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Simulcasts....Who needs 'em?

I

icycool7227

Ok, I have a question. There have been a steady stream of format flips this year and surprisingly, a number of them have just been to simulcast other stations. Most of them were to news stations. Why? It is so stupid. ALL News/talk stations should be on the AM dial and ONLY on the AM dial. I just saw on 100000watts.com that WDPT 95-7 The Point from Dayton, OH flipped to a news simulcast of WHIO 1290 AM. Why mess things up when it's not broken? I really don't care if it's a good business decision or not, what matters is what's good for music listeners and they don't want to hear news. News is depressing enough thank you.

Another example is KQMB Star 102.7 flipping to a simulcast of KHL 1160 AM. Now I saw that there is a Star 96.7 but there is no audio stream, nor logo for me to listen. So I don't know if that is another version of Star or not but most news stations don't have two outlets. As far as where I live, in Milwaukee, we don't even have such things.

Last example, KRDO 95.1 AND KSKX Sax 105.5 both flipped formats. But Sax 105.5 did another change to newstalk, again to an FM simulcast of an AM news station - KRDO AM 1240. I'd like to know why this is happening. Surely, the ones who listened to the music on these stations aren't happy? This is taking a hole out of radio variety and I wish I had control of this. So any of you who make the business of flipping to a news simulcast, think again, it's a VERY bad decision and you know it!
 
They're trying to get the news listeners to flip to FM so they can turn the AMs into dollar-per-holler brokered/ethnic/religious stations. This trend probably won't end anytime soon.

Was WDPT the last "Point" 80s station? I know the ones in Jacksonville and Birmingham have faded into history. Not sure about Houston, though.
 
WHIO's pattern no longer covers the entire Dayton area so the 95.7 helps to give a good signal in the northern part of the area. I enjoyed a clear signal listening to the morning news heading to Springfield, rather than having to fight fading and co-channel interference. I'm expecting more flips like this, not less. 80s listeners will either go back to Mix or their iPod or CD collection.
 
gr8oldies said:
WHIO's pattern no longer covers the entire Dayton area so the 95.7 helps to give a good signal in the northern part of the area. I enjoyed a clear signal listening to the morning news heading to Springfield, rather than having to fight fading and co-channel interference. I'm expecting more flips like this, not less. 80s listeners will either go back to Mix or their iPod or CD collection.
Click to expand...

Good point. Many of the moves to FM from AM have to do with the fact that most markets have very few if any AMs that cover the entire market day and night, while FM may have better coverage. Add to that the improvement in 35-54 numbers by being on FM, and it is a win.

This is definitely a trend. Bonneville has moved WTOP in DC to FM, and improved the demos and the coverage over the 50 kw directional AM. They are simulcating in Phoenix, but plan to make the AM a sports station. In SLC, the simulcast may last longer as this is just an overradioed market. In Jacksonville, Cox put WOKV in an FM simulcast, and Clear moved news/talk to FM from WNLS AM.

The difficulty in getting salable, young demos seems to be overcome to some extent whent hese stations go to FM... and the coverage issues of most AMs are solved, too.
 
Interesting....Thanks for the replies. I never thought about that. But I wonder why they didn't realize the coverage pattern before? Then they wouldn't have to do all this changing and flipping.
 
icycool7227 said:
Interesting....Thanks for the replies. I never thought about that. But I wonder why they didn't realize the coverage pattern before? Then they wouldn't have to do all this changing and flipping.
Click to expand...

Remember, most even half decent fulltime AMs in metro areas were granted in the 30's and 40's when urban sprawl and suburbs were unknown. Most cities simply grew out of the coverage areas of their local stations!
 
I think that a whole lot of the "new" FM Talkers are simply an indication of the increasing popularity of talk radio. The simulcasts are probably meant to be temporary, while they "shop" for a new format for the AM. When the News/Talker AM begins to make more money than an FM music station, it starts to make sense to flip the FM to News/Talk.
 
This switch to FM could also be the "NPR" effect. As NPR stations (mostly FM) turned into News talkers over the last decade; maybe the News/talk stations from the AM band saw that there was a market to be reached.

Not clear on the "great Success" of talk radio in general? The FM talk stations in most markets are well behind the AM talkers, which have pretty bad demos once you break down the numbers. WTOP that was mentioned in the thread is allnews, very different from News/Talk.

This is bad news for AM, though. The AM stations look like they are going to be turned into Fox Sports or ESPN stations straight off the bird.
 
robbbc said:
This switch to FM could also be the "NPR" effect. As NPR stations (mostly FM) turned into News talkers over the last decade; maybe the News/talk stations from the AM band saw that there was a market to be reached.

Not clear on the "great Success" of talk radio in general? The FM talk stations in most markets are well behind the AM talkers, which have pretty bad demos once you break down the numbers. WTOP that was mentioned in the thread is allnews, very different from News/Talk.

This is bad news for AM, though. The AM stations look like they are going to be turned into Fox Sports or ESPN stations straight off the bird.
Click to expand...

WTOP in DC has shown huge 35-54 growth since moving the same AM format to FM and abandoning the AM operation to a different format. "Traditional" talk formats in Orlando, central NJ and Akron, among others, have proven that FM makes the difference in 25-54 listening. In Pittsburgh, KDKA is down to around an 8 from its historic double digits, and WPGB is around a 5 share, most of it 25-54, where it is winning.

Yesterday, CC debuted a traditional talker in New Orleans against WWL, and they have made several other moves like this including Pittsburgh. Cox has switched or simulcast in Jacksonville and Dayton. The LDS folks have done it in SLC, Phoenix and DC. This seems to be a growing trend, where owners know that AM can not attrract n/t listeners when on AM, but putting the same format (not that awful Free FM stuff) on FM gets vastly enhanced sales demo performance.
 
Let us not forget a couple of points. With a simulcast, you can operate two stations with the budget of one.

Also, AM is a band reserved exclusively for the 45 and up listeners. Heck most of the people in their mid-twenties haven't scanned the AM band ever. So what better way to appeal to a younger audience than by putting a hot talk or a sports station simulcast right where they just might hear it? Plus with FM you get better audio quality and better/more reliable coverage (in some cases). No worries on having to sign off at night.
 
"Was WDPT the last "Point" 80s station? I know the ones in Jacksonville and Birmingham have faded into history. Not sure about Houston, though."

The "Point" in Jackxonville is still alive and well...

Everyone has good points here ... the big three are...
-urban sprawl and not enought nightime / early morning signal coverage
(But remember - OKV in Jax upgraded it's nightime signal just months before simulcasting... ie- they still care about their AM signal)
- most people don't even know the AM band exsists.
- money / revenue

And I don't think AM-ers will be going to ESPN or on the bird full time... they serve a great purpose and in many markets the loss of their one and only news/talk would suck ... remember a 50k non directional daytime can cover a hell of a lot more ground than a 10 k fm-er.
 
clichemoth said:
They're trying to get the news listeners to flip to FM so they can turn the AMs into dollar-per-holler brokered/ethnic/religious stations. This trend probably won't end anytime soon.

Was WDPT the last "Point" 80s station? I know the ones in Jacksonville and Birmingham have faded into history. Not sure about Houston, though.
Click to expand...

We've still got The Point in Houston....however unfortunate we may be....
 
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