What about the HD Subchannels for WQAL and WKRK? Any updates?
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Will Audacy's Troubles Affect Cleveland?
- Thread starter Santa fe
- Start date
WKRK-FM’s subchannels are both spoken word, and IIRC, the Cleveland Browns program the third subchannel. They’ll probably continue as-is.
WQAL-HD3 is Channel Q, which lost their air talent a few weeks ago and is running a house mix round the clock. Chances are both WQAL subs will be going away shortly, if they haven’t already.
WKRK HD2 is CBS Sports Radio and HD3 is Browns programming
I liked Album Pod. Why would they turn off automated, unmanned formats? It doesn't really cost much in terms of electricity/personell/etc.
Music licensing. Rights for HD channel use. Music software. Hardware for system storage. And distraction from the productive signals.
Could Good Karma and Alpha Media make a play for the Audacy Cleveland stations?
WDOK dropped Coffee Shop from their subchannel? I wonder if Acoustic Sunrise will be on the chopping block - if it hasn't already been dropped - as well. I figured the success of AS is what led them to put it on a full-time subchannel. Of course, you can stream anything through the apps, so maybe that's the direction they're going in on a national level?
Also, I doubt that Audacy is going to sell off everything in town and leave. Unlike iHeart's mostly automated/syndicated stations, the ones under Audacy's banner are legacy stations in town, or low-budget income generators like 92.3 The Fan. WNCX is an institution, and the duopoly of Star 102 and Q104 are unstoppable ratings juggernauts. Companies don't normally nuke stations that are bringing in high ratings and decent ad revenue.
Also, I doubt that Audacy is going to sell off everything in town and leave. Unlike iHeart's mostly automated/syndicated stations, the ones under Audacy's banner are legacy stations in town, or low-budget income generators like 92.3 The Fan. WNCX is an institution, and the duopoly of Star 102 and Q104 are unstoppable ratings juggernauts. Companies don't normally nuke stations that are bringing in high ratings and decent ad revenue.
Is Salem really wanna face competition with EMF?
Good Karma has an outdated AM (WWGK should be dead by now?) but they won’t be able to buy all four stations, even if they wanted to. Alpha is no longer buying stations, either.
Coffee Shop actually predated Acoustic Sunrise. It was originally on WQAL HD2 before it landed on WDOK HD2.
Semi-related, but the Audacy stations in town have new call-in numbers as of Friday morning. When I was on the way to my doctor appointment, I tuned into 102.1 and the on-screen message was "Star102 WDOK has a new call-in number!" with a similar message over on 104.1: "Q104 Plays The Hits! WQAL has a new call-in number!" Both were followed by the new numbers - both different from each other and no longer 216-578-1021/0104. When I thought about the whole Audacy issues thing, my first inclination was that there were new owners in town, but then I heard commercials for the Audacy app, so no, it's just a case of new phone numbers, which is strange, given that 578-whatever seems to have been the radio station exchange number forever.
The "Community organizations" would need an actual radio station to be the parent station.
I think that what is meant here is the frequencies could have gone to establish community stations (like WOVU) instead of broadcasting national network programming or repeating existing AM stations.
LPFM stations need people to keep the station operating. Placing it in the utter obscurity of an HD Radio subchannel would not help matters in any way.
That is what I meant to say. You should also throw in HD Subchannels that most people would not have access to anyway.
Many things are to blame for this incompetent management.
The "incompetency" has come, in a big part, from the FCC concept of "if it fits, license it". Add in a dose of Docket 80-90 which allowed all kinds of upgrades, migrations and total disregard for the former table of allocations and we have Albuquerque, Market 69, with 67 AM, FM and translator stations. Or Boise, Market 83, with 56 stations and several viable non-MSA rimshots.
While there are certain elements of Canadian regulation I don't agree with (mostly in content regulation), they tried to keep the market assignments in a fair proportion to population and the ability of stations to operate well within the available revenue in each market. Some of that has gone away, and they have allowed duopolies and more format freedom, they mostly stayed away from daytime AMs and, generally, signals that could never be competitive.
The way to competently manage radio in this economy would be bad for radio listeners. So the question is how far does a company go in managing their stations profitably vs. retaining local staffs and property? The former Entercom is still basically running this company as though it's the 20th century. That's bad management, but it sounds better on the air than the alternative. For now.
Also remember, that a sizeable chunk of radio's traditional listenership -- people under 25 or maybe even 35 --- don't seem to listen to the radio as much for music anymore. Maybe sports or talk but not music. Now, I am sure that there will be some statistical information -- possibly industry generated -- which might shoot down my belief, but no one that I know who is under 35 pays any attention to music radio on FM. Some in that age group that I know, don't even own a radio except in the car.
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