications. To the best of my knowledge, Galaxy doesn't stream any of their stations, even the Syracuse ones.

I would guess it's due to the costs involved. First you need the right computer equipment and bandwidth to create the stream and handle potentially large numbers of listeners. Next, you need specialized software to make sure any on-air programming that can't be streamed (certain syndicated shows, national commercials, etc.) is overlaid by alternative local programming. But the biggest expense (and the only real "ongoing" cost) is the music licensing fees.

 

[fybush]

Icy seems to ask the same question on board after board, and apparently is never satisfied with what's always the same answer:

Galaxy does all its business in two markets, Syracuse and Utica. It sells most of its advertising locally. It can't charge a car dealer in Baldwinsville anything extra because someone in Wisconsin or Oregon or Tokyo is tuning in on the stream - and so if it costs anything significant at all to provide that stream (which it does), Galaxy ends up losing money by streaming. And so they don't stream.

Yes, that sucks if you're sitting in Wisconsin wanting to hear the station. But WUMX (like any commercial station) is a business, first and foremost - and it's not the business of creating programming that you want to hear. That's an incidental piece (an important one, to be sure) of the real business, which is to sell an audience's attention to advertisers.

If the audience Galaxy wants to sell to its advertisers is "people in central New York," then "guy listening to stream in Wisconsin" doesn't enter into the equation, and you're just going to continue to be disappointed if you expect otherwise.

 

[nd2023]

Icy seems to ask the same question on board after board, and apparently is never satisfied with what's always the same answer:

Galaxy does all its business in two markets, Syracuse and Utica. It sells most of its advertising locally. It can't charge a car dealer in Baldwinsville anything extra because someone in Wisconsin or Oregon or Tokyo is tuning in on the stream - and so if it costs anything significant at all to provide that stream (which it does), Galaxy ends up losing money by streaming. And so they don't stream.

Yes, that sucks if you're sitting in Wisconsin wanting to hear the station. But WUMX (like any commercial station) is a business, first and foremost - and it's not the business of creating programming that you want to hear. That's an incidental piece (an important one, to be sure) of the real business, which is to sell an audience's attention to advertisers.

If the audience Galaxy wants to sell to its advertisers is "people in central New York," then "guy listening to stream in Wisconsin" doesn't enter into the equation, and you're just going to continue to be disappointed if you expect otherwise.

However, the listener inside a "Faraday cage" office building will probably choose a local station that DOES stream to listen at work.