1210 am wpht

[Gregg.]

I've often said that WWDB had much better ratings as a multi-viewpoint talk station than WPHT has ever had. And that was when only some drivers had FM radios in their cars. WWDB 96.5 got as high as #6 back when many cars only had AM radios. It was live and local 24 hours a day. It didn't even use a news network. There was a local host taking phone calls at 4 o'clock on a Sunday morning. WWDB was mostly liberal but with some moderates and a few conservatives, as well as some general interest, non-political talk. But other than WGN Chicago and KIRO-FM Seattle, I really can't think of too many successful talk stations that fit that description today.

I think today's commercial radio talk is so phony. Everything the Republicans do is great, everything the Democrats do is terrible. That doesn't make any sense. This nation was founded on the tug of war between right and left. It's not perfect but when one side has a better idea, it lasts. That's why one party rarely holds the White House for more than 8 years. But no one wants to hear that on today's talk radio. It's got to be hero vs. villain, cowboy vs. bank robber, white hat vs. black hat. One side is always right, one side is not just wrong but trying to ruin the country.

I'm sure hosts have to stay up late at night, figuring out how to defend everything Trump says. But that's the format. Most people who lean to the left listen to NPR. No, NPR is not liberal talk. It is reasoned talk and that seems to suit progressives just fine. I guess comedy TV is the reverse. SNL, Steven Colbert, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers are all enjoying success by doing liberal comedy. There are no conservative late night hosts. And Jimmy Fallon, who is trying to stay away from partisan politics and simply makes fun of Trump's hair or style of talking, has seen his ratings go down.

Maybe some day a new host will find success with liberal talk and get syndicated with some success. But that's not happening now. I wish WPHT were more like the old WWDB. But WPHT makes enough money that new owners are not going to tinker with it too much.

 

[umfan]

http://wowway.net/news/read/categor...xed_index_annuities_magical_or_unsuitable-tca

WPHT gets a mention in this syndicated article originated in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Phillip J. Cannella III uses a brokered time show on WPHT to help market his annuity products.

 

[joshzz]

The clear reason WPHT doesn't get the ratings that WWDB did is that WPHT is on the AM dial and AM sounds worse than ever because of our other electronic devices messing up the sound.

Also, WWDB was political and the Star of the Station, Irv Homer who was my friend, was a deeply committed libertarian. He stood for Israel and stood for nationalism. We haven't had a President do that for decades until now.

He would be a Trump supporter. I'm sure of that.

If we don't stand with Israel then we are like the rest of the pagan nations and that's what the previous president offered. The Bible speaks clearly that nations who support Israel will be blessed.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

The bible isn't our foundational document as a country and has no place in policy decisions.

But that aside, we had a political station on FM not that long ago-it didn't show any signs of bringing back the glory days of WWDB. You could pick up WPHT, drop it on the best FM signal and would still need a magnifying glass to see a notable change in the results. Today's world isn't what it was in WWDB's glory days (and its glory days were well behind it when it eventually gave way to Journey and Tommy Tutone). This is where political talk, generally speaking, is today. That's not a knock on WPHT, simply acknowledging reality.

 

[joshzz]

Respectfully, I disagree with your statement. If WPHT was on the FM dial, I firmly believe their ratings would be good. Local talk radio is an expensive format. WWDB was successful but the problem was the owners wanted to make greater profits and by going with music the station could get rid of the high priced personalities and replace them with kids barely out of college. For the most part, no one remembers the personalities on the music stations. As soon as they start making good money, they're gone. Seen it happen all too often.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Likewise respectfully, IQ106.9 was a non-factor. And CBS (among other companies) has amble research at its disposal. In a crowded market, someone looking for a leg up could have seized the opportunity and run with it. If IQ had even showed promise, the parent company's larger issues aside, someone could have picked up the baton. But by and large they haven't--sports talk, sure. But political talk, in major markets, just isn't going to suddenly attract a more vast audience on FM than it does on AM. Certainly not enough so that it would warrant replacing a viable station with another format (leaving the AM station to completely die off).

WWDB was a success once, but it conveniently overlooks what had happened near the end. The ill-fated AM/FM concept was a response to a decline, not the cause thereof. They were then headed down the path of informercials disguised as content. The writing was on the wall, proverbially, and the owners saw it. They may have jumped on the wrong fad in hindsight, but the decision to move away from talk in and of itself was valid.

Whether or not people remember the personalities--if they even have them--is beside the point. It's a business, first and foremost. WWDB had a nice run as a quite successful business, but times and tastes changed.

 

[Miguelito]

We're not comparing IQ106.9 to the old WWDB, are we? The two stations were pretty starkly different! I posit that the failure of IQ has no bearing on how WWDB would be faring if the Talk format were still on 96.5 FM.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

For my perspective it was more comparing WPHT to IQ, insomuch as suggesting picking up 1210 essentially lock stock and barrel and putting it on FM would substantially improve its ratings. It's certainly evident that WWDB and IQ/1210 bear little resemblance to each other, but WWDB bears little resemblance to most talk stations today for the most part. A few legacy outlets perhaps, but by and large...not so much.

Heck, in the old days, 1210 was no slouch in the talk department, and they and WWDB did a fairly impressive combined business. But times have changed for talk--it was evident in WWDB's decline, which shouldn't be forgotten alongside mentions of its glory days.

 

[Krazyjoe]

What they need to do is bring back Sean Hannity live 3 to 6 and bring back Glenn Beck.

It's sad that a market as big is Philadelphia isn't getting some of the biggest names in talk in favor of no-names like Rich Zeoli

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

And have no local presence except the morning commercials interspersed with brief talk segments?

Philadelphia can get those hosts, online.

 

[benale]

Rush is the only syndicated show PHT runs from 6A to 6P and he can be heard quite well on WOR,WILM and other stations that put signals into Philly. Last thing they should do is run Beck and Hannity live. New York is the only top ten market with the exception of Houston that run syndicated fare(Hannity and Savage)in PM drive.

 

[Jul]

I wonder what does the future hold for WPHT-AM 1210 as the pending merger with Entercom nears. Could the station say the same, or will we see changes to perhaps cut more costs or for other reasons?

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I wonder what does the future hold for WPHT-AM 1210 as the pending merger with Entercom nears. Could the station say the same, or will we see changes to perhaps cut more costs or for other reasons?

Could the station stay the same? Yes, it could. It could not. But it could.

They could dispense with the "news" and not make much of a difference content wise in drive time, but that seems unlikely at the moment. They've already got just three local hosts (weekdays), and probably could cut the local blocks on the weekends, but again, it seems unlikely at the moment.

The format isn't changing. Any changes that do happen, IF they happen, will be nibbling around the edges. And even that I wouldn't place any bets on near term.

 

[Jul]

Would CBS save millions if they decide to keep talk, to drop the local talk shows and go all syndicated talk like 990 WNTP?

 

[DavidEduardo]

Would CBS save millions if they decide to keep talk, to drop the local talk shows and go all syndicated talk like 990 WNTP?

They would save some, definitely not "millions, but probably lose a commensurate amount of billings at the same time.

Syndication takes a big chunk of inventory, too.

 

[Jul]

They would save some, definitely not "millions, but probably lose a commensurate amount of billings at the same time.

Syndication takes a big chunk of inventory, too.

Any thoughts as to what can CBS do with 1210 AM to cut costs? Talk is a very expensive format to run.

 

[pab]

Any thoughts as to what can CBS do with 1210 AM to cut costs?

You can only cut so much. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, you can't cut your way to prosperity.

What they need to do is increase billing. To do that, they need more salable properties and better ratings.

It's the cat chasing its tail. Joe Patti once told me that the business of radio is to deliver listeners to advertisers. To have listeners to deliver to the advertisers, you need product they want to listen to. To get product they want to listen to costs money. To make money, you need to deliver more listeners to advertisers.

Sooner or later you have to invest in the future or cut the last thing you possibly can: bait.

 

[Jul]

You can only cut so much. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, you can't cut your way to prosperity.

What they need to do is increase billing. To do that, they need more salable properties and better ratings.

It's the cat chasing its tail. Joe Patti once told me that the business of radio is to deliver listeners to advertisers. To have listeners to deliver to the advertisers, you need product they want to listen to. To get product they want to listen to costs money. To make money, you need to deliver more listeners to advertisers.

Sooner or later you have to invest in the future or cut the last thing you possibly can: bait.

I know someone said in this thread that 1210 won't drop talk, but if they are trying to spend less money , I think that CBS should consider it and drop talk on 1210 and go with a cheaper format like syndicated sports for example and let go of those expensive contracts with the current format . 1210 as it is now is not a good radio station in all aspects .

 

[TheBigA]

I know someone said in this thread that 1210 won't drop talk, but if they are trying to spend less money ,

I don't know that they're "trying to spend less money." The goal of business is to make more money. Carrying syndication is not the way to do that, because you split the money with the syndicator. So you're basically giving up half of your money. Not good business.

You've brought up this idea many times over several years, and clearly it's not the direction this company wants to go. Plus syndicated sports gets terrible ratings, especially in towns that have live & local sports, like Philly.

 

[pab]

I think that CBS should consider it and drop talk on 1210 and go with a cheaper format like syndicated sports for example

Talk is the only thing that still bills on AM, whether it's News/Talk, Sports Talk, or Talk talk.

And they won't go news/talk because that would undercut KYW. They won't go Sports Talk or syndicated sports because that would undercut WIP. (And they already tried it with 610 after WIP-FM launched on 94.1, anyhow.) So if they want to keep the frequency and not sell it, they will have to stick with talk. There's nothing else that can go onto that frequency.