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WFAN to FM in NYC- what might it mean for Boston Radio
- Thread starter mgpt6
- Start date
Has already been happening: WEEI-FM, WBZ-FM, WBUR, WGBH
"Loveline" etc.
So...WRKO to FM somehow?
"Loveline" etc.
So...WRKO to FM somehow?
raccoonradio said:So...WRKO to FM somehow?
Count on it.
I wouldn't count on RKO on FM. EEI's migration was a station with strong ratings facing successful FM competition. Boston listeners are local sports fanatics, there was a really good chance that WBZ-FM would perform well and it has. WRKO hasn't pulled in ratings in years, and there's no evidence that it's simply because people aren't hearing it. The other conservative FM talker, WTKK, has been around for years now and hasn't been a ratings success. WRKO doesn't have a strong fanbase to begin with and the evidence so far is that conservative talk, AM or FM, isn't a big player in Boston.
reelyreal said:
The bottom line is they are going to want to keep Howie when he is free to go to in 2 years. One of Howie's big things (besides the whole Entercom happens shtick) is wanting to be on FM. If WAAF's rating continue as they are now, or god forbid decline further, moving WRKO to one of those frequencies might look pretty good.
dhoule said:
I can see that too. At that point it isn't about ratings on 680 it will be about being able to sell the time which at the end of the day could make them more money.
I don't know if Entercom would kill off either 97.7 or 107.3 to put RKO on FM as WAAF makes them money and the 97.7 especially gets the signal into Boston. Had they been able to get a station like 101.7 it could have helped them a bit, not that their signal is very huge (but would do well in the 128 belt). But you bring up a good point:
>>At that point it isn't about ratings on 680 it will be about being able to sell the time...make them more money
They had to sacrifice "Mike" to put WEEI on FM (later The Harbor would be launched by CC,
which just put on the similar "Coast" on 95.3 in the Portsmouth/Kittery area).
To its credit the RKO signal is fairly strong by day, directional at night though. And as I've
said their focus is the daytime lineup, not so much post 7 pm (Levin, Doyle, Coast 2 Coast).
"But who knows..." (see below)
I mentioned before that in my own workplace getting WEEI on 850 was a challenge (N. Reading...WEEI (AM) stick is in Needham). With the move to 93.7, no problem. But last night at work it was back to the same problem as I tried
to listen to 850 ESPN on WEEI for baseball playoffs. Workroom floor? No. In bathrooms, yes.
In the breakroom, yes. And even then the signal was so feeble that I had to go near the windows and be near a bit of a metal pole to get a good signal. AM radio stinks! Or at least in many respects it does.
>>I can see WRKO moving to 97.7 within a year or two and having a business focused WRKO on AM.
Who knows...aren't there some business shows or a whole format of it on WADN and/or
WPLM AM etc.? Well at least RKO does have those 2 hrs in the morning.
>>they are going to want to keep Howie when he is free to go to in 2 years. One of Howie's big things (besides the whole Entercom happens shtick) is wanting to be on FM. If WAAF's rating continue as they are now, or god forbid decline further, moving WRKO to one of those frequencies might look pretty good.
"But who knows".]/b] Right now I'm willing to say they wouldn't make the move, but you're
right, if those ratings go down, etc. But what kind of money/ratings will Howie and talk
radio bring in, two years from now? HC not getting any younger either; he would be 62
by then and his audience aging as well.
reallyreel said:
>>Boston listeners are local sports fanatics, there was a really good chance that WBZ-FM would perform well and it has. WRKO hasn't pulled in ratings in years, and there's no evidence that it's simply because people aren't hearing it. The other conservative FM talker, WTKK, has been around for years now and hasn't been a ratings success. WRKO doesn't have a strong fanbase to begin with and the evidence so far is that conservative talk, AM or FM, isn't a big player in Boston.
A good point also. Maybe ideally one station on FM (96.9) with the best of the syndie and
local shows would work out. Kind of. But GM won't sell 96.9 from what I can see,
and neither station plans to change format. The cons. talk got weeded out a bit with
1200 changing. Would 680 eventually move to something else?...and, what?
>>At that point it isn't about ratings on 680 it will be about being able to sell the time...make them more money
They had to sacrifice "Mike" to put WEEI on FM (later The Harbor would be launched by CC,
which just put on the similar "Coast" on 95.3 in the Portsmouth/Kittery area).
To its credit the RKO signal is fairly strong by day, directional at night though. And as I've
said their focus is the daytime lineup, not so much post 7 pm (Levin, Doyle, Coast 2 Coast).
"But who knows..." (see below)
I mentioned before that in my own workplace getting WEEI on 850 was a challenge (N. Reading...WEEI (AM) stick is in Needham). With the move to 93.7, no problem. But last night at work it was back to the same problem as I tried
to listen to 850 ESPN on WEEI for baseball playoffs. Workroom floor? No. In bathrooms, yes.
In the breakroom, yes. And even then the signal was so feeble that I had to go near the windows and be near a bit of a metal pole to get a good signal. AM radio stinks! Or at least in many respects it does.
>>I can see WRKO moving to 97.7 within a year or two and having a business focused WRKO on AM.
Who knows...aren't there some business shows or a whole format of it on WADN and/or
WPLM AM etc.? Well at least RKO does have those 2 hrs in the morning.
>>they are going to want to keep Howie when he is free to go to in 2 years. One of Howie's big things (besides the whole Entercom happens shtick) is wanting to be on FM. If WAAF's rating continue as they are now, or god forbid decline further, moving WRKO to one of those frequencies might look pretty good.
"But who knows".]/b] Right now I'm willing to say they wouldn't make the move, but you're
right, if those ratings go down, etc. But what kind of money/ratings will Howie and talk
radio bring in, two years from now? HC not getting any younger either; he would be 62
by then and his audience aging as well.
reallyreel said:
>>Boston listeners are local sports fanatics, there was a really good chance that WBZ-FM would perform well and it has. WRKO hasn't pulled in ratings in years, and there's no evidence that it's simply because people aren't hearing it. The other conservative FM talker, WTKK, has been around for years now and hasn't been a ratings success. WRKO doesn't have a strong fanbase to begin with and the evidence so far is that conservative talk, AM or FM, isn't a big player in Boston.
A good point also. Maybe ideally one station on FM (96.9) with the best of the syndie and
local shows would work out. Kind of. But GM won't sell 96.9 from what I can see,
and neither station plans to change format. The cons. talk got weeded out a bit with
1200 changing. Would 680 eventually move to something else?...and, what?
>>WWZN to FM!
Ha--with NBC and Yahoo sports radio? I don't know what freq it would go on but wouldn't Brother Stair overnights sound great in stereo or at least "static free FM"?
At least it seems like Santos won't be back but who knows if he will. btw a few years ago I wonder if Stephen Mindich might have considered buying or leasing time on a station like WWZN. Imagine:
the music, etc. on WFNX 101.7...and progressive talk on 1510 "WFNX (AM)". Occupy 1510!
Local and national prog talk shows.
It wouldn't have made money (maybe broke even?), but it would have had the left-leaning folks here very happy.
As it was they did have prog talk with 1510 for the past few years via Santos but now it's
back to square one. While it probably would have failed also I wonder if Mindich considered it.
(Then again he eventually did get "out of the (radio) business" as Jerry W used to say.)
Ha--with NBC and Yahoo sports radio? I don't know what freq it would go on but wouldn't Brother Stair overnights sound great in stereo or at least "static free FM"?
At least it seems like Santos won't be back but who knows if he will. btw a few years ago I wonder if Stephen Mindich might have considered buying or leasing time on a station like WWZN. Imagine:
the music, etc. on WFNX 101.7...and progressive talk on 1510 "WFNX (AM)". Occupy 1510!
Local and national prog talk shows.
It wouldn't have made money (maybe broke even?), but it would have had the left-leaning folks here very happy.
As it was they did have prog talk with 1510 for the past few years via Santos but now it's
back to square one. While it probably would have failed also I wonder if Mindich considered it.
(Then again he eventually did get "out of the (radio) business" as Jerry W used to say.)
I would not be shocked to see CBS start sniffing to buy an AM for the CBS Sports Radio Network.
Maybe Salem would buy 680 and then sell 590 to CBS.
Maybe Salem would buy 680 and then sell 590 to CBS.
Still ironic that WEEI's calls used to be on AM and FM stations owned by CBS but now WEEI's _competitor_ is CBS owned.
Why would Entercom blow up an allegedly-successful operation in WAAF/WKAF by putting an allegedly-unsuccessful operation of WRKO on it? And WKAF gets them FM but not a superior FM signal; the 680AM signal is definitely bigger, even at night (arguably). All the moreso because allegedly WTKK isn't doing all that great, either...and 96.9 is a MUCH better signal than 97.7...so clearly being on FM alone is not enough to have a successful conservative talk station in Boston.
BTW, all the "allegedly" qualifiers is because, AFAIK, none of us have access to the ratings for the demographics that these stations care about, much less the actual revenue numbers (which are what really matter for determining "success").
First of all, Howie's on-air bitching about Entercom is more schtick than real. No employee lets their employee bitch about the employer in a public fashion unless they WANT to let it happen. I agree that if the conditions were right, he'd probably leave WRKO. But it's not like he's so desperate to leave that he'd rather do a volunteer shift on a college radio station than stay another day with Entercom. If the cash and conditions are right...or right "enough"...he'll stay.
And where's he gonna go? Again, allegedly WTKK isn't doing all THAT well these days. Howie can't count on them offering him a sweet deal to make the jump like he could've last time, when he shot himself in the foot by announcing his departure too early and letting Entercom invoke a right of first refusal clause in his contract. So assuming, for a moment, that WTKK is off the table...where else can Howie go that's on FM? I'm drawing a total blank. Certainly WBUR and WGBH won't touch him. I don't see why SportsHub would take him. Maybe he'd "accept" going to a killer AM signal like WBZ 1030AM...but would WBZ take him? Seems doubtful to me.
aaronread said:
I have access to these ratings numbers and for WAAF things are not very pretty.
Sorry but the time on my reply # 14 above ran out.
WFAN 660 is better than 2 to 1 beating WEPN 98.7 in the City. I wonder how moving to 101.9 and losing 660 doesn't replicate the recent 1050 to 98.7 WEPN eclat?
FWIW, Why does CBS blow up a resurrected, sailing up the charts, 101.9 WRXP seeing they have a dowdy old 102.7 just hanging around doing who knows what?
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WFAN 660 is better than 2 to 1 beating WEPN 98.7 in the City. I wonder how moving to 101.9 and losing 660 doesn't replicate the recent 1050 to 98.7 WEPN eclat?
FWIW, Why does CBS blow up a resurrected, sailing up the charts, 101.9 WRXP seeing they have a dowdy old 102.7 just hanging around doing who knows what?
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reelyreal said:
WRKO and WTKK are the big talkers in Boston. Both stations are highly competitive with each other. 680 and 96.9 are tied in the ratings. Adding WRKO and WTKK together gives the two talkers a 1 share over a jaded rocker that doesn't even have any direct competition.
Call it what you will...
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