New 1510 talk format to launch next Monday

[Jibguy@aol.com]

This mini-essay below, by Scott Fybush is the best-written example of why  
the Tel-Com Act of 1996 is a dismal failure for radio diversity.
A list should be made up of all markets that have examples like this, and  
then submitted to the FCC and to Congress.  A list with the market location  
in the left column; one company's 1 or 2 or 3 prosperous AM's in the middle 
 column, and the station the company wants to "keep down" (this case: WWKB) 
in  the right column.
-----BB
 
 

While "KB" of course has plenty of name recognition in Buffalo  even now, 
every bit of 
actual stationality had been completely scrubbed away  from the station 
once it became part of a cluster with WGR and then  WBEN.

Every bit of programming, engineering and promotional resources  that 
existed at Entercom in Buffalo was funneled into WBEN's news/talk and  
WGR's sports. KB was, and is, the saddest of afterthoughts. The  
technical plant has not been maintained well, rendering the station  
often unlistenable. As a progressive talker, KB had no local content,  
not even news headlines from WBEN. When it bothered to run weather, it  
was often days or weeks old. Nobody cared, and it showed on the  air.

KB was, and is, a classic flanker. Entercom keeps it running just so  
that nobody else can use it to compete against the cash cows, WBEN and  
WGR. After being used as a talk flanker to protect WBEN, it's now an  
ESPN sports flanker to protect WGR. It's not designed to draw ratings,  
and it doesn't.