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WCBS vs. WINS postscripts

He's buried in KC too, at Mt. Moriah:
And, a college dropout! Look at how much that hurt his career.
 
I think if you go back even further, you'll find that NPR always gave preference to applicants who had print experience over radio experience. They felt they could teach the radio part, but good writing can't be taught.

Knowing people who went from local/regional public radio to NPR, I think there are more nuances than that. Good writing and good editing can be taught, but there also has to be a certain flair for it. That can develop over time, but some people just have it naturally. At least for on-air positions, NPR wanted not just writing ability, but a voice with a certain sound. Just like commercial radio, except looking for different attributes.

Then there's the whole philosophy of setting the stage with natural sound, something NPR seems to have pulled back on in recent years, but still memorably satirized by Harry Shearer in his bits on "Continental Public Radio".
 







We can put a list for places listeners to go to where former WCBS-AM listeners to go to but its not exactly going to replace them. However we can can only get a tiny fraction of former listeners to consider going to other places. Its like trying to negotiate former KGO-AM and KFWB-AM listeners to look somewhere else. Yes some of those listeners can go to places like KQED-FM, KALW-FM and KCBS-AM/KRFC-FM in the San Francisco example and for KFWB-AM they can go to KNX-AM/KNX-FM, KPCC-FM and KCRW-FM in the Los Angeles Example but thats just a fraction that can do that and accept their new place to go to for news.
 







We can put a list for places listeners to go to where former WCBS-AM listeners to go to but its not exactly going to replace them. However we can can only get a tiny fraction of former listeners to consider going to other places. Its like trying to negotiate former KGO-AM and KFWB-AM listeners to look somewhere else. Yes some of those listeners can go to places like KQED-FM, KALW-FM and KCBS-AM/KRFC-FM in the San Francisco example and for KFWB-AM they can go to KNX-AM/KNX-FM, KPCC-FM and KCRW-FM in the Los Angeles Example but thats just a fraction that can do that and accept their new place to go to for news.
Listing these non-New York stations here is pointless. And, it digresses from the original topic of this thread.
 
Listing these non-New York stations here is pointless. And, it digresses from the original topic of this thread.
True too theres other parts I have to consider that are important like New Jersey Public Radio, that reaches some of the New York area suburban areas. But then again I am aiming from national news angle and not so much from the local angle this was supposed to go to.

 
True too theres other parts I have to consider that are important like New Jersey Public Radio, that reaches some of the New York area suburban areas. But then again I am aiming from national news angle and not so much from the local angle this was supposed to go to.

Except this is about New York City. Not the suburbs or some entirely different market. Or, even a national network.
 
Except this is about New York City. Not the suburbs or some entirely different market. Or, even a national network.
But there is no "New York City" radio market. There is a New York Metro Survey Area, which includes a dozen or so counties "upstate", in NE New Jersey and on Long Island which make up more than half of the population of the metro.
 
Think of all the expenses, a station has: salaries, Social Security, health, insurance participation, business insurance, liability, insurance, rent, telephone, electricity, connectivity, legal costs, salaries for traffic, accounting, air, personalities, sales, staff, office, staff, engineering, and maintenance, equipment, repairs, and maintenance, music licensing, transmitter site, and studio office space rental , sales commissions, agency, commissions, sales, rep fees, travel, and entertainment, FCC fees, business, licenses, and permits, Computers, computer, maintenance, software and software, licensing, advertising and promotion, memberships in community and industry, associations, attendance at conventions and seminars, outside consultants and auditors, and many other things involved in the operation of a radio station.

Compared to all these things, the electric bill is truly a very minor expense. In fact, it is only burdensome if you have a station in a small market with a higher powered transmitter where they added coverage of higher power produces no income.

This is just speculation, but I saw a recent filing for a 50,000 watt AM station in Petoskey Michigan, which wanted to go silent. I am thinking that such a station on AM in such a small market in an area with terrible ground conductivity producing very limited coverage is likely not going to be able to bill enough to pay that electric bill. Eventually, we will see some stations like that either reduce power and just serve their local community or simply disappear if they cannot use the AM to get a translator.
Every business has roughly the same things they have to deal with. Mine currently has to deal with everything EXCEPT air personalities [I take care of that part if or when it comes down to it] sales, music licensing, FCC, but do have to deal with other government agencies, especially three that inspect, approve and license the same damn thing; just different levels of government that have to get their greedy little paws into the business wallet, outside consultants and other things that radio stations don't have to deal with.
 
The NYRMB (aka "The Dentist's Board") currently has a thread on former WCBS Newsradio 880 reporters who have been absorbed by 1010 WINS. Apparently, the original poster was either unaware or forgot that the October 2022 contract between Audacy and SAG-AFTRA essentially merged the two newsrooms, allowing for anchors and reporters to be "cross-utilized" on both stations (and, of course, the arrival of WINS-FM and the eventual winding down of WCBS).

But, as is the norm, the thread has been hijacked by posters who continue to air their gripes and grievances about what they don't like now that WCBS is gone and WINS is the only all-newser in town.

The well-respected Ted David offered this somewhat biased, stinging critique of what he doesn't like about WINS today:

The main thing I get from all this "get off my lawn" complaining is a refusal to move forward with the times. And while there may be some validity to his comments, Ted and others on that board (and in a few FB groups) are still stuck in the past.

Educated comments, anyone?

Perfect takes on Stanford and Mullins. Drivetime clowns. Plus, political bias is bleeding through the morning presentation.
 
You are absolutely right. When I had a relationship show on all talk KTNQ in the later 1990's, the program usually had to do with sexual subjects. I got lots of calls where someone would complain about what the show said "last night" and describe how awful it was. And then they would describe the show the previous night. And then the night before. And so on for multiple subjects about sex on many nights.

"If you don't like it, why do you listen?" got me nowhere. So I would just say, "I understand" until they finished their monologue and then they would be happy and hang up.
There was a lawyer in Indianapolis who practically made a career of trying to take Bob and Tom off the air. He likely spent more TSL than anyone in the market
 
The NYRMB (aka "The Dentist's Board") currently has a thread on former WCBS Newsradio 880 reporters who have been absorbed by 1010 WINS. Apparently, the original poster was either unaware or forgot that the October 2022 contract between Audacy and SAG-AFTRA essentially merged the two newsrooms, allowing for anchors and reporters to be "cross-utilized" on both stations (and, of course, the arrival of WINS-FM and the eventual winding down of WCBS).

But, as is the norm, the thread has been hijacked by posters who continue to air their gripes and grievances about what they don't like now that WCBS is gone and WINS is the only all-newser in town.

The well-respected Ted David offered this somewhat biased, stinging critique of what he doesn't like about WINS today:

The main thing I get from all this "get off my lawn" complaining is a refusal to move forward with the times. And while there may be some validity to his comments, Ted and others on that board (and in a few FB groups) are still stuck in the past.

Educated comments, anyone?
1010 WINS had such a tightly wound format for years it’s nice to hear them live a little
 


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