WBFO has apparently replaced their Saturday Night Blues programming with The Bridge format. This must be part of the vision to ultimately promote more concerts and in studio performances. Now that Audacy is in major distress, maybe Public Media will try to acquire the 107.7 signal for The Bridge. They could make room for Blues and Alternative, while the Rabid Wolf format gets put out of its misery...
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WBFO - The Bridge
- Thread starter tbolt909
- Start date
I doubt that Audacy will sell what remains of their Buffalo cluster piecemeal. With the demise of AM likely just over the horizon I would expect the 107.7 signal to remain in reserve as a vehicle for their AM formats. The only possible buyer I can think of could be Pegula Sports Entertainment. They could be interested in the stations as outlets for their multiple sports teams.
With the sale of STAR, Audacy Buffalo will have only 1 full power FM (KISS). Others here have talked about the premise of "Cluster Sales". Without STAR, the cluster takes a dramatic revenue drop off. The GM is leaving the company and someone else gets stuck with the Bill of Goods known as The Wolf. With Audacy's debt crisis, the Buffalo stations are all expendable...
The cluster produces positive cash flow, it's worth more as a group than selling off a single station. Or trading with another group to improve Audacy's position in another market. Selling to EMF is a "one off" I doubt we would see another single station sale.
Maybe. Keep in mind there is a still a lot of Buffalo real estate in Audacy Atlas that could be sold. When that happens, it will change the situation for Audacy's AM stations:
What Is Audacy’s Atlas? And Are Divestitures Coming? – RadioInsight
EXCLUSIVE: Over the past few months, Audacy has been transferring some of its assets into a new holding company, Audacy Atlas, LLC. This week saw the FCC approval of its first station license transfer and the filing to move two more stations into this new portfolio.
radioinsight.com
Things are not status quo for Audacy Buffalo. Meanwhile, with regards to the OP:
My view is they don't need to put the format on a broadcast signal 24/7 in order to accomplish what they want with this format. They just need to draw attention to it, and people who want it can find it. I'm also not sure that they want to devote any more money to radio. They seem to be cutting costs as it is at WBFO. So I don't see them spending money for another signal for The Bridge. Nationally, fundraising and corporate grants are down at public stations, so I imagine Buffalo isn't immune from that.
I am surprised there isn't more negativity about this. Back when WNYPM bought WBFO, there were a lot of complaints on this board about the station dropping the heritage blues shows. Now they disappear with barely a whimper.
We don't know what feedback the station has been getting-- negative or otherwise. WBFO gradually phased out Blues programming over time. They moved it to nights and then only Saturday night (and now gone unless it's on HD somewhere). You're right they want to draw attention to The Bridge which is why it's now on the Saturday night WBFO schedule. Let's face it, almost no one is listening to anything on HD...
Maybe. But a growing number of people are streaming radio stations, and The Bridge is available that way:
All they have to do is point fans of the music in the right direction, and they will listen. Public radio listeners are very loyal to their stations, and also see themselves as users of new technologies. It doesn't need to be on broadcast radio for them to listen.
Public Media in Buffalo must think otherwise or they wouldn't be putting The Bridge on the WBFO schedule. Buffalo is still an old market (see the story about AM Radio usage in another thread). Getting the 107.7 signal would give them a traditional outlet for niche programming like Blues and The Bridge. Obviously, that is speculation but certainly not outlandish...
There was so much outrage eleven years ago because The Blues aired on Saturday and Sunday afternoons while WBFO was at UB, hosted by heritage jock Jim Santella and the equally popular Anita West. Jim‘s Saturday Blues earned an AQH of 10,000. WBFO was a top 5 station on Saturday afternoons, actually beating 97 Rock. Anita’s numbers weren’t bad either. Ah, those were the days! “Are you ready for the Blues?”
Thanks to Don Boswell, The Blues were saved after the sale. There were some downtown pushing for their elimination. Listeners expressed their concerns about what would happen. So, Boswell compromised by scheduling the Blues in less listened to evening hours. But some listeners were not appeased and complained. Jim retired seven months later. The Saturday show was taken over by market veteran Pat Feldballe. Anita eventually pissed off the suits enough that she was let go. Her show was taken over by Blues musician Tommy Z.
I no longer had access to hourly numbers. But one can assume listenership fell during the evening hours. Early on, there was some fundraising during The Blues, but that was eventually stopped. Boswell was the spirit behind The Blues Bashes, held twice a year at the downtown studios featuring live Blue bands. They would sell out. But the live concerts disappeared thanks to COVID and never returned.
A couple of years ago, the suits dropped the Sunday Blues to air third runnings of shows already heard at other weekend times. All these shows are available as podcasts as well. So, I doubt there are people saying, “Gee, honey, it’s 9:00. Let’s listen to Radio Lab.”
Then, came the recent decision to totally drop The Blues. By then, the franchise had been decimated to the point that it should come as no surprise that there was little outrage. Still, I’ve seen a few Facebook posts from Blues diehards criticizing management for yet another dumb decision among many that have been made the past year.
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It's 3 hours on Saturday night. That's not a big commitment.
It would cost several million dollars. Unless they have a funder willing to underwrite the cost, it won't happen. It's not like they're sitting on spare cash. In markets where public stations have made this kind of move, the results have been very weak in terms of traditional ratings. So there isn't any financial value to spending millions for a station that won't result in new memberships. A new owner won't fix the problem with the 107.7 signal. I can't imagine people in rural areas are dying for this music. The Bridge is more of an urban format.
I bet that was the main reason. They once raised a lot of money with the blues on the weekends. When that stopped, the music was vulnerable. Programming in public radio is judged by the amount of money it raises. I also agree with your view on how listening habits have changed. People don't tune in for specialty shows the way they once did. Great post. Thanks for all that.
You have to wonder why they stopped fundraising during the Blues show. My guess is that it was canned programming after a certain point. You may not hear the response outside of the market, but plenty of people have told me that they've cut back on their commitment to WBFO because the Blues, Zorba Pastor, and other programming on Saturdays were cut in favor of programs like Radiolab that are repeated multiple times on Sunday. Add the cuts to news programming and people are beginning to notice. Perhaps the aim is to bring in a younger audience. So far, it looks like they're just bringing in less money. We won't find out until the annual report comes out sometime after the next fiscal year. Of course, I do expect the Bridge listeners to pony up in a big way on Saturday nights to support their AAA-ish format. That's the aim, isn't it? After all, the format has taken WNY by storm, right?
The 107.7 signal is now likely worth less than $1 million.
One assumes that the whole point of creating the Bridge was to get NEW memberships. The Lawrence Welk donors won't be around forever. Audacy is in trouble and not getting anything from 107.7 now. Public Media could get it cheap. Maybe they aren't interested in buying 107.7, but they certainly ARE interested in new members. Another FM signal would give them an opportunity for diverse content...
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But not platform, and they're more interested now in diversifying platforms. The people listening to FM are already members.
I really don't see the 3 hours Saturday night as something for getting new members. It's preaching to the converted.
The Bridge has existed for over a year now. Why bother putting it on WBFO at all? It's already available elsewhere as you said. They clearly want to broaden its reach a bit. Not everyone that listens is a member. The whole point of adding different content is to get more people interested. You then try to convince them that the content is worth supporting. Another FM signal would allow room for Blues and other programming not available on Commercial Radio.
I agree with Mark's assessment that COVID hurt the Blues events and the company decided to move away from it. That's unfortunate...
It's free programming. Sounds good on Saturday night.
This is an example of how incompetent they currently are. They have some young staffers like Holly Kirkpatrick and Angelea Preston who have been there for a while now and they're not even on their staff page. I've also heard someone named Lorenzo recently. My guess is they literally have no one left who even knows how to manage aspects of their website. Also, it's 11 a.m. Monday and their "top story" is from last Friday.
The blues shows demise was death by a thousand paper cuts. I knew all the players, save for Tommy Z, and they could see what was coming down the track. It wasn't their first time at the train station. After a while, the fight goes out of the moderate blues fans, leaving only the stalwarts to fight the battle. The war is long over.
As to WNYPM or BTPM buying 107.7 ... who knows, but this poster seriously doubts it. The Bridge format? Flavor of the day for aging Gen X'ers. It's not a bad format, you just wonder if it excites ... really excites ... anybody. Remember the Edge in the mid-90s? That was new and to a degree, exciting. The first Nirvana album ("Bleach") is what... 34 years old?
Not that any flavor of radio these days is exciting. Now Tik Tok ... there's some exciting shizzle ... [/wry take]
As to WNYPM or BTPM buying 107.7 ... who knows, but this poster seriously doubts it. The Bridge format? Flavor of the day for aging Gen X'ers. It's not a bad format, you just wonder if it excites ... really excites ... anybody. Remember the Edge in the mid-90s? That was new and to a degree, exciting. The first Nirvana album ("Bleach") is what... 34 years old?
Not that any flavor of radio these days is exciting. Now Tik Tok ... there's some exciting shizzle ... [/wry take]
As you say, no format truly excites anyone but these companies keep the recycling project going. People on this board are hand wringing about the demise of STAR and what a tragic loss it is to humanity. Others say that Sunday Morning Polka Shows are sacred and insanely popular. Strange town...
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