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WEPN 98.7 FM Gains

B

Barry

In an article in today's NY Daily News, an ESPN VP states that for the first time, WEPN has had a larger audience during a daypart than their competitor. During 10 am-1 pm in August, they are said to have had slightly more listeners than WFAN. The ESPN official also states that WEPN has doubled its audience to 900,000 per month, since moving to FM. He is apparently conceding though that may decline somewhat now that the AM frequency is shifting to a broadcast of ESPN Deportes.

NY Daily News Article: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...york-new-moves-espn-nbc-cbs-article-1.1152713
 
That's why 1050 is not simulcasting ESPN Radio on 98.7 anymore. The Hudson Valley area including Poughkeepsie, Kingston, New Paltz, Highland, Saugerties, Catskill and all over towards Albany are all going to be very upset. This morning, I tuned in to 1050 AM if I live in Kingston, they're running a series of promos in English and Spanish where you can tune in to ESPN Radio at 98.7 on FM only. Now the station cannot reached when it reaches Newburgh. WFAN is the only sports station left and as of January, it will become CBS Sports Radio as a 24/7 network.

What a disappointed move. 1050 is going to flip to Spanish as ESPN Deportes is a dumb move. The Hudson Valley is getting upset about the loss of 1050, and it's a shame to see the station go. What a pity!
 
disney fanatic said:
That's why 1050 is not simulcasting ESPN Radio on 98.7 anymore. The Hudson Valley area including Poughkeepsie, Kingston, New Paltz, Highland, Saugerties, Catskill and all over towards Albany are all going to be very upset. This morning, I tuned in to 1050 AM if I live in Kingston, they're running a series of promos in English and Spanish where you can tune in to ESPN Radio at 98.7 on FM only. Now the station cannot reached when it reaches Newburgh. WFAN is the only sports station left and as of January, it will become CBS Sports Radio as a 24/7 network.

What a disappointed move. 1050 is going to flip to Spanish as ESPN Deportes is a dumb move. The Hudson Valley is getting upset about the loss of 1050, and it's a shame to see the station go. What a pity!
Click to expand...

Is WEPN licensed to a city in the Hudson Valley? Does Disney buy the Hudson Valley Arbitron book? End of discussion.
 
Might Disney/ESPN itself buy a station in the Hudson Valley to simulcast WEPN-98.7??

After all, WEPN carries the Jets, Knicks, and (if the NHL season ever gets going), the Rangers.

I don't know if any other stations in the Hudson Valley area are carrying the Jets or will carry the Rangers and Knicks.
 
Barry said:
In an article in today's NY Daily News, an ESPN VP states that for the first time, WEPN has had a larger audience during a daypart than their competitor. During 10 am-1 pm in August, they are said to have had slightly more listeners than WFAN. The ESPN official also states that WEPN has doubled its audience to 900,000 per month, since moving to FM. He is apparently conceding though that may decline somewhat now that the AM frequency is shifting to a broadcast of ESPN Deportes.

NY Daily News Article: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...york-new-moves-espn-nbc-cbs-article-1.1152713
Click to expand...

Joe and Evan were doing Francesa's afternoon slot for most of August. 10 to 1 was mostly Marc Malusis or Chris Moore filling in.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Might Disney/ESPN itself buy a station in the Hudson Valley to simulcast WEPN-98.7??

After all, WEPN carries the Jets, Knicks, and (if the NHL season ever gets going), the Rangers.
Click to expand...

ESPN Radio only owns 4 major market stations (in NY, LA, Chi and Dallas). They have hundreds of affiliates but zero interest in owning stations in smaller markets.
 
disney fanatic said:
That's why 1050 is not simulcasting ESPN Radio on 98.7 anymore. The Hudson Valley area including Poughkeepsie, Kingston, New Paltz, Highland, Saugerties, Catskill and all over towards Albany are all going to be very upset. This morning, I tuned in to 1050 AM if I live in Kingston, they're running a series of promos in English and Spanish where you can tune in to ESPN Radio at 98.7 on FM only. Now the station cannot reached when it reaches Newburgh. WFAN is the only sports station left and as of January, it will become CBS Sports Radio as a 24/7 network.

What a disappointed move. 1050 is going to flip to Spanish as ESPN Deportes is a dumb move. The Hudson Valley is getting upset about the loss of 1050, and it's a shame to see the station go. What a pity!
Click to expand...

Disney, if your so upset about 1050 flipping why don't you go stand in the middle of Rt 9 and protest?
 
Beavis said:
Disney, if your so upset about 1050 flipping why don't you go stand in the middle of Rt 9 and protest?
Click to expand...

LOL, You bet! We'll see what happens starting this afternoon at 2 PM to hear the launch of ESPN Deportes. Remember back in 2000 when WEOK and WALL yanked the talk format and became the flagship of ESPN Radio? It did since day one. ESPN Radio on 1340 and 1390 was one of the lesser known sports station in the Hudson Valley area where they had Mike & Mike, Dan Patrick and a few others including local sports shows like the "Athletic Supporters Show" and of course a simulcast of Yankee baseball from WCBS-AM. That station lasted until 2003 when 1340 and 1390 both pulled the plug on ESPN Radio and flipped to "El Ritmo".

Joseph_Gallant said:
Might Disney/ESPN itself buy a station in the Hudson Valley to simulcast WEPN-98.7??

After all, WEPN carries the Jets, Knicks, and (if the NHL season ever gets going), the Rangers.

I don't know if any other stations in the Hudson Valley area are carrying the Jets or will carry the Rangers and Knicks.
Click to expand...

WKXP/WZAD's "The Wolf" carried New York Jets football on a country station at one time, but lost the rights, so the station should stick with Yankee baseball simulcast from WCBS-FM's HD3 channel. 1050 will no longer carried Rangers hockey, Jets football and Knicks basketball, leave it to 98.7, but the only sports to see the Rangers, Knicks and Jets are on TV.
 
Are WEOK and WALL (Cumulus stations) potential candidates to flip from oldies to CBS Sports Network (especially if 660 is not intended to flip to a 24/7 network feed)?
 
Disney, your reason for being upset about losing the AM sports signal is understood.

Here's the problem: The only three counties in the Hudson Valley north of NYC that are in the Arbitron "official" New York Radio Market are Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam. Listeners farther north don't matter, for ratings or ad sales. They are not counted, and are essentially invisible.

So, for the most part, listeners who can't get the FM signal don't matter in a business sense. Sure, there are exceptions but they don't make a significant enough difference in the numbers.

The bright side is that this situation may open up an opportunity for a Hudson Valley AM to pick up the format, attract a local audience and sell ad spots to local advertisers. If that doesn't happen, this situation will certainly open up opportunities for some Hudson Valley stations to make some money carrying New York pro team game play-by-play. In the end, its an opportunity for you Hudson Valley folks to support your local economy, by listening to a local station instead of catching the longer distance signal where your listening has no "economic" value.
 
Thanks for the info. Like I said, I was checking what's on 1050, it is still stunting of running promos of "Make the Switch" where the listeners can tune to ESPN Radio at 98.7. But as of 2 PM today, in the next few hours, it will be ESPN Deportes. I'll record the aircheck later this afternoon. I'm in New Paltz right now where I work and I get 1050 AM loud and clear in the daytime, and also like I said, it's a 50,000 watt station, who cares.
 
Danfm said:
Barry said:
In an article in today's NY Daily News, an ESPN VP states that for the first time, WEPN has had a larger audience during a daypart than their competitor. During 10 am-1 pm in August, they are said to have had slightly more listeners than WFAN. The ESPN official also states that WEPN has doubled its audience to 900,000 per month, since moving to FM. He is apparently conceding though that may decline somewhat now that the AM frequency is shifting to a broadcast of ESPN Deportes.

NY Daily News Article: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...york-new-moves-espn-nbc-cbs-article-1.1152713
Click to expand...

Joe and Evan were doing Francesa's afternoon slot for most of August. 10 to 1 was mostly Marc Malusis or Chris Moore filling in.
Click to expand...

That is true. There's a lot of people out there that don't like Malusis and from what I've heard of Chris Moore, he's not too great either. Now is the real test, especially with the Jets circus affecting Jet fans Joe and Evan.
 
Over the last two days, I spent most of the time listening to the new station at 1050 AM which is now ESPN Deportes and I can hear it in Kingston loud and clear and it is now a Spanish sports station where it now reaches most of Connecticut and the Hudson Valley. Back in 2005, WEOK and WALL pulled the plug on a Spanish station on "El Ritmo" and flipped to "Radio Disney", and now 7 years later, it came back and ESPN Deportes is on the air. This is day one, and I was hearing a soccer game going on, but this a big deal, but on this station, the would be no Jets, no Knicks and no Rangers hockey. All you need is a TuneIn app or watch the games on TV. I listened to that aircheck of the first 22 minutes of ESPN Deportes and it's in Spanish. If you're in Albany, there's is a station that carries ESPN Radio programming is on 104.5 "The Team" and I cannot get 104.5 in Kingston, because it is covered by WSPK's "K104" at 104.7. As of now, 1050 is in Spanish but no more ESPN Radio. What a dumb move, and like you've mentioned 98.7 would not be reaching Poughkeepsie or other places if you're reaching towards Newburgh. Look at the signal pattern for 98.7.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WEPN&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
 
WFAN is not -- I repeat, NOT -- going with CBS Sports Radio 24/7. WFAN will pick up some program elements, such as Boomer Esiason's daily commentaries (they're running those now). But there is no way they're going to blow up their local brand for an unproven new national network. Not now, not ever.

As far as ESPN allegedly "gaining" on WFAN in some key dayparts...unless it's already been mentioned, the ARB numbers count the AM/FM simulcast as ONE STATION. The ESPN suits can skew the numbers all they want, but WFAN still leads them by a far and wide margin.

In my opinion the 1050/98.7 split is a bad idea, more because of 98.7's signal deficiencies than a perceived lack of audience for ESPN Deportes' soccer-focused programming. Until those issues are addressed, WEPN-FM won't get either baseball team (I hope then never do). In the meantime let's see what happens this fall and winter if Jets, Knicks and Rangers start complaining about not being able to hear their teams.
 
Rollo-Smokes said:
In my opinion the 1050/98.7 split is a bad idea, more because of 98.7's signal deficiencies than a perceived lack of audience for ESPN Deportes' soccer-focused programming.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I've ever heard anybody talk about a full Empire B's "signal deficiencies." If a listener can't be covered by an Empire FM, chances are they aren't in the metro... do the advertisers or the station care?
 
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