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WFAN To Break AM/FM Simulcast For One Evening

P

pjc1961

Since signing on their FM signal on Thursday night 11/1/2012 just before Midnight, WFAN has not split their 660/101.9 simulcast.

The break will come on Thursday 8/8/2019 when 660 will air the Jets-Giants preseason game from 6 PM - 10:45 PM
(including pre- and post-game coverage), while 101.9 will air the Blue Jays-Yankees game from 6:30 PM - 11:30 PM
(including pre- and post-game coverage).

Apparently WCBS 880 will air its usual news format as the NY Mets are scheduled off that day.
In the past 880 has been used for Giants preseason and early regular season games that conflicted
with Yankees and Mets games.

This will cause WFAN's AM and FM stations to be listed separately for the August 2019 survey period.
Age 6+ data for that survey will be publicly released on Tuesday 9/3/2019.

WFAN Daily Show Schedule link: https://wfan.radio.com/shows/show-schedule
 
A few years ago a few Giant pre-season games and early regular-season games were broadcast on WCBS-FM when the Mets were on WFAN and the Yankees on WCBS-880.

The puzzling thing about the 8/8 situation is that WCBS-800 has no sports that night. There must be a reason.
 
pjc1961 said:
This will cause WFAN's AM and FM stations to be listed separately for the August 2019 survey period.
Age 6+ data for that survey will be publicly released on Tuesday 9/3/2019.
Click to expand...

Is it possible that this is the point? Use a summer month to run an experiment and see what the ratings show as to where the listenership is on each band? I know they could research this, but nothing beats a live test.

Or is this something that can already been seen internally?
 
Update:

As it turns out, beginning with the February 2019 Nielsen Audio PPM surveys,
there has been a relaxation of the simulcast rules as it pertains to Total Line Reporting.

Prior to February 2019, simulcasting stations had to be 100% in sync to qualify for Total Line Reporting.
As of February 2019 stations have to "simulcast 95% of the quarter hours in the survey period to elect
to have Nielsen report estimates for their simulcast partners as a single combined number in its ratings reports."

Thus, we may not see the AM/FM breakouts for WFAN that we were curious about.

Link to article from InsideRadio.com that includes an embedded link to the February 2019 article about the change in Nielsen Audio rules:

http://www.insideradio.com/free/wfa...cle_7dd31646-b566-11e9-b0bc-1b4a8359d045.html

WFAN's Senior VP/Programming Mark Chernoff says that the Giants games are the ones that will move to 660 when a conflict occurs.
 
I guess, then, that we're not fated to know the overall ratio of AM to FM listenership, unless we subscribe or hack. To some folks, accountability must be a real b ....
a real female canine. But as well, those folks understandably have to walk their own backyard first and keep it secure.

* * * * * * *

My estimate, me being named after a quite successful Queens bookmaker (my maternal Grandpa) was that this split would go 60% AM to 40% FM.
Perhaps someone down the road can calculate the listenership distribution between WFAN AM and FM in today's scenario. An earlier estimate, when the two stations were in the habit pf simulcasting, had been 3-to-1, AM over FM. But that was years ago
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
My estimate, me being named after a quite successful Queens bookmaker (my maternal Grandpa) was that this split would go 60% AM to 40% FM.
Perhaps someone down the road can calculate the listenership distribution between WFAN AM and FM in today's scenario. An earlier estimate, when the two stations were in the habit pf simulcasting, had been 3-to-1, AM over FM. But that was years ago
Click to expand...

Then again, the split will take place at night, and we all know that at night, the AM signal reaches further than the FM. So who knows?
 
We have frequently had scheduling conflicts with sports coverage in the Tampa Bay Market, especially in the Fall, of course. And one sports station with WDAE AM620 (95.3,96.7,95.7-3) handling the 3 major sports teams: Bucs, Rays, and Lightning, what could possibly go wrong...?

It was so much so one year, iHeart management decided to just go with the alternate, 970WFLA (now 94.5, 105.9, 97.9-2) as the official station for the Lightning, starting the next season. A great move since it eliminates at least that part of the problem.

Funny thing is, because the Lightning did not make the playoffs that following year, there was not the conflict it would have and had been, but they stayed with the new station, anyway, and since.

The Rays and Buccaneers are still on the same station, but they move the Rays PBP to WHNZ 1250 (now 92.9), the "throw-away station" for the du-RAY-tion of the game and the Bucs stay on 620 and 97.9, but, 97.9 is not used for The Rays broadcast, only The Bucs.

And even with all of those stations, because of the continuing encroachment problems with the AM signals, we SOB (South Of the Bay), are still out of luck...
and there'll be a test on this later on.

I'd be interested in hearing about other logistical problems and the solutions.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
I hope when schedule conflicts among other teams covered by WFAN occur, they can be resolved by this sort of arrangement. This could help avoid dumping games on the Entercom music stations, such as when WNSH had to carry some Nets basketball games a few months ago.
 
Entercom/WFAN put out a press release detailing the simulcast splits for Yankees/Giants game conflicts between 8/8 and 9/29/2019.

Link: https://entercom.com/press/local/en...new-york-sports-teams-during-upcoming-season/

There are seven such events with one in the August survey period; 3 in the September survey period and 3 in the October survey period
(with possibly one more in early October pending the potential Yankees playoff schedule).

This will keep WFAN under the limit of 134 quarter hours per month (33.5 full hours per month)
that the simulcast can be split and still qualify for Total Line Reporting.
 
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