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WIND Rebrands As "The Answer"

This has been done in Dallas on KSKY which was done sometime ago. Just like KSKY in Dallas, you are not going toget big raitngs on salem talk stations. They will never come close to WGN or WLS. I am not sure how well the new branding is working in Dallas, but it is different. KSKY has added to their line up, known local talent.
 
New York's station was the first to get the "Answer" branding from Salem - and their PD, Phil Boyce, also doubles as the imaging person for Salem's "Answer" stations, as well.
 
National "branding" is part of what's wrong with radio. I may eat a "brand" of cereal, but I do not listen to "a brand" of radio. Moreover, if you are so unskilled at marketing that you can't take great call letters like "WIND" or "KSKY" and make people remember them, then you are most likely in the wrong line of work.
 
stereolane said:
National "branding" is part of what's wrong with radio. I may eat a "brand" of cereal, but I do not listen to "a brand" of radio. Moreover, if you are so unskilled at marketing that you can't take great call letters like "WIND" or "KSKY" and make people remember them, then you are most likely in the wrong line of work.
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+1

I grew up in a home where WIND was on every radio in the house. And at one time or another home to some great broadcasters....Milo Hamilton, Chuck Benson, Bill Berg, Dick Williamson, Joel Sebastian, Dave Baum, Connie Sczerzen (sp?), Clark Weber, Bob Del Giorno, Bob Hale, Ed Schwartz, and, of course, Howard Miller....to name just a few. Fast-forward to today, where we now have "live and local" with capable but under-promoted, if not underused, talent for morning drive and a couple of hours in the afternoon. The rest of the lineup basically being canned, stale, and second-tier at best.

Good signal, great call letters, even greater heritage all being wasted, IMHO. The current state of talk radio being what it is notwithstanding, there would seem to be an opportunity here to make at least inroads while WLS and WGN both seem to be stumbling a bit. That said, my take is that Salem's primary objective is not growing revenue and ratings, but rather in advancing a political and religious agenda.

"The Answer"? I don't think so.
 
stereolane said:
Salem's primary objective is to clear national ads in major markets. Same as Cumulus and CC.
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Salem has made no secret of why they exist - they want to make money spreading "The Word." Conservative talk is a subset of that - a means to an end.

Making money for the stockholders/owners is always #1 for a for-profit business, but from what I've read, they make more money from selling time to preachers on their religious stations than on the talk-radio network. In other words, WYLL makes more money than WIND (and, yes, I find that hard to believe in Chicago but not in other parts of the country).
 
KeithE4 said:
Making money for the stockholders/owners is always #1 for a for-profit business, but from what I've read, they make more money from selling time to preachers on their religious stations than on the talk-radio network. In other words, WYLL makes more money than WIND (and, yes, I find that hard to believe in Chicago but not in other parts of the country).
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A Radio Sales friend tells me that WIND pulled in $4.6 Mil last year in sales. So they're not hurting, but certainly not living up to that stations capabilities.

Word on the street is that their GSM just left to go work for Glen Beck as a national sales person....Evidently that was "The Answer" or him ;D
 
radioaircheck said:
This has been done in Dallas on KSKY which was done sometime ago. Just like KSKY in Dallas, you are not going toget big raitngs on salem talk stations. They will never come close to WGN or WLS. I am not sure how well the new branding is working in Dallas, but it is different. KSKY has added to their line up, known local talent.
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radioguy39nj said:
This has also been done on WNYM New York. The station is now 970 The Answer. :)
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...and in Los Angeles on KRLA/870. Kinda surprised Salem hasn't yet done it to KKNT/960 Phoenix, which apparently still calls itself "The Patriot"...
 
What is the question, which AM station with good coverage can be the worst? Billing doesn't sound bad. True that the station is really there to clear national inventory. Do you think they could make any money doing an oldies format? Bring back Connie!
 
Going back to Nashville said:
What is the question, which AM station with good coverage can be the worst? Billing doesn't sound bad. True that the station is really there to clear national inventory. Do you think they could make any money doing an oldies format? Bring back Connie!
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Agreed--put oldies on 560 & bring in Dick Biondi, Lujack & Edwards. Station could only do better & the demos might actually get younger.
 
Nice idea, but I don't know any young people who listen to AM radio except possibly to the sports stations. WIND has a good signal but the long wavelength has a difficult time penetrating modern steel and concrete buildings (not just the skyscrapers downtown). It's also quite vulnerable to locally generated noise from all kinds of electrical appliances and computers.

What I would prefer would be a station broadcasting an adult standards format like "America's Best Music" or the Music of your Life. Chicago lacks such a station. Older listeners still appreciate this music and would listen on AM.
 
That is true of WIND and the signal. When a thunderstorm is still far out you don't need a weather update to tell you. You turn the dial to 530 and hear the lightning crackle. It starts to hit 560 before it hits the stations up the dial, it sort of creeps up the dial, unless it forms north of the city and comes south then the 670, 720 and 780 get noise stronger due to location.

The AM dial is a bit interesting, could we say radio bi-polar? Not intented to offend anyone who may suffer with that. It was just a comparison to how the lower band reaches farther, where the upper band has less reach for the power, yet gets less electrical noise.

WILL in Urbana is a monster signal, I've listened in Terre Haute and Evansville many times on cheap radio's will no trouble. Even when they are at the 335 watt level after Sunset, it can still be heard in the Chicago metro. Not a clear signal, it is usuable most days.

Their carthoid pattern is also interesting it can be heard to the north, south and east for 100's of miles, yet you drive from Urbana to Decatur and it gets bad, Springfield forget it. Imagine what the range would be on WILL or WMT if they were 50kW ;-)

I would like very much to have a America's best or MOYL station to hear when in Chicago. I get 980 in Decatur to around the Kank. River Valley then it is not good to listen too.

The bad thing if it ever happened it would have to be on a Suburban station like they did with AM 850 some years back. It doesn't look good though since 1180 changed to another classic hits station. By the way when did they do that and get on FM?
 
While the local lineup of J&Amy and Cochran is a good competition against Bruce & Dan and Brandmeier, the national lineup is failing them. Being corporate owned is the first problem. The corporate would rather schedule their programs versus the ones from other companies. Currently, there are two weekday programs on WIND, Glenn Beck (Clear Channel) and Dennis Miller (Dial Global), that are not Salem programs.

I have heard rumors via The News-Gazette in Champaign that Learfield Sports is attempting to move the Illini off of WIND for another station. While I don't think that picking up sports teams is the solution for 560, their weak signal and low ratings can contribute to their losses in Chicago.
 
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