Wednesday, August 25, 2010

More news-talkers moving to FM

Last week's announcement that heritage, big signal, Atlanta News-Talker WSB-AM (750 kHz) was adding an FM simulcast is yet another benchmark in the growing trend of talkers migrating to the FM band. It follows similar moves by KSL in Salt Lake City and KCBS in San Francisco. While these appear to be smart moves, I believe that they sound a large warning signal for AM station values in the future.

A strong case could be made that the big AM News-Talkers like WSB have kept the AM band alive. News-Talk listeners have been content to seek out their programming on the AM band. If all of the major AMs throw in the towel for the FM band, who will be listening to AM? My guess is that AM will be dominated by niche players in the future: foreign language, religious, and other specialty programming.

Station prices are based on supply and demand. It looks like AM supply will be increasing at the same time that demand is decreasing.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

George
Media Services Group

2 comments:

  1. George, as a guy that owns 6 AM radio stations I do disagree. What Cox is doing with WSB is adding coverage in the NE corridor of Atlanta. The FM does not have full market coverage. If they turn the talk format off of the AM, they would lose most of their audience. The same can be said of the AM-FM combo in Jacksonville. Both FM's are adding FM coverage that is inferior to the existing AM. The AM continues to have the bulk of the audience in Jacksonville. I am very familiar with the 690AM coverage as a former owner of that stick. The benefit of adding the FM simulcast is that the listeners at the beaches can now hear the programming when the AM 50KW reduces power and direction. There may be some younger listeners from the FM, but the AM is the clear cut winner in number of listeners. It would be a disaster for Cox to change format on the AM in either market. I also think that AM radio stations will retain value and listeners in the Talk Format. FM has the superior sound, but in the Talk venue, the advantage is taken away. I also have seen where an addition of Talk or Sports on FM, in certain markets, has actually helped bring higher awareness to the AM competitors in the early stages of the switch. If you look at WEEI, WBZ, WMAL or KDKA you still find that they either continue to be #1 in the format or a strong competitor to the FM counterpart. So, let's not jump to conclusions about reduced AM values or throw in the towel by changing format on those Big AM signals. It really comes down to a content war, not an AM-FM war for station owners. The best content wins regardless of AM-FM-Digital-Web or whatever else there is out there where listeners are entertained and informed. The retention or increase in radio station values will be there for owners that continue to deliver the best content for listeners and the best results for their advertisers.

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  2. Bruce, you make some excellent points. And as a pretty regular night-time listener to WSB (though I live in north Florida), a station broker, and co-owner of two AM's, I hope that you are correct. George

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