SHOULD CBS Flip 92.3 Or 102.7 To FM Simulcast Of WCBS-AM/WINS?

[DToTheJ]

...Given the fact that many listeners, especially younger listeners, only listen to FM, at some point the demos are going to get so top-heavy on AM that it will no longer be competitive with FM and CBS will have to move its all news format to FM, but that could be many years away...

But as long as 880 and 1010 (and 660, for that matter) have signals that are dependable, CBS may not even consider it for the long term. They certainly weren't considering it in the short term with the advent of all-new on 101.9 (Chicago, of course, is a different story).

 

[radioguy39nj]

And again, if any spoken word CBS station goes to FM, WFAN will be first on 102.7. It's a matter of when they do.

I thought Fresh was doing well. 92.3 Now is doing well in M/S/U in NJ but isn't really making a dent against Z-100 overall. If WFAN goes to FM, 92.3 would make sense, since it's already on 92.3 HD-3. Just my humble opinion!

 

[Radaioman]

Leave "NOW" alone.

Yes, like the Tri-State area, leave NOW alone

 

[badjef]

If you are a commuter living at the Jersey Shore, the AM's are a better choice.

Show me WEMP in Philly or WWFS in Atlantic City, not a shot!

Don't forget, that the major New York FM's all cover the New York Statistical
Metropolitan Area completely. WCBS-FM, and Z-100 don't have the best signals in
southern Somerset County, but they can still be heard, past that point, to the south, you
are in Mercer County and out of the New York Ratings Market.

Ad agencies buying the New York Market don't really care if a station has a few listeners
in Atlantic City or Philly. They specifically buy local stations in those markets if they
want to reach those consumers.

There are a lot of people that live past the signal that commute to The City. Even though
the MSA has decent receivablility, more and more are moving out of that MSA due to
livability.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[TimeIsTight]

There are a lot of people who live past the signal that commute to The City. Even though
the MSA has decent receivability, more and more are moving out of that MSA due to
livability.

You're absolutely right. I have even known people who commuted from Philadelphia to work in NYC every day on Amtrak, and many more who commuted to the city from other parts of Eastern Pennsylvania, from the Poconos to Bucks County.

But, if they don't live in the specific metro counties, they don't count. They won't be eligible to get metro PPM devices, they won't be counted in the ratings, and the ad agencies don't care about them either. At this point there are not enough of them to matter, and what does matter is the cume and market share a station gets within the standard metro. The point is that the major FM's have the same potential reach in that statistical area as the 50-kw AMs on clear channels. The potential extra AM listeners outside that area don't mean a thing with respect to ratings and revenue.

On the other hand, a significant slice of the desirable demos within that standard area NEVER listen to AM radio at all. Which does give the FM stations a much greater potential audience, and, in fact, in NYC the FMs do have the bulk of the audience, especially in the desired younger demos. And every year, the total cume of AM stations gets smaller and smaller. AM is doing a slow fade, that may only be reversed if and when the band goes to full power digital, but that is likely decades away if it ever even happens. Smart phones, WiFi or some new technology may wipe radio, as we know it, out long before AM has a chance to recycle itself.

 

[DToTheJ]

...92.3 Now is doing well in M/S/U in NJ...quote]

Hmmm, isn't this the same observation that was made about WRXP before it bit the dust?

 

[NYCRadioGuy]

From Arbitron's July cume data, Fresh 102.7 is the 4th most listened to NYC station per week. 92.3 is 6th. With 3.5 million+ people tuning in every week, it'd be dumb to get rid of them.

 

[satech]

An FM simulcast would be useless in Somerset and Morris Counties in NJ and points farther westward (home to many affluent NYC commuters), where the hills and terrain block out the NYC FM signals, but the Philly FM signals come in loud and clear even though they're much farther away. I live and work in this area, and the two banks of FM presets on my car radio are basically split between NYC and Philly stations, because I have to keep switching back and forth, depending on which side of the mountains I'm on.

The NYC AM stations don't have this line-of-sight problem, and most of them can be heard clearly throughout the area. I can even hear WWRL in areas where 92.3 and 102.7 are nothing but static (and/or adjacent channel IBOC interference from 92.5 and 102.9 in Philly).

 

[Bob1370]

The real issue is revenue and profit--and all the stations in CBS' NYC cluster, on AM and FM, are financially strong and profitable enough to stay as-is. Any change would cost them.

Chicago was different, CBS had a failing FM station which was doing poorly in ratings and revenue at a time when they thought a foothold on the FM band for their flagship AM would block out a potential new FM competitor who'd given them trouble when he ran an AM blowtorch just down the dial before. Time will tell if that will work, or if it was even necessary. In NYC, there's no dead wood in the cluster and the new competition's apparently proving so far to be less than formidable in its execution (though it's premature to write it off permanently)...so expect no changes unless they panic without good cause.

 

[CHRles]

There are a lot of people that live past the signal that commute to The City. Even though
the MSA has decent receivablility, more and more are moving out of that MSA due to
livability.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Define a lot. Don't forget that commute times to and from the city of NYC are much longer than those found in Tampa Bay.
I doubt there are more than 10,000-20,000 people outside the NYC MSA who commute to work in Manhattan. For people living in Long Island commuting WEST of NYC to northern Jersey can take a good couple of hours, if not more, everyday and each way.

Some people may be commuting to work in northern Jersey from central Jersey, just like some people from Sarasota may be commuting to work in Tampa/St. Pete or people from Port Charlotte commuting to Sarasota. Along the way to work they'll notice part of the radio dial (AM and FM) changes as they drive to work. C'est la vie!

 

[wpb1999]

I can get WEMP in Eastern Penn. well. I think a WINS FM signal would do well out here. I can imagine a name like WBT in Charlotte does, "1010 WINS Newsradio on 92.9" or pull a WSB and say AM 880 and NOW 92.9 FM WCBS News"