Not my money at stake here, but if they fail to move KYW to FM, whether through WKDN or some other purchase, they will start losing out.
WKDN may have an inferior signal currently, but it could be upgraded, could be in Philadelphia, and is not 10.6 or 10.8 Mhz away from another area station, so couldn't it end up on Domino Lane?
KYW is maintaining its listener base, but I would find it hard to believe that new listeners are finding the station, or believe a recorded teletype sound is important.
If the bet is that Philadelphia is a provincial backwater mired in pointless tradition, than you don't need news on FM. I wonder what the radio powers that be really think.
Strawbridges and Wanamakers are gone, Bookbinders is out of business, the Philly newspapers are suffering because of new news sources, and even traditional ones in the suburbs. I think we are at the point in local history, when even a product inferior to KYW on FM has a chance of making inroads. I believe we are somewhat less bound to tradition than we once were. The decline and elimination of WYSP, without significant fanfare, is evidence of that. The inroads gained by 97.5 prior to WIP on FM suggest the same thing.