Is WWKB streaming? Perhaps the thinking is to encourage their exsistance as AM radio for Buffalo, and an internet choice for the rest...um whoever is actually listening to that waste of electricity anyway these days...
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WWKB Cutting Back To 10,000 Watts?
- Thread starter Barry
- Start date
You'd have to do an allocation study to explore the possibility of KB going nondirectional daytime. IIRC there are a couple of daytime 1520s in north-central Ohio which could be impacted, for example. Then there are potential first and second adjacents to consider, like the 1530 in North East, PA, if it still exists.
B
Bob1370
Guest
"The ONLY way a new owner could improve on what Entercom is doing would be to steal either BEN's or GR's program contracts. In market after market, especially the size of Buffalo, the only formats proven to win on AM are conservative talk and sports."
Sports, maybe, but they'd have to steal Bills rights away from Citadel (possible) and build a local lineup around it...going head to head with WGR. Not easy.
Conservative talk? Maybe if you want all your core listeners to be 55+. The right wingers who flocked to Rush 20-22 years ago when he was new, were 35-54 back in 1988. They're now between 55 and 74 and getting older, while their kids (who the right wing talkers now need to attract to replace their aging parents in the core demos) were mostly Obama voters and totally turned off by Rush's message. Notice all the gray hair (or obvious application of Just For Men) you see at tea party rallies? Conservative talk's missing the demographic sweet spot for advertisers these days. Check WBEN's 25-54 numbers. IIRC they were best in mornings and when Ron Dobson was doing nights...not when the right wingers were holding forth. A new talker would have to do something KB hasn't done. They'd have to go local, AND go all over the lot politically/ideologically, hiring for entertainment value while mixing up the message and having the hosts debate each other along with the audience, just like KABC in LA did in the 70s, 80s and early 90s when they were the country's top billing station. That's always been a winning approach (still is in San Francisco and St. Louis) and it amazes me no one else is trying it now.
Sports, maybe, but they'd have to steal Bills rights away from Citadel (possible) and build a local lineup around it...going head to head with WGR. Not easy.
Conservative talk? Maybe if you want all your core listeners to be 55+. The right wingers who flocked to Rush 20-22 years ago when he was new, were 35-54 back in 1988. They're now between 55 and 74 and getting older, while their kids (who the right wing talkers now need to attract to replace their aging parents in the core demos) were mostly Obama voters and totally turned off by Rush's message. Notice all the gray hair (or obvious application of Just For Men) you see at tea party rallies? Conservative talk's missing the demographic sweet spot for advertisers these days. Check WBEN's 25-54 numbers. IIRC they were best in mornings and when Ron Dobson was doing nights...not when the right wingers were holding forth. A new talker would have to do something KB hasn't done. They'd have to go local, AND go all over the lot politically/ideologically, hiring for entertainment value while mixing up the message and having the hosts debate each other along with the audience, just like KABC in LA did in the 70s, 80s and early 90s when they were the country's top billing station. That's always been a winning approach (still is in San Francisco and St. Louis) and it amazes me no one else is trying it now.
"You'd have to do an allocation study to explore the possibility of KB going nondirectional daytime. IIRC there are a couple of daytime 1520s in north-central Ohio which could be impacted, for example. Then there are potential first and second adjacents to consider, like the 1530 in North East, PA, if it still exists." (quote Mr. Savage)
If WWKB were to go 10Kw ND, wouldn't that substantially reduce signal strength in the major lobes to the north and east? At 50 Kw DA-1, the ERP may be 200Kw within the major lobes. Going to 10Kw ND would be a 13dB drop, certainly Mr. Fybush would notice that in Rochester.
If WWKB were to go 10Kw ND, wouldn't that substantially reduce signal strength in the major lobes to the north and east? At 50 Kw DA-1, the ERP may be 200Kw within the major lobes. Going to 10Kw ND would be a 13dB drop, certainly Mr. Fybush would notice that in Rochester.
Oy. Again to the KB Deli. WWKB as presently programmed is part of Entercom's Buffalo AM gameplan: Own the good AM signals, keep them from directly competing with each other and make as much money as possible until the AM flame burns out. Seems to be working just fine. If KB went to 10kw at night, who'd notice, other than the people who read this board? The station has a 1 share, Persons 12+. That's about 270 lefties who religiously listen to Ed and Randi.
So far nothing filed with the FCC for 10KW.
If they gear down, I won't miss 'em at all here in Eastern North Carolina.
KB now sounds like a typical broom closet automated AM that just happens to be on a clear channel frequency.
But when I lost WOWO, that was extremely depressing.
KB now sounds like a typical broom closet automated AM that just happens to be on a clear channel frequency.
But when I lost WOWO, that was extremely depressing.
Aaron suggested using KB as a repeater for Entercom's WEEI and its Red Sox coverage, knowing full well that I'd jump right on that idea...and he's right 
KB's night signal (at least at 50 gallons DA) blankets large chunks of New England via skywave, and would indeed be a nice way to supplement WEEI's own limited nighttime reach.
I'm not sure "WEEI 1520" would move the needle during the day...but that's already the case on 1520, so what's to lose?
KB's night signal (at least at 50 gallons DA) blankets large chunks of New England via skywave, and would indeed be a nice way to supplement WEEI's own limited nighttime reach.
I'm not sure "WEEI 1520" would move the needle during the day...but that's already the case on 1520, so what's to lose?
It does seem a little incongruous that the teapot on 1400 consistently outperforms the blowtorch on 1520...
If KB is going to do this (go 10kw), it certainly won't be the first. Fifteen years ago, station ZBVI (780) on Tortola, British Virgin Islands, running and licensed for 10,000 watts for decades, reduced its power down to 4,000 watts weekdays and 1,000 watts on weekends. The move was to save electricity costs. The reason for weekend 1kw power was that the ownership felt it was unnecessary to use 4kw needed on weekdays because businesses (with interfering computers, flourescent lights etc) were not open on weekends. This is probably the only station that reduces power according to the day of the week as opposed to nighttime. - I don't know if that's still the case.... reduced power, but the big money machine of the 1970's (ZBVI) is likely not seeing the same kind of cash now, with several FM's that have popped up on Tortola, and even many more on other surrounding islands (St Thomas, St John, St Croix).
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
Turn out the lights --------the party is really over. Good night to WKBW , Dick Biondi, Quinn, Shane, Joey Reynolds and everything that AM radio meant to old fools like me.
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Bob1370
Guest
Someone who calls himself the Big A says of the local owners who sold out to the big boys in the 90s, "If they truely cared about their listeners and their markets, they would not have been so quick to take the money. Today, many of those same stations are available at a fraction of their sale price, and you don't see any of them rushing back from retirement to buy their old stations back."
Big A has a short memory. In the 90s, the local owners were under tremendous pressure from the expanding groups who, back then, had tremendous credit lines from equally bloated banks looking for fast profit and happy to lend money hand over fist (and then selling the notes at a steep profit as part of those infamous securitized debt packages that damn near melted the whole economy down two years ago). They either had to borrow themselves in order to buy additional stations to block out the big boys, or sell out to protect the value of their past investments from attack. That all just grew in intensity during the 90s with successive waves of deregulation, each of which allowed clusters in each market to get bigger and bigger; two station combos became four, then six, then as many as eight. We all know what happened...the big boys borrowed, and borrowed, and borrowed until the business is in its current sorry, bloated, debt-laden state. No local owner could have battled that.
Do any of the local guys who sold out under pressure in the 90s now make a comeback? It would be nice. But a lot of them have either retired and are now n their 70s or 80s (Larry Levite's 70 now, and WBEN and Star 102 are among the properties Entercom is LEAST likely to sell in their entire portfolio anyway), or have passed away. They're not going to start over again. The capital market's as over-tight now as it was overly loose then, so a lot of the stations the big boys overpaid for are now going begging for lack of buyers with strong credit lines. Eventually new locally based owners willing to try to put out a quality product will emerge in some markets, when the price is right and the financial markets finally normalize. But don't beat up on the Larry Levites of the world for not wanting to fight a combination of big combines and big banks who clearly had far more money than brains. The deck was stacked against the local guys in the 90s and while the time for good local owners to re-emerge is coming, it's still not quite here yet. Give it two to four more years...
Big A has a short memory. In the 90s, the local owners were under tremendous pressure from the expanding groups who, back then, had tremendous credit lines from equally bloated banks looking for fast profit and happy to lend money hand over fist (and then selling the notes at a steep profit as part of those infamous securitized debt packages that damn near melted the whole economy down two years ago). They either had to borrow themselves in order to buy additional stations to block out the big boys, or sell out to protect the value of their past investments from attack. That all just grew in intensity during the 90s with successive waves of deregulation, each of which allowed clusters in each market to get bigger and bigger; two station combos became four, then six, then as many as eight. We all know what happened...the big boys borrowed, and borrowed, and borrowed until the business is in its current sorry, bloated, debt-laden state. No local owner could have battled that.
Do any of the local guys who sold out under pressure in the 90s now make a comeback? It would be nice. But a lot of them have either retired and are now n their 70s or 80s (Larry Levite's 70 now, and WBEN and Star 102 are among the properties Entercom is LEAST likely to sell in their entire portfolio anyway), or have passed away. They're not going to start over again. The capital market's as over-tight now as it was overly loose then, so a lot of the stations the big boys overpaid for are now going begging for lack of buyers with strong credit lines. Eventually new locally based owners willing to try to put out a quality product will emerge in some markets, when the price is right and the financial markets finally normalize. But don't beat up on the Larry Levites of the world for not wanting to fight a combination of big combines and big banks who clearly had far more money than brains. The deck was stacked against the local guys in the 90s and while the time for good local owners to re-emerge is coming, it's still not quite here yet. Give it two to four more years...
Scottso and aaron, better hope WCKY doesn't decide to crank up Hiss-O-Rama IBOC again. WEEI 1520 would be toast east of Batavia. After all, "you don't have any right to listen to out-of-market signals," "skywave is irrelevant," "HD Uber Alles," etc., etc.
Remember? The IBOC cabal has declared skywave listening an artifact appreciated only by vilified "DXers" and "Naysayers." :
Remember? The IBOC cabal has declared skywave listening an artifact appreciated only by vilified "DXers" and "Naysayers." :
I can imagine the brass at Entercom Buffalo reading this thread and chuckling for a number of reasons. Cutting back to 10kw? Why not just sign off from midnight to 5 a.m? If Joey's going to disappear, why not sell the all night show to the pray for pay preachers or the other hucksters and make a few bucks with that 50 gallon signal? The Colon Blow All Night Cafe. Cha-ching.
To me, the web has taken the place of DXing. I grew up DX'ing 'KB from tiny Brattleboro, VT. Also CKLW, WCFL, WABC etc...so I've been
No the web's not yet perfect...there are still issues to be resolved (continuous reception, local stopsets dumped for PSA's etc.) but I really like the ability to pick-up my current station anywhere across the country with my wife's Nobex app.
No the web's not yet perfect...there are still issues to be resolved (continuous reception, local stopsets dumped for PSA's etc.) but I really like the ability to pick-up my current station anywhere across the country with my wife's Nobex app.
Bob1370 said:
No, I have a great memory, and if I forget, I have reams and reams of documents to help me remember.
YOU exaggerate. You make it sound like radio caused the financial crisis, when it really was home mortgages. The amount of money involved in ALL media deals, including Tribune, comes to less than $50 billion. That's a fraction of the nearly trillion dollars that actually caused the meltdown. And the radio deals were a drop in the bucket compared to some of the bigger mergers and buyouts that happened during the same time. So you're wrong, radio did NOT cause the economic crisis, but it in fact caused the problem radio is having right now.
The guys who sold were greedy and bidded the prices on their sorry properties up to record high prices. When the new owners moved in, they invested millions of dollars in new equipment, because the previous owners had run their places into the ground. The real deregulation happened in the 80s. That's when the greedy race to cash out began, with dozens of longtime owners willingly selling their stations to new companies. Radio companies were going bankrupt before 1996. In Buffalo, Price Communications went belly up, making it possible for Entercom to buy KB. So don't lecture me about history.
"No local owner could have battled that?" Take a look in Dallas, where Service Broadcasting owns the #1 radio station in town. Somehow, they are beating Clear Channel and CBS. But they have a commitment to their community that most local owners didn't have. And there are lots of examples of that, where small local owners refused to sell, and are still alive. Saul Levine in LA is another.
"New locally based owners willing to put out quality product?" Don't make me laugh. The history of broadcasting, going back to the 1920s, is filled with two-bit morons who looked for ways to squeeze money out of their employees and their stations. The new generation of locally-based owners are already showing their cards in markets across the country. Ask the folks at WSEN Syracuse if they notice a difference between Buckley and their new local owner. Larry Wilson is one former owner who is buying back into radio. The first thing Larry did when he bought the CBS Portland cluster was fire talent. Even non-commercial public radio stations are firing talent and replacing local programming with network shows from Washington. For someone who considers himself knowledgeable, you really have a vivid imagination.
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FreddyE1977
Guest
They were coming in loud and clear last night, and again for about an hour after sunrise today,
down here in SW PA. Are they perhaps back up to 50kW?
down here in SW PA. Are they perhaps back up to 50kW?
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