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What is the difference between 1010 WINS and WCBS 880?

T

The Youngest Oldie

They are both owned by CBS Radio, and serve the same areas pretty much. Is their something that gives each one any individuality? They both sound good, and that WCBS 880 comes in clear as a bell while 1010 WINS can be difficult to tune here in the Hamilton, NJ area.
 
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WCBS is skewed more toward the suburbs.

Here in Southern CT 880 used to be my go-to news station but when they turned on the IBOC signal some years ago it became a very harsh listen. There's noticeable hash in the background and the audio sounds "brittle" to me. There are also too many preemptions for TV programming. Now when I want all-news it's 1010 -- slightly weaker signal but far more pleasant and reliable.
 
New York is the only market with two all news stations. Both are successful and they have different approaches. WCBS carries CBS news on the hour, is more conversational and use two anchors in AM and PM Drive, and as mentioned run "60 Minutes" and "Face The Nation" and occasionally run football games. WINS is a straight ahead all news service geared toward New York City with a more streamlined approach and hardly ever deviate from their 20 minute news cycles. Both stations compliment each other and are live 24/7. Both are 50,000 watts but WCBS has the superior signal and can be heard at night quite far.
 
WCBS is more national with their coverage along with local stories of the metro, where as WINS is pretty much all New York City stories.

Makes perfects sense with the signals. WINS is the absolute best am signal for Manhattan. It booms in and is solid where as wcbs breaks up in the city. Now outside the city wcbs covers the entire metro perfectly, in fact it is consistent even down in South Jersey. WINS, mainly at night, gets completely lost just 15 miles from the city in Jersey which is still part of the market.

These 2 make a boat load of cash, and as we know no one under 40 uses am radio, therefore it really is just a matter of time before these 2 take over 923 and 1027 on fm, I'd say in 5 years.
 
I'm a news junkie. I live in Connecticut, have no connection to NYC, but I like to know what's going on there. I prefer 1010 WINS to WCBS 880, I'm not sure why. That being said, however 1010 is a hard pick up for me during the day as there is a local station on 990 AM. I don't know how to do air miles, but 990's tower is about a 5 mile drive from where I live.

Just like I don't know why I prefer The NY Post over The NY Daily News and The NY Times.
 
To me, 1010 WINS is more for people that live in NYC or in the Metro Area that are "New York City Minded" Meaning, they work in NYC or grew up in NYC, they visit NYC often etc, and WCBS-AM is more for people in suburbia that stay (for the most part) in suburbia. 1010 WINS is NYC and Metro Focused, while WCBS-AM does cover NYC news, it also covers national and global news more in depth. CBS-AM has a more friendly slower pace listening experience. If you notice, they typically have TWO anchors speaking back and forth, while 1010 WINS has ONE anchor per half hour (I think it used to be One Anchor per 20 minutes)
 
Besides the programming and signal differences mentioned above the audio processing on WINS is currently superior to WCBS in my opinion. 1010s audio is clearer/crisper less compressed, definitely easier on the ears for me. They have also toned down the teletype sound affect, it used to be louder and annoying at times.
 
I think the problem with WCBS's audio is a combination of IBOC and heavy processing. Psycho-acoustic effects are hard to quantify but there is such a thing as "listener fatigue." I find myself wanting to turn WCBS off after a short time but I can leave WINS on in the background indefinitely.

I suppose one could argue that since TSL isn't a primary goal for either of these stations it really doesn't matter.
 
I don't understand why AM stations continue to transmit IBOC its a failed technology that negatively affects analog reception, the vast majority of listeners having non HD radios. WFAN AM and WBBRs audio sounds better then the AMs broadcasting in HD. FM HD reception isnt great either in terms of it dropping out short distances from the transmitter
 
benale said:
New York is the only market with two all news stations.
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...KPCC in the Los Angeles market would strenuously argue otherwise. New York is the only market with two commercial all news stations, perhaps. But aren't there still a couple of commercial all newsers in Washington?...
 
ixnay said:
WTOP and WNEW (the latter's COL is Bowie, MD). Except WNEW is more Baltimore-oriented lately I think, and has Dave Ramsey weeknights per [/url]
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Yes, WNEW, which has a bit more coverage of the Baltimore MSA than of the Washington, DC, MSA gave up on DC and is essentially now trying to be a Baltimore rimshot newser.
 
MarcB said:
I'm a news junkie. I live in Connecticut, have no connection to NYC, but I like to know what's going on there. I prefer 1010 WINS to WCBS 880, I'm not sure why. That being said, however 1010 is a hard pick up for me during the day as there is a local station on 990 AM. I don't know how to do air miles, but 990's tower is about a 5 mile drive from where I live.

Just like I don't know why I prefer The NY Post over The NY Daily News and The NY Times.
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News junkie also. I live in Ohio and most nights WCBS comes in clear as a bell. There are no radio news stations were I live so tune in to WCBS to get the news. Every once in a while get a competing station that will override their signal for a bit [I know it's country music but haven't been able to pin down where it may be coming from, possibly out in or near Oklahoma or a state in that general direction]. Every once in a while I can pick up 1010 WINS but signal fades in and out to much to make it worth listening to.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
News junkie also. I live in Ohio and most nights WCBS comes in clear as a bell. There are no radio news stations were I live so tune in to WCBS to get the news. Every once in a while get a competing station that will override their signal for a bit [I know it's country music but haven't been able to pin down where it may be coming from, possibly out in or near Oklahoma or a state in that general direction]. Every once in a while I can pick up 1010 WINS but signal fades in and out to much to make it worth listening to.
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Most likely the station you are hearing that at times overrides WCBS is KRVN-AM 880 Lexington, Nebraska. Its format is listed as Farm and Agricultural but KRVN also plays some country music.
 
jmtillery said:
Most likely the station you are hearing that at times overrides WCBS is KRVN-AM 880 Lexington, Nebraska. Its format is listed as Farm and Agricultural but KRVN also plays some country music.
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Bingo! That has to be it, I've been able to catch the first two letter of the call sign before but always thought the last two were BN and never thought about trying VN when searching for it.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
Bingo! That has to be it, I've been able to catch the first two letter of the call sign before but always thought the last two were BN and never thought about trying VN when searching for it.
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That's the other 50KWer on the frequency from the original breakdown of the clears in the 60s. It used to cover most of the west.
 
ai4i said:
Three letters and 130 KHz.
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Ya know, a wiseass answer like that really detracts from the actual discussion of the differences in programming philosophies, formatics, etc. which was intended when the OP asked the question.

If that comment is the extent of your knowledge about the two stations, maybe you need to be in a different thread.
 
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