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foolish - WIOD

AMRocks

AMRocks

Star Participant
I understand WIOD had transmitter problems and they moved the signal to 940. Is it just me or did iHeart make a huge mistake here?

Shouldn't THE news/talk/information station for South Florida after a cat 4 hurricane hits be moved (at least semi-permanently) to one of the big FM signals? Now would be the time to SHINE! Unless, of course, iHeart really doesn't trust that the station could ever shine.

Yes, the imminent danger is over, but there is SO MUCH recovery effort that's still going on. Become the place where everyone can tune to to find ice, power updates, where to get food, licensed contractors, etc. See if an iHeart news/talk station in another part of the country can loan you a person or two to assist.

Most markets have at least one news or news/talk station that is totally a leader. Yes, I understand the language issues of South Florida, but IMHO, this was a HUGE mistake on iHeart's part. And if I were an employee working on WIOD, I would be severely disappointed that management didn't have faith in me/us to take the station to the next level after the biggest disaster since Andrew.


Oh yeah, and this....

https://radioinsight.com/blogs/lance/119720/will-rebuild-can-find-us/amp/
 
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Oh yeah, and this....

https://radioinsight.com/blogs/lance/119720/will-rebuild-can-find-us/amp/[/QUOTE]


How about THIS? Worse than 'IOD going off air and not saying where the programming went.

Mods: Sorry for the profanity in the URL. That's the real link:

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/9/11/****-em Replace the 4 asterisks with the F word, not capitalized. Very telling video linked to FTVLive of Morales calling them out and basically saying to hell with them live on air.

WTVJ NBC6 Chief Meteorologist John Morales calling out Y-100 and 610 WIOD (before it went dark) for carrying normal programming when this thing was coming in.

After this I strongly suspect WTVJ will be seeking out a new radio partner.
 
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Has any Spanish-language station in the market been taking a live, local leadership role after Irma for the Hispanic community? That would be doubly embarrassing for iHeart, I would think.
 
For the few listeners who found WIOD on 940 that's probably their biggest audience in years. WINZ is the lowest rated of the three sports stations in Miami. South Florida is inundated with Sports stations. Way too many between Miami Fort Lauderdale and West Palm.
 
CTListener said:
Has any Spanish-language station in the market been taking a live, local leadership role after Irma for the Hispanic community? That would be doubly embarrassing for iHeart, I would think.
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The Univision stations did full coverage in conjunction with Channel 23's coverage.
 
AMRocks said:
Shouldn't THE news/talk/information station for South Florida after a cat 4 hurricane hits be moved (at least semi-permanently) to one of the big FM signals? Now would be the time to SHINE!
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Far be it for me to defend I ♥ Debt, but the reason WIOD isn't on a big FM signal is because the company desperately needs cash flow to service debt. Sacrificing one of their FMs eliminates that cash, while throwing 6~Ten overboard does the same to that signal. 1 + 0 does not equal 2. It may not make sense from a programming perspective, but if you were a bean counter playing Whack-A-Mole with their financials you'd understand why.

re: not telling web viewers you moved to 9~Forty because of the Hurricane - I don't think updating a web site was much of a priority during the storm and resulting floods. I ♥ Debt isn't too deep on support personnel as they continue to squeeze more blood from that turnip!
 
Hot 105 and The Beach were both in regular programming and/or spots when at least one of the tornado alerts came in and it was pointing at my community. At least we had 'Electric Avenue' by Eddy Grant to keep our spirits up while we were huddled in a closet.
 
Keep in mind that iHeart did basically the same thing in Houston, putting 24/7 hurricane coverage on the AM news station, and keeping the FMs with regular programming. Other companies broke format on FM, and that also happened in Miami.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that iHeart did basically the same thing in Houston, putting 24/7 hurricane coverage on the AM news station, and keeping the FMs with regular programming. Other companies broke format on FM, and that also happened in Miami.
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Iheart doesn't have any " News Stations" Anyone remember WINZ 940 before Cheap Channel bought them? They were all news during the day.
 
inorm99 said:
Iheart doesn't have any " News Stations" Anyone remember WINZ 940 before Cheap Channel bought them? They were all news during the day.
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I get your point. In fact the only company I know of that has 24/7 news stations is CBS, and they're about to be sold. Even NPR stations fill the time with talk.

However, KTRH and WIOD are as close to news as anyone gets anymore. It's as close as the news cable channels get too. Even CNN Headline News has left the non-stop news business.
 
DrAkbar said:
Far be it for me to defend I ♥ Debt, but the reason WIOD isn't on a big FM signal is because the company desperately needs cash flow to service debt. Sacrificing one of their FMs eliminates that cash, while throwing 6~Ten overboard does the same to that signal. 1 + 0 does not equal 2. It may not make sense from a programming perspective, but if you were a bean counter playing Whack-A-Mole with their financials you'd understand why.!
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There is another reason or maybe two of em why there is no big Miami FM devoted to talk and news.

First, and more important, the market is about 75% ethnic. First, there are nearly 55% Hispanics, and in the older demos that listen to news and talk, the lowest degree of English dominance is found. The Black population generally underindexes in "angry white guy" talk radio, and much of the Black population is also Hatian.

This is also the reason why the English sports stations and Entercom's Alt Rock station do so poorly.

Then we have the fact that WIOD's north-south peanut shaped directional pattern produces the best AM signal in the market with its 10 kw on 610.
 
TheBigA said:
I get your point. In fact the only company I know of that has 24/7 news stations is CBS, and they're about to be sold. Even NPR stations fill the time with talk.

However, KTRH and WIOD are as close to news as anyone gets anymore. It's as close as the news cable channels get too. Even CNN Headline News has left the non-stop news business.
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This should be a wake up call, especially for stations that call themselves " newsradio" to actually have regular, up to the minute LIVE updates, if not go all news.
they should definitely have an FM signal.
If a market is diverse with a high immigrant population, then every effort be made to duplicate the information in the 2 languages.
As far as the CBS Entercom merger, It is my hope that all, or most of the news stations there, stay intact
 
As nice as that might be, it is simply just not financially possible for some stations to provide the sort of coverage you describe. Generally it is a staffing problem and having to use third party services that are not designed to produce such programming. As for the dual language, again, staffing can be the problem. Sadly, stations are restricted by the income they receive from the sale of advertising and as we both know, you just can't get away with living beyond your means. The All News format is so costly and generally performs so poorly in most markets it can't generate the dollars to survive.

I think it is sad this is the reality for some stations. Most just opt to carry TV audio and maybe do some local inserts. Even TV is getting fairly bare bones and has had to opt to numerous hours of news programming where they can sell every minute of ad time and run as much as they can in order to afford the staff they have. In an earlier time you didn't see TV stations doing all news 4 to 9 am, 11 to 1 and 4 to 6:30 in the evening. They do it because they have limited minutes per hour to sell in syndicated programming they pay for in addition to clearing network spots in minutes they could sell if they originate programming. Even on TV there are few success stories in 24/7 news. Look at how much long form programming is added to the news networks.

The loser in all of this is the consumer. The consumer has so many choices it has become very difficult to amass enough of an audience to generate the ad dollars to support it all.

To allow an FM for an AM News/Talker is a matter of choice of the licensees themselves. The FCC does not regulate programming. In almost every market news does poorly (in relation to cost) equally on AM and FM. FM does not equal listeners and ad dollars. In fact if they had an FM, chances are financials would dictate a music format for FM and for the P&L statement, the FM would likely show a much higher profit margin that the News/Talk AM unless that AM consolidates the news staff to serve several stations or subscribes to a news service and carries a lineup of syndicated programs outside drive time.
 
inorm99 said:
This should be a wake up call, especially for stations that call themselves " newsradio" to actually have regular, up to the minute LIVE updates, if not go all news.
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There is a big difference between being "news / talk" and doing long form spot news coverage of a single event. Stations that are able to do a few minutes of news each hour are generally not able to field a staff of reporters, mobile units, editors, producers and the like needed for full news coverage. They just have no need on a day in, day out basis for this sort of deep and large staff.

This is why TV and radio alliances are becoming the rule, and is also a reason why newspapers should be allowed to own electronic media properties.

they should definitely have an FM signal.
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If the regular, daily operation of a news / talk station does not justify the investment and, in most cases, the lost revenue from abandoning a music format on the FM, it will not happen.

If a market is diverse with a high immigrant population, then every effort be made to duplicate the information in the 2 languages.
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In the case of Miami, it's at least three languages: English, Spanish and Kreyol. No station is going to staff speakers of languages not regularly used in programming just in case a major emergency presents itself. And if the different language communities are significant, they will have their own media outlets better able to attend the needs of their communities.

As far as the CBS Entercom merger, It is my hope that all, or most of the news stations there, stay intact
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If they make money, they will. The same goes for every commercial station in the country and, indeed, the world.
 
inorm99 said:
they should definitely have an FM signal.
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WIOD once had a FM signal on W262AN 100.3 in Broward. This translator was forced to go silent after interference complaints from a co-channel station near West Palm and iHeart didn't exactly move mountains (towers?) to find a new FM home for 'IOD. They could have put it on one of other translators they operate (104.7 and 105.5) but chose not to for reasons I'm sure had to do with not seeing any significant impact from having Rush and co. on FM. Granted, 100.3 was a Broward(ish) service but I believe that had iHeart seen any benefit from having WIOD on FM they would have found another signal to carry it on. Granted, a full-power FM talk station would be pretty cool but I don't see it happening or working in Miami. Sidenote: The late Neil Rogers once proposed flipping Zeta 94.9 to talk back in the 80s when he was doing mornings there and for all anyone knows it could have been gangbusters. We'll never know, but in 2017 it definitely wouldn't last.

inorm99 said:
This should be a wake up call, especially for stations that call themselves " newsradio" to actually have regular, up to the minute LIVE updates, if not go all news.
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Virtually all of the stations I've heard that had the word 'news' in the brand name carry news updates on the hour and/or half hour, even if the rest of the time is devoted to talk. Did all-news enjoy any success in South Florida? The only station I had any experience with was 850 WFTL when they were all-news Live 85 any of course everyone knows what happened there.
 
When I made this initial post, I was actually talking about putting WIOD on an FM temporarily. Hell, if it's a debt issue as mentioned earlier, run both stations spots for the time being. I mean, I can't believe anyone even knows about AM anymore, no less could find the station. (Ask anyone under 30 to put an AM station on their car radio, and i bet they didn't even know there was a button for that.) lol
 
I get what you are saying about temporarily doing an FM simulcast and running both station's spots but I think what you'd find would happen is the clients on the FM would say they didn't deliver on what they bought. They'd complain the FM changed format (if even temporarily) and that commercial load would be massive.
 
AMRocks said:
I can't believe anyone even knows about AM anymore, no less could find the station.
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The demo for this format trends pretty old. They know AM just fine.

IOD had an FM translator for a few years, but found it didn't add anything. They're now on an HD channel.
 
AMRocks said:
When I made this initial post, I was actually talking about putting WIOD on an FM temporarily. Hell, if it's a debt issue as mentioned earlier, run both stations spots for the time being. I mean, I can't believe anyone even knows about AM anymore, no less could find the station. (Ask anyone under 30 to put an AM station on their car radio, and i bet they didn't even know there was a button for that.) lol
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If you combine an FM with WIOD, the advertisers from the FM format would not continue to run them on the AM/FM combo. Different demos, and likely not reaching the target ages and other demos that the FM format advertisers are seeking.
 
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