Because there are two AM news stations owned by the same company in NYC. That's what makes it different.
They've already sacrificed one FM license for a simulcast.
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NYC Metro Radio Ratings - December 2022
- Thread starter pjc1961
- Start date
Because there are two AM news stations owned by the same company in NYC. That's what makes it different.
They've already sacrificed one FM license for a simulcast.
Are the demos that are reached by WXBK so valuable that the station can bill well, despite poor ratings, and several well established competitors?
Are there any local stations that are being extensively promoted? I think it's been years since there has been a considerable amount of advertising for any station in this area. Even bumper stickers seem to be a thing of the past.
That's a good question. The general view is the most valuable form of station promotion is active use of social media, and incorporating your content into your social media. One great example is Charlamagne tha God of The Breakfast Club, who puts his interviews in podcasts and social media blasts that have been picked up and brought him more attention than bumper stickers. If the show is good, then the show itself is the best salesman and the best marketing. There is no replacement for great word of mouth, and the best way is with social media.
Disagree. The brand is "CBS-FM". The calls are "WCBS-FM". Sometimes they use one, sometimes the other. But after half a freakin' century, anyone who's unclear on the difference between the all-news station and the oldies/classic hits/80's music station is probably too brain-dead to fill out a diary. Oh, what's that? Right, nobody's using diaries anymore in Market #1, the people who count have PPM's, so the branding really doesn't matter as long as the little device can read those embedded tones.
Look, it's possible you're right on this point. In fact I'll go you one better: it's possible there won't be enough audience in the sales demos for even one all-news station by the end of this decade. But I think the bigger risk has already been happening for years at Audacy all-news stations around the country. And that's the cheapening of the presentation. The watering down of the news quality. The hiring of air staff who in decades past would never have been permitted to crack a mic at CBS or Group W stations. The incredibly high spot loads. The embarrassing technical glitches I hear on my local station (KCBS here in San Francisco). The cost cutting and headcount reductions. The block time sales to charlatans. That's where the survival risk is, IMO. Listeners will only put up with the abandonment of major market standards so many times before they give up on you and just go to their phones for news/weather/traffic/sports, which in fact is already in progress.
Do you consider KFRC/106.9 a "sacrifice" in San Francisco, given what it wasn't accomplishing as a standalone format back in 2008? Or WBBM's FM in Chicago back in 2011? Is 92.3 in New York a sacrifice if it shores u the WINS franchise and attracts enough audience to boost the ratings that count? Cause Alt sure wasn't burning up the town in its previous incarnation, nor was the trend very upward? What was the (pun intended) alternative?
The right question to ask is: if radio is a depreciating asset, do you shore up your best performers in whatever way possible for as long as possible, or do you continue to make the same mistakes and keep hoping for different results? Because if your answer is the latter, Albert Einstein had a term for that.
They've already done that in NY with WINS. Given that, there's no reason to do three simulcasts in the #1 market.
It's obvious that they're pursuing other strategies for WCBS, one of which has to do with sports.
In Atlanta, there's WSB 750 with an FM simulcast at 95.5. Then there's also WSB-FM 98.5. They seem to peacefully co-exist. Thanks to People Meters, people who are chosen for the ratings service don't have to write down the correct call letters.
>>>And then you have to factor if in 3-5 years there will be an audience in NYC for two all news stations, regardless of the band. I am willing to bet on "no".<<<
WINS and WCBS have both been billing great since the 1960s. There's no reason to believe this will change, provided WCBS gets an FM simulcast. Yes, 94.7 is limited in its signal but it still covers 80% of the market. It's not great on Long Island and Connecticut. But it covers the five boroughs, most of Westchester and Rockland, and much of North Jersey.
In Philadelphia, KYW has a Class A simulcast partner that's only 270 watts. WXBK 94.7 is 40,000 watts. Not as good a signal as WINS-FM 92.3. But certainly better than KYW's simulcast partner.
I've said it before. Audacy would be crazy to allow WCBS, the nation's #10 billing station, to fail, while WXBK remains one of the lowest rated FM stations in New York. It's got to give WCBS an FM simulcast.
>>>And then you have to factor if in 3-5 years there will be an audience in NYC for two all news stations, regardless of the band. I am willing to bet on "no".<<<
WINS and WCBS have both been billing great since the 1960s. There's no reason to believe this will change, provided WCBS gets an FM simulcast. Yes, 94.7 is limited in its signal but it still covers 80% of the market. It's not great on Long Island and Connecticut. But it covers the five boroughs, most of Westchester and Rockland, and much of North Jersey.
In Philadelphia, KYW has a Class A simulcast partner that's only 270 watts. WXBK 94.7 is 40,000 watts. Not as good a signal as WINS-FM 92.3. But certainly better than KYW's simulcast partner.
I've said it before. Audacy would be crazy to allow WCBS, the nation's #10 billing station, to fail, while WXBK remains one of the lowest rated FM stations in New York. It's got to give WCBS an FM simulcast.
The "incredibly high spot loads" are the only source of revenue for these stations. So on the one hand, you're complaining about the cheapening of the product, while also complaining about the only way to pay for that product. How do you expect them to pay for better quality newscasters when you're chopping their revenue? News is an expensive format. We know it's appeal is to a narrow and diminishing demographic. It is in the best interest of that demographic to cheer on the fact that this format attracts a lot of revenue. Otherwise, it's possible the format might go away.
No it doesn't. Both WINS and WCBS achieved their current revenue numbers without an FM simulcast. Advertisers don't pay more for a station because it's on FM. In the meantime, the owner loses the revenue from the additional format. The FCC limits the number of FMs a company can own, and Audacy is at its max in NY. They're already doing two simulcasts of AM stations. That means they've reduced their potential revenue by 20%. WCBS has a different strategy than WINS. WCBS has the Mets and Rutgers sports. Those two contracts were done knowing they would be on AM. Sports is extremely lucrative, and its audience has demonstrated a willingness to seek it out even if it's on AM. So there's no reason to blow up another revenue stream for a third simulcast.
Country ?? 😜
That format has ultimately failed multiple times in the market. It's not appealing to local direct advertisers, and it does not get big enough numbers for agency accounts.
50s and 60s Oldies, The New 94-7, Gramp Radio!
Though this has been discussed a few times, I still don’t get this. The replacement for New York’s Country on 94.7 has smaller numbers (and several competitors). By this reasoning, shouldn’t it be even less attentive to agency buyers?
Once again, you're only seeing metro 6+ numbers. You aren't seeing neighborhood or demographic numbers. We already know the signal doesn't compare well with its competitors. The 6+ numbers are unfair to this station. What sellers do is look at sub-markets within the metro where the station does well.
To get a better sense of how Audacy is selling WXBK, listen to the station on air (not online) and log the local advertisers. Who is buying time on the station, where are they located, and what kinds of products are they selling. Plot those advertisers on a map, and see where they are. It would also help to know the percentage of local to national advertisers. Are they getting ads from traditional urban clients such as McDonalds? People spend too much time focusing on the playlists and not enough time evaluating the advertising.
94.7's target audience is very attractive to advertisers. Further, its younger end target (25-44) is a nice fit with Audacy's other music stations which don't offer much on the younger end.
Remember, clusters of stations sell packages of stations to agencies. They lump them all together to get something attractive on both cost and demos.
Country was not a good sales fit as part of a package.
The Block really should be moved to 101.9 or 102.7 to do well and compete with a fighting chance against Power, Hot, and BLS.
Both stations perform too strongly for one of the two to be sacrificed so that The Block could get a better signal.
If we were to go off 6+ numbers exclusively, The Block is only about a full share off from Power and Hot, which are closer in presentation to the Block than BLS, despite The Block having a lower cume. The ratings benchmark I would hold the station to is the performance relative to Power and Hot.
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Exactly right. Right now, the all-news product skews old, and that audience will not last forever. I am not sure if there will be a younger audience to keep all-news radio viable within a few decades, but it isn't without trying especially in NYC.
I cannot speak to KCBS or Audacy's other stations in the format, but in terms of WINS, I'd say that it has retained the quality that it had before Entercom took over despite a number of aged anchors retiring or moving into part-time roles (which would have happened regardless). But I agree, a decline in presentation will drive listeners away.
But, in the same vein, a potential issue that has been discussed is whether the presentation of WINS sounds "too old" and needs refreshing to appeal to younger listeners. Giving WINS, the stronger brand, a FM signal is not a silver bullet to the audience issue, and Audacy will somehow need to give younger demos a reason to listen.
To my original point, there is no conclusive reason to believe that given an FM simulcast that WCBS would avoid further erosion. They could add an FM signal, but as the audience changes, the rationale for having two all-news stations owned by the same company will cease to be, and Audacy will have to make a decision on how to proceed. My guess is that WINS will be the one to outlast WCBS in the format.
No secret here. Audacy has clearly committed to WINS as their all news brand in the NYC market. WCBS will continue to serve its purpose until a better use comes along. It bills well for now, so why mess with it? There is zero chance of it moving to FM.
This is not a car race or a sporting event. There are dozens of winners in NYC radio, even some of the stations that are nearly no-show in ratings.
As a part of a 25-54 sales package, The Block is a nice fit and can help sell lots of multi-station buys. With clusters, you have to add up all the stations in a "package" to present to clients who buy based on ratings. Don't think of individual stations... think of the cluster.
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