WROW?

[Matthew Osborne]

--- On Mon, 2/8/10, Paul B. Walker, Jr. <walkerbroadcasting@gmail.com> wrote, regarding WROW:

> They dumped the talk format on the
> AM, are simulcasting Magic 100.9 WKLI on
> the AM, the Magic format will eventually move over all to
> the AM and there
> will be a new format for 100.9 in a few months

Did anyone happen to get the exact time the plug was pulled and AM 590 was switched to the simulcast?  I was listening to Magic 100.9 for most of this morning at my desk starting a little after 10:00 AM.  As late as 10:30, I recall the announcer talking about hearing your favorite Magic songs "in crystal-clear FM stereo."  The first sign that anything was up came at about 10:50 AM, when they did a combined legal ID for WKLI and WROW.  Then, immediately after the TOH newscast the liners began, instructing all Magic listeners to switch to AM 590 to continue hearing it.

All in all, I'm not surprised by this at all.  WROW's ratings have been in the tank for a few years now, and with start-up talk station WGDJ (AM 1300, the former WQBK) gaining traction, the writing was on the wall.  The real question in my mind is, if the Magic format turns out to be unviable for AM 590, what other format would work for a 5 kw-D/1 kw-N AM station like that?

                                         Matt Osborne
                                         Rotterdam, NY