To get a true picture of how moving News/Talk from AM to FM has worked, you need to take the ratings of the FM prior to the change and then the ratings of the AM prior to going on FM and see what the totals look like. In Phoenix where KTAR moved to FM, the AM frequency went sports which created a new revenue stream stronger than the AM doing News/Talk and the FM it replaced, I suppose. However, if you watch the total ratings when this has happened, there seems to be a boost at first then the ratings drop back down to near where the AM was prior to going to FM. Phoenix, WTOP in Washington....WWL in New Orleans is lower now than when they were only on AM. Jacksonville, Florida, WOKV.....WHIO in Dayton seems to be still doing much better. This is simply an observation about total ratings. I haven't seem the demo breakdown but I would guess the FM might draw younger listeners but when all is said and done, it comes to the bottom line. Are the operations more profitable now than they were before? If the answer is no, then no format is going to last forever and no programming or jobs are safe.
Other than WWL, most of these markets had challenged AM coverage, especially at night and pre-sunrise times, unlike WSB which has coverage as good as most FMs in the market, day and night.
When you have an AM doing well, ratings wise, image wise, profit wise, why just throw it away so you can be on FM? It's a waste of an asset.
News Talk appeals to an older demo. It's a proven fact that as people age, they become more interested in things like taxes, what local governments are doing, etc., schools, etc. If an AM is providing that information to the market place and has a listenable signal, and is sold well, it should do well. All of the AMs I am familiar which do well have one thing in common, legacy, and operators which understood it's as much about preservation of that success as anything.
Probably the worst thing to happen to WGST was the FM station which always subsidized its expensive news operation faced new competition for sales and listeners. WGST has been an FM supported AM station. WPCH, Peach, printed money when it was beautiful music and soft AC, with very little overhead. That kept WGST going. And before that, WGST was state owned. I doubt it was an aggressively sold and programmed station then either. To me WGST's best days were when it was on 920 and did all news all the time and had WPCH running automation from a closet down the hall from the AM newsroom. That was back in the days prior to cable TV, internet, google, etc. where you can get your news and information instantly.
The market changed and by the time this was obvious, other programming options, sports probably being the best chance to make money, were already taken, twice by WCNN and WQXI.
jabba17 said:
fussbudget said:
I've always thought WGST's decision to pull its programming off the FM dial was a huge mistake. It is almost as though CC just doesn't give a hoot what happens to that station. Could they do better on FM? Absolutely. Could they do as well as SB? Not gonna happen. The biggest mistake is to do nothing and go down with the sinking ship.
WGST has beaten WSB in the past (e.g., when they switched to all news, and then when they switched to news/talk) and could do so again. To do that, though, they would have to discover the next big thing in AM radio and enjoy the ride until WSB catches back up.
WGST could always be a respectable #2 instead of mailing it in.
