I'll bet Cats' NYC residence is worth several times what he paid for the station!
If he wants an FM station badly, he will buy it. It's pocket change to him.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WABC’s PSA for Saving AM Radio
- Thread starter Ex-RadioTV
- Start date
If he wants an FM station badly, he will buy it. It's pocket change to him.
He probably doesn't regret it, but that doesn't make it a smart business decision. He's doubled the listenership in that all-important nursing home demo. His actual gross margin on the station has to be minuscule, probably not enough to cover the electric bill on WABC's storied 50,000 watt signal, much less the real estate lease at 800 Third Ave., plus equipment and personnel costs. (If Anthony Cumia is to be believed, he's getting paid $150K a year to do a few Sunday evening hours. How much is Sid and friends costing Mr. Cats? And all that other "talent", and the producers, board ops and other technical support staff?)
So he has a voice. He's like our president and oh so many other right-wingers, high on the sweet scent of their own farts and aching to share them with others who believe similarly. I doubt he's convincing very many others who haven't already drunk the Kool-Aid.
But has WABC made any tangible growth in the core 25–54 money demo? Programming to nothing but the upper demos is fine and all, but I cannot think of any chain broadcaster remotely willing to put forward this level of effort (not running infomercials all weekend, having a bench of local talent, even if interchangeable). The ROI doesn't exist.
The core problem with talk radio Is twofold: they never found a replacement for Rush and, perhaps most significantly, Joe Rogan exists and has drawn younger demos away from talk radio altogether. Cats really doesn't have the answer to either.
I would imagine that the station is billing somewhere in the $5 to $6 million annual range, which is enough to have a very decent profit.
Remember, despite the older demos, the content attracts a big enough group of advertisers who personally want to be on the station and either buy direct or tell their agency to buy WABC. Look at the billing of WSB or WLW or KFI or KOA or KMOX or KSL or...
All of those big stations bill very well despite the old demos because what little older targeted money is available all goes to them.
For starters, a large number of the brands and companies he does business with at his market chains are certainly going to be receptive to talking to a WABC sales person.
Whatever happened to that station he was bragging about that he was going to be acquiring back in December of 2024?
If I had $1 for every "intention" or "promise" or "forecast" in this business that did not pan out, I could retire to a private island in the Bahamas.
WLW (Reds, Bengals and UC Bearcats), KOA (Rockies and Broncos), WSB (Georgia Tech) and KMOX (Cardinals) all feature sports play-by-play that appeals to a larger audience. KOA, WLW and KMOX still devote good portions of their schedule to sports talk.
KFI is the only one mentioned that doesn’t have an FM translator or full-power simulcast, but it still has enough remaining audience goodwill from their “more stimulating talk radio” era and wisely had enough foresight to move Rush a decade ago to the secondary, all-syndicated talk station and replace him with local talent.
I remember a similar argument being made long ago in defense of adult standards... WRMR in Cleveland through the 1990s barely drew anything in the “money” demo but had a good, loyal advertiser base that carried over when Bob Conrad bought the IP and moved it to another AM signal. But of course that format’s viability on the commercial band practically died off in the early 2000s, and WRMR died off as well.
Last edited:
...and Catsimatidis isn't interested in running sports on WABC. Even if it's a time-buy, that could help generate a bit of revenue in the short-term.
The New York Mets' radio rights will be up for grabs after this season, and it's anyone's guess where they'll be heard in 2026 and beyond. The only thing certain is the current arrangement between Audacy and Good Karma is probably not going to continue. I do not expect WABC to place a bid for the Mets' radio rights.
Cats will get an FM simulcast for 770 before you hear baseball on that frequency again. Unless it's an occasional game of the Staten Island Ferryhawks, the independent Atlantic League team he co-owns.
Ooh, I'll help! I have a watertight fiber drum (complete with matching lid and lock band) in the garage that I'll be happy to spot you. I'll seal you up tight and roll you into the Pacific so you can float your way to that private island. (Surely the natives will welcome you as a conquering hero, or something.)
I wouldn't mind that as long as @DrAkbar is willing to part with the 73 Gremlin and seal it in the drum with me, it should make for advanced and efficient travel. 🙂
Last edited:
AM radio is still a great way to introduce kids to the world of wireless communications and how it all works because that's where it all started. And radio scout skills can still come in handy in worst cases (such as the afterworld of dirty bombs.)
The trendy thing for young people is having a set of old skills. Be it craft brewing or video game restoring. And what could be more retro-hip in that context than Morse Code? Especially if and when it's needed. (The original texting. It hits different, bro.)
And that's a good thing, IMO.
If you're a loyal listener to a particular station, there's nothing more annoying than preemption for sports.
If it preempts a syndicated show, the solution is to find an out-of-area station to steam and never go back.
Counterpoint: the Yankees were pretty much the only thing that kept WABC relevant post Top 40/pre-Rush and helped draw in younger people who might just be willing to sample the station the following morning. Plus it didn't interfere much, if at all, with drive time, which is the only thing that really matters.
Priorities need to be reexamined if sacrificing a chance at younger demos through sports play-by-play just to clear another indistinguishable syndicated political show saying literally the same exact talking points as all the others is considered a good thing. Because it's why talk radio at large is in a terminal condition.
Last edited:
Nathan Obral said:
Counterpoint: the Yankees were pretty much the only thing that kept WABC relevant post Top 40/pre-Rush and helped draw in younger people who might just be willing to sample the station the following morning. Plus it didn't interfere much, if at all, with drive time, which is the only thing that really matters.
Gotta disagree. Every second of airtime matters. If listeners who don't care about sports are subjected to it at night they won't be there in the morning. Same thing with infomercials. It's a killer.
Counterpoint: the Yankees were pretty much the only thing that kept WABC relevant post Top 40/pre-Rush and helped draw in younger people who might just be willing to sample the station the following morning. Plus it didn't interfere much, if at all, with drive time, which is the only thing that really matters.
Gotta disagree. Every second of airtime matters. If listeners who don't care about sports are subjected to it at night they won't be there in the morning. Same thing with infomercials. It's a killer.
Tell that to WLW. Or WTAM. Or KMOX. Or KOA. All of those stations have marquee local teams and do incredibly well in the ratings.
But maybe they could do better.
I used to listen to Bill Cunningham on Sunday nights on WLW but there were too many sports preemptions so I switched to WOND.
Sports and infomercials were one reason why I ditched broadcast radio for streaming.
Companies always do better when they focus on their brand. Radio is no different.
Have you seen WLW's ratings? They're usually in the double digits for the 6+ topline during regular season games for the Reds. By talk station standards, that is absolute overperformance.
OK, but it's way ahead of the Cincinnati sports stations so maybe that's because of the talk shows, not the sports preemptions.
- Status