WARM, our local AM signals, and what to do with them

[carlvenorden]

We all know WARM's plant has deteriorated, which is why it is now a local station rather than a regional one.
WILK now has a FM simulcasting it's signal, which makes 980 and 910 open frequencies.
Their Hazelton signal is probably still needed to serve that area.

WARM's new competition comes in the form of Ben Smith's WGMS, which at this point is well known, and the only oldies station in the area which can be heard well.

And we are waiting on news of what WEMR will be doing when it goes live and local again, perhaps at the beginning of the year.

SO........
even though I am personally an avid AM supporter, it is my opinion that we have broadcasting companies parking formats on stations that either should sign off, or change format. And my thinking on that is because their signals overlap. Like FM translators, it is in my opinion a waste of frequency to simulcast the same program over multiple channels to gain a mile or two in any direction. All of our NEPA broadcasting companies are doing this now.

By shutting down stations that actually repeat themselves we can clean up the band(s), plus broadcasting companies can save big money by doing so.

But lets say these stations stay on the air.

In a post below, it was mentioned that WVPO/WPLY has chosen Air America as it's new format. This, after trying several musical formats, including standards which apparently didn't rake in the bucks in the Stroudsburg area.

WCDL and WNAK recently went Spanish, dropping standards, again because the format couldn't be sold.

So, what we have is a large group of AM stations, in a small area which have "no" format to go to.

If you were an AM station owner, you would have to ask yourself, "how can I make money?"
And, that is part of the answer, because the majority of posters here like to complain about the programming they are hearing on their AM's. How many others are listening to these stations? What could we do to increase the listenership and therefore the business in general?

Case in point: Bob Cordaro finally sold 1550 WITK out of Pittston, and while the station is still religeon, it is not a rebroadcast/simulcast of WOQR which can be heard throughout the WITK contour. It is Protesant based.

Ok: so Scranton/WilkesBarre is populated moreso by Catholics, but are 100% of these potential listeners Catholic? No.

As pointed out in the thread below, one poster said that the majority of the Poconos was inhabited by conservatives. That simply is not so: the majority of that population comes from New York City and lean politically liberal. The choice of Nassau to go with the AAR format was a good decision, at least it is a choice worth trying.

The decision to change the format of WVPO to something not heard in the Poconos was a good thing...and the same goes with the WITK format change.

This is my opinion, so I'm hoping this thread will produce some great ideas that hopefully our local AM's will read and take into account to change or redefine their formats.

This may be because of my background, but my first radio job was with a station which had a full service format. Basically we played a couple of MOR songs every half hour which sandwiched the huge load of commercials. In between all of that was a feature, be it a community event, a contest, etc. News on the hour and half hour and we had a sports announcer as well. A pretty busy little station, but....here is why it was so successful.

Our station was in the face of every business in town, and we spent money on little ads in the local paper so everyone knew we were there for them.
If we got a call from a listener asking to announce they lost their cat, we put it on the air, and frequently. We gained a lot of loyalty from listeners for things like that, and our advertisers knew it...it wasn't something we needed to tell them.

Today there is a lot of reports about traffic, and it is very important especially in the Rt 81 area. But people will listen for weather reports.........which we did after nearly every song.

We had contests which were modest, but they got listeners involved.

My point here is:
In order for these AM's to survive, they will need to come up with a format that isn't being done here now, and I mean other than simulcasting the main station on three other frequencies.

If the broadcasting companies feel that AM is loosing money for them and they don't know why, then they need to ask themselves if they chose a good format for their station.
If they can't save money and put on a good program, a better choice would be to take the station dark which will improve the AM band for stations that choose to put on original programming.
HD-AM may not be my favorite choice but it is a huge option......with fewer stations wasting bandwidth rebroadcasting the same programming, Stereo AM has a real chance to attract listeners.

So........what are your ideas to improve the AM band?
Carl

 

[The Watcher]

If I may I'd like to ask a question.

I've noticed the proliferation of religious broadcasting here. What is the reason? Won't one or two do, especially if they overlap coverage?

It seems that every other station is either country, religious, or some sort of "pops". Maybe your final idea of an eclectic format is best. When I burn CD's for my car I mix country with oldies with classical with whatever else. I can't stand listening for hours on end to the same thing which is why I listen to Sirrius a lot when I drive. I can flip formats to anything I want.

What would be the problem with an eclectic format that also included news, weather, occasional comedy, (Didn't WNEW do comedy too?) traffic, oldies, sports, standards and even lost cats? Are listeners that married to a single format that all they'll listen to is, for instance, Lyin' Cryin' and Dyin all day and night?

 

[lfcsuuite100]

An eclectic format sounds like a good idea, but when you try to sell it you won't get a good demographic. Demographics are the key so that a business can sell their product. A person with a good marketing plan can go after certain markets. Even with low ratings as ESPN radio, it has a strong demo with men over 25 that earn 50,000 +, actually it is quite strong. If you are targeting women in the same demo you go Magic. Younger listeners KRZ. Country as a niche listenership as does talk radio. Talk radio can be sold, even with low numbers, because most who listen are active listeners. You do not need as much repetition because talk listeners are less likely to change the dial during a commercial. I foresee a problem with WILK which has become eclectic in it's talk format. It changes from local liberal to local conservative, to national conservative, to local communist, to national ultra conservative and finally to the tin foil hat wearers in the evening. They may be able to sell specific shows, but if they are having large drop offs, even active listeners may not be enough to keep the spots full. Especially if that active listener ship is in an unfavorable demo.

By going eclectic you loose the target demo once you change gears. Loose the demo, loose the advertisers, loose money bye bye radio station. One of the reasons radio conglomerates continue to seek more deregulation is that they can target program and simultaneous eliminate counter programing.

One of the reasons for simulcasting, besides increasing their reach, is the prevent competition on an overlapping signal. Radio is first and foremost a business a very competitive business and if you can withhold a signal from your competitor you can decrease the chance of competition.

 

[The Watcher]

An eclectic format sounds like a good idea, but when you try to sell it you won't get a good demographic. I foresee a problem with WILK which has become eclectic in it's talk format. It changes from local liberal to local conservative, to national conservative, to local communist, to national ultra conservative and finally to the tin foil hat wearers in the evening. They may be able to sell specific shows, but if they are having large drop offs, even active listeners may not be enough to keep the spots full. Especially if that active listener ship is in an unfavorable demo.

By going eclectic you loose the target demo once you change gears. Loose the demo, loose the advertisers, loose money bye bye radio station. One of the reasons radio conglomerates continue to seek more deregulation is that they can target program and simultaneous eliminate counter programing.

One of the reasons for simulcasting, besides increasing their reach, is the prevent competition on an overlapping signal. Radio is first and foremost a business a very competitive business and if you can withhold a signal from your competitor you can decrease the chance of competition.

I love your description of the WILK format and I never thought about "defensively" retaining a signal but maintaing the equipment costs money too.

I guess I'm the exception to your rule tho as I like variety. For instance I can't listen to Rush and Hannity back to back. Getting older I find myself sleeping less and Coast To Coast AM is entertaining, but not every night. One or two NPR news programs a week are fine but after that they all seem to blend int the same morass of overmodulated bass.

I suppose that my type of listener is hated by radio.

 

[lfcsuuite100]

Retaining a signal does not cost as much as you would think. Besides radio stations make additional revenue by leasing out space on their transmitters. Doug Lane was the master of that strategy. He might not have much advertising sold, but he was still profitable because of the leasing. There is more to radio than just what you hear on the air.

 

[MACK184]

There was a company, now long gone called Universal Broadcasting. Universal tended to own AMs with small crappy signals and Class-A FMs that were located in suburban areas of larger cities. They made a small fortune running eclectic formats. Classical, Ethnic, swap-shop, out-of-the- mainstream odd right & left wing talk programs, Infomercials by the Butt Doctor or the Gizzard Wizzard and the like. They never had any numbers, but were successful in their own right. They had minimal staffs but always made money. After Telecom '96 came along they sold of their properties to the consolidators and went home to count their money.

 

[lfcsuuite100]

Yep Mack the worst thing to hit quality radio was the consolidations. There really is not anything different and if you try something, how do you survive, let alone compete.
It was good for a select few owners. And of course for the talent that got paid good wages, but opportunities for others just fell by the wayside.

 

[crmc]

This is an interesting thread to me.As to the ecclectic formats aspect, they are great in theory and even in a focus group environment. But when it's all said and done, it's the HITS, in any format, that keeps the P 1's tuned in. They complain about repetition, it validates the insiders and staffers opinions, the station adds depth , and the ratings drop. An " Oh wow! " song to one person is an " Oh shi.." ( crap) song to the next three listeners.

While we do have some AMs in disrepair here, AM is a very viable medium in the bigger markets not too far away from here.Two hours down the road in Philadelphia three of the top 10 billers are AM and the by far # 1 biller is AM. Three of the top 5 in NYC are AM.
Yes, they are big stations, but all are not 50kw clears.One of the stations I am referencing is a 5 kw AM. And it has one of the biggest streaming audiences in the world( yes world) with well over 10 million minutes of online listening a week.
It's the spoken word formats that are the future of AM. Not Spanish , not polkas, but talk, news, sports.In English, Spanish or however our melting pot culture evolves.

Watch the satellite services grow, achieve little critical mass, and continue to lose money. It isn't a good business model, at least not yet.
This week Arbitron released the first ever satellite numbers.The number 1 show:Howard Stern. No surprise, right?However, after almost two years of building, his audience is 95% less than when he was on over the air Radio. When he was Broadcaster rather than a satcaster.
As for the personality full service type formats,yes...my favorites also. And almost every radio guy's favorite.But they are not all gone.Try www.wogl.com during weekday mornings from Philadelphia with Ross Brittain.Try WOMC Detroit with Dick Purtan, or WODS Boston. Or KOOL in Phoenix.
The personality radio survivors are in the Classic Hits ( OK...Oldies ) format, usually in the major markets, usually in mornings with all the service elements.Some of these stations have big personality around the clock, Check them out. Radio is alive and kickin' at these stations.

In another recent thread, Master G referenced Dale Dorman from the old days of WRKO.I agree. But you don't have to scour the aircheck graveyard. He's on WODS Boston every weekday morning( Oldies 103.3).

I recommend that you fire up your computer , all you radiophiles.The good stuff is out there!!

 

[MrRF]

So with the possible exceptions of the larger market AM's there's nothing live and local on the AM dial in the medium markets? What about WAEB? Isn't Bobby Guenther Walsh still the Morning talent? How about WHP in Harrisburg? or WGY Schenectady? WILK also...even though it's got an FM simulcast station.
And as personalities go...What about D&W? Frankie? Doc Medek? Jeff Walker? really, not a bad amount of good talent for market # 69.