Last Day for Talk 106.7--May 31

Hey, "AMRocks," back off a bit. Trusty was simply exploring the possible future career paths for the ex-pats from WYAY talk. Not a bad , certainly innovative suggestion for CMG since what they are running now are time-shifted talkers from Fox Radio.

You're right, the YAY refugees wouldn't be cheap -- Kimmer would demand a bundle -- bu could be an angle to show WSB still thinks local.

And don't blow off the "truckers" market. Those guys make buckets of money, and they have to spend it somewhere. They're the root of the interstate terrestrial commerce, with gas stations, diners, hotels etc. Remember there are ad agencies looking for avails that reach those markets.

LegalTender said:

Cumulus did almost no cross-promotion - as Kimmer fumed on-air. No billboards, no buses, just the occasional Fox5 News courtesies.

The final all-news book was 2.1, but the format required a bigger payroll. 106.7's talk lineup had the chance they deserve. Just not the corporate nerve.

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I seem to recall a LOT of 106.7 bus wraps and billboards. Never understood the bus ads. Nobody looking at the side of a bus is going to suddenly think "Hey, I need a new radio station to listen to, and by golly this all-news thing sounds good!" Especially not on buses in an urban area where other formats dominate.

But the sad takeaway is that this was probably one of the last, or maybe THE last attempt at an all-news launch. It flopped. Likely nobody in a major market is going to risk it again.

TheBigA said:

I suspect that most major owners are waiting to see what the FCC decides to do with the ownership caps. They'd like to find a way to encourage companies to buy AM stations. One way is to remove ownership caps from AMs. If that happens, you may see more interest in those big city AMs. A decision should come before the end of the year.

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Maybe. But there aren't very many owners who have reached the existing ownership caps. Entercom is at the cap in New York, Chicago, SF, Dallas and Boston. iHeart is at the limit in LA, SF and Boston. Cox is at the limit in Atlanta. That's it for the top 10 markets.

You see Entercom's name there a lot. They got there with the CBS Radio purchase, and various stations swaps to get under the limits. Entercom also seems to be one of the very few commercial operators who is buying. Would Entercom want to have WABC-AM or KGO-AM? Maybe, if the ownership cap were lifted. But the sales price might not be high enough to entice Cumulus to sell, because Entercom knows as well as anyone that AM licenses are declining assets.

trusty said:

Atlanta has been holding on to an identity crisis for years – not a small market, but not the biggest either. WYAY’s locally-focused talk radio has generated a very loyal – but very small – audience. I tend to think the lineup hasn’t had the chance they deserve. I don’t know how much cross-promotion Cumulus has done for the station, but WYAY’s ratings should be FAR more than they are with the talent and approachability they have. I don’t think they would have lasted much longer anyway – management’s hands seemed to be tied.

So, what about the future? Well, I could maybe see Kimmer (and possibly Shannon and the others) on WSB overnights, which would give late audiences more variety in programming. I don’t know how far the 750 signal would reach truckers (considering the poor ground conductivity and computer/electrical static), but it may be worth a shot. Also, I heard more truckers are going with satellite – another possibility.

And then, there is shortwave …. no, there isn’t.

Anyway, I hope the personalities wind up on a good station that also streams. I’ll listen – and I hope success for all of them.

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Poor ground conductivity doesn't affect WSB's nighttime skywave.

PTBoardOp94 said:

Would Entercom want to have WABC-AM or KGO-AM? Maybe, if the ownership cap were lifted. But the sales price might not be high enough to entice Cumulus to sell, because Entercom knows as well as anyone that AM licenses are declining assets.

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Maybe if someone needed a tax loss/writeoff...

DavidEduardo said:

Bus cards really work for radio in areas where there are enough buses on enough routes to create multiple impressions.

Maybe the best station launch I ever did was promoted with 2 days of television and 90 days of bus, including pre-launch teasers. No other advertising was used and a book done 21 days into the format gave us a 22.5 share in a 30+ station market, with a 33.5 60 days later and a cume rating of over 60.

People who see bus ads several times are made aware of a station. If the message is direct enough... like "today's hot country" or "your relaxing favorites" or "all-time classic rock"... those interested will at some point give it a try.

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Night Manager is correct it is a local thing. The problems with bus wraps in Atlanta market are political and demographic in nature. The bus frequency is poor in a lot of areas and Marta only runs in the “Democratic” controlled counties Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton. The “wrong political party voters” were seeing the ads. It would be like running Republican primary ads on an Urban station instead of a conservative Talker. The non-Hispanic parts of Gwinnett and Cobb are usually Republican leaning with their own bus systems and have more P1 listeners for a conservative leaning talk station would be logical. But then having to use the Cobb system once, in the pre Uber days after waiting for a cab that never showed up to get my car out of the shop, the frequency of buses is poor!


IMHO the two Marta Bus 106.7 wraps I saw last year downtown were a total waste of money. Had the buses been North of the perimeter in Alpharetta and North Fulton areas Cumulus might have gotten some value. If someone would write a book on how NOT to do Radio: Cumulus’s running of 106.7 would have to be at least a chapter. I don’t mean to sound bitter but as an All News junkie (who will settle for news part of news talk if the news is well executed), I am disappointed that 106.7’s performance has killed any chance of anyone else with a good signal from even considering a “spoken word” format in Atlanta for a long time.

secondchoice said:

IMHO the two Marta Bus 106.7 wraps I saw last year downtown were a total waste of money. Had the buses been North of the perimeter in Alpharetta and North Fulton areas Cumulus might have gotten some value. If someone would write a book on how NOT to do Radio: Cumulus’s running of 106.7 would have to be at least a chapter. I don’t mean to sound bitter but as an All News junkie (who will settle for news part of news talk if the news is well executed), I am disappointed that 106.7’s performance has killed any chance of anyone else with a good signal from even considering a “spoken word” format in Atlanta for a long time.

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'AllNews 106.7' bus placards appeared on the front in rotation with '680TheFan', and ended after about two months. I never saw a "Talk 106.7" bus wrap. Cumulus did a decent amount of social media and had a zipper at SunTrust Park as WYAY carried the Braves.

Mike_Rafone said:

Hey, "AMRocks," back off a bit. Trusty was simply exploring the possible future career paths for the ex-pats from WYAY talk. Not a bad , certainly innovative suggestion for CMG since what they are running now are time-shifted talkers from Fox Radio.

You're right, the YAY refugees wouldn't be cheap -- Kimmer would demand a bundle -- bu could be an angle to show WSB still thinks local.

And don't blow off the "truckers" market. Those guys make buckets of money, and they have to spend it somewhere. They're the root of the interstate terrestrial commerce, with gas stations, diners, hotels etc. Remember there are ad agencies looking for avails that reach those markets.

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I didn't mean that post to come off as anything other than my opinion and not "in your face." Sorry if it came across that way.

Yes, WSB thinks local... usually. They do have Rush because it's all about ratings/money and Rush helps their ratings. They also have an hour of Hannity. Same reason.

Think about this if you were the PD of a radio station: You're #1 and "own" the town. Your competition gets crap ratings. Would you hire the talk show host that's losing his job? Unlikely, because you're better than that.

I totally stand by my truckers comment, too. They may have buckets of money, but WSB does NOT get advertisers based on what truckers might listen to. They get advertisers based on the response from PPM meters that listeners are wearing in the Atlanta market.

And I HIGHLY doubt ad agencies are buying only the overnight hours to reach truckers. At least not in 2019.

AMRocks said:

I totally stand by my truckers comment, too. They may have buckets of money, but WSB does NOT get advertisers based on what truckers might listen to. They get advertisers based on the response from PPM meters that listeners are wearing in the Atlanta market.

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Most truckers today subscribe to Sirius so they don't have to change the station every 60 miles.

All-News 106.7 did indeed get bus cards and a few billboards during the first couple of months, but it wasn't enough, given that many Atlantans are unfamiliar with the all-news format and how it differs from a talk format. The ratings did rise gradually during the all-news period (no doubt not fast enough for Cumulus), but ratings pretty much stagnated after the switch to talk. I personally think that if they'd stuck with all-news, they would have had some decent ratings by now. But I know that very few broadcasters these days can or will wait that long. And yes, in the interest of transparency, I used to work there.

Shelley Wynter said this AM on his show that Cox has hired him as a fill-in on WSB. Apparently he's already slated for some Clark Howard evening slots (which sounds like a booby prize, but hey, work is work) but more importantly some Erick Erickson slots during PM drive.

Kudos to Cumulus for letting Shelley pitch his upcoming WSB work on 106.7.

If Shelley plays his cards right he could be the second coming of Royal Marshall (RIP).

jabba17 said:

Shelley Wynter said this AM on his show that Cox has hired him as a fill-in on WSB. Apparently he's already slated for some Clark Howard evening slots (which sounds like a booby prize, but hey, work is work) but more importantly some Erick Erickson slots during PM drive.

Kudos to Cumulus for letting Shelley pitch his upcoming WSB work on 106.7.

If Shelley plays his cards right he could be the second coming of Royal Marshall (RIP).

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The afternoon guy has been talking about his show on WGKA as well. Yes, very nice of management to let them do this. Nobody has anything to lose at this point so there really is no need to act like stations usually act when the staff is leaving. Good to see they realize that.

Clark Howard's evening show is all in tape delay. WSB hasn't liked that from what I understand. They would prefer live and local and this gives them a way to do that and work toward the day Clark retires. It's going to happen.

This is very encouraging. WSB has not traditionally done well working on people to be the next generation of host. They didn't have anyone ready to fill in or take over for Boortz even when they knew it was coming. For all the duly deserved love for Royal Marshall (RIP), they barely trusted him with an off-hours show. Same with Arum. They seem to be too busy supporting the A team to worry about having a AA team in house. I hope this is changing now.

7 PM tonight. Correct?
They should go out peppering the dialogue using 4 letter words, etc.
Wearing my 106.7 cap today in memoriam.

I was there for the final day...

https://www.ajc.com/blog/radiotvtalk/scenes-from-the-final-day-talk-106/XfWSw1cycK63irHPVWuohN/

When did they bring in Chris Corley for imaging? It's very close to his imaging for KFI which I always thought was the best on any news/talk in the last two decades.

Now, Jim Cutler is great too. But Chris is a whole different level. iHeart has always been stupid for not reusing the KFI imaging for WGST. Ah well. Pity it's gonna be gone after today.

IMHO, it's a sad day for radio, not even as much in Atlanta as in New York and Washington, DC.

To me, major market radio is what it is because of its local element. Yes, I realize before TV, radio aired a lot of network programming, but the stations still had some local shows and a sizeable staff. EMF wanted a transmitter and will likely have no local employees except possibly a contract engineer.

Even at today's depressed radio station values, EMF purchased the stations at cents on the dollar due to Cumulus' desire to raise cash fast. It's been reported that people on the Cumulus post-bankruptcy board who took a haircut in bankruptcy wanted to be made somewhat whole.

It's true that the stations that Cumulus sold in New York, Washington and L.A. (to Meruelo) were in small clusters compared to their competitors, but Cumulus and listeners could have done better if Cumulus had been able to exercise some patience.

RoddyFreeman said:

It's true that the stations that Cumulus sold in New York, Washington and L.A. (to Meruelo) were in small clusters compared to their competitors, but Cumulus and listeners could have done better if Cumulus had been able to exercise some patience.

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Easy to say. The Cumulus management was very patient, and did a lot to rebuild the stations after the Dickeys left. But the new owners (creditors) have no emotional attachment. Keep in mind that NY had a religious station, WFME, that became a commercial country station. That additional station glutted the market. So flipping WPLJ to religious simply returns the market to the previous size.

TheBigA said:

Easy to say. The Cumulus management was very patient, and did a lot to rebuild the stations after the Dickeys left. But the new owners (creditors) have no emotional attachment. Keep in mind that NY had a religious station, WFME, that became a commercial country station. That additional station glutted the market. So flipping WPLJ to religious simply returns the market to the previous size.

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Well...it sort of returns the market to the previous number of local commercial stations. Up until now the WNSH (WFME) signal has not covered the market or had the same signal intensity even in Manhattan as the real New York stations. But WNSH does have a CP to move to one of the WOR-AM towers and will then have *almost* the signal of the New York stations. But, WPLJ is a legendary station and should not be meeting its fate like this.

And getting back to the same number of local commercial stations is not the case in Atlanta and DC.

Yes, Mary Berner, Jeff Marcus and the board did have patience until Cumulus was forced into bankruptcy. But, when I said Cumulus could have done better if they had been able to exercise some patience, I was referring to the *current* Cumulus, and the new board members who have no emotional attachment are the current Cumulus.

Well the Kimmer did say a farewell even though he keep his promise to hee and hoe until the station went dark. K love was in the middle of a song then the legal id as WAKL Gainesville Atlanta came on. I hope they turn on the HD because of K love classics the station playing 80s 90s and early 2000s. The RDS is not up yet so I know engineers are busy . I wonder if the stereo is on since WYAY did not.