WFNX sold to Clear Channel

[Bob Nelson]

Yes it's a high price to pay for CC to find an FM home for WXKS (AM) and as you say it doesn't have the suburban reach they'd like. Is it a matter of "people prefer FM, whether at work or in the car" and this goes along with the whole simulcast-or-move situation talk, sports, or even news stations are now
 doing, nationwide. The ratings for WXKS (6 plus) did improve slightly with the addition of Severin.
 They now pull a 1 (WRKO pulls a 2). Would an FM move increase the ratings and billing enough to be worth it?

 I'm not sure if they would simulcast 1200 and 101.7--would they put something else on the AM?--but note what WEEI is doing. They remain on 850 as well as 93.7. There may be some areas where 93.7 may not reach well; more to the point, in such a situation both stations count, as a 100 per cent simulcast. What is the thinking--1200 reaches suburbs, 101.7 the city (or vice versa?) Is it worth going after the older talk show audience? (WRKO and WTKK seem to think so.)

 That's a good point, maybe people are too lazy to leave the FM band, and what kind of ratings are the simulcasts getting? Of course in such arrangements, the accent is on the FM signal. They say "you're next on 93.7" on WEEI. I was picking up WPEN 950 from Philly and the host said "You're next to 97.5 The Fanatic". The accent is on promoting the FM signal of course. Maybe a simulcast would work out and eventually they could pull talk off the 1200 and as you say give it a separate format, who knows what. But again a) it could be that some areas wouldn't get the 101.7 signal so it could be necessary--but again, people don't seem to want to flip to AM!, and b) consider the "simulcast ratings" bit...which is one reason why Entercom does a 100 per cent simulcast on both 850 and 93.7 rather than, say, all ESPN on the former. And as I've said before some people don't buy an AM-FM walkman...they get an mp3 player with the FM band only. Thus the need to move a spoken word format to !
 FM, to reach them.