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WEMP's Sister Station in Chicago Trying Out Midday Talk

B

Barry

According to the home page of Radio-Info.com, today is the second day that the Merlin news station WIQI in Chicago has run a talk show by Mancow Muller during the afternoon hours. The brief article mentions a couple of other talk show hosts they may try out. It states that the morning and afternoon drive time hours would probably stay all-news.
With the Merlin station in Philadelphia mostly talk outside of mornings, and now Chicago trying talk middays, it certainly would not be a surprise if WEMP (FM News 101.9) cuts back on the amount of hours during the day that are all-news. Of course, WEMP's newly hired News Director Mark Austin Thomas, with a background in news/talk, should be comfortable with the format.
 
Cause Mancow's a real winner. Yeeesh. That's the best they can do? A guy who got kicked of off so many stations and never gets ratings?

It's like the Yankees putting Rick Cerone to close the 9th.
 
I can't think of worse fit for a news station than Mancow! His show is all about inane chit-chat, not newsworthy discussion. Whoever made this decision is clueless.

Oh, wait ... 101.9 is about inane news. Maybe there's synergy there after all. But if a tree falls in the forest ... if Mancow lands in the middle of 101.9 ... well, you know.
 
I can't think of a worse talk program than Mancow, all around.

Wasn't he the guy who was going to "beat Howard Stern in every market"? Couldn't do that so he tried more political talk and got zero ratings doing that too. His affiliate list looks like the "guide to small town America".

WHAT are they (not) thinking at Merlin? At least in Philly they've put together a reasonable lineup of hosts to get some ratings and revenue.
 
Where is Randy Michael's infamous "take no prisoners" approach to programming?
The whole Merlin episode has been an exercise in laziness. I can't believe they are so lackadaisical about their launch in all three markets - they're all half hearted efforts.
Is there something lost when one becomes wealthy? Seems Randy has lost his zest for the business now that he has made his millions.
You also have to wonder if there is a tax angle to this. Most people would rather make money than lose money but you never know.
 
No to say it would happen, but since WEMP is already cleared for Clark Howard's morning minute I sent on their feedback form they should at least run the two daily live hours of his show if they were to go news/talk. That would not only give Clark a NYC base but I bet it would be a very good draw.
 
NYC doesn't need any more syndicated talk programming! The existing talk stations (WABC, WOR and WNYM) do enough of that! BTW, none of them are top 10 stations in ratings or billings. It remains incredible that NY remains without a mostly local news/talk outlet. I'll allow for overnite syndication. Talk in NY is shockingly similar to Las Vegas and Miami. Talk radio does poorly in NY IMHO because NY area listeners aren't happy with the present mostly syndicated choices.

If Randy Michaels is looking for a direction to take 101.9, here it is. Just do it, Randy! ;)
 
When WBBR first hit the NYC airwaves, the plan was to be all business/economic news all day. They found ot that did not work. So they went to business talk first in mid-days, then to other dayparts as well. Then added sports. When Plan A doesn't work, go to Plan B or C.
 
When WBBR first hit the NYC airwaves, the plan was to be all business/economic news all day. They found ot that did not work. So they went to business talk first in mid-days, then to other dayparts as well. Then added sports
Click to expand...

Hard to believe, but when WBBR first hit the airwaves in the early 1990s, cell phones were still not that common, and the internet was familiar only to a few.

Mike Bloomberg bought the station to give his "Bloomberg terminal" customers access to market information when they were away from the office. As it became easier to get that info online, using AM radio for those quick market news and info functions became less important, and longer form business talk made more sense on the radio.

The sports happens nights and weekends and doesn't mess with the station's main mission during the market days. It is also a way for the station to pick up a few bucks and additional listeners.

WBBR has a weekly cume, and audience ratings, significantly smaller than some suburban stations. It has a very small and select audience and doesn't even bother subscribing to Arbitron ratings to sell spots. Its a very special case, and its business and programming models aren't the same as competitive stations that are selling spots based on ratings.

All of that said, WBBR did adjust and change with the times, and WABC did too, when it switched to talk after being the Top-40 music leader for a generation.
 
First book in Chicago for Merlin's Alternative WKQX (87.75 WKQX-LP TV (audio from channel 6)) has a higher share and cume than their News 101.1 WIQI. Perhaps Merlin should just put Alternative on 101.9 in NYC.
 
They should but do it right this time. Heck even try if they can get the Yanks or the Mets on 101.9 to play at night. It would work well with the format of Alternative Rock.
 
ncountysurf said:
First book in Chicago for Merlin's Alternative WKQX (87.75 WKQX-LP TV (audio from channel 6)) has a higher share and cume than their News 101.1 WIQI. Perhaps Merlin should just put Alternative on 101.9 in NYC.
Click to expand...

But how much of that was carryover from the previous smooth jazz format on the station?
 
WKQX 87.7 started on May 6, 10 days into the May survey period. There was a brief period where the newscasts were being done by WIQI staffers.
 
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