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New York's BIN 1600

M

Marcos_C

Today (November 2) is the day when WWRL (1600 AM) becomes the New York affiliate of the Black Information Network. This morning, WWRL is airing speeches from prominent African Americans, with a message saying that there will be an important annoucement at noon. WWRL is being simulcast on WWPR-HD3 (105.1-3 FM), which was previously BIN's sole over-the-air outlet in New York.

Until the news officially begins on WWRL, you can listen to BIN on the iHeartRadio app.
 
Just in time for the network's continuous election coverage. According to InsideRadio, that is scheduled for 7 pm tomorrow (Tuesday) night.
The article states that in addition to WWRL, IHeartRadio has also obtained the construction permit for a translator on 103.9, in the Edison NJ area. That location made sense when WWRL had a South Asian/Indian format. I wonder whether they can move the translator closer to New York. Of course a factor would be the presence of WNBM 103.9.
 
The sound quality is atrocious. Audio is in the mud, heavily gated, etc. It's difficult to understand some of the spoken word, even with a full blast signal, because it's so muffled. Hopefully the engineering team will be able to tune up the processing and make the most of that subprime frequency.
 
When the regular programming started a few minutes ago, they mentioned that WWRL had provided many years of service to the African American community. Apparently the programming will continue also on WWPR HD3, with its cleaner audio.
They had several minutes of local news, as well as traffic & weather. I had thought they would just be carrying the national network.
The programming sounds like quite a hodgepodge, with local news, brief national news summaries, commentary, sports, entertainment news, then national news features in rapid succession. I'm used to more depth when listening to a news service.
 
The introduction of BIN 1600 was made by the hosts of Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club. Following the introduction, the news started, only to be interrupted abruptly by traffic and weather. BIN 1600 needs to work on timing their traffic and weather report better so that it replaces a feature report instead of interrupting the top-of-the-hour newscast.
 
I am glad to hear that WWRL has resolved the issue with traffic and weather reports. WWRL now airs the one-minute-long traffic and weather reports in place of BIN's non-news stories.
 
From what I gather, after sifting through a paper mill of USGS topographic maps, the 103.9 tower is in Perth Amboy, some 8 miles from downtown Edison. It's situated right in one of WWRL's nulls -- the SSW null.
There probably isn't too much room on the FM dial for 'RL to place a translator in any population belt East or North. And besides, didn't that translator already come with the sale?

Via that 'SDR' system of ham operators setting up permanent radios in a hundred spots around the world ( http://kiwisdr.com/public/ if you're curious) I caught some of the BIN while trying to identify KHHO Tacoma. Pretty interesting for an AQH even for this white boy, although nowhere near as understatedly dramatic as the late Dr. Reggie Bryant's show Catharsis on WRTI. That show interrupted my jazz fix, but I couldn't turn it off.
BIN's presentation is a lot more polished, with some understandable glitz thrown in for network's sake.
 
On Monday, in the WFME tower thread,

BruceNYC said:
WWRL is dark right now.... The Black Information Network can still be heard at 105.1 HD3
Click to expand...

As of Tuesday at 10:45 a.m., WWRL is still off the air.

I did some DXing before sunrise. It was crowded on 1590, and there was nothing on 1600. However, on 1610, I was able to pick up 6.25-kilowatt CHHA, a multilingual station that specializes in programming for the Spanish-speaking community in Toronto. The reception was inconsistent, but I was able to hear some of what the host was saying.
 
WWRL may as well be off the air. According to AllAccess, this outlet of the Black Information Network had a cume of 11,500 in November. This is less than some HD2/HD3 signals.
I wonder whether the main factor for the abysmal audience figure is the top of the dial AM signal, or lack of interest in a specialized news station.
 
I REALLY wish BIN was better than it is. It sounds waaaay too canned. It's working financially right now because of big national sponsors. Ratings in any market for a BIN station are pretty much non-existent. Let's see how long it lasts. I hope iHeart stays committed to it.
 
The format has practically no overhead. It’s a turnkey format with content inserts using existing personnel at no additional charge. The national feed is exactly what it says on the tin, and iHeart has been able to get and keep national advertising to support it.

Ratings don’t matter for BIN when there’s already a ROI.
 
Even if BIN is currently profitable, it seems likely sponsors are going to be disappointed if the ratings remain minuscule. They may call for significant changes.
According to Radionsight, IHeart paid 8.5 million dollars to acquire WWRL. That's a lot of money to reach a cume of around 11,500. Perhaps that's an indication AM radio is increasingly becoming a highly inefficient way to reach an audience.
 
Norfolk, Market #45, is the one place where BIN is on a full power FM signal at 50,000 watts. The ratings had been a little over a one. But in the October ratings, WNOH has dropped to less than a one.
 
Barry said:
Even if BIN is currently profitable, it seems likely sponsors are going to be disappointed if the ratings remain minuscule. They may call for significant changes.
Click to expand...
It’s not even traditional advertising, but pseudo-underwriting:
The on-air product will be funded not just by traditional advertising, but also through financial support of what are being identified as National Founding Partners who will be able to deliver important messages to BIN’s audiences and serve as a platform for philanthropic and community outreach to build brand connection and support the Black community, as well as use it for advertising messages as needed. The launch partners are Bank of America, CVS Health, GEICO, Lowe’s, McDonald’s USA, Sony, 23andMe and Verizon.
Click to expand...
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...tations-stunting-ahead-of-new-network-launch/
Barry said:
According to Radionsight, IHeart paid 8.5 million dollars to acquire WWRL. That's a lot of money to reach a cume of around 11,500. Perhaps that's an indication AM radio is increasingly becoming a highly inefficient way to reach an audience.
Click to expand...
The AM outlets (and FM translators) are nothing more than nightlights for the digital stream, nothing more.
 
The BIN Sponsorship is based more on national companies wanting to demonstrate a commitment to reach the black community than actual advertising results. BIN is seen as more of a partnership between the sponsors and radio service. The programming, news and such, is intended to give the Black community a source for news and information to educate and strengthen these communities. The format basically makes money from day one because of the sponsor commitment.
 
I listen to BIN here every several days as it's one of my presets from when that station had different owners and format. While I'll listen in for a bit, it becomes way too repetitive IMO. Also, it's not updated often enough, especially when the news cycle and events are moving quickly. I've heard BIN still reporting about an "upcoming" senate hearing or trial, days after that particular hearing was over or the trial had been decided and verdict rendered. Too often, information I've heard on the station has been outdated, stale or even inaccurate as it's not updated often enough. Inserts featuring stories of little known black figures in history, which are indeed interesting, are aired on somewhat heavy rotation for many, many months.

As others here have posted, I applaud iHeart and I hope they make a go of it, but it seems they need to actually listen to what they're airing. If management listened to the constant repetition and stale news, I believe they'd spend just a little more time, effort and money to make it a much more viable (and listenable) product.
 
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Mikey Radio said:
I listen to BIN here every several days as it's one of my presets from when that station had different owners and format. While I'll listen in for a bit, it becomes way too repetitive IMO. Also, it's not updated often enough, especially when the news cycle and events are moving quickly. I've heard BIN still reporting about an "upcoming" senate hearing or trial, days after that particular hearing was over or the trial had been decided and verdict rendered. Too often, information I've heard on the station has been outdated, stale or even inaccurate as it's not updated often enough. Inserts featuring stories of little known black figures in history, which are indeed interesting, are aired on somewhat heavy rotation for many, many months.

As others here have posted, I applaud iHeart and I hope they make a go of it, but it seems they need to actually listen to what they're airing. If management listened to the constant repetition and stale news, I believe they'd spend just a little more time, effort and money to make it a much more viable (and listenable) product.
Click to expand...
You are absolutely correct. Repetitive. And very lax when it comes to updating. They run on a shoestring, so you really can't blame the talent. Plus, they read so many stories with no sound in them. It's very boring.

But the big thing that will kill them is that, when there is big breaking news, (just like what happened on January 6,) they won't be in any type of special coverage. They can't. They don't have the support.
 
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Perhaps instead of operating as a second-rate all news service, BIN would be better off transforming into a news/talk outlet. I believe there are few Black news/talk stations in the U.S., and such a format could be a worthwhile voice for many communities. Perhaps it could be similar to Urban View, on satellite radio.
Urban View
 
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