Yankees On WWYY, "The Bone"

[pdkiller]

Ahh, pdkiller. The name says it all. Disgruntled former on-air personality. Probably a part-timer. Someone with a passion for radio but no knowledge of the business end. And as Stoshman deftly points out, this move will bring in revenue. Aligning yourself with the biggest brand in sports is never a bad move. And there are FAR more Yankees fans out there than fans of all the other regional teams combined.

Way to keep it classy with the last post. I won't stoop to your level of namecalling. When you roll around in the mud with pigs, all you get is dirty.

Yes there are some day games. 17 to be exact. That's 17 out of 162 if you're keeping score. I don't think any fans of rock will take 107.1 off the presets because they came across a Yankee game on a Thursday afternoon.

But I do so look forward to your reply. I like those veiled naughty words...very clever!

Guess you're not a Battlestar Gallactica fan Dread, then you'd get the frackin reference..

Look, I've worked for your company, and Citadel, Clear Channel and AM/FM to name a few.... I've worn many different hats in all my years in the biz, and I have a GREAT understanding of how the nuts and bolts work from a sales end, because I am actually doing sales for a group in a major market currently.
This move by Mr, Musselman (who although is a soulless shark, I have a great deal of respect for his knowledge of the industry, having worked with him in New Jersey eons ago. He was alot more fun too back then when he was boozin it up !)

Obviously the ad revenue is not there, and its happening to all of us in the industry. But to put Baseball on a pea shooter Class A signal rocker like the Bone, (and don't give me this crap about the Valleys Real Rock station), I worked that signal when it was WRNJ, and I know exactly what the contours are, having sold that area to many clients.

You have minimal Valley coverage at best, you are in the 50db fringe in Easton, let alone Bethlehem or Allentown. The signal best serves Monroe, Warren and Sussex counties. Everybody else thats had that signal has failed to bring it to its true potential, and Nassau is doing the same thing now!

Putting the Yankees on isn't going to fix all that ails that station. If anythings, its going to make things worse. And your right, we'll wait till the summer book to see what happens, but Nassaus problems go alot deeper than the Bone. And, no Dread, I won't take glee in proving you wrong. Just hate to see a fellow broadcaster lose their job over some stupid panic move by management! Lots of that going on in the industry right now, and its going to get much worse in 2009...

 

[Radiodeity]

Before I get going I'd like to say I didn't agree with ZZO running car races either... so here goes;

I keep seeing posts referring to radio as a business so let's follow that line of thought. Since it is a business it needs to make money to keep shareholders from stampeding the corporate headquarters and smashing those $1,200 trash cans and tipping over the $2,200 coat racks. I believe we can all agree on that. It could quite possibly make the Executives cry and we wouldn’t want that, right?

So let's transpose the radio business to some other business model and see if all this ranting makes sense.

So... I want to go into business and the best thing I can do with my education and experience is open a Tire Store. So I'm beginning to do pretty well although business is beginning to suffer some due to the current economic conditions. I begin giving some thought to something I can do to supplement income until this financial problem begins to clear. So after about a year and a half I decide to throw away brand loyalty and during Spring, Summer and Autumn this year I decide that for around 163 times over the course of those three seasons, at various times of the day, I’m going to stop selling tires and offer something different. Hummmm… but what? What would be a good fit with tires? I got it!!

Pots and Pans!

After all, everyone needs cookware.

I can just imagine it... My loyal customer Rex comes strolling in and wants to put a set of steel belted white walls on his ’84 Ford Falcon. I tell him sorry, no way Rex. I’m selling cookware for the next couple hours, unless the weather turns nasty then I might continue the cookware sale a little longer – come back later when I’m selling tires again. So good ‘ole Rex takes a hike for the day pledging he’ll be back as soon as he can. But what happens? The idiot shows up again while its cookware sale time and still can’t get a set of tires for the Falcon. Come on Rex, aren’t you paying attention I tell him. There are different times I’m going to be selling cookware only and tires will be out of the question – unless of course the weather gets real bad for a short period of time I might start selling tires again for a few minutes. You can hang around hoping I’ll do that or you can come back later when I’m selling tires again. (Jerk!)

A number of days go by and don’t see good ‘ole Rex come stumbling through the door but later that afternoon I see him drive by with a new set of tires on his old beater. Ahhh.. no matter – I made a few extra bucks in the short run. I don’t need that moron anyway. I’ll still have lots of people busting down my door to buy tires – or cookware – or tires – or maybe cookware… Or maybe tires for that cookware. Or cookware to use while buying tires.

Okay, I’m done now. Flame away… ;D

 

[jeffwoehrle]

Zactly right, RD.

Baseball on this rimshot station is an admission of defeat. They can't beat WZZO, so they quit trying (only during certain parts of certain days, but still).

Nobody disputes that Nassau is in desperate need of money. Certainly not rare in the radio business today, but certainly setting new records for desperation in Nassau's markets.

I'm telling you, radio classifieds. Besides the aforementioned transmitter sale, I'm sensing a steady market for slightly used formerly hungry rodents...now properly satisfied.

;D

 

[dread pirate roberts]

I'll be sure to let YSP and the dozens of (rock/country/ac) stations in the Eagles Radio Network know that they should abandon sports programming to rake in the dough by selling Sunday spots at huge rates. God forbid someone tune into one of these stations during a game, or a coaches show and not hear "Jack and Diane". They will probably take that station off the presets immediately!!!

One of the great things about radio is that listeners listen to many stations during the course of a day/week/book. As long as they listen to your station more than the others, you'll do pretty well.

Have you ever turned on your favorite station on a Sunday morning expecting to hear "Stairway to Heaven" and instead hear a "Community Matters" show? Did you give up on that station?

None of us are qualified to comment on this because we are not normal listeners. We think too much. We care too much.

Let's see what happens and learn from it. There is too much hate on this board...too many angry people. Look, if I got canned somewhere, I'd hold some resentment too, but playing Devil's advocate on EVERY issue is a bit much, don't you think?

I think Nassau may do alright with this move. The station needs exposure; billboard campaigns and TV are expensive. This can help.

 

[jeffwoehrle]

I'll be sure to let YSP and the dozens of (rock/country/ac) stations in the Eagles Radio Network know that they should abandon sports programming to rake in the dough by selling Sunday spots at huge rates. God forbid someone tune into one of these stations during a game, or a coaches show and not hear "Jack and Diane". They will probably take that station off the presets immediately!!!

Try to stay with us here: We are discussing The Bone, a struggling rimshot that has not made much headway in the LV market. This has nothing to do with WYSP. I've heard WYSP. WYSP is a friend of mine. The Bone, sir, is no WYSP.

We are talking about out-of-market BASEBALL that is probably as difficult a sell to sponsors as it is to listeners round these parts.

Hey, if Nassau can keep the lights on for another month by selling Joe Sixpack's hardware store five-dollar spots on his favorite game, have at it.

One thing, however, is certain: This move pounds the final nail in the lid of the 'Valley's REAL Rock Station' nonsense.

And not a moment too soon.

 

[dread pirate roberts]

Cleveland Indians would be out of market baseball. Your argument fails.

And if I were in sales, I would rather have the Yanks to offer my clients from 7-mid than voicetracked evenings.

Therapy. You could use some.

 

[Radiodeity]

Wow Dread... No one is intimating anything about your personal character and yet you come here attacking like its all about you. It isn't. You might have a few years in the radio biz but even after twenty or thirty years people still learn new things on a daily basis. Free you mind, open it up a little, think out of the box on occasion. Living day to day in constant anger and fear isn't helping you at all. I know... I'm full of siht and you're right - and that will be okay with me since I don't have a constant need to be the center of attention and never wrong. That's why you're stuck where you are and I'm happy every day.

Now...

Here is another possible reason this move is in the works... Contract. It could very well be that Nassau has a contract to broadcast Yankees and since they have already committed WEEX to the Iron Pigs their other alternative was to put it on an already shaky station in hopes they could take in a few bucks to help keep the signal on. Putting baseball on the 93.5 station would indeed ruin office listening, not having to worry about office listeners with The Bone, fulfilling the contract by putting Yankees there would be about the only other thing they could do. Ya think they were going to put baseball on The Hawk? They may be a few neurons short but they aren't that dense.

Okay... Flame thrower on... ;D

(Okay, I'll go away for awhile. Please carry on.)

 

[jeffwoehrle]

Cleveland Indians would be out of market baseball. Your argument fails.

And if I were in sales, I would rather have the Yanks to offer my clients from 7-mid than voicetracked evenings.

Therapy. You could use some.

Actually, the only 'failure' here is the Bone's failure to attract an audience as the alleged 'Valley's Real Rock Station'.

The addition of out-of-market baseball to the Bone's lineup is an admission of that fact and is clearly an attempt to glean SOMETHING from its weak signal.

If your pathetic 'argument' had any weight, why not run baseball 24/7? After all, voicetracking seems to be pretty popular these days.

Yeah, that should keep your salespeople 'happy', right?

 

[stoshman]

i would rather put a set of steel belts on a 60 ford falcon than an 84 (they were only made from 1960 to 1970.........hey jeff when you were running 107.9, did you ever think of marketing WPMR as the 'lehigh valley's rock station'?..........then the PMR in the call letters would have meant nothing..........i miss that station, i enjoyed listening to it even though the signal was (and still is) spotty in the heart of the lehigh valley..........and do you think the new jersey (oh sorrie) new york jets or giants are next.................i dooooooooooooooooooooo..........would there be an audience...........i'm surprised as hell this thread hasn't made the lehigh valley; i have a few friends who are excited about the yankees on the bone.........my question is' all those yankee hats i see on guys in the 'valley'; is it a fashion statement or are they true baseball fans.............b.t.w............no one has made me laugh lately with this thread, ure letting me down

 

[jeffwoehrle]

Hey Stosh!

I briefly considered using "Chicago's Best Rock" for WPMR, but decided against it. 8)

When push comes to shove, any bucks in the door for The Bone is probably better than nothing. The viability of Yankees BASEBALL in the Lehigh Valley can be debated till the cows come home. The real news is that Nassau is having a rare moment of clarity in abandoning their attack on WZZO. They have failed miserably and need to regroup. Maybe Yankees broadcasts can save this station.

Or, maybe a better idea would have been to not try to make it into something it's not.

On the humor note, it is refreshing to see 'dread' taking time out from his klismaphilia to post here.

;D

On edit: This thread probably isn't in the LV board because the Bone isn't a LV station.

Just saying...

 

[kfitz]

Jeff and all,

I'd like to chime in.....ZZO running Nascar is 30 Sunday afternoons; YSP running football is 20 Sunday afternoons/evenings and an occasional Monday evenings; baseball is 162 games all over the place; plus playoffs and maybe required preseason. The shear quantity of games is the killer here. Now if 107.1 went all sports....then it makes sense. On another note, the Yankees are a medium sale outside of NYC. Call Citadel and ask how they did with the Yankees on WARM in Scranton, I think they do OK but not great, mainly because the Phillies on WEJL/WBAX took the largest part of the baseball pie; even with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees now being the local AAA franchise. By the way....I remember running Yankee games up in Waverly, NY in 1977-78! We did pretty well with it on WAVR-FM, of course the station was a local hodge-podge; put anything on it station to sell airtime, not a station with a consistent format.

KF

 

[jeffwoehrle]

Kevin,

I agree that sports of any kind can be a moneymaker. Used to run high school football games on 960 years ago. Probably fewer than a dozen folks were listening, but it was an easy sale to the hardware store owner whose kid was on the team...and the spots were not cheap.

Same can be said for team loyalty on a pro level. Results be damned, that's my team!

If only all advertisers were as forgiving as sports sponsors...

 

[plooker]

Heres a point that I forgot to make before.

Yankee baseball WAS available on 2 Nassau stations in the early part of this decade, and failed...

A few years back both WVPO and WPLY(WILT at the time) tried doing the ESPN Sports Monster format, which IMHO opinion was a great idea. They had Yankee baseball and they couldn't sell it. Granted, it was on 2 sub par AM freqs, but they had decent coverage of Monroe.

So the question is if Nassau failed with this experiment once before(and down in the Valley on WEEX/WTKZ) Then what makes them think they will be successful this time around?

I think this is a legitimate question that needs to be asked, and I don't think we'll receive a legitimate answer on it either.

 

[jeffwoehrle]

I think the answer lies in Nassau's ineptitude.

Consider for a moment what a boneheaded move the entire 'bone' concept was.

Certainly the mindless repetition and lack of variety contributed just as much to the Bone's failure as its dismal signal. However, Nassau already had a station sharing at least some of WZZO's demo, and WZZO had not been a recent threat to Hawk's dominance. Cat Country (I believe) was the closest #2/sometimes #1 in the LV market. A better move would have been to use 107.1 to siphon off upper or lower Cat demos to weaken Cat and guarantee that Hawk stayed #1.

I admit that I had some excitement about the launch of The Bone, and even paid my compliments where due. Despite my fondness for the format, it really wasn't the proper strategic move for Nassau in the LV market, rimshot or not. The lack of programming innovation (including the minimum once-daily spin of friggin' White Wedding...transplanted from the smoking ruins of WSBG) damn near assured that this poorly thought out plan was destined for failure.

Nassau may be able to hack out a few dollars with this baseball nonsense, and I guess anything is better than what they are currently harvesting. But it's still lipstick on a pig.

 

[trixter]

Jeff and all,

I'd like to chime in.....ZZO running Nascar is 30 Sunday afternoons; YSP running football is 20 Sunday afternoons/evenings and an occasional Monday evenings; baseball is 162 games all over the place; plus playoffs and maybe required preseason. The shear quantity of games is the killer here......
KF

Good point on Kevin's remark! This can get very old very quickly especially if the Yankee's season turns ugly and lose more games than they win. Another point too is with all of the drug scandals going on in baseball now (including once praised Alex Rodriguez), maybe this is another reason to scrap their plans for broadcasting Yankees baseball. The public's perception may have dropped considerably and they may just say, "The hell with it all." Broadcasting major league baseball this year may take a dip everywhere regardless if it is radio or tv. Nassau should rethink this before making a true committment. They have little to gain $, but plenty to lose if this flounders at "The Bone!"

 

[abcgirl]

Dear Jeff,

Everyone here knows that you hate Nassau, that is obvious. But the way you "seem to know" the state of affairs there is so off base, you really do humor me. Nassau is doing just fine despite the state of the US economy. All media is struggling. Nassau is doing better than most. I do know. I am not on the outside guesstimating what is going on inside. And your lipstick on a pig quote....come on, you should certainly be able to come up with something more original than that. Grow up.

 

[plooker]

ABCgirl...

Well, you are working for Nassau, so obviously there will be some bias on your part. I work for one of your competitors, and have some pretty good connections inside your employer, and Nassau is NOT doing well. For starters, what about Frank?? After investing in a total engineering upgrade w/ Scott Studios, new Radio Systems boards and studio hub technology, and a new HD transmitter setup, p1ssing away a ton of dough, you lose the station cuz ya can't meet the financial obligations of the lenders note??? What does this say about the bottom line. Same thing for your New England cluster, lots of money invested in infrastructuure with no results... Bottom line is Nassau is in some serious fiscal trouble. This isn't a condemnation, most big operators are in the same boat. But don't blast off defending something, when your position is one of inaccuracy. Nassau IS in BIG trouble! Baseball on a rimshot FM is a panic move, and everyone knows it. Maybe if the braintrust would concentrate on original programming, and being pro-active instead of reactive, you'd be in a better position.
That being said, the industry as a whole is in deep doggy doo! Outside the box thinking and innovation is what will shake out the winners from the losers, and the way Nassau is structered as of present, they are not outside the box thinkers.

Can you say train wreck on the Bone???? I think so...

 

[TheMinimumDose]

To trixter, the starter of this thread: where can one listen to the Yanks free over the Net?

Major League Baseball® regards the Internet streaming of its games as its exclusive domain, and while they would prefer people $ub$cribe to MLB.TV to watch games, they still offer Gameday Audio as a separate option priced currently at $ 14.95 (with three months or so of Sports Illustrated thrown in)

The reason I am not completely happy with Bone getting this deal, even though it could have been worse as apparently, WWYY's eastern grade-B contour still encroaches on WCBS's grade-B contour (signal contours, I admit, are over many people's heads here, but still, that is what held up the deal) is that WWYY's operations are, sadly, right here in Easton where my family lives, meaning they may still be having issues with the satellite dish used to pick up the feed from CBS Radio, and it had a LOT of issues last year...ANNNND, 107.1 is either a harmonic, or very close to being a harmonic, of 99.9, meaning unless I go find a really great portable radio in the next couple weeks, I ain't gonna be able to pick up the games anyway!

Anybody know if a SONY SRF-59 (or whatever the 'silver' AM/FM Walkman® is officially called) will take care of the harmonic issue I just mentioned? Those b@st@rds run almost $20, and I'll probably need to cross nine frackin' lanes of traffic to reach the one store that still sells them...I want it to be worth my while...

 

[kfitz]

MDose,

What you speak of is the "IF" separation which is technically 10.7 mHz. The FCC protects 10.6 and 10.8 mHz as a result. 107.1 is 10.6 and 10.8 mHz from 96.3 and 96.5 mHz. You will likely not receive IF interference in the Lehigh Valley. It should be noted that this type of interference usually only occurs when you have very high receive levels (greater than 91 dBu) from both IF facilities together. WWYY's 60 dBu encompassess about half of Easton City and Nazareth. The rest of the LV is further west and outside the 60 dBu. I looked at point to point and WWYY sees Bethlehem and Allentown fairly well. Station WKDN, Camden, NJ is a Class B FM on 106.9 mHz with some signal in many places in the LV, I would guess they cause interference in places. FM signals are so very defined more by interference they receive. People often overlook this point when evaluating signals.

KF

 

[trixter]

To trixter, the starter of this thread: where can one listen to the Yanks free over the Net?

Major League Baseball® regards the Internet streaming of its games as its exclusive domain, and while they would prefer people $ub$cribe to MLB.TV to watch games, they still offer Gameday Audio as a separate option priced currently at $ 14.95 (with three months or so of Sports Illustrated thrown in)

The reason I am not completely happy with Bone getting this deal, even though it could have been worse as apparently, WWYY's eastern grade-B contour still encroaches on WCBS's grade-B contour (signal contours, I admit, are over many people's heads here, but still, that is what held up the deal) is that WWYY's operations are, sadly, right here in Easton where my family lives, meaning they may still be having issues with the satellite dish used to pick up the feed from CBS Radio, and it had a LOT of issues last year...ANNNND, 107.1 is either a harmonic, or very close to being a harmonic, of 99.9, meaning unless I go find a really great portable radio in the next couple weeks, I ain't gonna be able to pick up the games anyway!

Anybody know if a SONY SRF-59 (or whatever the 'silver' AM/FM Walkman® is officially called) will take care of the harmonic issue I just mentioned? Those b@st@rds run almost $20, and I'll probably need to cross nine frackin' lanes of traffic to reach the one store that still sells them...I want it to be worth my while...

Funny that you asked! Click here! http://www.107thebone.fm/ I'm sure that you can hear the games for free from other stations on the internet who are also part of the Yankees Network as well. Also I saw a site that you can watch some of the games as well by opening up their media player too!