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What is WCFO 1160 AM doing wrong?

L

louisNatl

Guest
I am surprised that has not appeared in the book yet. The format is very unique and they have several local shows including many weekend shows that were on WGST. I know that I enjoy Bloomberg mornings much better than the repetitive Scott Slade on WSB. I would have predicted that this station would perform decently since Atlanta is a major business and financial center. Is this just a case of bad marketing?
 
A business focused show or program block would work, but an entire station devoted to business only works in NYC. They have a good Saturday with x-GST’ers Dr. Gene and John Adams, but that’s about it for me. Nobody, including Jeff Davis, can make this one work. I still think they missed an opportunity with Pete and Wayne.
 
It's just flat out boring that's why they will never have any ratings. You can get all the info you need on finance management and stocks on the internet. Plus the station has NO local feel to it, no local news,traffic with only on occasion local weather updates. The shows on the weekend, even though they may be local and have John Adams name on it don't gurantee any ratings. One reason they were dropped from WGST is they had no listeners. WCFO will not advertise or promote the station either. I don't think Joe Radio has a lot of interest in it . 1160's signal is not the best either, running a highly directional patter even at 50,000 watts and only 160 watts at night. If they wanted the format to work why not put the format on 1690 and Joe Radio on 1160. 1690 has the better coverage. Plus the target audience they want to reach don't listen to AM radio. It's fatiguing to listen too. AM 1160 was begining to gain an audience when it was MOYL and actually showed in the ratings. People will come to your store when you have a product to sell no matter where it is,but in 1160's case no sale.
 
I don't agree that NYC is the only market where an all-business format could work. A number of large markets have an otherwise non-viable AM station running syndicated all-business programming. It's probably the only format where you can do well without ratings. That's because any audience it has is very pure--only upscale people interested in business news and investing. It's a concept sell to advertisers.

I actually convinced a bank client of mine to buy a schedule on 1160 early this year. This bank was going to be advertising a business product. I wrote the client that anyone listening would be the perfect target for the product. And for almost pennies for a spot, how could the bank lose? The client went along with this.

I will say that WCFO has the worst 50,000-watt signal I've ever heard.
 
Looking at their weekday lineup, I see they have a "Best Of" Ray Lucia show on at 4pm. Isn't that when the market is closing? Why wouldn't they run a Bloomberg atth ebell show?
 
It doesn't matter what is on the air if you can't hear it. Downtown, Midtown, Sandy Springs, the signal sucks! Get a channel on an FM's HD!
 
amlover said:
It's just flat out boring that's why they will never have any ratings. You can get all the info you need on finance management and stocks on the internet. Plus the station has NO local feel to it, no local news,traffic with only on occasion local weather updates.
Click to expand...

That's all well and good other than the fact that I can't not (reliably) receive internet radio in my car during drive time. With the success of CNBC, Bloomberg TV & Radio, Money, Marketwatch, and other media outlets, I would think that there would be at least a moderate market for it in an area as large as Atlanta. How many political talk stations do we need that constantly try to cater to the lowest common denominator to achieve the highest ratings? I know that we had a successful daytime business talk station for several years in my hometown of Jackson, MS. I am not sure of the call letters but I believe it was on 680 AM. I would think that Atlanta could at least support even if it is not as successful as Bloomberg in NYC.

I agree with you regarding the local feel. They could add local news and traffic to give the station more of a professional sound so that it is not so automated and low-budget. At least WGKA, WGST, Talkradio 1230/1340, and 1690 when it was Air America have local newscasts, traffic, and weather during the peak hours. I never listen in the afternoon though. I always switch to WABE to catch Marketplace.
 
WCFO-1160 will always be what it is a satellite fed service as long as it has it's current owner. He really only cares about his play toy AM-1690. I'm sure he would like to dump AM-1160 but has way too much money invested and will be hard pressed to re-coop his money. It's really ashame that 1160 was destroyed along with rest of the AM band in this town. Well we do have a few AM's that are listenable.
 
WCFO 1160 just has bad signal coverage in the area. Looking at pictures of their transmitter site, it looks like they have some nice new equipment, but their ground system looks like a hack...

http://gallery.bostonradio.org/2004-11/atlanta/100-02574-med.html

Given the poor soil conductivity in the region, I can't believe some pathetic coverage that 50kW AM stations have here. The exceptions being 750 WSB, and 680 WCNN (in the daytime).

I wish stations like WCFO 1160 had better signal coverage so they could at least attract some listeners to tune in. I live in town in the shadows of 1190 WAFS's towers, which pretty much blows away listening to 1160 kHz on most radios. I work in Alpharetta, and you get a weak signal at 1160 kHz up there.

- HS
 
radio.engineer said:
WCFO 1160 just has bad signal coverage in the area. Looking at pictures of their transmitter site, it looks like they have some nice new equipment, but their ground system looks like a hack...

- HS
Click to expand...

If you bothered to read elsewhere, the WMLB ground system had to cross over some creek...no doubt the creek was determined to be a "wet land" by the EPA, hence it could not be disturbed.You do what you have to do to get a station on the air. I am not passing judgement on the station , or the EPA. Sometimes there is so much more to building a station.....AM or FM.... than meets the eye.
 
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