Washington Format Changes And Rochester's WXXI

[Joseph_Gallant]

Yesterday (January 4th), Bonneville announced major programming changes to most of it's stations in the Washington, D.C. area. The major parts of that change was that the company would no longer program popular music (in this case, Hot AC) in Washington, move a successful classical-music format to the rimshot simulcast that had been the home of Hot AC format, moved the all-news station from AM to FM, taking the former home of the classical-music station, and will soon launch a joint venture with the Washington Post (ironically, the onetime owner of one of Bonneville/Washington's stations, what has been WTOP-1500) for "in-depth" news and talk which will be on the all-news station's former home.

What does this has to do with Rochester and WXXI?? It could mean plenty.

At present, WXXI programs an NPR news/information station on 1370 AM (with WRUR-88.5 simulcasting some WXXI-AM programs, most notably "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered") and a 24/7 classical-music station on 91.5 FM.

In recent years, many NPR member stations have dumped music to go 24/7 news and information.

Additionally, the programming moves by Bonneville in Washington suggest to me that the company may feel that the future of broadcast radio may not be in music-based formats, but in talk-based formats. Other broadcasters have also launched talk-based formats on FM, replacing music formats (i.e. Clear Channel launching a talk-formatted FM in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the various "Free FM" stations being launched by CBS).

Certainly, music-based formats could face serious competition from I-Pod's, Satellite Radio like XM and Sirius, and Internet downloads. Since most talk-based programming is broadcast live, it has a major advantage over I-Pod's. Unless you have a radio attached to your I-Pod unit, you can't listen to live programming on an I-Pod.

Since noncommercial numbers do not get published in Arbitron ratings posted on Radio and Records.com, I don't know how WXXI's stations are doing. I would not be surprised if the AM, despite a very directional signal at night, has more listeners than the FM.

Might WXXI decide to swap formats, putting the classical music on AM and the news/information format on the stronger FM signal??

 

[Mark_Giardina]

Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> Since noncommercial numbers do not get published in Arbitron
> ratings posted on Radio and Records.com, I don't know how
> WXXI's stations are doing. I would not be surprised if the
> AM, despite a very directional signal at night, has more
> listeners than the FM.
>
> Might WXXI decide to swap formats, putting the classical
> music on AM and the news/information format on the stronger
> FM signal??
>

Allow me to answer your second question first. The idea of switching formats was brought up numerous times in the 14 years I worked at WXXI. And, under two different General Managers, the idea was shot down. Since the current GM, or as he likes to be called, President and CEO, remains in charge, you will not see any format changes on AM and FM.

The last rating book that I saw, (Summer 2005) which featured only 12+ numbers, showed AM with a 1.9 share and FM with over a two share. These numbers are down significantly from the Spring 2004 book when both the AM and FM stations had over a 3 share.

When it came to raising money during fundraising drives, AM has exceeded FM numerous times, despite FM's larger coverage area

<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>

 

[Shadowsabre]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> Since the current GM, or
> as he likes to be called, President and CEO, remains in
> charge, you will not see any format changes on AM and FM.

Isn't he leaving at the end of March?

 

[Mark_Giardina]

Change In Leadership At WXXI

> > Since the current GM, or
> > as he likes to be called, President and CEO, remains in
> > charge, you will not see any format changes on AM and FM.
>
>
> Isn't he leaving at the end of March?
>
The CEO and President? Not that I heard of; and I had lunch with a former co-worker today and I'm sure he would have mentioned something that important.

Who is leaving WXXI is Gary Walker, who held the job as vice president of television. He will be working for the new mayor of Rochester.

<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>

 

[dampier]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> Allow me to answer your second question first. The idea of
> switching formats was brought up numerous times in the 14
> years I worked at WXXI. And, under two different General
> Managers, the idea was shot down. Since the current GM, or
> as he likes to be called, President and CEO, remains in
> charge, you will not see any format changes on AM and FM.

I always thought it was Dear Leader.

I can't see WXXI doing anything shocking or surprising, least of all this. Further, what Bonneville is doing in DC probably has no relevance to the upstate NY markets. WTOP has always had reception issues on AM according to some friends I know down there. The decision to go FM is probably closer to the reasoning the CBC had to dump 740 in Toronto and go FM instead.

 

[Bob1370]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> I can't see WXXI doing anything shocking or surprising,
> least of all this. Further, what Bonneville is doing in DC
> probably has no relevance to the upstate NY markets. WTOP
> has always had reception issues on AM according to some
> friends I know down there. The decision to go FM is
> probably closer to the reasoning the CBC had to dump 740 in
> Toronto and go FM instead.

WTOP has a magnified version of the same problems that a lot of directional AMs deal with these days.

Most of them selected their transmitter sites between 1939 and 1942, the last time the bulk of the AM band from 540 to 1600 was significantly re-allocated. They chose transmitter locations and configured their patterns to catch the lion's share of their metro populations at the time with maximum signal strength, and pulled their patterns in where they had to (for interference protection) or where they figured they'd be wasting power over empty land. Well, a couple things happened. Central business districts which had already been heavily built got totally rebuilt and overbuilt with modern steel and glass towers which block AM signals to workers' desktops. (That was CBC Radio One's biggest problem in Toronto.) And suburban sprawl hit every metro with a vengeance after World War II, with a lot of those open spaces nulled out by radio stations across the country before 1942 turning into densely populated suburban communities over the 60 years that followed. It happened to stations in Rochester, Buffalo and every other metro. And it happened to literally every AM station in Washington, the one market where stations whose antennas were built before the war probably have ended up missing the largest share of suburban population growth.

Stations have looked into every manner of solution to this, from buying suburban rimshots to use as relays and repeaters, to FM simulcasts, to building synchronized low power co-channel transmitters to fill some of their nulls in their market areas.

 

[Bob1370]

Re: Change In Leadership At WXXI

>> The CEO and President? Not that I heard of; and I had lunch
> with a former co-worker today and I'm sure he would have
> mentioned something that important.
>
> Who is leaving WXXI is Gary Walker, who held the job as vice
> president of television. He will be working for the new
> mayor of Rochester.

Mark's right. It's Gary, the TV VP, who's on his way back into public life.

As to Norm Silverstein's way of dealing with the limitation of the AM nighttime and presunrise signal (which has to pull in to the east and west, and direct most of the power north and south-southeast, during dark hours), it's being done now through a partial LMA/partnership with the U of R's WRUR, giving the morning and afternoon drive newsmagazine shows full metro coverage regardless of the hour. ('RUR still furnishes a lot of its own separate programming as well, some of it produced on campus and some through WXXI or syndicators' facilities...it has both guidance from 'XXI advisors, and its own student managers and faculty advisors.)
The arrangement seems to be serving everyone satisfactorily.

A side note...Norm Silverstein is familiar from personal experience with directional AM signals and the obstacles they present to full metro coverage, since he was once a senior anchor and reporter for WTOP, whose move to FM we've been discussing elsewhere in this thread.

 

[Mark_Giardina]

WRUR-Opportunity Lost

> As to Norm Silverstein's way of dealing with the limitation
> of the AM nighttime and presunrise signal (which has to pull
> in to the east and west, and direct most of the power north
> and south-southeast, during dark hours), it's being done now
> through a partial LMA/partnership with the U of R's WRUR,
> giving the morning and afternoon drive newsmagazine shows
> full metro coverage regardless of the hour. ('RUR still
> furnishes a lot of its own separate programming as well,
> some of it produced on campus and some through WXXI or
> syndicators' facilities...it has both guidance from 'XXI
> advisors, and its own student managers and faculty
> advisors.)
> The arrangement seems to be serving everyone satisfactorily.
>
As Paul Harvey would say, “And now the rest of the story.”

Years before Norm Silverstein arrived on the scene WXXI had the opportunity to either outright purchase or enter into an LMA partnership with the University of Rochester for WRUR.

Unfortunately the previous management, fearful of encoring the wrath of students working at the station and the publicity that would ensue, blew a golden opportunity because, at that time, there was a grandfather clause in effect that would have allowed 88.5 FM to increase its power from 2kw to 20kw. That grandfather clause eventually elapsed because the people in power at WXXI failed to act and the University either didn’t have the financial resources, or just didn’t care if WRUR increased its coverage.

Had the previous management the vision to look years ahead and not weeks, WRUR would have reached a larger audience interested in NPR programming and local news that it currently does on AM-1370 with its nighttime directional pattern. Obviously the more listeners a public radio station has the better the chances of raising more money during pledge drives.

Also, if it required cash to buy and upgrade WRUR, WXXI could have sold off its 5kw AM station and the directional transmitter site in Brighton, plus land the station owned in the Town of Mendon, which would have generated more than enough revenue to buy WRUR and upgrade it to a modern broadcasting operation.

Well that’s history. Today what you have is WRUR carrying Morning Edition and All Things Considered. And it took the current management over a year before deciding to air ATC on WRUR because, in my opinion they figured morning drive had more listeners than afternoon. Well that was wrong because the ratings showed afternoon drive surpassing mornings. I have no idea if that is the case today.

In conclusion what you have here is opportunity lost. Instead of a 20kw FM station, carrying all NPR and local programming, WXXI has a LMA partner that carries just morning and afternoon drive, plus some other NPR shows, mixed in with college students and their music. Oh I forgot to mention that the husband of WXXI’s Executive Vice President has his own weekday morning show on WRUR. How’s that for nepotism?


<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

Mark Giardana wrote:

> The idea of switching formats was brought up numerous
> times in the 14 years I worked at WXXI. And, under two
> different General Managers, the idea was shot down.

Later in his post, he commented:

> When it came to raising money during fundraising drives, AM
> has exceeded FM numerous times, despite FM's larger coverage
> area.

The last comment may be a reason why I think WXXI's AM and FM may yet swap formats. With the NPR news/information format on the superior FM signal, it would raise even more money in listener pledges than it does now on AM.

 

[OldAkronite]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> The last comment may be a reason why I think WXXI's AM and
> FM may yet swap formats. With the NPR news/information
> format on the superior FM signal, it would raise even more
> money in listener pledges than it does now on AM.

Well, Joseph...Mark worked there. He knows the place. For whatever reason, the current management of that pubcaster isn't looking to make the switch, and they've had numerous opportunities to do so (as Mark pointed out).

Maybe some day they'll change their minds. But it won't be the flip of a commercial all-news radio station in a market a few hundred miles away that would prompt them. It'd be those financial reasons you allude to, above. WTOP changing doesn't impact them or make them say "hey, why don't WE do that..."...

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>

 

[Bob1370]

Re: WRUR-Opportunity Lost

> Years before Norm Silverstein arrived on the scene WXXI had
> the opportunity to either outright purchase or enter into an
> LMA partnership with the University of Rochester for WRUR.
>
> Unfortunately the previous management, fearful of encoring
> the wrath of students working at the station and the
> publicity that would ensue, blew a golden opportunity
> because, at that time, there was a grandfather clause in
> effect that would have allowed 88.5 FM to increase its power
> from 2kw to 20kw. That grandfather clause eventually elapsed
> because the people in power at WXXI failed to act and the
> University either didn’t have the financial resources, or
> just didn’t care if WRUR increased its coverage.

Couple things you have to remember about this. Keep in mind, we're talking not about today's market, but about decisions made back in 1983-84 at the time when what we now know as WXXI (AM) was acquired.

One, the university at that time was driving a truly hard bargain for the FM license and facility on the basis of that potential upgrade, which hadn't yet been done. We aren't talking about the 'RUR that exists now and transmits from on top of the Hyatt, a full Class A technically comparable to WDKX which offers at least full Monroe County coverage even if it can't match AM 1370 in outlying burbs like Canandaigua. That didn't exist until well into the 1990s. 'RUR in the early 1980s was only a 1000 watt ERP facility with an antenna maybe 50 feet above terrain. Upgrading its transmitter required a very large investment which the University wasn't sure it wanted to make. And given its rather crude on campus studio facilities of the time, it didn't offer a turnkey studio facility where 'XXI could run a 24/7 news-talk operation while building its own studios downtown, as AM 1370 offered out on French Road. In 1984, getting full metro market coverage by buying the AM 1370 facility was actually not only a far faster alternative but arguably a cheaper one.

The second thing you need to remember is that then, and to a degree even now, research shows that FM is considered largely a music medium while AM is the place where people expect to hear news, public affairs and other spoken word services. The established competition from which WXXI hoped to draw its news and talk listeners, was listening in 1984 to WHAM, WPXN/1280 and WSAY---all AM stations. Getting them to spin one short nudge down the dial to sample you was a lot easier proposition than trying to persuade them to change bands.

On the whole, if you had a 1.1 million dollar budget to launch a new news/talk programming service, as WXXI did in 1984, it made more sense to launch it on an AM with substantial metro coverage than on an FM that had to be rebuilt and then marketed from the ground up. 22 years later, market conditions may be different...but in those 22 years WXXI did build a substantial, stable audience far beyond its initial projections, going the way that it did. Bill Pearce made a decision that might not be the right one if made initially in 2006...but it served the organization well in 1984.

 

[grudgelfeltz]

Re: Don't Expect To See Formats Switched On WXXI-AM & FM..At Least In The Near Future.

> spaces nulled out by radio stations across the country
> before 1942 turning into densely populated suburban
> communities over the 60 years that followed. It happened to
> stations in Rochester, Buffalo and every other metro.

AM's in Washington are further crippled by extremely poor ground conductivity in that area. No AM signal completely covers the D.C. market.