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WHAM & Fox News

After many years listening to WHAM and the CBS Radio News at the top of the hour, why has the station flipped over to the Fox Radio Network?? I gave up on anything to do with Fox News about 1.5 years ago. (fair and balanced?? yeah right!) I guess I now need to shift my tuner to WXXI, or WROC for the national news on the radio dial. Dumb Clear Channel decision again, IMHO.
 
> After many years listening to WHAM and the CBS Radio News at
> the top of the hour, why has the station flipped over to the
> Fox Radio Network?? I gave up on anything to do with Fox
> News about 1.5 years ago. (fair and balanced?? yeah
> right!) I guess I now need to shift my tuner to WXXI, or
> WROC for the national news on the radio dial. Dumb Clear
> Channel decision again, IMHO.

Clear Channel and Fox News Radio inked a nationwide deal a while back. Just about all of the major CC news/talkers are picking up FNR, including here in Northeast Ohio (WTAM, WHLO).

Some secondary CC talkers are hanging onto ABC or other networks like CNN, mostly the chain's liberal talk stations...where Fox News Radio would not live very easily.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
Re: What Will Happen To CBS News in Rochester?

Even though Infinity owns a number of radio stations in Rochester, I don’t see, at the present time, any of their stations using CBS network news.

This could change if the following scenarios occur:

1. Infinity executives order one of their Rochester stations to carry CBS news.

2. One of the Infinity stations in Rochester changes format.

3. Infinity goes ahead with plans to sell off stations not in the top 25 market (Rochester ranks 54th) and the new owners decide to go with an all-news format, or try going after WHAM.

One Infinity employee has told me that corporate does want CBS in the Rochester market. Again, how this will turn out remains to be seen.
<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
Re: What Will Happen To CBS News in Rochester?

This is my 100th post! Woo-Hoo! Anything for a celebration, right?

Anyway, I think it's awful that WHAM was forced to make that switch. I mean, switching from CBS News to Fox News is like going from Coke or Pepsi to Brand X. Granted, all the radio networks, except for NPR News, play second fiddle to their television counterparts these days. But CBS is still a heritage network. Yes, Fox has made a name for itself. But it has no where near the credibility. Now, I don't want to hear from you nay-sayers about Dan Rather and all that crap. I'm not defending him. CBS paid dearly and has held all the parties involved in that debacle accountable. But when I hear a CBS newscast on WBEN here in Buffalo, I know I'm getting good, concise, well-packaged information. I have not heard Fox Radio News, so perhaps I shouldn't be commenting. But I have seen Fox News on TV. And if the radio version is anything like what I see on TV, I'll take CBS any day. It's a shame that Rochester radio listeners don't have that option anymore.
 
Re: What Will Happen To CBS News in Rochester?

I too, am disappointed by WHAM dropping CBS for Fox. It's like going from a Lincoln to a Pinto. Maybe Bob Savage will pick up CBS for WYSL. Who knows, Crawford might even pick it up for 990AM. They have no news now and it would certainly fit well with their older demos.

A mid sized market without a CBS station is not that unusal.
Syracuse hasn't had a steady CBS station since WHEN dropped them in the early 70's. An all news station was tried on 1260 (the old WNDR)for a short while and they had CBS but it didn't last long. I would like WFBL to pick them up. WFBL was a powerful CBS radio affilate in the golden days of radio in the 30's & 40's.
 
Re: What Will Happen To CBS News in Rochester?

Maybe Bob Savage will
> pick up CBS for WYSL. Who knows, Crawford might even pick
> it up for 990AM. They have no news now and it would
> certainly fit well with their older demos.
>
Savage isn't interested in CBS. Besides he already has ABC-E and CNN Headline news.

Crawford would be smart to at least try to land CBS on 990-AM. It would certainly fit in with their audience demographics. But, when I've listened, their radio operation doesn't strike me as being interested in news.



<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
>> Some secondary CC talkers are hanging onto ABC or other
> networks like CNN, mostly the chain's liberal talk
> stations...where Fox News Radio would not live very easily.
>

Which makes me think the obvious home for CBS right now in Rochester would be the local Air America affiliate, Entercom's WROC-AM 950. CBS can't go to the second-ranked news/talk player in the market because it's a noncomm...and it wouldn't be a good fit on sports-oriented WHTK...so 'ROC looks like the most compatible place for it. Wouldn't surprise me if Entercom put in a bid for an affiliation soon.
 
> Which makes me think the obvious home for CBS right now in
> Rochester would be the local Air America affiliate,
> Entercom's WROC-AM 950. CBS can't go to the second-ranked
> news/talk player in the market because it's a noncomm...and
> it wouldn't be a good fit on sports-oriented WHTK...so 'ROC
> looks like the most compatible place for it. Wouldn't
> surprise me if Entercom put in a bid for an affiliation
> soon.
>
I just don’t see Infinity giving CBS Radio News to one of their competitors. Besides Air America and CBS is like mixing oil and water. Air America’s audience tends to be more liberal, while CBS caters to people my age and political make-up. <P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
Check Buffalo

> >
> I just don’t see Infinity giving CBS Radio News to one of
> their competitors.

Entercom's WBEN has CBS radio news in The Nickel. Coincidentally, Infinity's WJYE used CNN radio news in the aftermath of 9/11.

> Air America’s audience tends to be
> more liberal, while CBS caters to people my age and
> political make-up.


Please explain.

It appears you're stereotyping yourself and CBS news as stodgy and old-line. Your writing style doesn't appear ol-line and today's CBS radio news package is quickly paced, crisply written and contains brief, well punctuated soundbites, the benchmarks of informative, entertaining (although not detailed) newscasts. For details, I listen to NPR or read the paper.
 
Re: Let Me Explain: FOX vs CBS

>
> Please explain.
>
> It appears you're stereotyping yourself and CBS news as
> stodgy and old-line. Your writing style doesn't appear
> ol-line and today's CBS radio news package is quickly paced,
> crisply written and contains brief, well punctuated
> soundbites, the benchmarks of informative, entertaining
> (although not detailed) newscasts. For details, I listen to
> NPR or read the paper.

I'd be glad to explain my comments but first let me add that I also listen to NPR news because I worked in public radio for 14 years and am used to their format and enjoy their style of in-depth news coverage.

Regarding my comments about CBS versus FOX, I was conveying my view that people of my generation are more familiar with CBS radio news than FOX because it’s been around for so many years. Personally I don't think this change will impact WHAM's audience because most of the broadcast day WHAM uses just sound bytes from the network while they have their own newscasters reading copy on the air.


Now in broadcasting anything is possible, but Air America in Rochester is on a station that has poor signal coverage. I just can’t see where adding CBS news to their station would help them. At the present time the only news this radio operation carries is from a local TV station, which has the same call letters as the radio station. Even though they are not owned by the same organization. Also, judging from what a friend of mine who work for Infinity has told me, the company does not want to give CBS news over to a competitor. That might be the case in Buffalo with WBEN, which is a well-established news station, but not here in Rochester.

Let me conclude that I am glad to hear the ABC radio network back on the airwaves in Rochester. WYSL recently started carrying ABC after the demise of the AP all news format. I’ve always enjoyed ABC radio news, especially since WHAM carried it when I worked there back in the 1970s.

<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
Re: Let Me Explain: FOX vs CBS

Also, judging from what a friend of mine who work for Infinity has told me, the company does not want to give CBS news over to a competitor.
> That might be the case in Buffalo with WBEN, which is a
> well-established news station, but not here in Rochester.


Why wouldn't Infinity want to give CBS over to a competitor? Infinity owns no AM properties in Rochester. I don't see Wease, Scott, or Tony saying lets pause now for CBS news. In other words, I don't think that Infinity will ever have a news presence in Rochester. However, CBS radio does need cleareance. That's how they sell their spots. Rochester is a pretty big market to bypass. Also, wouldn't WROC -AM and WROC-TV both being CBS be a good match?
 
Re: WROC TV & AM- CBS

> Rochester is a pretty big market to bypass. Also, wouldn't WROC -AM and
> WROC-TV both being CBS be a good match?


Yes it would be a good match if you wanted your network to be associated with two separately owned broadcasting operations that continues to be in last place compared to their competition.

As you may or may not remember, a number of years ago WHEC-TV was the CBS affiliate in Rochester. But then, back in the 1980s I believe, Channel 10’s management decided to dump CBS and become the NBC affiliate because NBC was the number # 1 network at the time for both programming and especially network news. (NBC still ranks number # 1 for the ‘Today Show’ and ‘NBC Nightly News’)

A close friend of mine, who worked for FOX affiliate WUHF at the time, told me that CBS executives tried to convince the then owners of Channel 31 to dump FOX, which was still in its infancy as a network at the time, and go with CBS. WUHF’s management decided to stay with FOX. So, according to my friend, CBS had no alternative but to go with WROC TV if they wanted a TV affiliate in Rochester.

The last Nielsen ratings book showed that, with the exception of noon, Channel 8 continues to draw half the viewing audience of Channels 13 and 10 at 6 & 11p.m. Some industry experts believe 8 does well at noon only because they have ‘The Price is Right’ as a lead-in.

Now taking into account what I just told you about TV, if you are a CBS executive shopping around for a radio station to carry your network, wouldn’t you want that radio station to have an audience?

With the exception of the Winter 2005 book (12+), WROC-AM has never generated above a 1 share. Yet looking at the book over a period of time one can see that 990-AM, which is owned by Crawford Broadcasting and targets an older audience, normally averages between a 2 and 3 share. And their signal is much better than 950’s. So if you have the choice of WLGZ-AM and WROC-AM, which station would you first approach to carry your network?

Of course this again is just speculation because Infinity could sell off their Rochester cluster to another broadcasting entity, which in turn could change the format of one of their stations by targeting WHAM and WXXI’s audience by carrying a news/talk format on an FM station, say like the ‘Zone’.




<P ID="signature">______________
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them".</P>
 
Re: WROC TV & AM- CBS

>
> As you may or may not remember, a number of years ago
> WHEC-TV was the CBS affiliate in Rochester. But then, back
> in the 1980s I believe, Channel 10’s management decided to
> dump CBS and become the NBC affiliate because NBC was the
> number # 1 network at the time for both programming and
> especially network news. (NBC still ranks number # 1 for the
> ‘Today Show’ and ‘NBC Nightly News’)

A major reason why WHEC switched to NBC had to do with their (at the time) co-owned Viacom station in Albany. Channel 13 in Albany has always had signal problems and ratings problems. NBC wanted to dump them. So WHEC became NBC partially to protect their station in Albany. NBC got a much stronger station in Rochester and kept the Albany station. To this day, WKTV in Utica covers much of eastern N. Y. with NBC and gets lots money from NBC because WNYT just doesn't cover the market.
>
> A close friend of mine, who worked for FOX affiliate WUHF at
> the time, told me that CBS executives tried to convince the
> then owners of Channel 31 to dump FOX, which was still in
> its infancy as a network at the time, and go with CBS.
> WUHF’s management decided to stay with FOX. So, according to
> my friend, CBS had no alternative but to go with WROC TV if
> they wanted a TV affiliate in Rochester.

I heard the same story at the time. However, I find it hard to believe that CBS, which has always shunned UHF stations would want Ch 31 over Ch 8. At least WROC did have a news dept. WUHF had nothing at the time. I doubt that CBS would want to lose their entire news presence in Rochester. Maybe the best thing for WROC would have been to become the Rochester FOX affilate.


So if you have the choice of WLGZ-AM and WROC-AM, which station would you first approach to carry your network?

Yes, if it were my decision I would go with the more powerful WLGZ
>
> Of course this again is just speculation because Infinity
> could sell off their Rochester cluster to another
> broadcasting entity, which in turn could change the format
> of one of their stations by targeting WHAM and WXXI’s
> audience by carrying a news/talk format on an FM station,
> say like the ‘Zone’.

The Zone has the same problems as WROC 950. No signal. In fact, I think 950AM gets out better than 94.1FM, At least out in the "burbs"
>
 
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