I hate to bring up the topic again because I know it's been discussed before, but it's been a little while and with KYW's continually slipping numbers and AM radio on the slip as a whole, there has got to come a point sometime soon I would think that the inevitable will eventually happen. That is, when will KYW finally go on FM? Does anyone see that happening anytime soon?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KYW
- Thread starter Route 222
- Start date
I doubt you'll see any action until the FCC announces its report regarding ownership limits this fall. Because as of now Entercom doesn't own any FMs they'd likely want to blow up. While WTDY seems like the weakest link, it also has the youngest average audience. So blowing up a young station for a simulcast of another older station doesn't seem like a good idea.
IHeart has the same problem in Boston. Its FMs all skew much younger than news/talk and there's no guarantee that WBZ's format will find a fountain of youth just by switching bands. Maybe it will win back a few geezers who've drifted away to WGBH, WBUR or even one of the FM sports talkers, but that's not going to make it any more attractive to advertisers. Of course, if automakers force broadcasting's hand by eliminating AM from car radios -- the way it disappeared from component-system tuners long before -- then there may be no other choice but to go to FM and hope for a sea change in millennials' know-nothing "whatever, dude" attitude toward news.
That last sentence is bogus. Every generation has its members who are more or less engaged with current affairs. Simply because the means and outlets millennials are using may be different, the idea they’re disengaged as a whole is nonsense.
The OP isn't about bringing in younger demos, but improving declining ratings. KYW may have declining ratings, but it still beats WHYY. So adding an FM simulcast doesn't necessarily guarantee an increase in ratings. Perhaps Philadelphia is becoming like most cities, where all-news radio simply isn't going to attract big numbers.
CTListener, as a millennial, I can tell you for a fact you're unbelievably wrong. We're the most in touch with news a generation has ever been. We care a ton, as you can with some of the youngest people elected to congress ever, thanks to millennials. So, again, you're completely misinformed.
Here's how millennials (21-34) get their news. Podcasts, NPR fm stations, apps, the internet as a whole. Obviously we're much more liberal than the other generations so it's mostly liberal online sources.
Now, if KYW 1060 were to get a FM signal, you are right about that CTL. It wouldn't do much good, because we're already not listening to KYW on 1060, 94.1 HD-2 or online. It wants to be a millennial news source, but it's not, it's a boomer news source, which is fine! It needs to better appeal to the audience that's listening.
Here's how millennials (21-34) get their news. Podcasts, NPR fm stations, apps, the internet as a whole. Obviously we're much more liberal than the other generations so it's mostly liberal online sources.
Now, if KYW 1060 were to get a FM signal, you are right about that CTL. It wouldn't do much good, because we're already not listening to KYW on 1060, 94.1 HD-2 or online. It wants to be a millennial news source, but it's not, it's a boomer news source, which is fine! It needs to better appeal to the audience that's listening.
Not exactly true since some far-right bloggers, including some of the current editors at Breitbart, are millennials.
Pondering a bit more about that last sentence. Is it simply the point in time where all news radio is becoming anachronistic? I remember the days of WIP having a full news staff. Twice hourly newscasts 24x7, on a music station. No one would suggest that makes sense today. Perhaps it’s simply closing in on the time it makes similarly little sense for an all news format.
There’s local news on TV (and the accompanying streams) something like 12 hours a day on weekdays. Clips and related content being churned out on multiple platforms around the clock. Cable news around the clock. Other media on demand. I speak only for myself here, but would KYW on FM matter a hill of beans to me? No.
My grandmother(!) had KYW on the radio every waking moment....except when her “stories” were on. Back then, the other options on TV were about 3 or 4 scattered half hour newscasts, and CNN wasn’t even a twinkle in Ted Turner’s eye.
That ain’t the world we live in now.
Wouldn't Entercom be more interested in promoting the radio.com app over putting one of their stations on FM to attract a demo. As in get the target demo to listen to their all news stations on an app over FM?
It certainly is in most places. But Philadelphia (and Detroit) seem to hang on to things longer than other places. For some, the KYW ratings may be shocking, but we also read how some listeners are angry when the station changes its sounders or moves its clock around. The reality is they will have to change in some way to grow.
I think that's exactly right. I was reading that WTOP's website is the #1 local news source in DC, more than the TV stations. That should be a goal of KYW.
Train has probably passed to KYW to go to FM? But this is not 2008-2009 anymore. When KCBS Radio went on 106.9 FM in San Francisco under CBS Radio management, 106.9 FM San Francisco was then the low rated station in the Bay Area. Also around that time KCBS Radio had to respond to San Francisco audiences migrating to FM to go after the NPR News/Talk affiliate KQED Radio.
All News WBBM Radio went to FM too when CBS Radio had a low rated station they could blow up at the time for an FM Simulcast for WBBM All News. When KCBS and WBBM did all news on FM at the time the Smartphone and tablets success were then facing uncertainties at the time though given that they were starting to enter the marketplace. Also TV Apps were not well known yet compared to the past 5 years.
But in 2019 some of the newer cars may have dashboard apps to deal with and how entercom responds to that specifically is a wait and see. Also even newer TV's like Amazon Fire have the radio.com app to get the younger demos.
https://www.android.com/auto/
https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/
@ Big A :
Unaware of any statistics, I hear you, about the acclaim of the WTOP website. I visit them a few times per week on my refitted Commodore 16.
Same thing for the KNX and WBZ streams.
KYW and WCBS 880 come in well enough by me. Heck -- I've gotta put SOME use to these things in the house .... a cool 1960's-ish Zenith barbershop radio, two GE Superadio 2's, a mini Grundig G-8, a Hammarlund HQ-180, and a radio/can opener that came with the kitchen when we bought it.
My gripe with KYW and other stations (me a slightly doddering boomer at this point) is that they go too fast and there are too many 'HD-this' and 'HD-that' and 'web-site-this'for me to keep track of or otherwise give a flying one about. Of course, it's obvious that AM radio stations (and even some recent FM stations) have to use whatever tools they possess to try and expand their bases for survival. Still, even using that as a curve on which to grade KYW, it is no longer a time-spent-listening here at the kitchen breakfast table for more than ten minutes.
Unaware of any statistics, I hear you, about the acclaim of the WTOP website. I visit them a few times per week on my refitted Commodore 16.
Same thing for the KNX and WBZ streams.
KYW and WCBS 880 come in well enough by me. Heck -- I've gotta put SOME use to these things in the house .... a cool 1960's-ish Zenith barbershop radio, two GE Superadio 2's, a mini Grundig G-8, a Hammarlund HQ-180, and a radio/can opener that came with the kitchen when we bought it.
My gripe with KYW and other stations (me a slightly doddering boomer at this point) is that they go too fast and there are too many 'HD-this' and 'HD-that' and 'web-site-this'for me to keep track of or otherwise give a flying one about. Of course, it's obvious that AM radio stations (and even some recent FM stations) have to use whatever tools they possess to try and expand their bases for survival. Still, even using that as a curve on which to grade KYW, it is no longer a time-spent-listening here at the kitchen breakfast table for more than ten minutes.
Unfortunately for you, that's not going to change. The overall view is that news radio moves too slow, so they will continue to need to push people elsewhere for the deeper details. Otherwise you end up sounding like WHYY....
KYW was fine as-is and should've NEVER been tinkered with!!! These dopey radio execs often do not learn from others' prior mistakes. The current news wheel is a disaster. Putting sports at :08 and :38 past the hour is moronic. People want straight-up news at those times, not sports. There's a reason almost no local TV newscast operation anywhere in the country runs a full sports report just eight minutes into the newscast.
In terms of news radio with a faster pace - BigA, remind us all again how well FM News 101.1, FM News 101.9 and 99.1 WNEW worked? LOL!!!
In terms of news radio with a faster pace - BigA, remind us all again how well FM News 101.1, FM News 101.9 and 99.1 WNEW worked? LOL!!!
Last edited:
And we can assume you have scientifically sound research that backs up whether at 8 minutes past the hour/half hour there is an overwhelming rejection of sports content vs news? TV newscasts and all-news radio aren’t the same thing.
To not evolve, to not adapt, is to become fossilized faster than what might occur naturally. And just because some entries failed for a range of reasons doesn’t mean “staying put” as if it’s still 1995 is a viable strategy in 2019.
To not evolve, to not adapt, is to become fossilized faster than what might occur naturally. And just because some entries failed for a range of reasons doesn’t mean “staying put” as if it’s still 1995 is a viable strategy in 2019.
Aside from resistance to change (which everyone has to some extent), I don't understand much of this. The headlines start pumping out at the very top and bottom of each hour. Eight entire minutes later, you get sports. Eight minutes is a pretty big chunk of a "22 minute" clock. Plus, to beat the cliché to death, Philly is a sports town. Surely some people are tuning in specifically for sports news. Besides, I listened this morning (a pretty huge news day with Mueller on the Hill) and they had run out of interesting news before they even got to sports. Before the 8-minute mark, there was a story about a woman who gave money to her college and then a story about people getting angry because Forever 21 sent Atkins Snack Bars with their clothes deliveries. Not exactly breaking news.
And comparing FM news start-ups that didn't catch fire with a 54-year-old established news station that simply adjusted its delivery (for the thousandth time) is like comparing a basket of tiny apples to one very large, old, famous orange.
Everything changes. Because it has to.
What does the first part of your sentence have to do with the second? My example was WHYY.
Merlin did a very poor job at all news. They did not do anything better. And the “DC” station poorly covers both the Capital and Baltimore. No way it could have worked.
TV is appointment based viewing, radio is at random. It’s really does not matter when blocks start, although positioning sports in the middle of a quarter hour is a good guarantee of getting credit for the block. The clock looks like it is optimized for PPM crediting.
But nobody tunes in radio exactly at 30 And 45. They come and go all through the hour with no real hot spots. I think starting news on the half hours is more traditional than strategic.
Yes he is!
- Status