Listening to Jay Sorenson recreating portions of his time machine show tonight on CBSfm makes me wonder what WNBC would be like today if it was never sold and existed today nearly 20 years after the sale. What would be the format ,who might be working there and whether if he was still there would Imus had been fired and if he was would he have been rehired?
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What if WNBC had never been sold?
- Thread starter JoeyK
- Start date
JoeyK said:
If WNBC had never had been sold, it would be owned by NBC/GE - who also own MSNBC - so you can bet that Imus would have been fired - just as he was from MSNBC.
If you are speaking of the spin away from Emmis, then yes, he would have been fired as well - because they could not have taken the heat in the Urban Community and Urban Ad Community owning WRKS and Hot 97.
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And I bet that the salaries would be among the lowest in NYC on 66 WNNNNN-BC.
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You know, former GE CEO Jack Welch has said his one regret was getting the company out of the radio business just before it took off for a 15 year boom run between 1989 and 2004...and he began feeling those regrets almost as soon as the ink was dried on all the O&O station sale contracts. So it's possible that if those second thoughts had surfaced just a bit earlier there would still be a WNBC today.
It's anyone's guess how Imus' show would have evolved if he had spent another 20 years at 30 Rock working under Jack Welch and the GE crew. But it's safe to say that it would have been somewhat different than it became under either Emmis, or eventually under CBS. For one thing, WNBC would probably NEVER have become a sports station, but stayed a full service outlet, probably a fulltime talker. And in order to differentiate itself from what WABC became under John Mainelli and Phil Boyce, and maintain its own brand identityt, it most likely would have been LESS consistently conservative than WABC and more of a political maverick. Alan Colmes might well have stayed on in afternoon drive, for example. Imus might have had stronger direction had he stayed at 30 Rock--and oddly enough, while he probably would have chafed at that, his show might have been more focused, funnier, and less self-indulgent. If you make that assumption about how his show would have developed under continued NBC management, he'd probably be still more successful--and still be at 660 on the dial in his home market today.
It's anyone's guess how Imus' show would have evolved if he had spent another 20 years at 30 Rock working under Jack Welch and the GE crew. But it's safe to say that it would have been somewhat different than it became under either Emmis, or eventually under CBS. For one thing, WNBC would probably NEVER have become a sports station, but stayed a full service outlet, probably a fulltime talker. And in order to differentiate itself from what WABC became under John Mainelli and Phil Boyce, and maintain its own brand identityt, it most likely would have been LESS consistently conservative than WABC and more of a political maverick. Alan Colmes might well have stayed on in afternoon drive, for example. Imus might have had stronger direction had he stayed at 30 Rock--and oddly enough, while he probably would have chafed at that, his show might have been more focused, funnier, and less self-indulgent. If you make that assumption about how his show would have developed under continued NBC management, he'd probably be still more successful--and still be at 660 on the dial in his home market today.
AHH...but I have FIRST HAND knowledge that IF GE had NOT sold the grand dame, WNBC would have evolved into OLDIES..at least circa '88. Yep...and The Time Machine or some derivative was to be the format told directly TO ME from the person who would have MADE it happen. WNBC had talked with a MAJOR talent on another station to do Mid-days, (now retired) and Imus would have stayed right where he was and done HIS own thing as usual...but the rest of the day was to be oldies with folks like ME and Dan Taylor and some others..
So...for pure blanks and giggles, WNBC was to go after CBS-FM with a hipper, slightly younger music base, leaning a little rockier than CBS was at the time... WNBC would NOT have played DOO-WOP but more of a classic hits sound.. Trust me on this one.
Whether this would have lasted, no one knows. Whether the station would have eventually gone sports and go up against WFAN will never be known. Whether it would have become a mainstream talker...we'll never know. Would it have been able to stay a full-service music, news and talk station? Maybe..but for the initial time-frame...had GE not divested itself of the O & O's, Oldies in some form was what was going to happen. We all know the rest. If the GE braintrust had KEPT radio, they would have made a LOT more $$ than they did by selling the stations and the net in my mind.
As an aside, I remember going on Alan Colmes show on WMCA about 3 months after WNBC signed off on Oct. 7, 1988...and Imus did an hour show..then the rest of the staff did a two hour stint..with Colmes moderating. Peg Kelly the last GM of WNBC after John Hayes left couldn't believe that most of the calls coming IN were directed at ME. All the radio pigs LOVED the Time Machine, and Peg turned to me during a break and said..."If I knew you were THAT popular, we would have done something about it". I replied, "well it's not too late...fork it over." She guffawed.
I can't tell you how many calls I took on Sunday at CBS-FM. Phones rang constantly for the duration and after. Sorry if I couldn't get to you if you tried. I am just NOW finishing answering the hundreds of email from listeners. If you didn't catch my email, go to www.bigjayandanita.com and click on contact JAY.
BE BIG!!
So...for pure blanks and giggles, WNBC was to go after CBS-FM with a hipper, slightly younger music base, leaning a little rockier than CBS was at the time... WNBC would NOT have played DOO-WOP but more of a classic hits sound.. Trust me on this one.
Whether this would have lasted, no one knows. Whether the station would have eventually gone sports and go up against WFAN will never be known. Whether it would have become a mainstream talker...we'll never know. Would it have been able to stay a full-service music, news and talk station? Maybe..but for the initial time-frame...had GE not divested itself of the O & O's, Oldies in some form was what was going to happen. We all know the rest. If the GE braintrust had KEPT radio, they would have made a LOT more $$ than they did by selling the stations and the net in my mind.
As an aside, I remember going on Alan Colmes show on WMCA about 3 months after WNBC signed off on Oct. 7, 1988...and Imus did an hour show..then the rest of the staff did a two hour stint..with Colmes moderating. Peg Kelly the last GM of WNBC after John Hayes left couldn't believe that most of the calls coming IN were directed at ME. All the radio pigs LOVED the Time Machine, and Peg turned to me during a break and said..."If I knew you were THAT popular, we would have done something about it". I replied, "well it's not too late...fork it over." She guffawed.
I can't tell you how many calls I took on Sunday at CBS-FM. Phones rang constantly for the duration and after. Sorry if I couldn't get to you if you tried. I am just NOW finishing answering the hundreds of email from listeners. If you didn't catch my email, go to www.bigjayandanita.com and click on contact JAY.
BE BIG!!
Not to be outdone, (or to veer too much from the topic) what about if NBC didn't sell WYNY? Would it have still become a country station? Or would it have evolved to KTU?
IngramMess said:
WYNY was ALREADY country when it was sold. NBC was the company that flipped it.
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To visualize what WNBC would be today, just look at WNEW-AM, WMCA and WQXR-AM. Their current incarnation is not even a pale rendition of their old self. That would be WNBC today.
Continuous Monitor reruns.
I used to like Monitor(it aired in RI on the former WJAR 920. When I was at URI in '72, the campus FM, WRIU,tried to get an NBC affiliation to run Monitor, but never made it.)Had WNBC stayed at 660, I'm betting a hipper blend of talk during the day, with ass-kicking oldies at night. Outside of the late lamented WNEW, WNBC was one of my choices for NY listening along with WHN....
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