98.3 WLNH, 98.7 The Bay, and 1490/107.3 WEMJ All Gone

It's a very sad day in New Hampshire radio. Heritage station for the Lakes Region, 98.3 WLNH has flipped to a simulcast of 99.1/106.3 Frank FM, along with 98.7 on the Seacoast. 1490/107.3 WEMJ has flipped to a simulcast of WJYY.

I follow with the idea of a network of Franks.... but in the case of WBYY, can the Seacoast really support three classic hits stations?

While WHOM's powerhouse signal leaves the market covered, seems like this would be an opportunity for WXEX to grab the AC niche for itself.

Did they really NEED to do this?

The Lakes Region does not need a second CHR, do they? Besides, WJYY comes in fine. I bet that more people listened to WEMJ compared to the new (probably unnecessary) simulcast.

I thought WLNH and WBYY were pretty high in the ratings?

The loss of both WLNH in Concord and the Lakes and WBYY on the Seacoast also gives both of the aforementioned markets no AC or hot AC home to them — although WZID and WHOM come in well across both markets.

I honestly have no idea why they needed to do this.

Why did they do this?

Definitely a let down. I listened to both 107.3 and 1490 pretty frequently during afternoon drive, but will no longer be listening with this programming change.

in a similar vein.....I wonder how much longer WASR (1420/97.1) Wolfeboro will continue airing its own programming...
Jack Heath seems to "run" the weekday morning block....haven't heard much else from the station for a couple of years....
The station has physically gone to h***! 25' poplars are growing around the tower base.....the building is falling to pieces (it USED to be both studio and transmitter site --
now it just houses the AM transmitter(s))......the 5 kw signal sounds like 250 w in many areas where their original 1 kw signal BOOMED IN back in the '70s....!
As a former employee - and chief engineer - it breaks my heart to see this!!
If I had the $$ I'd BUY it.....and put Standards back on as the format -- ala Bob Concie, Del-O, Don McMaster, Ron McArthur, Larry Nelson, John Doremus, etc.

Tomgsinger said:

Did they really NEED to do this?

The Lakes Region does not need a second CHR, do they? Besides, WJYY comes in fine. I bet that more people listened to WEMJ compared to the new (probably unnecessary) simulcast.

I thought WLNH and WBYY were pretty high in the ratings?

The loss of both WLNH in Concord and the Lakes and WBYY on the Seacoast also gives both of the aforementioned markets no AC or hot AC home to them — although WZID and WHOM come in well across both markets.

I honestly have no idea why they needed to do this.

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WJYY is fairly unlistenable in the lakes region. This would be a perfect time for WFTN to flip to Hot AC and really sweep up the ad dollars. They are very local.

I don't think the this was a smart move. 98.7 The Bay and 98.3 LNH were solid AC stations for their respective markets.

DavidEduardo said:

WBYY is actually up a bit in 25-54 since the flip, and obviously the costs are lower. Portsmouth is only a $12 million dollar a year market, and Concord is only a $7 million market.

In Concord it is likely they were positioning the 3 FMs to better cover the spectrum in a market they dominate. But in Portsmouth they were looking for a hole that they could sell given the dominance of iHeart which has 51% of revenue and Townsquare that has 39%. Binnie only has 8% of revenue there.

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I stand corrected! Actually just saw that WBYY beat WERZ for the first time in a while. Binnie moves up one spot against Iheart. Good for them.

It wasn't enough to save Lori D's job; she was laid off a week ago.