Paul Finebaum and new sports station rumor

[passtheword]

This appeared in yesterday's edition of "Taylor on radio-info":

Birmingham rumor about Cumulus – sports talker Paul Finebaum jumping ship?

The well-known local personality (also syndicated regionally) is supposedly trying to exit Citadel's all-sports WJOX-AM/FM (690/94.5) to lead a brand-new sports station for another owner (Cox?).

 

[Nate Wesley]

This appeared in yesterday's edition of "Taylor on radio-info":

Birmingham rumor about Cumulus – sports talker Paul Finebaum jumping ship?

The well-known local personality (also syndicated regionally) is supposedly trying to exit Citadel's all-sports WJOX-AM/FM (690/94.5) to lead a brand-new sports station for another owner (Cox?).

I've long wished an alternative to the paint-by-numbers sports talk WJOX and other SEC-fried stations like it wallow in. Finebaum is the king of such crap stirring, so rumors of a potential new station doing the same ol' dance aren't that exciting.

 

[whit979]

I've long wished an alternative to the paint-by-numbers sports talk WJOX and other SEC-fried stations like it wallow in. Finebaum is the king of such crap stirring, so rumors of a potential new station doing the same ol' dance aren't that exciting.

I agree with you, Nate. As Finebaum goes, so goes the diehard SEC radio audience.

Somewhat off-topic: It's incredibly confusing to me why Birmingham has two major sports stations and possibly about to add a third, yet neither of them carry the Braves. Huge, huge, huge gap in coverage within the Braves' home market.

 

[ALRocker]

someone in the business told me 97.3 Bham is going all sports, so I'm sure that's where he's headed.

 

[whit979]

someone in the business told me 97.3 Bham is going all sports, so I'm sure that's where he's headed.

I'm not surprised about the possible format change on 97.3, but wow, 100,000 watts down to 6,200? Maybe that doesn't matter to him, considering how many stations simulcast his show.

 

[zuzu petals]

someone in the business told me 97.3 Bham is going all sports, so I'm sure that's where he's headed.

I'm not surprised about the possible format change on 97.3, but wow, 100,000 watts down to 6,200? Maybe that doesn't matter to him, considering how many stations simulcast his show.

It is a C2 knucklehead. It is 404 meters HAAT. The equivalent of 50,000 watts @ 150 meters.
3 db difference. Not as big a difference as it appears.

 

[tomservo]

It is a C2 knucklehead. It is 404 meters HAAT. The equivalent of 50,000 watts @ 150 meters.
3 db difference. Not as big a difference as it appears.

I'm sorry, but there's a big difference in real life listening. WJOX has a very robust signal that reaches Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Cullman, Clanton, etc. WNCB starts to kick out well before then. In-building listening is a world of difference. I used to work in a big metal building on the side of a hill facing away from Birmingham; WJOX (then WYSF) was easy, WNCB was wiped out by terrain shadowing in most parts of the shop.

It's 6.4 kW @ 404m versus 100 kW @ 309m. Not really a fair fight.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Somewhat off-topic: It's incredibly confusing to me why Birmingham has two major sports stations and possibly about to add a third, yet neither of them carry the Braves. Huge, huge, huge gap in coverage within the Braves' home market.

It's actually more inexcusable now that both WJOX and WAPI are on FM. In the past, they'd complain about having to give up too much local airtime/advertising, but Citadel-Birmingham can't use that excuse when 690 and 1070 are merely simulcasting their new home stations. I know AM radio is dying, but it ain't dead yet.

 

[Hotseat]

As long as Cumulus holds the Braves radio rights, they'll find a place to put them in Birmingham.

 

[Kent]

By the way, Cox has registered a website for 97.3 The Zone. So, that could lend credence to the notion WNCB is flipping formats. The Zone, however, could be sports or some derivative of rock or top-40.

 

[WBGR FM 93.1]

By the way, Cox has registered a website for 97.3 The Zone. So, that could lend credence to the notion WNCB is flipping formats. The Zone, however, could be sports or some derivative of rock or top-40.

Most stations I've heard with "the zone" as a slogan are sports stations, such as WZZN "97.7 The Zone" in Huntsville. When they do flip, and switch from stereo to mono, that will their coverage area a little bit.

-Travis

 

[Charles1]

At first blush, flipping 97.3 from country to anything would make a lot of sense. Is sports the way to go, though? WJOX has a nearly 20-year heritage in the market, so one would think that a possible 97.3 the Zone would have to pack their lunch in order to take them on. Then again, no one thought that the Eagle would dethrone Rock 99, either---but they have.

 

[Nate Wesley]

At first blush, flipping 97.3 from country to anything would make a lot of sense. Is sports the way to go, though? WJOX has a nearly 20-year heritage in the market, so one would think that a possible 97.3 the Zone would have to pack their lunch in order to take them on. Then again, no one thought that the Eagle would dethrone Rock 99, either---but they have.

Assume Finebaum's afternoon spot is a given. Affiliate with Yahoo! Sports Radio, and Cox-Bham can clear the national show of Paul's buddy Tim Brando, live via regular time or maybe time-shifted as an El Finebo lead-in. You've got strong national shows in Dan Patrick and Jim Rome available, the latter having some success here previously. You've got a few older but recognizable vets out there who might be 'game' for one more run (Herb Winches, Doug Bell, Scott 'I've got the tapes' Moore...would the money be good enough to pull Ray Melick from BP public relations?)

Perhaps with the new station comes an ear for some new sports voices--younger ones, ones with some exposure beyond the SEC, female (what are Kelly Hunter and Krista Saari doing these days?), perhaps more ethnic? (I hate belaboring this point but it's pretty egregious that WJOX, existing amongst 30% in the overall market/40% of Jefferson County/70+ % of Birmingham proper that is African-American--has never had a regular African-American host. Not even a cheap, all-calls night show--how the Two Live Stews got their humble start out of Atlanta.)

 

[Charles1]

Didn't 1320 (now WENN) air the Two Live Stews for a while?

 

[Nate Wesley]

Didn't 1320 (now WENN) air the Two Live Stews for a while?

Yep, that was their first syndication deal (2-5 afternoons, IIRC). Most of that daytime slate of urban talk shows (Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, Warren Ballantine) were from Radio One's 'Syndication One' effort. Cox-Birmingham kept them on about a year before leasing 1320 to a Spanish-language broadcaster.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Update: A story in today's The Birmingham News (online via AL.com) notes Finebaum's lawsuit against Citadel Broadcasting, AND it confirms the impending debut of sports radio on WNCB 97.3 from David Dubose, market manager for Cox-Birmingham.

One more thing: Remember how whitfm made note of 97.3 challenging the 100kw WJOX-FM?

Well, while trying to find a press release related to David Dubose's comments, I found some internet scuttlebutt on Alabama and Auburn sports boards. Apparently, this new sports station might merely launch on 97.3. Should Finebaum get his legal exit to cross the street, the 'plan' is to takeover the 'Jox matching 106.9--with The Eagle being bumped down to 97.3.

(These boards are subscription-only, so there's a lot of individual post blocking--hence a Google search for the Auburn side.)

http://alabama.247sports.com/Board/116/Finebaum-to-1069-3853431/1

http://www.google.com/search?q=http...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[Charles1]

And we all remember the last time Cox moved a format from 106.9 to 97.3, don't we? Can we say "total failure"?

 

[Nate Wesley]

MORE DIGGING: A UAB fan from Blazertalk.com chimed in with a bit of infomation I didn't have--the station will be an affiliate for Atlanta Falcons radio broadcasts.

Just for giggles, I went to the Falcons' radio network page. For Birmingham, it's listing a 'WZNN 106.9'.

 

[Nate Wesley]

And we all remember the last time Cox moved a format from 106.9 to 97.3, don't we? Can we say "total failure"?

Poor Oldies 106.9, a victim of Cox jumping on the 'All 80s' format fad. To be fair, the oldies format was going through some transition at the time--its just that Cox (and other broadcasters) chose the wrong long-term transition altogether.

 

[tomservo]

If there was one silver lining of 106.9 flipping to 80s music, it was that "The New 106.9" had the audio chain tweaked and it became the best sounding station, at least for a few months, that I have ever heard. Whoever they have twiddling the knobs over at Cox knows what s/he is doing, because it sounded fantastic. For a while, it was like they were playing the music right off CDs with just enough processing the make the audio sparkle.

Then after the format changed a little (but before they went to "Eagle" branding, iirc) something happened and the audio took a little nosedive. Still it's one of the better sounding B'ham music stations imho, along with stablemates Kiss and Jamz.