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Why is FM News failing?

N

nd2023

Banned
It's been over 6 months since FM News 101.9 launched and their ratings are less than stellar. Family Radio 94.7 is beating it despite the fact that the world didn't end. WBAI is on its way to beat it. Several out of market stations beat it.

It ain't doing well in Chicago either. I heard FM News 101.1 on a layover in Chicago last month, and noticed that it's about the exact same style as the New York version.

How long will it take until Merlin realizes that FM News is a failure? I guarantee that when FM News launches in Philly it'll do worse in the ratings than Family Radio 106.9. I'm sure that Merlin is bleeding cash since all news stations are expensive to operate and the advertising revenue must be low since they're the lowest rated commercial station.
 
WTOP-FM was the top billing station in the country in 2010 and is routinely #1 in the market. FM news in San Francisco is either #1 or #2 in the market (KCBS-AM/KFRC-FM and KQED-FM). It's at or near the top in Chicago (WBBM-AM/WCFS-FM). In Seattle, KIRO-FM is doing very well (I do concede it is not a pure all-news product) and was #2 in the market until holiday music overtook it, and KOMO AM-FM is right behind. Perhaps your thread should be about specific stations rather than a broad statement about FM News as a format.
 
I thought it was pretty clear from the title, and this being the New York board, that he meant "FM News 101.9."

It should also be noted that all of the stations you mentioned as successes were successful operations on the AM band that migrated or simulcasted on FM.

Starting from scratch is no easy task, but I think it's safe to say that it's not working. I'll admit I was wrong. I was encouraging everyone to give it time, that FM News 101.9 would get better... it hasn't. In my opinion, the station lacks confidence, it lacks credentials, and it lacks respect. What's FM News 101.9? Ask a New Yorker what 1010 WINS is, and they'll know. Ask a New Yorker what CBS is, and they'll know. There's no reason to respect or like this station. It sounds amateurish and lacks confidence.
 
Look at KGO-AM San Francisco a Cumulus O&O they are basically using the Merlin Tactics of all news and KCBS 106.9/740 is still in the overall top 3 in the San Francisco area
 
A bad radio station is just that....a bad radio station!! Doesn't matter if it's on AM or FM or what format it is. BLINK-FM....FREE-FM....92.3 NOW...BIG 105....K-ROCK (2x!).....MIX 102.7....Air America....etc, etc.
 
Nick said:
It's been over 6 months since FM News 101.9 launched and their ratings are less than stellar. Family Radio 94.7 is beating it despite the fact that the world didn't end. WBAI is on its way to beat it. Several out of market stations beat it.

It ain't doing well in Chicago either. I heard FM News 101.1 on a layover in Chicago last month, and noticed that it's about the exact same style as the New York version.

How long will it take until Merlin realizes that FM News is a failure? I guarantee that when FM News launches in Philly it'll do worse in the ratings than Family Radio 106.9. I'm sure that Merlin is bleeding cash since all news stations are expensive to operate and the advertising revenue must be low since they're the lowest rated commercial station.
Click to expand...

Look at the San Francisco Boards about Cumulus owned Semi News KGO-AM 810. THe people in San Francisco view that station the same way you guys view WEMP. But I wish CBS got 94.7 and 101.9 for WINS and WCBS News instead of buying TV-55.
 
I meant FM News as Merlin's stations in NYC and Chicago and soon to be Philly.

Obviously WTOP in DC is doing great, and they were able to cash in the ratings when Snowmageddon hit 2 years ago. Why didn't FM News 101.9 have a blockbuster month when the earthquake and the hurricane hit in August? The G8 summit will be in Chicago in May, will FM News 101.1 cash in on that?
 
Perhaps the title of this thread should be, "Why is Merlin failing?"
 
DToTheJ said:
Perhaps the title of this thread should be, "Why is Merlin failing?"
Click to expand...

Randy Michaels has cultivated some really bad Karma, simple as that.

Honestly, news on FM isn't new, I heard it on FM in California's Central Valley years ago, but it was a simulcast with an AM. Starting a news operation without any help from an already established AM signal is a lot harder than people think. Merlin is ahead of it's time there, but Michaels should have realized that it's very different from starting a music station. News is expensive and even more so at start up because until you get some numbers, you're paying for it out of your own pocket.
 
and i wonder why the fcc has not approved the sale of WKDN from family radio to merlin media ?

is it a CBS payoff or something greater ?
 
Maybe because it's 99% fluff...even a revival of CD 101.9 would probably beat their ratings.

-crainbebo
 
Mike said:
and i wonder why the fcc has not approved the sale of WKDN from family radio to merlin media ?

is it a CBS payoff or something greater ?
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The sale application for WKDN was filed about 20-ish days later than the app for WFSI/WLZL. It's coming.
 
I said it from the beginning, putting a station on FM is not going to magically pull in great ratings as a lot of people like to believe. Sure it has worked in some markets, but we already have 2 heritage news stations on AM that have been successful for decades. People are not going to suddenly abandon WCBS and WINS because some other news station cropped up on FM, nor are people who never listened to news on the radio before going to suddenly start listening to news because it's on FM. So basically WCBS and WINS make up the pie, and WEMP is a few crumbs on the floor.
 
It's real simple. WINS and WCBS are well-programmed and well promoted stations with 40+ years of heritage. WEMP has no heritage and sounds like crap.
 
I tune into WEMP, "One, two, three times a month!"

During this morning's sampling, within 5 minutes, I heard someone pot the traffic down and up in the middle of the report -- there were two 5-second gaps between stories (I guess the second anchor was a .wav file) -- and the lead story had something to do with Snooki.

"Sounds like crap" is an understatement!
 
The problem with FM News is that there is already Coke and Pepsi in the market, meaning 880 and 1010. FM News is RC Cola to the two major brands. It was okay if it was the only thing you had to drink, but if there was Coke or Pepsi in the fridge you would grab one of them first.

Just because it's on FM doesn't mean that it's going to instantly grab ratings. The sports stations and news stations that have gone to FM have been established brands, except for the Sports Hub in Boston. But CBS launched it with a full lineup and it was ready for prime time on launch. FM News was NOT ready for prime time by a long shot. And it launched with that stupid ass "Kardashian News" format that had already failed on Blink.

Most people that would have sampled it have the first impression of "nothing news" still stuck in their heads and then they don't tune back. Also, the station doesn't sound technically tight. Traffic reports get cut off on the outtro, there's sometimes a good 5 or 6 second space between traffic and weather, some elements sound like crap while others sound okay. You almost NEVER hear these mistakes (rookie ones that should not happen in NYC after 6 months on the air) on WCBS or WINS. They're both tight ships and established brands.

A news talk station that is local, with local hosts and news relevant to NYC with an agnostic political stance; some hosts on the right, and some on the left or Curtis and Kuby like combos talking Tri-State issues would work. We already have Coke and Pepsi. Don't need RC Cola, which is a poor knock off.
 
ansky212 said:
I said it from the beginning, putting a station on FM is not going to magically pull in great ratings as a lot of people like to believe. Sure it has worked in some markets, but we already have 2 heritage news stations on AM that have been successful for decades.
Click to expand...

In fact, there are very very few instances of startup news or news talk stations doing well on FM.

The consensus is that taking an existing highly successful AM in one of these formats and adding an FM simulcast or even moving it to FM will have good results and, particularly, improve the under-55 listening where AM is a definite negative.

Examples: WTOP, WSB, KSL, KCBS, WOKV, WXYT.

Starting a new station on FM: iffy.

Moving a badly performing AM to FM: almost certain disaster.
 
calguy said:
Starting a news operation without any help from an already established AM signal is a lot harder than people think.
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They're starting it without any help from anyone, and that's the biggest mistake here. Radio doesn't work that way. I suggest that if Merlin had launched a music station in a genre that didn't build word of mouth, he'd be in exactly the same hole.

If you're building a news station in a market where there's already a heritage station, you need to have some kind of gimmick that creates word of mouth. There was no need for Fox News when they launched it. CNN had been around for 15 years. MSNBC was launched four months earlier. So Fox was the third news channel. But they created an audience by setting a style. It was edgy news, with rock imaging. They had an attitude, and weren't afraid to say what they think, and that brought them an audience that might not have been attracted to traditional news presentation. Merlin hasn't done that. And you'd think Randy, of all people, would understand that. The stations need a style, an attitude, an image that is different from what already exists. Otherwise there's no reason to listen.

Even if they flip from news to sports, or news to AC, unless they have some kind of unique style that differentiates them from what already exists, they will be in trouble. That is the real challenge for a programmer, and I think Randy has been away from it too long to understand that.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Starting a new station on FM: iffy.
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The one major market example is KROI-FM in Houston. They just launched a few weeks ago. Their only commercial competitor is KTRH-AM, which is a news/talk combo. They've been drifting more to conservative talk, alienating hard news fans. And they've been doing it on the cheap, firing popular local staffers. KROI hired some of the established Houston talent, so they're starting with known names. We'll see what happens.
 
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