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This proves just how sad WEMP's Numbers are......
- Thread starter gj567
- Start date
I tuned in this morning just on a lark and low and behold, the 5:18am time check was preceded by an 8:23 time check. It seems painfully obvious they people suffer from being both illiterate (how else do you miss that!) and deaf (nobody listening to the air monitor to hear what kind of air product dreck they have on the air).
Face it, they can't be long for this world! Is it any surprise their numbers are so poor?
For a point of contrast, I also listened to CBS 880 this morning and the only possible hint of a flaw was the board operator had one of Craig Allen's weather forecasts a little too low in volume at the start but was quickly adjusted. While I haven't listened to 1010 in ages, my bet is 1010 and 880 OWN the news in New York radio and with the poor product WEMP has they'll be switching formats in the next 6 to 9 months.
Face it, they can't be long for this world! Is it any surprise their numbers are so poor?
For a point of contrast, I also listened to CBS 880 this morning and the only possible hint of a flaw was the board operator had one of Craig Allen's weather forecasts a little too low in volume at the start but was quickly adjusted. While I haven't listened to 1010 in ages, my bet is 1010 and 880 OWN the news in New York radio and with the poor product WEMP has they'll be switching formats in the next 6 to 9 months.
There appear to have been contradictory and conflicting strategies tracing to the company's first days. Obviously, the main goal was to poach some of the newly-minted WTOP currency that was being circulated at the time.
Does anyone here really believe otherwise?
Sorry ; this cynic says that the vision did not go much deeper than than 'All-news on FM = a pot of winning lottery tickets at rainbow's end'.
Radio contradiction/conflicts :
1. Hasty assembly of the news station in Chicago.
2. After a few weeks, Walt Sabo heads for the exit and wants no part of this.
3. Merlin Chicago and Merlin NYC offer Barbie News, complete with accompanying snack of Whitman's for listening enjoyment. AARP males are doing the programming for women half their age. All that they missed were gifts of nylons, jewelry and daiquiri mixes.
4. Station in Chicago, while still in its baby-rocker, changes call letters.
5. Program emphasis switches to more important news after approximately three months.
6. Philly station gets added to the stack. They were lucky. Through the fortune of chronolgy, it got to bypass the responsibilities of covering an earthquake, a blizzard, a flood and a Super Bowl.
7. After just eight months, WEMP gets all sorts of scuttlebutt after elbowing into the auction for a slice of the Limbaugh estate. How can a station going in one direction hope to build momentum and sustain itself when major new changes such as this are taking the current focus 120° off?
These Merlin people have to be savvy enough to realize that a talk or a news station takes more time to make an impact than a music station does. The biggest contradiction in their approach might be that they have been fiddling with the product since the virtual start and failing to stay consistent.
Of course, that wanderlust may just be a symptom, but through all of these trends and PPMs, the bottom line numbers remain the same.
0.5 .... 0.6 .... 0.3 in Chicago one book : The focus has been too scattered, and too frequently so, for any foothold to hold hope.
It can be theorized that confidence in the original plan evaporated too quickly simply because there might not have been a vision any more complicated than slapping down a franchised form of *something* that passed for a WTOP business card.
All of that loot at the foot of the rainbow was at the wrong end. It's likely that it was all piled at the beginning of this rainbow, yet this expensive, time-wasting pusuit continues.
Does anyone here really believe otherwise?
Sorry ; this cynic says that the vision did not go much deeper than than 'All-news on FM = a pot of winning lottery tickets at rainbow's end'.
Radio contradiction/conflicts :
1. Hasty assembly of the news station in Chicago.
2. After a few weeks, Walt Sabo heads for the exit and wants no part of this.
3. Merlin Chicago and Merlin NYC offer Barbie News, complete with accompanying snack of Whitman's for listening enjoyment. AARP males are doing the programming for women half their age. All that they missed were gifts of nylons, jewelry and daiquiri mixes.
4. Station in Chicago, while still in its baby-rocker, changes call letters.
5. Program emphasis switches to more important news after approximately three months.
6. Philly station gets added to the stack. They were lucky. Through the fortune of chronolgy, it got to bypass the responsibilities of covering an earthquake, a blizzard, a flood and a Super Bowl.
7. After just eight months, WEMP gets all sorts of scuttlebutt after elbowing into the auction for a slice of the Limbaugh estate. How can a station going in one direction hope to build momentum and sustain itself when major new changes such as this are taking the current focus 120° off?
These Merlin people have to be savvy enough to realize that a talk or a news station takes more time to make an impact than a music station does. The biggest contradiction in their approach might be that they have been fiddling with the product since the virtual start and failing to stay consistent.
Of course, that wanderlust may just be a symptom, but through all of these trends and PPMs, the bottom line numbers remain the same.
0.5 .... 0.6 .... 0.3 in Chicago one book : The focus has been too scattered, and too frequently so, for any foothold to hold hope.
It can be theorized that confidence in the original plan evaporated too quickly simply because there might not have been a vision any more complicated than slapping down a franchised form of *something* that passed for a WTOP business card.
All of that loot at the foot of the rainbow was at the wrong end. It's likely that it was all piled at the beginning of this rainbow, yet this expensive, time-wasting pusuit continues.
Just idle speculation, but perhaps WEMP in now in "contract run-out mode."
Longer term plans call for it to do in NYC and Chicago, something like what it is doing in Philadelphia, by bringing the big AM talkers to FM. No, the demos and, probably, ratings won't be stellar, but the operation could be cheap to run. And some talk syndicators may actually pay to have their programs cleared on a NYC FM.
In the meantime, possibly some contracts signed last year with news types may have to expire, and the contracts of some of those syndicated shows over on AM might have to run out too.
So, the plan is to continue to do what's being done now until the contracts all expire and then changes can be made.
Again, this is just one "what if?" Hopefully, Merlin has better plans in mind.
Longer term plans call for it to do in NYC and Chicago, something like what it is doing in Philadelphia, by bringing the big AM talkers to FM. No, the demos and, probably, ratings won't be stellar, but the operation could be cheap to run. And some talk syndicators may actually pay to have their programs cleared on a NYC FM.
In the meantime, possibly some contracts signed last year with news types may have to expire, and the contracts of some of those syndicated shows over on AM might have to run out too.
So, the plan is to continue to do what's being done now until the contracts all expire and then changes can be made.
Again, this is just one "what if?" Hopefully, Merlin has better plans in mind.
DToTheJ said:@Ansky: Prior to All-News 106.7, Atlanta had WSB, and virtually nothing else. I believe the WCNN radio station relayed the audio from the CNN feed, and it's now a sports station...
NorwoodBoundD said:
And Lite-FM is the Heat.
How about Cumulus taking over 101.9 and change the calls to WABC-FM 101.9 and have a News/Talk Format. This time 101.9 FM will be more like old KGO-AM but with fresh new Local talk hosts mixed with NYC talk radio vets on WABC-FM. and on Drive time there will be news and the station will have to be cross promoted with WABC7(Disney O&O) as in inserting WABC7 Staff to do reports on the Newscasts. This is like Cumulus O&O (KGO-AM) teaming up with Disney O&O KGO7 to do reports on the KGO-AM News and Information station. That can boost ratings in NYC. Also for Chicago Cumulus can do the same thing by teaming up with WLS7 for news content for 101.1FM Chicago but they keep the all-news format and compete against WBBM 780/105.9. Cumulus made the right moves for the Atlanta station WYAY-FM they borrow the Fox 5 atlanta Crew for some reports and they ran with the KCBS 740/106.9 model of all news that means that they are hard news they cover Local Politics/ Crime/ Sports and let the Network do Commentary, Editorial,National News and International news all in a 1 hour news cycle.
However KGO-Am tends to aim for the features and Human interest stories and Local Commentary in their mostly news on weekdays format.
recto101 said:
I don't see Cumulus doing that. They don't care about live & local. They care about profit. Cumulus blew up classic KGO because to them, it was too expensive. Cumulus isn't going to recreate KGO in NYC. Cumulus has the same PD running both WABC (wall-to-wall syndicated talk) and WPLJ (hot AC for NJ soccer moms).
WABC-FM live and local news/talk on 101.9? Cumulus would never do it! The #1 market in the country will unfortunately remain wall-to-wall syndication for talk radio. Disgraceful!
RadioInsight.com states that WEMP's sister station in Chicago WIQI appears to be moving in the direction of offering news during morning and afternoon drive, and news/talk the rest of the time.
It also speculates, based on web domain registrations, that it may soon drop the name "News". Finally, the airticle speculates that WIQI Chicago will be "positioned as a younger version of... (talk station) WGN."
Perhaps such a news/talk format could work in New York?
Blurb by WIQI talk show host Rob Hart: http://www.fmnewschicago.com/robreport/story.aspx?ID=1727085
It also speculates, based on web domain registrations, that it may soon drop the name "News". Finally, the airticle speculates that WIQI Chicago will be "positioned as a younger version of... (talk station) WGN."
Perhaps such a news/talk format could work in New York?
Blurb by WIQI talk show host Rob Hart: http://www.fmnewschicago.com/robreport/story.aspx?ID=1727085
radioguy39nj said:recto101 said:
I don't see Cumulus doing that. They don't care about live & local. They care about profit. Cumulus blew up classic KGO because to them, it was too expensive. Cumulus isn't going to recreate KGO in NYC. Cumulus has the same PD running both WABC (wall-to-wall syndicated talk) and WPLJ (hot AC for NJ soccer moms).
WABC-FM live and local news/talk on 101.9? Cumulus would never do it! The #1 market in the country will unfortunately remain wall-to-wall syndication for talk radio. Disgraceful!
But Look at KGO-AM on the Weekends they still have local talk and features like Dining around with Ryan Scott. They have Monty, Karel, and Brian Copeland apparently Cumulus still wants Local talk on the Weekends. But with one condition the Weekend Hosts need to find another Job on the Weekdays. I know Karel has a syndicated version of his show on the weekdays and Copeland is a writer on the weekdays. Look at 770 WABC its basically KSFO-AM of the NYC.
Barry said:
It might but I don't think anyone has the stones to do it. WABC gets a 3.0 simply because they have no real competition. WOR and WNYM are not competitors. They're just knock offs of WABC.
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