WNED Signs Agreement to Acquire WBFO

[SirRoxalot]

Well, Entercom had an HD2 station on their big signal FM 102.5 that was running Blues. We all know how much of an audience that drew, especially since there was no web feed to go along with it. Entercom recognized that Blues has a much greater impact in Buffalo than most other places, but wasn't about to invest in the talent required to make it work.

The point is that what WBFO runs on Saturday and Sunday afternoon isn't going to draw as well as the Blues, and that relegating the Blues to Saturday and Sunday evenings will diminish the impact of that programming. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me. But, apparently, WNY Public Broadcasting is going to have to learn that lesson the hard way.

 

[fybush]

I wouldn't read anything Buffalo-specific into Entercom's use of a blues format on 102.5-HD2. It's one of several prefab formats Entercom was/is using on HD subchannels all over the country. We had it here in Rochester on WBZA 98.9-HD2, and maybe we still do; I haven't checked lately.

 

[TheBigA]

The point is that what WBFO runs on Saturday and Sunday afternoon isn't going to draw as well as the Blues,

Except you're not allowing for the possibility that some of the local music they run in that slot just might be local blues.

 

[SirRoxalot]

They already run local blues in the blues shows. If they're going to do local blues as part of the local music, what's the point of moving the blues shows? And, local music programming in the past didn't draw nearly as well as the blues shows. Sorry, that ain't an improvement.

 

[TheBigA]

They already run local blues in the blues shows. If they're going to do local blues as part of the local music, what's the point of moving the blues shows?

Re-read my earlier post about how public stations use live events as benefits for members and as fund-raising opps. It's not all about what's on the air in public broadcasting. It's about creating a member community that can interact with the station, and use it as a gathering place. Playing blues recordings are fine, but that has limited value for fundraising and sponsorships.

By the way, this idea has caught on in the commercial world. Several Clear Channel stations have created live music venues where artists perform for contest winners.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Look, Bub, you have NO idea of how the Blues has evolved as programming on WBFO, or the history of live music programming on public radio in Buffalo. WNED-AM was established as a public radio station by Jazz in the Nighttime several decades ago, but that programming was dropped a generation ago. WBFO-FM has presented live local blues artists as part of regular blues programming. Due to space and cost considerations, they were not open to the public. Events run in local clubs on weekends generally did pretty well.

What's going to bring in more cash? A music event on Saturday afternoon, or a music event in a venue with libations and refreshments available in a club on a Saturday night? You want a fund-raising opportunity? Run it like WBFO has in the past, in a club with a national artist. You'll get much better attendance than with an afternoon soiree in a studio.

 

[Element9]

"The goal was to bring these two great radio stations together, meld the programming and be true to our mission of being a news and information station, and an NPR station," said Jim Ranney, news director and station manager for WNED-AM 970. "The core NPR programs are still there with very little change from Mondays through Fridays." Clearly, the mission is NEWS, not Blues. So it may be only a matter of time. If the Blues shows at night wither on the vine, it'll be by design. The available audience late midday and afternoon on Saturday is about five times what it is on Saturday night. There's even more disparity on Sunday. You can almost hear DKB after six months, saying, "We gave it our best shot, but it just didn't work out as we planned it." WBFO has posted their programming line-up here http://news.wbfo.org/schedule/week/wbfo. There's no other music showcase (blue grass, alt rock, Americana, Tejano) on the schedule, just in case somebody suggests or suggested it.

I've read the comments following the WBFO-WNED Buffalo News story. The distrust and resignation is palpable. Boswell's WBFO HD2 jazz venture and his glowing outlook is a hoot. In this market, jazz listeners have turned to Jazz FM 91.1 from Toronto, easily one of North America's best Jazz stations. It will be interesting to see how WNYPBA handles the on-line publishing and promotion. Lots of questions to be answered about news personnel, too. Who stays, who goes, who gets re-assigned. And what becomes on WNED-AM, long term.

 

[TheBigA]

Look, Bub, you have NO idea of how the Blues has evolved as programming on WBFO, or the history of live music programming on public radio in Buffalo.

You want radio, commercial or public, to be done the way it was done in the past. The future won't be like the past.

 

[TheBigA]

The available audience late midday and afternoon on Saturday is about five times what it is on Saturday night. There's even more disparity on Sunday.

But it doesn't matter what the available audience is, as long as those who have the interest can hear it. This is a specialized audience, not a general audience. In the case of blues, folk, bluegrass, and similar musical styles, they will follow it wherever it goes.

 

[SirRoxalot]

You really don't get the fact that the Blues on WBFO isn't a little afterthought program like it would be on a lot of NPR stations. You need a look at a rating book. Once again, you lack of local knowledge makes you look like a buffoon.

 

[TheBigA]

Once again, you lack of local knowledge makes you look like a buffoon.

Calling people names doesn't make you look smarter. So quit it.

 

[Bob1370]

Maybe what they need to do, if they plan to move all the news/talk programming to 88.5, is retain WNED-AM as a venue for jazz, blues and standards programming that you don't get anywhere else. That wouldn't cost a ton of money to run (the news content could be shared with and produced by the WBFO news crew, and only a few announcer/board ops per day would be able to run the whole thing 24/7). But it would bring to the table a whole different venue for raising underwriting revenue and membership support that no simulcast could do.

If they're going to do that it could easily become a paying proposition in short order. Hope they don't just dump it to whoever comes to the door with cash...

 

[SirRoxalot]

People have been listening to the blues on FM. AM just ain't gonna cut it. Ditto for jazz.

 

[Philip_Airtime]

I'd like to use this thread to call out the snarkiness of the Buffalo News today with its morning column "The Seven Things You Need to Know by 7am," or whatever it's called. First of all, I'm lucky if my paper arrives by 7am. Secondly, they cite all the radio shows that are being dropped now that WBFO is part of WNED. The thing is most of the dropped shows are what I have always called "crappy public radio programs." Not all of the dropped shows are bad. "The Thistle and Shamrock" is a good one. So is "The World." But others like the "Health Show" and "Primetime Radio" fit the above description. Several programs that were dropped were audio versions of TV programs, which really don't work well on radio. So, listeners aren't really missing all that much. What the News does not mention is that listeners will continue to hear programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, which are quite popular. WBFO will once again air "A Prairie Home Companion," bringing back to 88.7 a program we introduced to Buffalo listeners 30 years ago. Let me put my own list together of those who no longer have a full-time presence at the Buffalo News because they took buy-outs -- Brian Meyer, Dan Herbeck, Donn Esmonde, Alan Pergament and Jim Heaney. Now, the loss of these reporters at the News has had a much greater impact on its readers than the dropping of a handful of fringe public radio programs will ever have on the WBFO-AM 970 audience.

That said, the transfer is complete. The two newsrooms have combined, which is a good thing. Eileen Buckley and Mark Wozniak and part-timers Chris Jamele and Yours Truly (Ha! Many of you are probably thinking I never heard the name "Philip Airtime" on WBFO) have combined with the AM 970 staff. As mentioned, "Prairie Home Companion" is back. That's a good thing. Omar Fatou is doing weather breaks as I listen to Fresh Air. At UB, we were automated at this time. So, that's an improvement. Such shows as Marketplace, On the Media and Living on Earth are back on the WBFO schedule. All good! I'll concede that many are disappointed by the move of the Blues to weekend evenings. But WBFO's new owners are trying to create a premier NPR News station. I give them credit for hearing the public input and finding a place for Blues on the schedule. Heck, I can imagine house parties across Buffalo on a Saturday night with Jim Santella blaring in the background. While I am feeling a bit nostalgic tonight, especially because David Benders will no longer be associated with WBFO, I am looking forward to the future. WBFO is now part of an institution whose sole mission is broadcasting. And I do expect WBFO will continue to thrive.

 

[Element9]

The available audience late midday and afternoon on Saturday is about five times what it is on Saturday night. There's even more disparity on Sunday.

But it doesn't matter what the available audience is, as long as those who have the interest can hear it. This is a specialized audience, not a general audience. In the case of blues, folk, bluegrass, and similar musical styles, they will follow it wherever it goes.

You may be a broadcasting and NPR maven in another land, but your knowledge of the Buffalo market is sorely lacking. Have another "Michigan. Fewer ears mean fewer dollars when pledge weeks roll around. While returning to Buffalo from Rochester, the WXXI signal faded around Corfu and I heard the 4 p.m. WBFO transition almost by accident.

So now we can hear a simulcast of "WBFO on AM 970." WBEN vs. WBFO in the simulcast throwdown. WBFO wins the FM war, but the WNED-AM signal is atrocious. WBEN wins on AM. Ironic, ain't it. Buffalo has a potential FM news brawl with the competitors having inversely strong signals. On FM, WBFO wins over WLKK; while on AM, WBEN wins over WNED. Wonder if the brain trust at Entercom is concerned. The future of news-talk is FM, and the 88.7 signal kills the 107.7 signal. Probably too busy selling the Bills.

About "house-partying" to the Blues on Saturday night. The number of listeners in those dayparts will be far less than the number of working-traveling-shopping listeners the shows attracted on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. As valuable as NPR news and talk programming may be, as valuable as the local news product on WBFO/WNED may be, the Blues showson Saturday and Sunday afternoons gave WBFO an expanded base of listeners and added a unique seasoning to the sauce in high profile dayparts. Saturday and Sunday nights are graveyards.

Very likely, the number of listeners to the Saturday afternoon Blues show are far greater than what the ratings for the People's Pharmacy and Dr. Zorba Pastor on WBFO will be. The demographics for those two shows and the Saturday afternoon line-up will almost certainly be older than the demos attracted by the Blues shows. Much more will be known when the membership-pledge drives begin.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

A lot of commentary here about disconcerted WBFO listeners and the Blues shows, but there's likely to be some pushback from WNED-AM listeners who aren't happy about the changes to "their" radio station. WNED-AM dropped 16 programs from its line-up. WBFO's Monday through Friday line-up appears only minimally changed. There seems to be an NPR culture divide that needs to be reconciled. Although there's considerable sharing, there may be "irreconcilable differences" between the two factions of listeners. Think of Lake vs. 97 Rock or Star vs. Joy P1 listeners. As a listener to both WBFO and WNED-AM, I thought the latter did a better job with spot news, while WBFO's strength was feature and in-depth reporting. Now the two proficiencies have been brought together. Station sales and format changes always bring a head wind and choppy water internally and externally. A year from now the sailing should be much smoother.

 

[TheBigA]

You may be a broadcasting and NPR maven in another land, but your knowledge of the Buffalo market is sorely lacking.

What I'm talking about isn't unique to Buffalo. Fans of specialized music genres, like blues, folk, traditional jazz, and bluegrass, will seek it out. They realize they aren't pop music fans. I've seen this in lots of markets, and Buffalo will respond the same way. As I said earlier, it doesn't matter what the "potential audience" is. The general audience won't tune in for blues. Just the blues audience. And they'll tune in when their music is being played. So counting potential ears is useless. Saturday and Sunday nights are far better times than midnight to 6AM, or being banished to HD, and that's what happened to jazz. The jazz audience is the group that got shafted here. And I don't have to live in Buffalo to know that.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Sorry, TBA, but what we're talking about IS unique to Buffalo. Once again, you need to look at a rating book. The general audience HAS been turned on to Blues. People in Buffalo now recognize it as the father of Rock. Jim Santella - a beloved former Rock jock established the Blues in Buffalo as a mass appeal format in a way that you don't see in other markets. With the addition of another well-known Rock jock - Anita West - the reach has expanded as Rock stations have become more and more voice tracked and homogenized.

Many of them will follow the Blues to the new time slot as best they can within their lifestyle. There will be a drop in audience simply because people have other obligations on Saturday and Sunday evenings. There will also be a drop in audience on Saturday and Sunday afternoons because what's replacing the Blues isn't as portable - or as good a fit for what people DO on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Of course, you wouldn't know this because you simply don't know THIS market. Lumping the Blues into "blues, folk, traditional jazz, and bluegrass" simply demonstrates how little you understand the Buffalo market.

Not all markets are the same. If WNYPB was smart, they'd syndicate the Blues and expand the reach, not relegate it to listening Siberia. You might want to note the number of traditional rockers who started out playing Blues, and are releasing Blues albums lately as a way of returning to their roots. Steve Miller, Tom Petty, and others have done it recently. Eric Clapton has done consistently. There's a market for their music that Rock simply ignores, and WBFO has embraced. Rockers have also embraced it as an alternative to the same-old same-old from too many Rock stations.

 

[TheBigA]

Sorry, TBA, but what we're talking about IS unique to Buffalo. Once again, you need to look at a rating book.

Public radio doesn't care about ratings books. It cares about satisfying members. Obviously the general non-paying audience is larger at any other time of day, but that doesn't matter. But that's not the issue. The general non-paying audience also wants lots of other formats and genres too.

Not all markets are the same. If WNYPB was smart, they'd syndicate the Blues and expand the reach, not relegate it to listening Siberia.

I think that's as much a function of the specific air talent. I've worked with lots of them, including several who've syndicated non-commercial blues and classic R&B, and I think there's an interest. But it doesn't have to be done by the station. The DJs can do it themselves, and there are lots of tools and money available to help them if they just look. I suggest contacting the Blues Foundation in Memphis for the names of specific people who can help. I know of two on their Board of Directors who have done this.

 

[wyatt22]

Ratings do matter now with WNED taking over. Unlike WBFO, WNED sells :30 spots and as an agency guy they compete for the same ad dollars as the three commercial groups. Although WNED doesn't subscribe to the rating services, I do and I take their numbers into consideration. I don't buy WNED based only on ratings however, small commercial breaks, unique programming and a loyal audience do count for something, but the size of the audience is very important.