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Valorie Mack Out At WILM
- Thread starter Mattjon
- Start date
Ted Efaw, Allan Krackow (sp), Bruce Elliot, and John Watson are the only one's left at WILM. It's sad when the clerical and cleaning staff probably out number the news people. Which one of the three is Watson's producer? My guess is, Bruce as the other two probably are out getting sound for the midday news cast that Ted generally anchors. Only one at WDOV, Phil Feliciangeli (sp).
My guess is, once Watson retires, his slot will probably get filled with Glenn Beck (would in that case, CC promote that as Beck having Philly clearance as no Philly station carries Beck after January). Frankly, I'd give the time slot to Ted Efaw, but My guess is because Ted is even more liberal than John Watson and thus doesn't fit in at all to the rest of WILM's talk programming, he'll not get to take over Watson's timeslot, unfortunately. Ted is an excellent talk show host who has lots of great national connections. Anytime he's filled in for Watson, he's had an interesting show, but he's as liberal as Rush is conservative, so probably a no go at the ever more and more conservative WILM. That is, unless WILM gives Ted that time slot so they can say they offer both points of view. 2.5 hours of lib talk vs the rest of their weekday broadcast day as Elliot also throws in rightwing political comments into his morning drive show where Mark Fowser kept the broadcast strictly news/weather/sports/ business, other than the required Rush morning rant they had to air.
Valarie's sing-song on air voice was irritating and very hard to listen to for more than a few minutes. However, my guess is, cost cutting.
Nancy Batista Lopez's name isn't listed on WILM's website, but she was part time on weekends, maybe she doesn't get listed as none of the local weekend talk shows hosts are listed either.
My guess is, once Watson retires, his slot will probably get filled with Glenn Beck (would in that case, CC promote that as Beck having Philly clearance as no Philly station carries Beck after January). Frankly, I'd give the time slot to Ted Efaw, but My guess is because Ted is even more liberal than John Watson and thus doesn't fit in at all to the rest of WILM's talk programming, he'll not get to take over Watson's timeslot, unfortunately. Ted is an excellent talk show host who has lots of great national connections. Anytime he's filled in for Watson, he's had an interesting show, but he's as liberal as Rush is conservative, so probably a no go at the ever more and more conservative WILM. That is, unless WILM gives Ted that time slot so they can say they offer both points of view. 2.5 hours of lib talk vs the rest of their weekday broadcast day as Elliot also throws in rightwing political comments into his morning drive show where Mark Fowser kept the broadcast strictly news/weather/sports/ business, other than the required Rush morning rant they had to air.
Valarie's sing-song on air voice was irritating and very hard to listen to for more than a few minutes. However, my guess is, cost cutting.
Nancy Batista Lopez's name isn't listed on WILM's website, but she was part time on weekends, maybe she doesn't get listed as none of the local weekend talk shows hosts are listed either.
Will the last person please turn out the lights when he leaves.
Pab Sungenis has an excellent post on the Philly board thread about the lack of an affiliate for Beck and Hannity in Philadelphia. Most of what he says applies to this situation, as well:
Let's hope the new guy didn't sell his house in Ohio.
Pab Sungenis has an excellent post on the Philly board thread about the lack of an affiliate for Beck and Hannity in Philadelphia. Most of what he says applies to this situation, as well:
Clear Channel will continue to cut costs at WILM (and WDOV) because cume keeps shrinking, demographics keep deteriorating and revenue keeps falling. Ultimately one of the following scenarios will play out. Take your pick:Pab Sungenis said:Talk Radio is suffering the same fate that Standards faced a decade ago and oldies is starting to deal with: its audience is literally dying off.
Talk is posting poor numbers in the money demo compared to what it used to. Its audience is aging out of the 25-54 window and the format isn't adapting well to younger audiences.
Talk is also an expensive format to do, if you do it properly. The better shows are all cash plus barter, you need more hardware (gone is the day when one box with DATS and SEDAT cards could work for every network you carried), local shows need producers and hosts, then there's the question of news and other programming. With music you just throw a jukebox program in the corner of a closet and be done with it. Maybe pay for voice tracked talent.
If Rush Radio 104.5 were to pull the same numbers as the current format, it would be billing less because the audience is considerably older and less attractive to advertisers. I'd be willing to bet that it would need almost double the current ratings to make as much money as what they've got now, and I doubt they could do that.
- WILM becomes a computer in a closet at Clear Channel attached to a satellite dish clearing the company's syndicated shows.
- WILM becomes a computer in a closet at Clear Channel attached to a satellite dish and flips to sports talk. 1290 clears Fox Sports and 1450 clears ESPN radio. Demos are good and they can sell time, even with poor ratings.
- WILM is sold (at a huge loss from what Clear Channel paid and is flipped to paid religion, foreign language or all brokered all the time.
- Delmarva buys WILM (back) and they make it a computer in their closet, running syndicated talk to sell as a package with local-live talk. Alternatively, if pressure to restore some form of the fairness doctrine continues, they can counter-program conservative talk on WDEL with progressive talk on WILM
Let's hope the new guy didn't sell his house in Ohio.
@Matt, do you know if CC or Premiere offers any sort of news package that might piggyback with their talk formats. If so, another option would be:
WILM becomes a computer in the closet offering the Premiere news shows and talk show other than for the one lone person news "team" who plugs in local Wilmington/Dover news stories for a 4 minute block each hour after the 60second Fox update on at 30 minutes after the hour at both WDOV and WILM. This way if when VP Biden sticks his foot in his mouth or some rare major story from Delaware happens CC has someone in state to cover it rather than driving someone in from Philly or Washington.
However, your options are even more cost effective, so this one probably if tried wouldn't last long.
Actually, I could see as the better cash cow, your suggestion of making WILM an ESPN affiliate, WWTX as Fox Sports affiliate and using both WILM and WWTX to carry local sports action, including Balt Ravens, Orioles, Blue Rocks, U of D sports, Penn State, high school action, etc, as all of these do generate actual local spots. Maybe have one really good live and local sports talk show on one of the two during AM drive. At least with sports/talk with local sports coverage, there would actually be some local radio talent employed as play by play talent.
WILM becomes a computer in the closet offering the Premiere news shows and talk show other than for the one lone person news "team" who plugs in local Wilmington/Dover news stories for a 4 minute block each hour after the 60second Fox update on at 30 minutes after the hour at both WDOV and WILM. This way if when VP Biden sticks his foot in his mouth or some rare major story from Delaware happens CC has someone in state to cover it rather than driving someone in from Philly or Washington.
However, your options are even more cost effective, so this one probably if tried wouldn't last long.
Actually, I could see as the better cash cow, your suggestion of making WILM an ESPN affiliate, WWTX as Fox Sports affiliate and using both WILM and WWTX to carry local sports action, including Balt Ravens, Orioles, Blue Rocks, U of D sports, Penn State, high school action, etc, as all of these do generate actual local spots. Maybe have one really good live and local sports talk show on one of the two during AM drive. At least with sports/talk with local sports coverage, there would actually be some local radio talent employed as play by play talent.
Delmarva never owned WILM, the Hawkins had it up til the time Clear Channel bought it. Its really a shame to see whats happened to this place!
@Dave Williams: I think Matt was referring back to when the Steinmann's owned both WDEL and WILM back in the 1930's. Both were in the same building on King St. at Rodney Square. I'm not sure exactly when WILM was sold off, but I believe at some point the FCC required it, but I don't know for sure, other than both were owned by the Steinmann's who also owned WGAL in Lancaster. WILM remained in the King St. building until they moved to 12th and French Sts, under the ownership of the Hawkins family, I believe that move from King St to French St. occurred in the early 1970's.
I agree totally, that it's a real shame to see whats happened to WILM.
I agree totally, that it's a real shame to see whats happened to WILM.
MikefromDelaware said:@Matt, do you know if CC or Premiere offers any sort of news package that might piggyback with their talk formats. If so, another option would be:
WILM becomes a computer in the closet offering the Premiere news shows and talk show other than for the one lone person news "team" who plugs in local Wilmington/Dover news stories for a 4 minute block each hour after the 60second Fox update on at 30 minutes after the hour at both WDOV and WILM. This way if when VP Biden sticks his foot in his mouth or some rare major story from Delaware happens CC has someone in state to cover it rather than driving someone in from Philly or Washington.
However, your options are even more cost effective, so this one probably if tried wouldn't last long.
Actually, I could see as the better cash cow, your suggestion of making WILM an ESPN affiliate, WWTX as Fox Sports affiliate and using both WILM and WWTX to carry local sports action, including Balt Ravens, Orioles, Blue Rocks, U of D sports, Penn State, high school action, etc, as all of these do generate actual local spots. Maybe have one really good live and local sports talk show on one of the two during AM drive.
@MFD: As you know, Clear Channel's national news package is Fox News. For "local" news, Clear Channel's practice elsewhere has been to have one newsroom feed newscasts to other company stations in the region. For example, Harrisburg feeds newscasts to several other nearby markets. Right now it seems like Dover is taking over news functions for the Delaware cluster (which may be the logical place for it). But they could go further and have Philly, Harrisburg or most any place produce Delaware newscasts. They'd get the same wire stories and press releases. Phone calls for sound could be made just as easily from further away. They couldn't cover anything live and in person but radio generally doesn't do much of that any more.
Already, the big traffic reporting services have consolidated operations so traffic info is collected and live reports produced in regional or national centers. And the weather services feed all their reports from a central location (State College, PA for Accuweather and Atlanta for the Weather Channel). And we keep hearing more and more examples of local-live talk shows really produced someplace else: A guy does a local show in Cincinnati and walks down the hall to do another local show for Chicago; a guy in Chicago finishes his Chicago local show and does another one for Minneapolis. "Local" doesn't mean what it used to.
PS: Correct, Delmarva did not own WDEL when both WDEL and WILM were co-owned. I don't have the exact date of the split, but stations were required to break up duopolies as part of the same rules changes that forced NBC to sell off what we now know as ABC. Of course, since the Steinman family once owned both and still owns Delmarva, they would be buying back WILM (if that ever happened).
PS: Correct, Delmarva did not own WDEL when both WDEL and WILM were co-owned. I don't have the exact date of the split, but stations were required to break up duopolies as part of the same rules changes that forced NBC to sell off what we now know as ABC. Of course, since the Steinman family once owned both and still owns Delmarva, they would be buying back WILM (if that ever happened).
Thanks for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. I didn't realize the Steinman family still owned WDEL via Delmarva. That certainly would be a full circle having WILM and WDEL being once again owned by the same folks and possibly even housed again in the same building. Actually, given the financial resources Delmarva seems to be willing to invest in their stations and their willingness to advertise their stations via billboards and local print media to actually build audience plus their active use of their various websites for their stations vs CC's dull not up to date sites, having WILM back under the wing of the Steinman's via Delmarva might be just what that station needs.
WDOV could easily be the better choice for the Delaware news operation for CC as most of Delaware's real news other than shootings in Wilmington, take place in the state's capital. Of course as Philly does seem to over shadow every other aspect of Delaware life, it wouldn't be too far fetched to see CC just dump all live Delaware coverage from with in Delaware and have one of their Philly stations produce any Delaware newscasts and updates. The question on that, as CC only has 1480 Rhumba and several FM stations in Philly, do any of those CC stations actually do local news? So it might end up being that in this rare case, Wilmington or Dover might be better suited to be the regional news center for CC in terms of the Philly/Wilmington/Trenton metro area.
Thanks for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. I didn't realize the Steinman family still owned WDEL via Delmarva. That certainly would be a full circle having WILM and WDEL being once again owned by the same folks and possibly even housed again in the same building. Actually, given the financial resources Delmarva seems to be willing to invest in their stations and their willingness to advertise their stations via billboards and local print media to actually build audience plus their active use of their various websites for their stations vs CC's dull not up to date sites, having WILM back under the wing of the Steinman's via Delmarva might be just what that station needs.
WDOV could easily be the better choice for the Delaware news operation for CC as most of Delaware's real news other than shootings in Wilmington, take place in the state's capital. Of course as Philly does seem to over shadow every other aspect of Delaware life, it wouldn't be too far fetched to see CC just dump all live Delaware coverage from with in Delaware and have one of their Philly stations produce any Delaware newscasts and updates. The question on that, as CC only has 1480 Rhumba and several FM stations in Philly, do any of those CC stations actually do local news? So it might end up being that in this rare case, Wilmington or Dover might be better suited to be the regional news center for CC in terms of the Philly/Wilmington/Trenton metro area.
Clear Channel currently has talk, news/talk or sports talk stations - besides Wilmington and Dover - in...
Harrisburg, PA
Allentown, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Williamsport, PA
Frederick, MD
Salisbury, MD
None of the Philly stations does local news. Harrisburg feeds other Pennsylvania stations, at least part time, so there is precedent for a state capitol-based news cluster. Harrisburg is probably their most successful talker in the region, with the most active news department. They probably already get the Delaware and Maryland wire, so I wouldn't be surprised if Clear Channel had Harrisburg feed Delaware, too. Probably wouldn't devote as much time to getting sound but if all they do are quick headline summaries after Fox during program cut-aways it might not be that noticeable. In their place, if I were doing drastic cost-cutting, I might make a deal with one of the TV stations in Salisbury to use their sound in return for on-air promotion. This way they would be covered whenever Biden puts his foot in his mouth - or O'Donnell for that matter.
I agree that having WDEL take over operation of WILM (again) might be the best option all around. The powers that be over there would have to be interested and they might need a waiver from the FCC. A waiver is not unprecedented and given the other options might be feasible here. The main problem long-term, of course, is all the liabilities AM talk radio is facing. Those affect WDEL, too. WDEL is in better shape but still can't be expected to last forever.
Nobody asked me but somebody in Delaware radio should call Walt Sabo, the consultant who put together NJ101.5. Put together one or two FM stations that can cover the whole state and do non-ideological local-live "water cooler" talk with topics and issues targeting money demos, with a strong state news operation. Delaware, like New Jersey, would seem to be ideal ground for that ("Not Pennsylvania....Not Maryland"). Throw in money demo Oldies on the weekend with real local jocks. I don't know if you can get NJ101.5 where you are but I think what they are doing is the kind of radio you'd appreciate.
Harrisburg, PA
Allentown, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Williamsport, PA
Frederick, MD
Salisbury, MD
None of the Philly stations does local news. Harrisburg feeds other Pennsylvania stations, at least part time, so there is precedent for a state capitol-based news cluster. Harrisburg is probably their most successful talker in the region, with the most active news department. They probably already get the Delaware and Maryland wire, so I wouldn't be surprised if Clear Channel had Harrisburg feed Delaware, too. Probably wouldn't devote as much time to getting sound but if all they do are quick headline summaries after Fox during program cut-aways it might not be that noticeable. In their place, if I were doing drastic cost-cutting, I might make a deal with one of the TV stations in Salisbury to use their sound in return for on-air promotion. This way they would be covered whenever Biden puts his foot in his mouth - or O'Donnell for that matter.
I agree that having WDEL take over operation of WILM (again) might be the best option all around. The powers that be over there would have to be interested and they might need a waiver from the FCC. A waiver is not unprecedented and given the other options might be feasible here. The main problem long-term, of course, is all the liabilities AM talk radio is facing. Those affect WDEL, too. WDEL is in better shape but still can't be expected to last forever.
Nobody asked me but somebody in Delaware radio should call Walt Sabo, the consultant who put together NJ101.5. Put together one or two FM stations that can cover the whole state and do non-ideological local-live "water cooler" talk with topics and issues targeting money demos, with a strong state news operation. Delaware, like New Jersey, would seem to be ideal ground for that ("Not Pennsylvania....Not Maryland"). Throw in money demo Oldies on the weekend with real local jocks. I don't know if you can get NJ101.5 where you are but I think what they are doing is the kind of radio you'd appreciate.
Delmarva started a cheap version of NJ 101.5 when they flipped 92.5 in Pocomoke City to talk, and running a 70-90's oldies from Friday night through Sunday night. The are all syndicated, with local news on the half hour and CBS News the same as Wdel on the hour. The problem with doing a Delaware talk format like NJ 101.5 is first picking stations that cover the state, maybe 93.7 and 105.9, but WSTW is a money maker, and 105.9 in teamed with 97.5 in Salisbury as Cat Country, which competes well with Cheap Channel's Froggy 99.9 (voice tracked from everywhere but Delmarva). The Salisbury Cheap Channel use Channel 16 for news and weather on all eight stations. The perfect match which will never happen would be 935 in Georgetown and 937 in Wilmington. Maybe Cheap Channel can get a Philly station to do their Wilmington News. It's a shame that the Wall Street mess didn't take down CC, but I still don't think thye are out of the woods.
No, I can't get 101.5 here, but have heard a lot of praise for its format on these boards. Maybe that would be a good option for CC to do with WILM/WDOV. The two combined cover most of the state. Of course that would require some effort and investment to do that format well, and as CC seems determined to be the voice of rightwing radio nationally, I doubt they'll go to that much effort or expense for such a small market like Wilmington or even the entire state of Delaware, especially as they've gutted WILM and WDOV to basically computer run stations.
However, maybe if Delmarva owned WILM, they could simulcast their cheap version of NJ 101.5 that airs down state up here on WILM giving them statewide coverage. Granted it would be better if they had an FM to use, but that doesn't seem to be possible. Of course, Delmarva would have to want to pony up some cash to CC to get WILM and as AM isn't a growing medium, Delmarva might not want to invest in another AM.
If say, 101.7 became available, then I could see Delmarva jumping on that with both feet and then doing their own version of NJ 101.5 and call it Delmarva 101.7 and simulcast it to 92.5.
I also agree that more than likely CC will eventually have Harrisburg do Delaware news for their Delaware cluster.
However, maybe if Delmarva owned WILM, they could simulcast their cheap version of NJ 101.5 that airs down state up here on WILM giving them statewide coverage. Granted it would be better if they had an FM to use, but that doesn't seem to be possible. Of course, Delmarva would have to want to pony up some cash to CC to get WILM and as AM isn't a growing medium, Delmarva might not want to invest in another AM.
If say, 101.7 became available, then I could see Delmarva jumping on that with both feet and then doing their own version of NJ 101.5 and call it Delmarva 101.7 and simulcast it to 92.5.
I also agree that more than likely CC will eventually have Harrisburg do Delaware news for their Delaware cluster.
I'm not sure anything like NJ 101.5 would be successful in attracting the money demos on AM. NJ101.5 doesn't cover all of New Jersey. They don't get into the northern tier of counties or past US322 in the south. (They did have the station simulcast on an Atlantic City station for a time but have since dropped that.) Probably one of the FMs able to cover Wilmington and Dover would do nicely (at least for a start).
NJ1015. is available online. Two Wilmington alumni can be heard on the station. Michele Pilenza co-hosts the midday "Dennis and Michelle" show. Janet Fried is based in the Monmouth-Ocean bureau and does news for stations in that cluster and regularly feeds stories to the Millennium Network and NJ101.5. In total, they have a 17 person news staff divided between Trenton and their shore bureaus. In contrast to other news-talk stations, NJ101.5 plays Oldies on the weekend (targeting the same age demos as the weekday talk format) and carrying a very good weekend spot load compared to most talkers. Although NJ101.5 bills itself as "Not New York; Not Philadelphia" they do back-to-back traffic reports from Shadow Traffic in both cities (New Jersey Traffic North and New Jersey Traffic South). In some ways NJ101.5's owner Millennium Radio resembles Delmarva: 11 stations, different formats, all in one state.
NJ1015. is available online. Two Wilmington alumni can be heard on the station. Michele Pilenza co-hosts the midday "Dennis and Michelle" show. Janet Fried is based in the Monmouth-Ocean bureau and does news for stations in that cluster and regularly feeds stories to the Millennium Network and NJ101.5. In total, they have a 17 person news staff divided between Trenton and their shore bureaus. In contrast to other news-talk stations, NJ101.5 plays Oldies on the weekend (targeting the same age demos as the weekday talk format) and carrying a very good weekend spot load compared to most talkers. Although NJ101.5 bills itself as "Not New York; Not Philadelphia" they do back-to-back traffic reports from Shadow Traffic in both cities (New Jersey Traffic North and New Jersey Traffic South). In some ways NJ101.5's owner Millennium Radio resembles Delmarva: 11 stations, different formats, all in one state.
Thanks for the update on Janet Fried, another former WILM alummi. We worked together on weekends for a time. Sounds like she's got a good gig in NJ.
It's a shame that 92.9 doesn't have a decent signal into Wilmington as that might be a good choice for WRTX. WDSD's 94.7 does have a solid Wilmington area signal, and as their Country format isn't setting NCC on fire against Delmarva's WXCY, maybe a "Delaware 94.7" format would bring in ratings and spots. When not airing U of D football, they could do Oldies on weekends. I'd put Nascar on 1290 WWTX and 1410 WDOV.
Here's the plan: WDSD becomes Delaware 94.7, WILM becomes ESPN radio, WWTX stays Fox Sports Radio. Bruce Elliot probably would fit in just great at this new 94.7 along with Phil, Allan, and Ted as the news department. Both WILM/WWTX do local sporting events, ravens, etc.
It's a shame that 92.9 doesn't have a decent signal into Wilmington as that might be a good choice for WRTX. WDSD's 94.7 does have a solid Wilmington area signal, and as their Country format isn't setting NCC on fire against Delmarva's WXCY, maybe a "Delaware 94.7" format would bring in ratings and spots. When not airing U of D football, they could do Oldies on weekends. I'd put Nascar on 1290 WWTX and 1410 WDOV.
Here's the plan: WDSD becomes Delaware 94.7, WILM becomes ESPN radio, WWTX stays Fox Sports Radio. Bruce Elliot probably would fit in just great at this new 94.7 along with Phil, Allan, and Ted as the news department. Both WILM/WWTX do local sporting events, ravens, etc.
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