Re: well it's the thought that counts

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

It seems as if a lot of us on this list have too much 
time on our hands. Somebody's got to run the numbers for 
me to prove that it makes financial sense for Infinity 
to blow up the New York market's fourth or fifth highest 
billing station to make room for a format that's 
currently going nowhere but down on FM.

If Mel kills off WCBS and moves WINS there, he will save 
some costs--news stations are expensive to run. But I 
can't believe that there would be enough avails on the 
880 signal for him to equal the combined billings of 880 
and 1010 minus the saved costs of having only one news 
operation. Nor do I believe that he could jack up the 
rates on 880 enough to bring billings up to what they 
are now on 880 + 1010.

OK, it wouldn't cost any more to run what is now the 
WNEW-FM format on 1010, but has Mel got a source of free 
programming for 102.7? Maybe an all-sports FM would 
work. Maybe he'd LMA 102.7 to ABC for ESPN or Fox for 
Fox sports--or even sell the signal outright. I'll bet 
he could get $300 million for 102.7. I guess that 
selling 102.7 for big bucks would fit Mel's style. Big 
payoff now, but down the road competition that could 
seriously diminish WFAN's revenues and value.

I suppose that Mel's other hope might be to get Stern to 
anchor AM drive on 1010, bringing younger, male demos 
back to AM and thus expanding the size of the talk 
market in New York. As I recall WOR and WABC are neck 
and neck, each with about a 2 share. But isn't there a 
logical flaw in this argument? If WNEW-FM can't do 
diddly on FM where the younger listeners already are, 
why would the format do better on AM where they aren't?

Now, here's a wild, wild, idea (talk about having too 
much time to think): Mel could also swap 1010 for 1130. 
This would put the Bloomberg news format on a heritage 
news frequency in the market and would put the heritage 
WNEW calls back on 1130 where they resided for close to 
60 years. He could probably get some cash ($30M?) out of 
Bloomberg for a frequency that would have great value to 
Bloomberg, and in return he would get what is aguably a 
better facility. 1130 is a Class A, which 1010 is not. 
The 1130 signal over the five boroughs and on Long 
Island is not quite the equal of 1010's but the metro 
coverage is better. Days, 1130 gets _way_ up the Hudson 
valley, which 1010 does not do. At night, 1130 gets less 
co-channel interference--there is nothing like CFRB on 
1130. Neither station covers Jersey especially well at 
night.
 
> Does anyone know offhand what the numbers were in Chicago with WMAQ and
> WBBM before MAQ was blown up to keep the sports format alive?
> 
> and for what it is worth, my NY friends say WINS is the Daily News and
> WCBS is the Times. 
> 
> But as mentioned here over the weekend the main problem Infinity has in NY
> is WNEW-FM and that has to be hurting the bottom line.