New Commercial on KYW demonstrates concern About WKDN Newsradio

[deepstblu]

Is the WKDN signal competitive from Camden?

It's a Full Market Signal Class B.

Shall I assume you're an out-of-towner who's never *heard* this signal, relying on phony-baloney freebie Internet-distributed coverage maps?

Full market? Not quite. It's not even close. Can't be clearly heard on an ordinary clock radio in the heart of the Philadelphia market. Won't "stop on seek" in the car throughout large parts of the metro. Squawk! I'll keep repeating this like a parrot every six to eight weeks.

I'm in the Trenton market, on low ground more than 30 miles from the WKDN stick, and on a clock radio cheap enough that several Philly stations are unlistenable due to splatter from the locals WKDN comes in fine--not quite as good as Power, about the same as 106.1.

 

[Jersey Maiden]

And did we expect they'd ignore a prospective competitor?

So they do some shoring up in their marketing...isn't that what one would expect of a business?

I don't know if this will happen in Philly but in New York, CBS 2 is actually running commercials for Merlin's WEMP. Evidently, they're not too worried but I guess this HD2 commercial shows that they're not getting complacent either.

 

[cg41386]

KYW has been running on-air mentions about their FM HD signal for a while now, since long before Merlin Media even existed.

 

[KC2LDY]

Remember now, that WKDN's signal probably hasn't received any major work in perhaps 40 years. A new transmitter, transmission line, antenna and audio processing all will go a long way toward improving matters. WKDN won't stop on scan? All they need to do is make it louder - i.e. turn up the processing. And this doesn't even begin to consider what might happen if the tower and antenna are moved - say, to Center City.

Re: competition for KYW. Like others who are familiar with Merlin's FM newser in New York, I don't think 1060 has a whole lot to worry about - right now. But if Merlin learns anything from its experience in New York (and Chicago), they could be a problem down the line. And that might be good for the listening audience. Not only might there be a legitimate second commercial radio choice for news, but KYW might be forced to get better.

Face it: KYW is a good station but it isn't what it was 20 years ago. Almost no all-news station in any market is. The reason? Lack of serious competition. In some markets, like New York, where there is competition, it's owned by the same company.