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Newsradio WMNI Launch - Worst Flip Ever?

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

So here's what I heard at 6 AM: Final song was Blues Image "Ride Captain Ride." At the top of the hour, after the legal ID was - no, not a news update, but a promo from a Weather Channel lady telling listeners to tune in for weather updates. After that: a commercial. (I suppose CBS should have run here.) Then, a local news update, followed by America's Morning News.

The top story on the local news was the fact that both Obama and Romney were campaigning in the state of Ohio today. Maybe that's what led to this sudden launch of Newsradio WMNI? By the way, their website is now live:
http://www.wmni.com/
 
They pretty much ran the "Classic Hits" satellite feed during the final hours as if it was business as usual... they segued out of that at 5:59 and into the news talk format with no real fan fare.

First 9 minutes (recorded off the web stream via my mixer here)... but the period of "dead air" was also heard on the FM..

http://soundcloud.com/xmusicmatt/1039-wmni-fm-launch-newsradio

It wasn't the "Greatest" launch but far from the worse I have heard... considering how small NABCO's operation is in Columbus I would say that they pulled it off the best they could..

[Hey it was a better launch than 1580 WVKO -- They ran a simulcast of 103.1 WVKO's format for most of their first week as talk]
 
As someone who heard the transition online, I thought the dead air was only on the stream (after the weather tease, I heard a commercial start before being potted down in favor of a YMCA PSA, then a half-minute of silence before the local news brief). So there actually was dead air within the first moments of WMNI's existence? Are they trying to displace WVKO as the market's dead air leader? :eek:

Thanks for recording the aircheck, btw!
 
DToTheJ said:
As someone who heard the transition online, I thought the dead air was only on the stream (after the weather tease, I heard a commercial start before being potted down in favor of a YMCA PSA, then a half-minute of silence before the local news brief). So there actually was dead air within the first moments of WMNI's existence? Are they trying to displace WVKO as the market's dead air leader? :eek:

Thanks for recording the aircheck, btw!
Click to expand...

I was driving on the way home from work and heard the launch over the air on the FM at 103.9 and the dead air was on the FM too. [and the AM for that fact as I quickly flipped to 920 to see if it was just the FM with a bit of dead air].
 
I began listening at 7. Everything seemed to be flowing pretty well. They seemed to be hitting the nets at the appropriate times. It sounded well practiced and polished.

Overall not too bad. The major on air thing I noticed is that America's Radio News is edgy in it's delivery while most of the rest of the programing is a bit more restrained to even laid back. Kelly and Mark have done well, but might do their presentation a little closer to the ARN style. Mark Howell is a bit closer to ARN style. Having ARN and CBS's Charles Osgood is something of a audio whiplash. But that maybe me being picky rather than being a normal casual listener.

But overall pretty good.
 
oh well another preset to delete....talk radio needs to stay on AM where it belongs.
 
"Because FM news is an oxymoron"
Tell that to Hubbard Broadcasting who operates WTOP (and two FM satellites) in Washington. They're only the top-billing station in the US.
 
ohgary said:
oh well another preset to delete....talk radio needs to stay on AM where it belongs.
Click to expand...

Sadly spoken word formats is the future for FM radio in many cases... The avg person is now using other places to find music such as Slacker, Pandora, Internet streaming, Spotify.. There is not as much a demand for music on FM ...
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
ohgary said:
oh well another preset to delete....talk radio needs to stay on AM where it belongs.
Click to expand...

Why?
Click to expand...
I guess two reasons.
Why waste the high fidelity of FM on news, use FM for music, AM for talk.
The program line up looks pretty poor so far might as well be on AM.
 
SonoSational18 said:
"Because FM news is an oxymoron"
Tell that to Hubbard Broadcasting who operates WTOP (and two FM satellites) in Washington. They're only the top-billing station in the US.
Click to expand...

As I have noted several times. Not being in the "business" but being a humble listener I could care less about billing. making money doesnt make it a good station for listeners, it makes a good station for the owner.
 
xmusicmatt said:
Sadly spoken word formats is the future for FM radio in many cases... The avg person is now using other places to find music such as Slacker, Pandora, Internet streaming, Spotify.. There is not as much a demand for music on FM ...
Click to expand...

The program directors at all of our music stations blew it, and now this is the price that must be paid. The arguments that I made (or tried to make) to the stations starting twelve years ago were ignored, and now it's going to be too late to save any of them. You're right, Matt; what we're seeing at this time is just going to end up being the tip of the iceberg. I may have been a little bit ahead of my time, but these PD's were (and still are) about ten years behind the times. Sooner or later they'll all be forced to acknowledge that, and their stations will have no choice but to make the switch to news or talk. Or go dark.
 
ohgary said:
OhioMediaWatch said:
ohgary said:
oh well another preset to delete....talk radio needs to stay on AM where it belongs.
Click to expand...

Why?
Click to expand...
I guess two reasons.
Why waste the high fidelity of FM on news, use FM for music, AM for talk.
The program line up looks pretty poor so far might as well be on AM.
Click to expand...
AM radio is losing listeners fast to FM like they have since the mid 70's. FM Music listeners are headed to Online Music providers. so Music on FM is a dying breed. so with the fact Music listeners are leaving FM In Droves, and AM is all but dead now. so AM Talk formats need to move to FM to survive
 
ohgary said:
As I have noted several times. Not being in the "business" but being a humble listener I could care less about billing. making money doesnt make it a good station for listeners, it makes a good station for the owner.
Click to expand...

But, commercial radio stations, like WMNI, EXIST to make money for the owner(s). Period. Anything else is a side effect.

FM radio stations do not exist to give ohgary his favorite music choices.
 
Or anyone else, for that matter. Again, that's what we have Slacker, Pandora, Spotify, and of course "Yesterday's Top Secrets" for!
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
But, commercial radio stations, like WMNI, EXIST to make money for the owner(s). Period. Anything else is a side effect.

FM radio stations do not exist to give ohgary his favorite music choices.
Click to expand...

Which is why they will go the way of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately as in most business, its no longer acceptable to make a profit, but you must now squeeze every dollar out even so far as to squeeze the life out of the product.
With cheaper and cheaper wireless data plans available the days for RF radio is going away..
 
Jason Roberts said:
wilson1000 said:
Because FM news is an oxymoron
Click to expand...

You can't tell that to those of us at WHIO in Dayton...where the add of an FM signal has taken us
to a steady #2, 12 plus....
Click to expand...

You guys do an excellent job with that station. WMNI could learn a lot. I really enjoyed listening to your primary night coverage when I was in western Ohio for work, and your storm coverage approach is top notch. I often listen when storms affect that part of the state because A) they'll probably come to Columbus and B) I have family in Auglaize County I'd like to know is safe in case I don't get to talk to them.
As far as WMNI, for the most part I like what I'm hearing. Need to listen more consistently to local programming to make a better call.
 
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