Walter Sabo Speaks Out On WEMP To NY Daily News

[DToTheJ]

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...p_1019_fms_news_coverage_claims_good_bal.html

A few comments that grab my attention:

"...we are targeting a different audience. We want to reach an under-50 audience of men and women working and raising families in the area..."

Gee, what happened to targeting only female listeners? So you and Randy gave away all of that chocolate for nothing?

"...If a story is important, we will cover it..."

I understand 101.9 made the executive decision of covering "what's the kinkiest city in America" over the drowning death of a New York City police officer on Long Island (another listener's account, not mine)...

"...We don't put traffic on a clock..."

I'm sure everyone here is waiting with bated breath to put 101.9 on the clock when the October PPM is released, though...

"...we are redefining both the definition of news and the presentation..."

Judging from the comments on Radio-Info.com, that statement could very well be an insult to defining.

 

[uncamark]

"...We don't put traffic on a clock..."

I'm sure everyone here is waiting with bated breath to put 101.9 on the clock when the October PPM is released, though...

"...we are redefining both the definition of news and the presentation..."

Judging from the comments on Radio-Info.com, that statement could very well be an insult to defining.

You all complain about how bad radio is, but when someone tries to do something different, you pillory them. If it was hatred towards Randy Michaels, I'd understand, but you were all defending him when he tried to turn WGN into teabagger radio and was stinking up the joint at the Tribune Co. in general. Is it hatred towards Sabo? Jeff Sumulyan? Or is it because you refuse to accept the fact that WRXP was an unsuccessful station in a market that has never been a strong rock music market?

I'm not defending Merlin, Michaels and Sabo for WEMP and WWWN--it does sound like they're having problems. But they are trying to react to the fact that AM is on the way out, news and talk formats have to migrate to FM, radio must offer things that iPods, satellite radio and Internet streams can't do and that there has to be another way to do all-news radio to appeal to a new audience besides the WINS/WCBS model or the NPR model. Of course, you're going to make mistakes, but this won't be won or lost on one PPM book and why throw Merlin under the bus because they're having problems at the start?

And if you're hoping that they'll retreat and bring back WRXP, you only get a Jack-back-to-CBS-FM (or WQIV-back-to-WNCN) once a decade, if you're lucky. And WRXP was never CBS-FM.

 

[radiophiler]

I'm a soon to be 48 year old male who had several years experience in news radio before leaving the business. My thoughts on the new Merlin stations:

I'd really like an all-news station where I live (Philadelphia metro) on FM. The 50kw AM news station here has more and more signal problems as time goes on.

Having said that, I don't think the Merlin FMs, given their current content, would be my station of choice, with the exception of using their traffic reports on the 5s.

From what I've heard, they seem to be "lighter" news oriented, with more of an emphasis on national news than local. I can get lighter, fluffy national news from so many places, why would I want that on an FM news station?

Give me WBBM on FM as has happened in Chicago, or WTOP in Washington.

But that's just my opinion. And I'm going to age out of the new Merlin stations' demographic in a couple of years anyway, so they probably don't care what I think.

 

[DToTheJ]

Well, if Merlin is going to start catering to both men and women, 49 or under, they'd better stop with the chocolate nonsense and start with the hard news - or at least 70% of hard news per hour.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

... they are trying to react to the fact that AM is on the way out, news and talk formats have to migrate to FM...

No they don't. 1010 WINS and WCBS 880 both get consistently good numbers on AM. So does WFAN for that matter. What are you going to put on those AM frequencies if those formats get moved to FM? There are fewer full-power English language commercial FM frequencies in NYC than in other markets and we already lack format staples like Country and now Rock. If the talk formats move to FM the net result will be even less choice since the AM stations would most likely become simulcasts, Godcasts or ethnic. Sure in a perfect world everything would be on FM but that's not the reality. There are only a few formats that work on AM so from a consumer's point of view I wish broadcasters would look at the market as a whole and say this is what we have to work with, let's make the most of the precious bit of spectrum we've got and keep the talk on AM so we're not wasting those limited FM frequencies, reducing overall choice

...radio must offer things that iPods, satellite radio and Internet streams can't do

The media landscape is fragmenting. There's not much that radio can have to itself any more in a broadband world. Right now most of the stories being talked about on WEMP already made the rounds on the social networks at least a day or two ago.

... and that there has to be another way to do all-news radio to appeal to a new audience besides the WINS/WCBS model or the NPR model.

Is WEMP really "all-news"? It's more like a never ending morning show without the music. Chit chat. Interesting concept but has America really become so dumbed down that this is what passes for news to Gen Z? Another promotor of magicians, P.T Barnum once said, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People." I guess we'll see if that philosophy holds truer than ever today.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Problem is, WEMP stumbled out of the gate in a near-comical fashion.

If you're flipping a station to all-news, do it all at once. Don't go willy-nilly.

 

[DToTheJ]

"If the talk formats move to FM the net result will be even less choice since the AM stations would most likely become simulcasts, Godcasts or ethnic..."

On the contrary: there's always room for second-tier or lower talk and sports stations, oldies music stations, and, of course, Jell-O. :

 

[Bob1370]

"AM is on the way out, news and talk formats have to migrate to FM, radio must offer things that iPods, satellite radio and Internet streams can't do and that there has to be another way to do all-news radio to appeal to a new audience besides the WINS/WCBS model or the NPR model."

Gonna question literally every aspect of that statement. It's true that talk radio on AM has seen better days but that's a function of the particular programming strategies of WABC, WOR and WNYM, and stations like them in other cities, not an inherent weakness in talk as a whole or AM as a whole. Spoken word programming is doing just fine on well programmed stations across the country that not only target but capture working adults 25+. It even happens in NYC when it comes to news consumers, where WCBS, WINS and WNYC all prosper and enjoy some of the best acceptance in their respective histories. The WCBS, WINS and NPR models (the latter of which plays well on both AM and FM depending on where you find it in any given market) ain't broke, so they don't need fixing.

Content is king. Good content that hits the spot (the 25 to 64 working person, and that's a broad spectrum because it should speak to a lot of common concerns of everyone in the working world) will reign whether on AM or FM.

If WEMP wants to fill a successful niche in the market, perhaps it shouldn't try to compete with or provide an alternative to the three already successful news outlets that fill the market's needs--it should take on the talkers who clearly aren't pulling them in like they used to, because that's where a new player can have the greatest impact and the biggest success. If I were advising Merlin I'd say, OK, this one stumbled out of the gate, try again, this time with the mix of news and conversation that best fits the overall tone and image you're trying to project. Bring in hosts, take listener calls, make it interactive, make it talk with both a sense of purpose and a sense of humor. And keep your news staff intact, they'll be a significant part of what ought to be a full service approach. They won't ask my advice. But since Randy Michaels has had lots of success in his career programming that kind of interactive high energy talk radio with a strong information component, don't be surprised if he tries it again with 101.9...

 

[radioguy39nj]

If WEMP wants to fill a successful niche in the market, perhaps it shouldn't try to compete with or provide an alternative to the three already successful news outlets that fill the market's needs--it should take on the talkers who clearly aren't pulling them in like they used to, because that's where a new player can have the greatest impact and the biggest success. If I were advising Merlin I'd say, OK, this one stumbled out of the gate, try again, this time with the mix of news and conversation that best fits the overall tone and image you're trying to project. Bring in hosts, take listener calls, make it interactive, make it talk with both a sense of purpose and a sense of humor. And keep your news staff intact, they'll be a significant part of what ought to be a full service approach. They won't ask my advice. But since Randy Michaels has had lots of success in his career programming that kind of interactive high energy talk radio with a strong information component, don't be surprised if he tries it again with 101.9...

I thought WEMP would go news/talk rather than compete with CBS' news juggernaut. I'll say it one more time: local, NY area centric news/talk has been lacking in this market for many years. It almost every major market, there is a mostly local news/talk outlet (on AM or FM) that is a go to when events warrant.

WABC and WOR are NY stations by COL only! If WEMP wants to best utlitze the fine journalists they hired away from WINS, they should go news/talk, mostly local. They'd be offering listeners what they can't get from WABC and WOR, a station that talks about news and events relevant to the tri-state NY area.

 

[radiophiler]

Regarding the health of all news as a format on AM radio: It's the signal.

I've had too many situations in which I want to get the every-ten-minute traffic report, only to go under wires, in between tall buildings, etc. and there is so much resulting static that I can't hear the report.

It's been written elsewhere on these boards: the combination of three factors, 1. more electrical interference, 2. decline in quality of AM radios, and 3. failure of AM station owners to maintain their stations, makes AM radio reception more and more difficult.

Merlin is counting on WINS and WCBS winning by default: They're both on AM, and there's no news station on FM, up until now.

If nothing else, this will be an interesting situation for us radio geeks to watch. And we can debate, down the line, whether it is programming or signal that creates a winner in this three-way all-news race.

My vote: I want my news radio on FM. But probably not what Merlin is calling news radio.

 

[Slant]

Merlin is going to fail with this format. I give them a year and a half. Also, it seems like Sabo stole this idea from WWDB in Philadelphia when they went to a morning news magazine with Pat Farnack and Gil Gross. That also failed. NYC is already overserved in news but two VERY good news and information stations. Covering stories that are featured in "parade magazine" isn't going to cut it here Waldo. Sorry. I give him props for doing something different but the cost of putting the product on the air and the lack of interest will kill it.

 

[CTListener]

Is WEMP really "all-news"? It's more like a never ending morning show without the music. Chit chat. Interesting concept but has America really become so dumbed down that this is what passes for news to Gen Z?

Yes. Check out any of the network TV morning shows and their local knockoffs. No to serious insight on national and global issues, yes to the Kardashian sisters' pregnancies and marriages, American Idol's self-absorbed, over-emoting pop shriekers, and whiny, weepy-eyed "coverage" of children with incurable diseases or teens being told they can't go to the prom.

 

[Barry]

I'm wondering if Merlin had used their deep pockets to hire sports experts instead of news people, whether they might have scored a home run on 101.9 with New York's first FM sports station. They may have been able to wrest the Yankees away from WCBS AM, and reach a younger audience than WFAN. WEPN would have been rendered inconsequential.
RadioInsight reports that classic rock station WYSP 94.1 in nearby Philadelphia will become that city's second FM sports station, as WIP 610 AM moves to their frequency next month. Lance Vetta, the website's publisher, opines, " Just a matter of time till every market has at least 1" (FM sports station).

 

[DToTheJ]

Therein lies yet another wrinkle: the possibility of 101.9 possibly being a player for Yankees radio broadcast rights next year. At the moment (and I realize they're "new," pun intended) 101.9 has doen a total of zero sports reports. If they're itching to get the Yankees, they'd better start running sports reports pretty darn quickly.

 

[TimeIsTight]

the possibility of 101.9 possibly being a player for Yankees radio broadcast rights next year.

If there is a probability of less than zero, than putting the Yankees on an FM station otherwise targeted toward infotainment for women deserves that number.

Even with the Yankees, WCBS-AM has a weekly cume half that of each of the three big music FMs owned by Clear Channel, which Merlin hopes to share cume with.

Regularly breaking a format primarily aimed at woman, for something that primarily attracts men would damage the entire station image and potential success even if money could be made by carrying the Yankees.

It would be such a bad business decision it isn't even worth thinking about.

Merlin is going after the biggest pile of advertising dollars possible, and while a sports talk station can do well because it attracts younger men listeners, there is an even bigger pile of money chasing younger women listeners who make more consumer buying decisions. That is why Merlin is chasing younger women, and not younger men.

 

[disney fanatic]

This must be a dead giveaway who wants to have a Hershey's chocolate candy bar. I do! First, they tried that "FM New" thing for a few weeks with a bit of music and stuff like that until the all-news thing began as "FM News". "FM New" is not stunting like Allan says on "Board Reflections". 101.9 has been playing music since that "FM New" stuff from a few weeks ago is not stunting, they build the new studio and BOOM! Here we go! I hope if 101.9 will get the rights for Yankee broadcast if WCBS-AM goes away after the season ends. If not, they will extended their Yankees broadcast deal with WCBS-AM until 2020, for another 8 years depending on the Yankees games are not moving to 101.9 or maybe so.

The reason why that "FM News 101.9" is trying that it's trying to make a bad decision that WDBZ's "The Buzz" at 105.1 from 15 years ago under Steve Weed who has been a PD for KDND's "The End" at 107.9 where they used to have a dumb promotion for "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest where a contestant who drank too much water and never goes to the bathroom and pees and then one of the person died. That happened back in 2007 which was 4 years ago due to its prank.

As for "FM News 101.9" who programmed the station? Might be the Riddler from Batman! You'll be the judge. Let's see if this is going to fail.

 

[DToTheJ]

@Disney: 101.9 should have "BOOM, here we go" with all-news on July 15, rather than play music for a few weeks.

 

[kenneykop]

I don't think 1010 WINS or WCBS 880 have anything to worry about. The five minutes (and that's all I could take) I listened completely bored me. They should be called SILLY 101.9.

 

[Holland Cooke]

RE "Merlin is going to fail with this format"

You all complain about how bad radio is, but when someone tries to do something different, you pillory them.

No kiddin.'
Tough room.
What's wrong with a little experimentation?

I heard a couple hours of it in-car on Thursday. 'Heard twice about a Marshall's shoe sale -- including a breathless on-scene reporter -- before they bothered with the stock market tailspin that other news stations seemed obsessed with.

There's too little innovation in radio any more.
We already have "all-news."
WHY NOT "all-shoes?"

Note how their online survey offers that users might want "To learn out about local shopping discounts and neighborhood bargains. "

We-as-a-people don't "learn out" enough any more, dang it.

If there's an under-served audience advertisers want, go get 'em!
Radio is a business, not a hobby.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Re: RE "Merlin is going to fail with this format"

We already have "all-news."
WHY NOT "all-shoes?"

Haha, perfect!

All Shoes 101.9. 

That should be the official name of this station now. It "fits". ;D