Red Barons back on WICK

[TheTiger]

This afternoon, I heard an announcement saying that the S/W-B Red Barons baseball will be heard on WICK. They will broadcast games all season starting with the home opener against the team from Norfolk. The last time I heard these games was back in 2002, then they moved to its then sister station WWDL.

I guess WICK has decided to move the Red Barons games from 104.9 because the games drives The River away. Listeners during the "Greatest Hits" and "The Music Station" were not bothered by the Red Barons games.

My second guess is that it could boost the River's ratings by just having the game on WICK. The disadvantage, those AM signals don't reach certain areas of NEPA during the night-time hour because of skywave interference, unless you are in the transmitter range of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.

If there's a station that can put the Red Baron games on, it should have been WNAK. WNAK covers the entire Scranton/W-B area, especially on 94.3 FM where reception is great from Wilkes-Barre to Honesdale and beyond.

So, what's your opinion about this?

 

[NigelWick]

The Red Barons are a bust at the box office. They don't pull the numbers on radio, but if the team and the station sell the spots and make money, all is right with the world. There are holes in the WICK signal, and other Bold Gold stations will try to fill those. The Red Barons on radio are no big deal.




> This afternoon, I heard an announcement saying that the
> S/W-B Red Barons baseball will be heard on WICK. They will
> broadcast games all season starting with the home opener
> against the team from Norfolk. The last time I heard these
> games was back in 2002, then they moved to its then sister
> station WWDL.
>
> I guess WICK has decided to move the Red Barons games from
> 104.9 because the games drives The River away. Listeners
> during the "Greatest Hits" and "The Music Station" were not
> bothered by the Red Barons games.
>
> My second guess is that it could boost the River's ratings
> by just having the game on WICK. The disadvantage, those AM
> signals don't reach certain areas of NEPA during the
> night-time hour because of skywave interference, unless you
> are in the transmitter range of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.
>
> If there's a station that can put the Red Baron games on, it
> should have been WNAK. WNAK covers the entire Scranton/W-B
> area, especially on 94.3 FM where reception is great from
> Wilkes-Barre to Honesdale and beyond.
>
> So, what's your opinion about this?
>

 

[marker101]

Rumor has it that the Red Barons Radio Network will once again be a network and pick up a Honesdale AM affiliate.


> This afternoon, I heard an announcement saying that the
> S/W-B Red Barons baseball will be heard on WICK, where reception
> is great from Wilkes-Barre to Honesdale and beyond.
>

 

[RIM]

> The Red Barons are a bust at the box office. They don't
> pull the numbers on radio, but if the team and the station
> sell the spots and make money, all is right with the world.
> There are holes in the WICK signal, and other Bold Gold
> stations will try to fill those. The Red Barons on radio
> are no big deal.


I think you will find that the county pays Gold Bold to carry the Red Barons. They also sold WICK to BOLD GOLD.

 

[vumeter]

There are too many day games to air on a music FM Station that cares about being competitive.

 

[Roger]

> There are too many day games to air on a music FM Station
> that cares about being competitive.
>
I heard that they might change to Fox Sports.<P ID="signature">______________
Roger</P>

 

[masterg]

> There are too many day games to air on a music FM Station
> that cares about being competitive.


There are many among us, myself included, who feel that the day WARM stepped onto the slippery slope into obscurity was the day they started carrying Phillies baseball. You carry any play-by-play, any franchise, any time of year, you drive away your core audience. That's the audience who listens to you 90% of the time when you're not carrying play-by-play. Live PBP might be a quick financial fix, but in the long hual, it's an enormous tune-out, especially nowadays with internet, satellite, etc.

 

[vumeter]

WARM's other choice?

I understand your point-of view. But , do you feel WARM was better served playing music at that time or jumping into a spoken-word format like news-talk to use it's news image momentum as a foundation to build upon?
The issue is that baseball has done well on radio. Not just financially boosting am AM property but with noticable increases in ratings, shown in a pattern of Spring/Summer books over time.
I do, however, tend to agree with you on all other PBP on radio, I find it a tune-out and it drives me to sample what would otherwise be my second or third choice.

 

[masterg]

Re: WARM's other choice?

> I understand your point-of view. But , do you feel WARM was
> better served playing music at that time or jumping into a
> spoken-word format like news-talk to use it's news image
> momentum as a foundation to build upon?

Well, you do indeed raise an interesting point, sir. I could write volumes on what WARM should have done, but history has clearly proven that the path they chose was the absolute wrong one. Phillies baseball was about nothing but money for WARM. It drove listeners away at night, fewer and fewer came back. WARM could have held on to a nice chunk of audience share in this market based on their legacy alone. Its downward spiral was the result of one bad decision after another after another. Put another way, WARM did not need the Phillies. WARM did wonderfully without them, their addition to the schedule never enhanced WARM's image one bit. PBP, to me, is usually best suited for "nothing to lose" stations. You mentioned WARM playing music. Boy, that's a discussion for another thread. Their music policy was the most puzzling mess anyone would ever encounter.

 

[cam1620]

Re: WARM's other choice?

> > I understand your point-of view. But , do you feel WARM
> was
> > better served playing music at that time or jumping into a
>
> > spoken-word format like news-talk to use it's news image
> > momentum as a foundation to build upon?
>
> Well, you do indeed raise an interesting point, sir. I
> could write volumes on what WARM should have done, but
> history has clearly proven that the path they chose was the
> absolute wrong one. Phillies baseball was about nothing but
> money for WARM. It drove listeners away at night, fewer and
> fewer came back. WARM could have held on to a nice chunk of
> audience share in this market based on their legacy alone.
> Its downward spiral was the result of one bad decision after
> another after another. Put another way, WARM did not need
> the Phillies. WARM did wonderfully without them, their
> addition to the schedule never enhanced WARM's image one
> bit. PBP, to me, is usually best suited for "nothing to
> lose" stations. You mentioned WARM playing music. Boy,
> that's a discussion for another thread. Their music policy
> was the most puzzling mess anyone would ever encounter.
>

Why should anybody care about the Phillies or the current Red Barons when the Phillies are pulling out and moving their AAA franchise to Allentown? Some station should pick up the Mets or even the Yanks. New York is closer than Philly. The Mets already have their AA club in Binghamton. They should move their AAA affiliation to the Red Barons.