WNED Signs Agreement to Acquire WBFO

[SirRoxalot]

Nobody in their right mind is going to go back to jazz programming in the daytime at WBFO. The greatest potential for improvement would be combining the news talent at both WBFO and WNED into a single news department, and broadcasting their efforts on both signals. That would extend the breadth and depth of news, and should kick WBEN in the seat of the pants. It would also provide and important function in adding a less biased view than we get from much of local media.

You want to do jazz at night instead of so much repeat programming? Have at it. It isn't going to bring that musical form back to life in WNY, or make the handful of jazz afficianados happy anyway. In my estimation, an exploration of the local music scene, featuring original music and/or original approaches by local artists, would bring more audience to the table, and have a greater impact on local culture. On the Border had some elements of that, but too much of it was done too amateurishly.

As for those who think that my previous remarks were off-base, all I can say is that my opinions were derived from talking with people who had experience as customers of WBFO, or are professionals who competed with them. I have limited contact with people inside the building. Of course, the view looking out of the forest is always different than the view looking in. I wish nobody ill, and I hope that those who are caught up in this change emerge in better circumstances. Unfortunately, broadcasting as an industry seems to have little regard these days for effort, experience, or even results. Everything is ruled by the expense line of the ledger, with little regard to the revenue line until it drops "unexpectedly".

 

[GeorgeKramer]

When is the last day of work for the WNED folks? Will the on-air talent be allowed to say goodbye?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Who says any WNED folks are going anywhere?

 

[Philip_Airtime]

George, how do you come up with these questions? The whole staffing situation is up in the air. And it's the WBFO staff that is more at risk than WNED's. You ask questions that can't and won't be answered until the FCC approves the sale and the transition plans are finalized.

 

[Play Freebird]

Now, Simon, you're deluded if you think WNED is going to bring back jazz. DELUDED, I say. Jazz is no longer a viable radio format. I enjoy jazz. I, too, tune in 91.1. I still listen to Doug Blakely at night on WBFO. And my CD collection probably has more jazz CDs than the average person. But WBFO would have a fraction of the audience it has today if it was a primarily jazz outlet. Are there any radio professionals reading this who would disagree?

No disagreement at all. Jazz is America's indigenous art form, having its birth and evolution in the United States. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the format succeeds on a Canadian station, but wouldn't have a fighting chance on this side of the border.

Many jazz artists will also tell you that they are far more appreciated in Europe than here in North America.

 

[TheBigA]

Jazz is America's indigenous art form, having its birth and evolution in the United States.

Being an art form and a radio format have little to do with each other.

Most jazz artists recognize that they make more money and are more appreciated in other countries.

 

[SirRoxalot]

WBFO tried jazz in mid-days. The hour-by-hours looked like a cliff when Morning Edition ended at 10AM. They picked right back up again jazz ended in the afternoon. They're running jazz after 10PM. That's enough of a bone to throw at the jazz fans. BTW, I haven't noticed any Canadian jazz stations lighting up the ratings.

 

[cee]

All Jazz seems to work here in Rochester: http://www.jazz901.org/

 

[SirRoxalot]

Any format will work if you've got a school system picking up the tab. Check the ratings and tell me how they're doing.

 

[Element9]

Lee Rust will testify that Jazz on FM works in Rochester. Jazz on AM in Buffalo? Not likely. Jazz FM 91.1 is on a pre-select in my car and the signal is easily received in Lancaster and it's where I get my jazz fix.

It would appear music on AM is an all but failed mission. It is, after all 2011. KB failed with Oldies, as did 1540 WCKY Cincinnati, another 50kW flamethrower, operated by Clear Channel. Much is written here about Toronto's unique Standards AM 740. There are 5 million people in the Toronto CMA. AM 740's ratings in Buffalo are marginal. Even Buffalo's Standards station, Swing 1270 WHLD, tailed off in the Spring 11 book. From what insiders tell me, WHLD's only strength is Persons 65+.

1400 WWWS plays R & B Oldies and holds a fairly consistent Persons 12+ rating, but 104.1 WHTT delivers a nearly 7 to 1 advantage. If AM 1400 was a stand alone, it would be a tough sell, but its value comes as being part of the Entercom cluster and as an add-on to Star 102.5. This being said, WWWS probably makes more money as an add-on than does WECK, in either of its format permutations, be it the recently aborted Talk-Sports format or the present amalgam of 80s-90s music.

As 2012 approaches, it's unlikely that a significant, salable number of listeners or "members" (Persons 25-54 and 35-49) will choose to listen to music, whether it's deep cuts from Ambrosia or jazz greats such as Oscar Peterson, on a noise-plagued low power or highly directional AM station. Listeners younger than 55 grew up listening to their favorite music in static-free FM stereo.

What?

They're going to listen to Jazz or pop music formats on AM because they can't find that special format on FM? Fine, there's your one share. Make money selling that to advertisers and underwriters like Basil Automotive, Celino & Barnes or Raymour & Flanigan in a market as media competitive and advertiser/donor cash-strapped as Buffalo.

Twenty years ago, programmers and owners came to understand that listeners believed "AM is for talk, FM is for music" and an evolution was in place. Radio listening now has evolved to point where listeners believe "iPods and smart phones are for music and FM is for talk." Smart-thinking programmers and owners are moving the spoken word formats such as news, talk and sports to FM. So where does this leave AM, especially as a vehicle for music? Certainly not a haven, be it jazz or otherwise.

 

[GeorgeKramer]

WECK and WHLD will both make more money in 2011 than they did in 2010, AND their Arbitron ratings will increase. Mark it down.

 

[aaronread]

All Jazz seems to work here in Rochester: http://www.jazz901.org/

"Work" is a relative term. No disrespect to the fine folks at WGMC (and, I might add, my wife and I were members for the year we lived in Rochester proper) but most non-comm jazz stations in the US are either heavily subsidized or running on very thin margins. In WGMC's case, I've been told they raise a lot of their revenue from selling airtime on the weekends and they save money by not having to pay rent on their studios or tower (AFAIK). And even though they're in a town that's KNOWN for arts and culture, and for jazz in particular, it still takes an awfully long time for their fundraisers to reach their goals. Jazz just doesn't draw radio listeners in for some reason. Not like classical does, anyway, and certainly not like news/talk does.

It's getting a little long in the tooth, but check out the 2005 report SRG did on public radio formats, it's interesting reading.
[url]http://www.srg.org/program/FormatStudy-ListeningPatterns.pdf[/url]

When I interviewed for a job at a jazz station this spring, I did a little research and uncovered an interesting little factoid: there's only two all-jazz stations out there that aren't in major markets and aren't associated with or owned by a college/high school. One is commercial KRML, of Play Misty for Me fame (and Clint is on their Board of Directors, IIRC) and the other is non-comm WICN of Worcester, MA. That's it. Everyone else either has a major market audience where a "niche" can still be tens of thousands of people, or they have a college's larger resource pool to fall back on.

 

[Lee Rust]

I've hesitated to get involved in this discussion since I hardly ever get to listen to Buffalo radio, but since WGMC, WJZR and jazz radio have been mentioned in this context, I can offer a few observations.

Classical music is a fairly well-defined and widely accepted musical genre. As far as radio is concerned, it is the original oldies format, serving the audience in the very same ways that pop oldies formats do. Classical programmers who stray very far from superstars like Bach, Beethoven and Brahms do so at their professional peril. The biggest supporters of the typical non-commercial classical station tend to be of a conservative sort and are not going to be sending four-figure contributions to anyone who plays too much disturbing or unfamiliar music. To this type of listener, Aaron Copland still sounds rather avant-garde, and Philip Glass is just plain dangerous.

Jazz music enjoyed an initial burst of commercial popularity in the USA during the Swing Era of the 30's and 40's, but has been in gradual eclipse ever since the end of the Second World War. Although 'jazz' for many Americans has become an amorphous term that's just another word for 'noise', it still means Bird, Duke, Billie, Dizzy, Louis, Ella and Miles for hard-core traditionalists and academics. For others it's Spyro Gyra, Pat Metheny and Fourplay. There are legions of 'smooth jazz' fans and 'post bop' aficionados, and even a few stubborn 'free jazz' and 'fusion' stalwarts. Enter 'jazz' into your favorite search engine along with words like 'blues', 'acid', 'swing', 'rock', 'bluegrass', 'folk', 'soul' or 'trance' and you will find hundreds or thousands of links for each combination.

This mutually-exclusive internal fragmentation of an already fractional audience segment makes the business of jazz programming a very tough row to hoe. Even in vast urban markets like New York City, jazz performance venues tend to be tiny and transitory while jazz radio has long been marginal and irregular. This is why, as early as the mid-1940's, the smorgasbord-style 'jazz festival' concept was developed so that sufficient audiences could be attracted by a diverse bill of performers. The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival successfully follows this time-honored method, layering mass-appeal R&B, hip-hop, country and rock acts around an esoteric, mostly European core of jazz artists. Without the huge crowds attracted by the pop performers and free stages, those few thousand appreciative jazz fans who diligently troop the Club Pass circuit would make only a small blip on the sales charts of the local merchants and corporate underwriters.

The glitzy facade of places like "Dizzy's Club Coca Cola" at New York City's 'Jazz At Lincoln Center' is deceptive. There's really not very much money in the business of jazz, although it is generally classified as an upscale art form. Outside the subsidized realm of educational institutions and corporate sponsorships, those of us who spend our days playing and promoting our tiny slices of the jazz spectrum struggle to generate cash flow sufficient to keep the music going. The margins are small. If we are having a very good year, we are pleased to generate a little extra. If we are not having a very good year, we get by.

The severe contraction of the radio business has come as no shock to jazz broadcasters. Commercial or non-commercial, that's how we've been operating for decades. Without the bare-bones budgets made possible by digital automation, willing volunteers and generous contributors, we could not continue. During the coming hard times jazz programming will continue one way or another, because the emotional and expressive nature of the music will always be a powerful motivator, but it probably will not be on the radio in most American markets.

I'm not qualified to comment on any of the programming changes made during the WNED/WBFO transition, except to surmise that the decision probably has more to do with the ongoing migration of talk radio from AM to FM than it has to do with the intrinsic value of jazz programming. It's the same kind of management decision-making that has taken commercial radio programming to where it is today. I understand that WBFO broadcasts some very diverse music programming on their HD-2 channel. They'll have to make room for jazz in the mix now. Maybe that will sell a few HD receivers, but I imagine that most Buffalo area jazz listeners will simply leave broadcast radio behind forever.

 

[TheBigA]

Lee: Good post. I agree with every word. It was challenging to do Pure Bop on the radio when Dizzy was alive, but it's much tougher now that he and his generation, for the most part, are gone. Jazz radio listeners, like those who loved WBFO and the few stations like it, are a small but dedicated group of musical purists. Some have problems with vocals unless it's Billie Holiday. A few refused to play Stan Kenton. They bristle at the term "smooth jazz," and now even that format is fading away.

At one time, public radio was filled with preservationists like Fred Callend and Billy Taylor, who kept the music alive in many ways. On the folk side, you had Oscar Brand and a few others. That was the foundation of public radio. Those who were behind the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 saw cultural preservation as a central role. Now, Fred and Billy are gone. Oscar is 90 and no longer involved at NPR. Now the mission at NPR is news and information. Of course, that mission gets them in the crosshairs with the mission of some politicians. But no one would be challenging the funding of NPR is all they did was promote Bird and Diz.

There was a great book written a few years ago by Bill Ivey, former head of NEA. He wrote about how the great master recordings and films were in danger of decomposing. That the corporations that owned them were only interested in the rights, not the actual history. Someone has to be responsible for preservating and promoting American culture. It used to be the public schools. They got out of arts and music education. Then it was public broadcasting. That time is ending too. Who will take on that all important role of preserving our history and culture when the government pulls the plug on everything not covered in the Constitution? I don't know.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

A fine summation, Lee. From my perspective as a daily NPR/WBFO listener, the present (transitional) management of WBFO appears to be taking the station deeper into the news-talk realm and I can't say I dislike it. Whether this means getting out of the jazz business totally, is anybody's guess. Yet, such a moves wouldn't surprise me in the least. WBFO airs jazz, mostly automated, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday.

There are jazz listeners and ardent advocates, one being a particularly factious Buffalo News arts/music/media critic, that believe WBFO should maintain, if not increase, its jazz programming. The purists, as Lee noted in his post, prefer Monk and Bird and eschew Metheny, Kenny G (couldn't resist putting those two names together knowing Metheny abhors G) and Yellow Jackets. Then there are casual jazz listeners (like me, who'd be classified as a P3 jazz listener) who listen to jazz, enjoy and appreciate most of it, but aren't devotees.

I appreciate the approach taken by Toronto's Jazz FM 91.1, primarily because the station offers a wide range of jazz, nicely arranged and comfortably presented. Jazz FM hosts clearly know their jazz Ps and Qs, but rarely if ever come off as jazz sophisticates or know-it-alls. This, to my way of thinking, is the way any good air personality should present him/herself, whether the format is Country, AC or Classic Rock.

Most recently, there seems to be concern about what will become of WBFO's acclaimed blues programming (heard Saturday and Sunday afternoon) when WNYPBA takes control of the station. The immediate future for WBFO's blues programming appears uncertain. My "broadcaster intuition" tells me WNYPBA would like to reduce the number of hours devoted to it, or move it to a different daypart. I should emphasize this is mere speculation on my part. Listeners may learn more on October 4th, when WNYPBA presents a public forum regarding its takeover of WBFO.

It would be a shame if WBFO reduced or eliminated its blues programming. It's fine entertainment and although I do not have access to recent ratings, as I recall WBFO's blues programming generates healthy ratings, especially Men 35-64. Perhaps more acutely, the blues programs more than hold their own during WBFO pledge drives.

Having a choice (which I don't), I'd prefer WNYPBA maintain WBFO's blues programming in its present form. But given the nature of commercial and non-commercial radio, I could understand WNYPBA moving it to evening hours on weekends. There's also the possibility of it being moved to WBFO HD-2 as an incentive to attract more listeners to that platform. Only time will tell.

 

[TheBigA]

The way most public stations deal with programming is they leave it to the members. If the blues programming raises enough money to maintain its airtime, then it stays. If it doesn't, and other formats raise more money, then they lose.

 

[Element9]

WBFO should keep the blues shows in place. They get good ratings and bring in pledge dollars. Jazz sounds like it's running on life support, voice tracked and destined only for all nights. The real question is, will the highly directional WNED-AM 970 go dark, moving news programming to 88.7? WNED-AM staff makes about half of what the WBFO staff members make. Will WBFO staff be axed or brought into the WNYPBA fold?

 

[SirRoxalot]

The other part of that problem is that several WBFO staffers are state ed employees - meaning that they have a good benefits package, and the right to bump into other jobs if they choose to stay at UB. Several people who had their 30 years in already took a buyout and are working part-time after retirement. Some others are closing in on hitting the maximum pension mark, and may choose to stay at UB instead of going to WNYPB, where they're likely to take a significant hit in salary & benefits. Anybody under 55 who's got more than 20 years at WBFO would come out ahead if they can stay at UB.

Rumor has it that WNYPB is already talking of selling WNED-AM to religious broadcasters in order to offset some of the purchase price of WBFO. That means existing WNED staffers are going to take over some important positions at WBFO. The best case scenario would be that they combine staffs to strengthen their local news department, and really challenge WBEN during the week. My guess is that Eileen Buckley will join the WNED news department. I don't get a good feeling about anybody else from WBFO news making the transition.

The weekend blues SHOULD stay. It's signature programming for both WBFO, and for Buffalo. There's a huge blues community in Buffalo - WNY Blues Society alone has over 800 members - and a lot of that is due to the efforts of Jim Santella on the radio. The addition of Anita West introduced another segment of the audience to the "Father of Rock", and the programming produces both strong numbers and strong monetary support.

 

[TheBigA]

The mixed format issue has been a subject for discussion within public radio for a very long time. Back in the old days, it wasn't unusual to have a block programming approach, combining news/talk and music. It was even something done in commercial radio at one time. But the researchers have suggested that listeners have come to identify radio stations by specific formats. So over the years, public stations have sought to focus their formats. WBFO is branding itself as Buffalo's NPR News Station. While heritage, ratings, and ability to attract dollars are all important, at some point station identity comes into play. So something's gotta give. As some posters have said, it might mean moving blues programming to late night, replacing jazz, or even its own HD channel. That's what WAMU DC did with its popular bluegrass programming. Weekends are a different animal, even at commercial stations, so breaking format on the weekends for blues isn't completely out of whack. The one show that seems out of place to me is Thistle & Shamrock. It isn't blues, jazz, or news. That might be up for grabs.

 

[Jim Santella]

Speaking strictly as a blues music programmer, I would point out to my radio friends and colleagues that they are absolutely right in their assessment of the pledge value of the blues to WBFO and totally wrong in their belief that the blues would continue to thrive if moved to the audience hinterlands of nights.

First, when would the blues pledge hours be scheduled? The image of deep, funky blues in the dark recesses of the night make a great background for "Talk Radio" or "Play Misty For Me," but people don't stay up at night listening to the radio anymore. That time slot could sacrifice upwards of $10,000 a shift in potential pledge bucks.

Fourteen years ago, when I first started putting the blues format together, I, too, suffered under the illusion that "The night time is the right time for the blues." It's not!

Nowdays, I point to significant Saturday afternoon ratings to make my point that WBFO has an active, devoted blues audience that more than holds its own with any other format be it talk or music. It's a daytime audience!

In conclusion, ending WBFO's blues programming or moving it to nights brings the same result; loss of revenue, loss of audience and loss of a strong branch on the Public Broadcasting tree of community service.