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1210 am wpht

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Jul said:
With the way radio is right now and a new owner taking over 1210 AM, nothing is guaranteed
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There is as close to a "guarantee" that WPHT will keep within its existing format as is possible to give.

1. There is no "other" format option for an AM station.
2. The station has decent billings.
3. News/talk has always been a cyclical format with constant ups and downs.
4. Advertisers look at averages of several /many books and don't pay particular attention to single book swings.
5. Changing formats causes billing to drop, often to zero. Not a good move for a company that has to show profit growth.
 
Are you folks here on the board hearing anything about any rumors about possible changes coming to 1210 AM in the coming weeks and months as the Entercom merger nears from anyone that works for WPHT or from other folks in the radio business ? If you have talked to 1210 employees and other folks about 1210, what are they saying?
 
Quick question : About how much is it going to set back Entercom for picking up these stations in Philly and elsewhere?

I mean, CBS has owned many of their stations for decades. I doubt they're going to allow Entercom a free test-drive.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Quick question : About how much is it going to set back Entercom for picking up these stations in Philly and elsewhere?

I mean, CBS has owned many of their stations for decades. I doubt they're going to allow Entercom a free test-drive.
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The deal is a complicated Reverse Morris Trust, and the CBS shareholders will end up getting shares equal to just over 70% of the Entercom shares, but Entercom will be the surviving company.
 
Jul said:
Are you folks here on the board hearing anything about any rumors about possible changes coming to 1210 AM in the coming weeks and months as the Entercom merger nears from anyone that works for WPHT or from other folks in the radio business ? If you have talked to 1210 employees and other folks about 1210, what are they saying?
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You'll know it when everyone else does. In the meantime, chilling out is a good option.
 
pab said:
Layoffs? Probably. Programming changes? Inevitably. Format changes? None. They may swap out some shows for cheaper options but it has no choice but to stay talk. All news is already represented by KYW and sports by WIP-FM (both owned by the same company) and it's too big a signal to put the only other viable AM options on: brokered, ethnic, or religious.

1210 is, and will for the foreseeable future will remain, talk. They have no other option.
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1210 being an all syndicated talk station, I would not be shocked if that happens. It saves the cluster money, if they did that, if Entercom keeps 1210's current format. What syndicated shows should 1210 AM air to replace the local talk shows, if they go this route?
 
Been there, done that. They found they could bill more for local shows than for syndicated (mainly because of more avails) and the lack of carriage fees made local shows cheaper to produce. People who want syndicated talk will go to Salem and other little operations.
 
TheBigA said:
Entercom is not a big fan of syndicated talk shows. They see it as giving their money to competitors.
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They'd be smart to do some of their own syndication to their own stations. After doing some market analysis, they might be able to come up with their down talk hosts to run on a few of their stations. They'd keep all the money in-house and still cut down on expenses.
 
AMRocks said:
They'd be smart to do some of their own syndication to their own stations. After doing some market analysis, they might be able to come up with their down talk hosts to run on a few of their stations. They'd keep all the money in-house and still cut down on expenses.
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They've tried it with mixed results. The problem even with in-house syndication is that it just takes money from one pocket (the local station) and moves it to another (corporate).
 
I live north of Trenton NJ (a few miles from the transmitting tower of WKXW 101.5 FM) and my first post here was trying to find a car radio with a decent AM tuner section so I could pick up 1210 WPHT in my car as I drive around. I like listening to their conservative oriented talk format as it gives me a break from the liberal leaning programming on the major cable and OTA network news. It's all about balance. In any case, I can get their signal all the way out to about Barnegat NJ before it starts to become unusable.
 
If CBS/Entercom decides to drop talk on 1210 AM, my hunch is that it would probably be money and or ratings related.
 
Jul said:
If CBS/Entercom decides to drop talk on 1210 AM, my hunch is that it would probably be money and or ratings related.
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There is nothing that is not talk based that can be profitably done on a big-city AM.
 
DavidEduardo said:


There is nothing that is not talk based that can be profitably done on a big-city AM.
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Maybe 1210 AM could air syndicated sports talk from perhaps CBS Sports Radio or air a full time simulcast of 94 WIP. Entercom may not want to keep spending money on the current conservative talk format on 1210 AM .
 
Jul said:
Maybe 1210 AM could air syndicated sports talk from perhaps CBS Sports Radio or air a full time simulcast of 94 WIP.
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A simulcast would not result in greater audience in sales demos for WIP. CBS itself got this when they spun off the original WIP (AM). All that would happen is that the AM revenue would be flushed down the drain.

Despite being a 50 kw clear channel station, WPHT is high on the dial and does not really cover any better than the good FM signals.

Plus, sports has definitely and distinctively moved to FM in the market. AM > FM is not a two way street.

Entercom may not want to keep spending money on the current conservative talk format on 1210 AM .
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They are not "spending money" unless they are "losing money". Based on billings, I can not imagine that WPHT is not moderately profitable... and moderately profitable is all you can hope for with an AM today.
 
TheBigA said:
How many times in this thread have you said the exact same thing?
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... doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different outcome.
 
Jul said:
If CBS/Entercom decides to drop talk on 1210 AM, my hunch is that it would probably be money and or ratings related.
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Julius, knock it off.

There is zero chance that CBS/Entercom will drop talk from 1210. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Nagahappen. We have explained why over and over here and you just can't grasp it.

CBS already has the other two AM viable formats in the market already: KYW and WIP. They have nothing that can go on 1210 that wouldn't be eating into their other properties.

Please stop.
 
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