NYC Has 5 of the 10 Top Billing Stations in 2010

[Barry]

According to the list published today, WTOP in Washington D.C. was number one, billing 57.225 million dollars last year.
WCBS Newsradio was #3, WLTW #5, WHTZ #6, WINS #8, and WFAN #9.
BTW, #10 was KROQ in Los Angeles. It is interesting that alternative rock does so well there, while in New York it is not a major format.

The most successful: http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2011/03/28/wtop-am-takes-over-the-top-billing-station/

 

[uncamark]

According to the list published today, WTOP in Washington D.C. was number one, billing 57.225 million dollars last year.
WCBS Newsradio was #3, WLTW #5, WHTZ #6, WINS #8, and WFAN #9.
BTW, #10 was KROQ in Los Angeles. It is interesting that alternative rock does so well there, while in New York it is not a major format.

Well, it is "World Famous KROQ."

 

[DToTheJ]

It seemed just like yesterday that WLTW was number one overall.

At least mediocrity is still paying enough dividends to land them in the Top 5.

 

[WNTIRadio]

Who said AM was dead?

 

[TimeIsTight]

Who said AM was dead?

Half of the stations on this top billing list are AM's and, thankfully, this shows there is life on the band.

However, all the AM's on this list are 50-kw, and with the exception of WINS, they are all non-directional on clear channels.

They have signals that can be heard clearly day and night in their primary markets.

Like the FM station on the top of the billing list, three of the five AM's are all news stations that have lots of local appeal. Unfortunately, there aren't that many more all news stations in the entire country. In big cities, the expensive-to-do format can bring in big advertising dollars, but its tough to make profitable the farther down the market size list you go. WFAN does live and local sports in the biggest radio market. So, KFI is the only station on the list that uses the syndicated talk programming common on so many other AM talk stations across the country.

This is a list of top billing stations, not of station profitability. There may cheap-to-run all syndicated stations, with no debt load, that are far more profitable than any on this list.

Unfortunately, AM is doing a slow fade, especially for those lower power stations in the frequency clutter at the top of the band, and, for many, having weird directional patterns doesn't help. Possibly, as many of those lower power stations fail and go dark the clutter will clear, and stronger analog signals, or clear digital-only signals will make the band economically viable for the stations that survive over the long term.

 

[Gregg]

Maybe in smaller markets, AM stations far up the dial are struggling. But with new ethnic groups moving into the country, it has become quite profitable to broadcast to these communities on upper AM stations. In NYC, they never make the ratings but you hear ads for the big banks, airlines, mobile phone companies, etc. when you listen to the stations broadcasting in Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and Russian.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[TimeIsTight]

You're right about the AM stations at the top of the band in the New York City area, and probably the same situation exists in other major markets with high immigrant populations. And that situation will continue as long as there is an inflow of new people who don't understand English well, certainly the children of the current immigrants will be listening to English language radio in a few years and not these stations.

Unfortunately, these AM stations often require lots of valuable land for their transmitter site, especially those with multi-tower directional arrays. When the stations were built these sites were way out in the country or the swamps, but many now find themselves in valuable industrial areas. The land these transmitters sit on may be far more profitable as industrial real estate than as radio stations.

As examples in the NYC area, the original transmitter site for AM-620 was more valuable for building suburban McMansions, and the transmitter was moved to the Meadowlands and the power cut. AM-1430 was moved from its original site to make way for suburban housing and then had to be moved again a few years later from an industrial site. AM-930 sits on a valuable piece of commercial land that would make a great site for corporate office space with nearby highway access to Manhattan. There's no way to tell how much revenue the stations have to generate to overcome the profit available from the sale of the land.

However, some of these stations are safe from that problem because they have been grandfathered in as a acceptable use for protected wetlands, and others, in the Meadows, are on such polluted sites that nobody wants to break ground there for fear it would become a national Superfund site.

Possibly, as time goes on and stations on the same and adjacent frequencies elsewhere go dark, some of these urban stations may be able to consolidate their sites, and go non-directional at a higher power. With all the electrical noise hurting lower power AM signals, the stations that survive will probably need a power boost too.

 

[mikerock]

BTW, #10 was KROQ in Los Angeles. It is interesting that alternative rock does so well there, while in New York it is not a major format.

It can be done here with RXP. They just need more time and better marketing.

 

[radiolives]

CBS Radio has 5 stations in the top 10

 

[davideduardo]

So, KFI is the only station on the list that uses the syndicated talk programming common on so many other AM talk stations across the country.

And even KFI only has syndication 9 AM to Noon and in overnights (actually, 10 PM onwards), plus a couple of weekend things. For the most part, it is also very local.

 

[uncamark]

So, KFI is the only station on the list that uses the syndicated talk programming common on so many other AM talk stations across the country.

And even KFI only has syndication 9 AM to Noon and in overnights (actually, 10 PM onwards), plus a couple of weekend things. For the most part, it is also very local.

And the 9 a.m. to noon is Rush Limbaugh, who, whether you like him or not, is much more valuable than any of his imitators, local or syndicated.