With everything that has happened over the past year, I thought I'd have this topic to discuss about what you think about the changes in the NY radio dial and what could we be looking forward to this year. To review, we've had two FM stations take on sports talk. ESPN leased a radio station from Emmis and moved their ESPN Radio format from AM to FM. The AM station switched to ESPN Deportes. Months later, CBS entered the fray by buying 101.9 from Merlin Media and moved to simulcast their successful The Fan format on it. Merlin Media had switched to a version of WRXP after their experiment in bringing news to FM ended in failure. However, that didn't last for long, for the investors were interested in selling the station to recoup some the costs of running the news format. That action displeased many alternative rock music fans. Kiss FM went away, it's intellectual rights sold by Emmis to the new owners of WBLS. WBLS benefited from its competitor going away, now the #3 station in the city. WOR was sold to Clear Channel, paving the way to personnel changes. David Paterson and Dr. Joy Browne were let go. Mark Simone joins the station from WABC. There is the expectation that Rush Limbaugh and/or Sean Hannity could find their shows switched from WABC to WOR but that remains to be seen. The financial problems that befell Family Radio after the disastrous end-of-the-world prediction finally forced them to sell some of their more valuable FM stations, including 94.7 in the NY Tri-State area. Cumulus bought the station. There was a ton of speculation as to what format the station would have. When Cumulus got the WRXP call letters, there was hope that an Alternative Rock format would be launched. There was also hope from others that CBS Sports Radio, simulcasting news/talk WABC, a dance format or a country music format would be picked, instead. This week the Cumulus debuted a country music format, with the name of Nash FM. We also learned that Cumulus would move to put the WNSH call letters on 94.7 and there's speculation that the WRXP call letters would be moved to 103.9 should that station start transmitting from The Bronx. CBS Sports Radio debuted at the start of this year on 101.1 HD2. There is speculation that CBS would, eventually, move it to 660 AM, ending the WFAN AM/FM simulcast, even though many people living outside the city are opposed to the idea.
So what are your thoughts on the state of NY radio today? Where are things going from here on? What changes could be expected during the course of the year?
So what are your thoughts on the state of NY radio today? Where are things going from here on? What changes could be expected during the course of the year?
