Re: Say Goodbye To WXKS-AM (Was: Re: WPTR Again)

[dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net]

As with all of your predictions, this one COULD be 
right, but, based--if nothing else--on the averages, it 
won't be.

AMFM also owns KABL, which, like KNEW, is licensed to 
Oakland and is just 50 kHz up the dial from KNEW. Both 
stations have similar facilities (5 kW-U) and both cover 
Silicon valley quite nicely. For a couple of years now, 
KABL has aired a swing format, which is a mix of adult 
standards and newer swing groups such as Cherry Poppin' 
Daddies, Big Bad Vodoo Daddy, and Squirrel Nut Zippers. 
The idea, apparently, is to appeal not only to the older 
demos but also to Gen-Xers, among whom swing is 
allegedly very popular. About a year ago, AMFM exported 
the format to KLAC in Los Angeles. I've not heard how 
the format has been doing lately in either market, but 
I'm surprised that AMFM hasn't tried to bring it to WXKS 
(AM); it wouldn't take a lot more than hard-drive-
cloning software to do so.

I think that swing is as likely a format for WXKS as 
High Tech. High Tech is even more of a niche format than 
financial talk. I am an electrical engineer and I write 
for a trade magazine that circulates to other EEs. Yet I 
find it hard to believe that I wouldn't be bored to 
tears in 20 minutes of listening to an all-high-tech-all-
the-time radio station. I doubt whether many of the 
companies that sell to information-technology and 
engineering professionals see radio as a particularly 
good medium for delivering their message to potential 
purchasers and specifiers of their products and services.
> 
> As we note the return of the WPTR call letters and a standards format in
> the Albany area, it's very likely AMFM/Clear Channel (or whatever they
> will become) will "blowe-up" WXKS-AM in the next few months.
> 
> That's because I read last week (it may still be archived in Yahoo!'s
> entertainment news section) an article noting that AMFM's KNEW-AM in San
> Francisco has changed formats to a "high-tech talk/information format"
> geared at computer and information technology professionals. AMFM's
> partner in all this is C/Net. I suspect KNEW's signal reaches Silicon
> Valley, which would be the target audience for a "tech talk" (or
> whatever they want to call it) format.
> 
> While Silicon Valley may be the nation's prime center of high-tech, the
> nation's second-leading center of high-tech is Boston. Since the Yahoo
> news article said (if my memory serves me correct) that AMFM and C/Net
> are looking to syndicate this format, Boston would, in my opinion, be
> the second market to get this high-tech talk format. Since AMFM/Clear
> Channel has just one AM station in the market (WXKS-AM), it's likely
> that after 20 years, WXKS-AM's standards format will be "blown-up" and
> replaced with C/Net's high-tech talk format.