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WEMP's Sister Chicago Station Moving Towards Straight News

B

Barry

It is being reported in Chicagoland Radio and Media that one of WWWN's (FM News 101.1) high profile personalities, Dave Williams has been let go. The article states, "A station insider hinted that the move had more to do with a change in direction for the station. As the station had quickly gone from less of a news/lifestyle/personality station to more of a straight-forward, mainstream news station, upper management at Merlin Media apparently wanted a news person with less of an out-going personality and more of a basic news reader." Williams had moved to Chicago from California to work for FM News 101.1.
AllAccess.com has a similar report.
The natural question is whether WEMP/FM News 101.9 in New York will undergo a similar shift, and whether there may be some significant changes in personnel there.

Article From Chicagoland Radio and Media: http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/1985-dave-williams-exits-wwwn-fm
 
... and whether or not there will be another "groveling back to WINS by a former staffer" as there was alleged by the WINS GM in a intra-station memo.
 
If WEMP is going to make a similar move, it should be towards news/talk rather than straight news. IIRC, local advertisers thought they were buying a news-based talk format. As I've posted before, there is a gaping hole in the NY market for a mostly local or all local news/talk format. This has been missing from New York radio for many years.

Nearly all markets outside NY, regardless of size, have one station that talks about issues relevant to the particular market. If WEMP goes in the direction of news-based talk, it would give them a distinct identity from WINS and WCBS. :)
 
The newsletter Taylor on Radio-Info.com states today, "A more hard-news approach is coming to WEMP", FM News 101.9 in New York.
It will be interesting whether they dump most of the fluff and chit-chat that has been a significant part of the station's style.
The article also made the interesting observation that when Merlin CEO visited WEMP FM yesterday, this time he did not bring Walter Sabo with him. Sabo is the architect of the current format.
 
Barry said:
The newsletter Taylor on Radio-Info.com states today, "A more hard-news approach is coming to WEMP", FM News 101.9 in New York.
It will be interesting whether they dump most of the fluff and chit-chat that has been a significant part of the station's style.
The article also made the interesting observation that when Merlin CEO visited WEMP FM yesterday, this time he did not bring Walter Sabo with him. Sabo is the architect of the current format.
Click to expand...

This is because Sabo is on his way to Australia, to impart his wisdom at the local commercial radio awards. This should be a fun forum...
 
Australia also is in the southern hemisphere, where, by nature, the ratings automatically re-assemble themselves in reverse order. After conditions shift once the equator is crossed, WEMP shows up as tops in the market, followed by WFME, then WOR.

Next stop for the format is not only a big youth market, but the demos in Surf City say that there are twice the female demos as males.

* * * * * * *

It was mentioned before that reaction to the Chicago station, actually being the older of the two biological twins, probably would have some bearing on WEMP's approach and tweaking despite being (as is often claimed here) 'way too early to tell'. Obviously it was not too early to tell when Merlin took a second look at their own numbers in Chicago. It has not been 'too early to tell' regarding two publicized personnel reconsiderations, has it?

Jack-FM had better traction than WEMP has experienced. Even Jill-FM (Blink) had more steam at the beginning. If there's another frightful book for WEMP, while 30% of the nation's radio revenue in all these big, proposed markets migrates again into the colder days, we're apt to see an accelerated effort toward Merlin's final product. They may not have much of a choice than to tip their hand prematurely and stop all this rubbish about work-in-progress.
 
When a football team loses a bunch of games, they may consider making a much-welcomed change, despite the criticism (good or bad) it might draw...

In Game 5 of the American League Division Series, when Joe Girardi decided to use his entire bullpen, some viewed that as a desperation move.

For WEMP to go into this new direction, this is a combination of the two. Certainly whatever they've got going now isn't working; at the same time, it hasn't even been a full 90 days of the new "news" format - so how can they know for sure that it isn't working... am I right?
 
I switched on WEMP, FM News 101.9 this afternoon, for the first time in weeks.
It sounds vastly different compared to the last time I heard it. Now it seems more similar to WINS, with lots of NYC area based news stories, delivered at a rather fast pace. The station sounds far more focused than it did. The traffic reports are also much shorter. And I did not hear any of the flubs that have plagued the station in the past. The programming seemed much smoother.
They are saying there is "10 minutes of nonstop news on the hour and half-hour."
But there is still a considerable amount of fluff outside those time periods, such as shopping reports and celebrity gossip. Perhaps filler like that will soon be curtailed.
 
I hope they dumped that stuppid and annoying weather geek guy. There is no room for a 'geek'. Only real meteorologists on mainstream WINS type news station. Oh yes, put off that reverb!
 
Barry said:
It is being reported in Chicagoland Radio and Media that one of WWWN's (FM News 101.1) high profile personalities, Dave Williams has been let go. The article states, "A station insider hinted that the move had more to do with a change in direction for the station. As the station had quickly gone from less of a news/lifestyle/personality station to more of a straight-forward, mainstream news station, upper management at Merlin Media apparently wanted a news person with less of an out-going personality and more of a basic news reader." Williams had moved to Chicago from California to work for FM News 101.1.
AllAccess.com has a similar report.
The natural question is whether WEMP/FM News 101.9 in New York will undergo a similar shift, and whether there may be some significant changes in personnel there.

Article From Chicagoland Radio and Media: http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/1985-dave-williams-exits-wwwn-fm
Click to expand...

Interestingly 101.1 - as WKQX - was an All News outlet before flipping to rock when WKQX was owned by NBC.
 
From the newsletter Taylor on Radio-Info comes another indication that WEMP is moving towards a straightforward all news format. It states today that Doug Obrien, one of the hires from WINS, "Will take a larger role in programming." So apparently VP of Programming Liz Aiello, formerly from Sirius XM's Martha Stewart channel, will now be sharing the responsibility of running WEMP day to day with someone that has an all-news radio background.
And perhaps in a bid to be more more welcoming to male listeners, there will now also be a male voice in the previously all female sounders.
 
WEMP is not yet fully a straightforward all news station. I still hear the TMZ stories etc. And yes there is a male voice over on the air right now and new sounders.
 
The first thing WEMP needs to do is to stop requiring the "news anchors" to contribute their own ad-libbed commentary and jokes after almost every story. It sounds forced, it keeps interrupting the flow of the programming, very little of it has any real value to the listner, and it's painful to listen to when their jokes fall flat and/or come out flubbed.

If 101.9 wants to be a "news" station, then they should just report the damn news! It doesn't matter if it's "hard" news or "soft" news -- just stick to the story and stop trying to be like a schmoozy TV morning gossip show.

Second on the list, of course, is the choice of topics covered. The brand of shoes which Kim Kardashian wears is *not* a news story. But it seems that WEMP has already gotten the memo on this, quite literally!
 
Barry said:
...Taylor on Radio-Info... states today that Doug Obrien... "will take a larger role in programming." So apparently VP of Programming Liz Aiello, formerly from Sirius XM's Martha Stewart channel, will now be sharing the responsibility of running WEMP day to day with someone that has an all-news radio background...
Click to expand...

Don't tell me they're going to slowly phase out the person behind that brilliant "101.9 air freshener" idea!
 
erwin33 said:
I hope they dumped that stuppid and annoying weather geek guy. There is no room for a 'geek'. Only real meteorologists on mainstream WINS type news station. Oh yes, put off that reverb!
Click to expand...

He is a real meteorologist.
 
I 2nd the motion to do real news and not entertainment fluff, outside of a entertainment report. If I gave a f#ck about what the Kardashians were up to, I'd watch the TV show.

Local/state/national and big international stories, whats the weather, and how bad is the traffic where I'm going.

And yes, I know that the weather geek is a meteorologist...but geek isn't exactly a term of endearment.
 
Turnpike Tuner said:
.... If I gave a f#ck about what the Kardashians were up to, I'd watch the TV show...
Click to expand...

... or follow them on Twitter, where a host of media figures regularly lampoon her on a daily basis... ::)
 
cg41386 said:
erwin33 said:
I hope they dumped that stuppid and annoying weather geek guy. There is no room for a 'geek'. Only real meteorologists on mainstream WINS type news station. Oh yes, put off that reverb!
Click to expand...

He is a real meteorologist.
Click to expand...

Maybe... ???, but 'your weathergeek' sounding very dumb on radio.
 
cg41386 said:
He is a real meteorologist.
Click to expand...
Yes, fresh out of college... and 101.9 also claims to be the station with "the most meteorologists on FM" -- which makes no sense to me. I don't need the most meteorologists... just one or two that are really good at predicting the weather!
 
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