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Would the Bull flip?

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wcozBoston said:
Instead of changing formats, how about a local morning show there instead and finally go after some of the listeners at WKLB?
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That's not the purpose of The Bull. There are local morning shows at Kiss and WZLX.

The Bull is there to clear the national country platform. Bobby Bones is the most listened-to country personality on radio.

wcozBoston said:
Would iHeart consider moving WJMN to 101.7 and WBWL over to 94.5?
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There's really no point in playing musical chairs.
 
With all due respect to Lori and Mr Willis, and she is a sweetheart, the time for IHrt to capitalize on that was right after their non compete ran out (if there was one)

If IHrt thought it would have been a wise move to move the formats ( like CBS did with Mix and the sports format they blew up WBCN for) they would have done it long ago....

101.7 is doing exactly what they want it to do, they got a better signal by downgrading a signal they owned in a nearby market, they clear their national morning show so it does not cost them a ton of money, they get place to air national spots from their country format.... if it ain't broken don't screw with it.

Yes their PM drive guy decided to go to TV where he had already been doing some work.... he can always get another radio gig when TV has used him up and spit him out.... but radio people are a dime a dozen, cripes they can have some guy in Alaska do the PM drive show via the internet... I know a guy....

It says here (https://radioink.com/2022/08/05/amanda-jo-joins-mornings-in-hartford/) that the APD and MD is still doing her job at the Boston station while joining the Hartford one, and still doing mid days in Boston....
 
TheBigA said:
Looking at iHeart nationally, they own many heritage AM stations, and TTBOMK none of them have simulcasts.

My take on this is it fits with iHeart's moves towards regionalization of certain stations and formats.
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Look just to the west, to Albany, NY. Heritage 810 WGY has simulcast on 103.1 WGY-FM since 2010.
 
HD radio is pretty much standard equipment on any car worth owning, I can listen to WRKO on ZLX HD2 and WBZ News Radio on WXKS HD2...

Now if only Beasley would turn their HD-1's back on....

At some point when the electrical interference gets to the point that AM is unlistenable in a car, or the car does not have an AM radio, people will start embracing HD
 
MRBIboredop said:
Yes their PM drive guy decided to go to TV where he had already been doing some work.... he can always get another radio gig when TV has used him up and spit him out.... but radio people are a dime a dozen, cripes they can have some guy in Alaska do the PM drive show via the internet... I know a guy....
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LOL Thanks @MRBIboredop !

I do afternoons in Laramie, WY
Overnights on about 3-4 dozen stations across the country 7 days a week.
And Afternoons 3 days a week here in Alaska
 
jlehmann said:
There are more than that. KFBK Sacramento, WERC Birmingham, WSYR Syracuse, to name a few.
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WSCC in Charleston, SC can be added as well as WTKK Raleigh and WPTI Winson-Salem. Those are on FM due to the fact iHeart had no AM outlet in the market to launch a talk station.
WERC, KFBK and WGY were both placed on FM in 2010-2011 when stations started moving from AM to FM or adding FM simulcasts like crazy. As you can see now, iHeart and even Audacy now favor adding translators for their news/talk stations as it doesn’t eliminate an extra and more lucrative revenue stream from another format Sports is a bit of a different story.
 
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jlehmann said:
There are more than that. KFBK Sacramento, WERC Birmingham, WSYR Syracuse, to name a few.
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WERC and WSYR are only 5K. Not the heritage 50Ks like KFBK or WGY or WBZ.

101tm said:
WSCC in Charleston, SC can be added as well as WTKK Raleigh and WPTI Winson-Salem. Those are on FM due to the fact iHeart had no AM outlet in the market to launch a talk station.
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Then they aren't simulcasts. We're talking about FM simulcasts of AMs.

I'll say it again: There's nothing in iHeart's recent history that leads me to believe they will simulcast either of their very successful Boston AMs on a very weak FM.
 
WOOD in Grand Rapids, MI simulcasts on WOOD-FM Muskegon (which can also be heard fine in the car in Grand Rapids and has a stronger signal than the AM in portions of the market).

There were extenuating circumstances in play that don't apply to the Boston market situation at hand.

Although I would not consider the present day 101.7 to be a "very weak FM," I otherwise agree with BigA here.

Sacramento is the only PPM market that comes to mind where iHM rebroadcasts a heritage blowtorch AM on a full power FM signal. (I actually failed to think of that example until it was mentioned by someone else in this thread).
 
TheBigA said:
WERC and WSYR are only 5K. Not the heritage 50Ks like KFBK or WGY or WBZ.



Then they aren't simulcasts. We're talking about FM simulcasts of AMs.

I'll say it again: There's nothing in iHeart's recent history that leads me to believe they will simulcast either of their very successful Boston AMs on a very weak FM.
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Cue Senor David with cold truth on how poorly they bill. Of course moving news and conservative talk to FM won't change the demographics of that format, but it would likely increase cume.
 
MarkW said:
Although I would not consider the present day 101.7 to be a "very weak FM," I otherwise agree with BigA here.
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Yeah "very weak" may have been an overstatement. But its tower location isn't optimal.

MarkW said:
Sacramento is the only PPM market that comes to mind where iHM rebroadcasts a heritage blowtorch AM on a full power FM signal. (I actually failed to think of that example until it was mentioned by someone else in this thread).
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The interesting story is that iHeart recently obtained another Sacramento FM (107.9) in an auction. They have a secondary news/talker in the market: KSTE. The new FM was named KSTE-FM, so some observers expected a simulcast of the AM (as they had done with KFBK). But instead iHeart launched a 90s-2000s station on that frequency. So they had an opportunity to simulcast a news/talk on FM, and instead chose music.
 
TheBigA said:
WERC and WSYR are only 5K. Not the heritage 50Ks like KFBK or WGY or WBZ.
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But WERC and WSYR actually cover their rated markets about as well as WGY does... or other 50 kw stations of the past like WCAU, KXEL, WCKY or WLAC or even WBT.

WSYR is at 570 and WERC at 960... much better frequencies than many higher power - high on the dial stations have.

Example: If I had to have an AM at all, in Seattle I'd take 5 kw 570 any day over 50 kw 1090.
 
Few thoughts from an outsider:

1.) HD Radio is not prevalent, but doesn't need to be. WBZ and WRKO can be streamed from iHeart's app, over the internet, and on TuneIn. I'm sure there are other places as well. I think people would be more inclined to upgrade their mobile data to unlimited before searching for a car (in this economy) with HD Radio.

1a.) Not all cars come with HD Radio. Manufacturers will put it in higher trims as a means of getting people to spend more. I argue that there are people who will save a few thousand dollars; and get a trim with less creature comforts yet the same engine performance and safety. It's Bluetooth that people want, not necessarily HD Radio.

2.) I don't see The Bull going anywhere. Country (as a genre) has more fans than anything else that is missing in Boston. And I say that with personal disdain. I'd rather have an alternative or Active Rock station, and personally don't like Country. With Active Rock, the formula is to rely on songs that will overlap with the younger side of WZLX's playlist. With Alternative, the problem is exactly the same, with some added issues. The majority of Alternative listeners are older, and will immediately start (unfairly) complaining how it's a "watered down WFNX," given that we are talking about 101.7. So, we'd have less listeners than the current station, between people who don't like Alternative and people who just want to find fault.

3. As long as they don't sell it to EMF, giving listeners north of Boston a fourth frequency (not counting HD Radio) to listen to K-Love (it's also on 99.9 up here, or at least the last I knew of), I can't take issue. (Joking, as I know that there is different coverage radii for the frequencies. I happen to live in an area where they all overlap).

4. Someone said this in the Philadelphia board, and I'll paraphrase. We can tell that it's been quite in radio, when people starting talking about theoretical format flips. I can gladly go on a tangent of what I want on the dial, but it isn't going to make it a reality.
 
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Even if 101.7 doesn't cover the market completely they can still simulcast WBZ/1030. After all Audacy bought WPHI 103.9 in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania from Urban One in November 2020 to simulcast KYW NewsRadio 1060 and 103.9 DOES NOT cover the entire Philly Market. And yes I know iHeart owns WBZ and Audacy owns KYW. I'm just giving an example of an FM that doesn't cover the entire market simulcasting the all-news AMer.
 
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