Byline: Marnie Eisenstadt Staff writer
"War Room" reads the sign on the door of the conference room at Clear Channel's office in Syracuse. It's corporate gray with an iPad on the table and a stash of booze in the corner.
It's where Joel Delmonico, the company's general manager, and his staff hatched the plans to expand the region's second-oldest radio station from AM to both AM and FM. On Jan. 2, WSYR began airing on 106.9 FM, as well as 570 AM. To do it, Delmonico killed the sports station on 620 AM and put there an urbanmusic station that used to
be on 106.9 FM.
When they made the shift, the iconic radio identification of "five-seventy" - heard in Syracuse for 89 years - all but disappeared from the Syracuse airwaves.
"570" was rarely mentioned on-air. It wasn't in the new station's logo. After a reporter asked him about it, Delmonico said he planned to increase the on-air mention of 570. And he added the 570 back into the station's logo.
But the rebranding of a legendary station shows the unsettled nature of local radio, and all advertiser-based media, these days.
Two weeks after WSYR's simulcast began, the station fired news reporters Tiffany Latino and Michelle Clark, leaving one part-time news reporter. That dropped the local news and production staff from 10 to eight people, Delmonico said. Traffic reporters will handle more news and the station will share more news with the company's
stations in Albany and Rochester, he said.
WSYR was the second radio station in Syracuse, beginning its broadcast just months after WFBL in 1922. It has been a leader in local news and talk, and conservative national talk. It finished in the No. 2 spot overall in the Arbitron ratings in the first quarter of 2010.
But these days, being No. 2 isn't enough. In a shrinking advertising market - where radio stations compete with satellite radio, the Internet and iPods - the age of the listeners is important.
The decision to move WSYR to FM is part of a national trend by broadcast companies that are trying to capture the younger listeners that advertisers covet, said Randy Wenner, who teaches radio journalism at Syracuse University. WGY, a Clear Channel AM talk powerhouse in Albany, switched to AM and FM recently.
"I can't blame any radio station, in this age of transition, for trying to figure out what's the long-term strategy to survive and financially thrive," Wenner said. Broadcasters have to gamble, he said. Stations need younger listeners, and young people don't listen to AM, Wenner said.
Before the switch, WSYR's average listener was 50 years old, and many are in their 60s and beyond, Delmonico said. He'd like to see that number go down to 40.
After the move, afternoon talk host Jim Reith commented on his Facebook account: "We are still also on AM, on 570, but we'll now be known as FM Newsradio 1069 WSYR. Research shows that AM radio is attracting ZERO new listeners and AM stations all over the country are simulcasting on an FM signal. We're doing it differently by actually becoming an FM news/talk station. Pretty exciting."
Later that day, he posted this: "Mea Culpa. I misspoke when I said AM radio is attracting zero new listeners. That's not true. You can still hear us on 570 WSYR on the AM dial. We're all just very excited about our new move so I got a little ahead of myself!"
All of which raises the questions: If FM is the future, what is AM? And for how long will it make sense for Clear Channel to air the same thing on two of its six Syracuse stations?
WSYR's owner, the largest radio company in the country, is under pressure to improve the bottom line. Clear Channel was bought by private equity owners in 2008 and took on large debt, according to trade reports. Those bills are soon coming due: close to $4 billion in 2014 and $12.7 billion in 2016.
The company has been making cuts across the board, especially in news, said Tom Taylor who writes about the industry in his newsletter and on Radio-Info.com. Several other Clear Channel stations cut news staff this month, he said.
The decision to broadcast WSYR on two stations doesn't surprise Taylor. But he is puzzled why the "570" identity has been downplayed. Albany's Clear Channel station has been identifying itself as both AM and FM, he said. There, the two stations' overall chunk of the market dropped in the most recent ratings.
Ed Levine, one of Delmonico's competitors, thinks Clear Channel made a mistake by reducing 570 in its marketing. Levine is the president and CEO of Galaxy Communications, whose stations include 100.9-106.5 (WKRL-FM, known as K-Rock) and 99.5 (WTKW-FM, known as TK-99). During the most recent ratings, Levine's TK-99 was third overall.
"It's 570. It's been around for over 80 years," Levine said. "To be marketing this property now and not talking about 570 is bewildering to be kind and idiotic, if I wanted to be harsh."
It would make more sense if Delmonico has a plan to turn 570 into something else later, Levine said. "But to me, that's incredibly risky," Levine said.
Delmonico said he took some heat for dropping the sports programming of WHEN 620. That station was not as profitable as his others, he said. Syracuse has two other sports stations in a market with no major-league team.
He's also received complaints about moving WPHR 106.9, the area's only urban music station, to AM, where the sound quality is inferior.
Gary Morris thinks it's been sent there to die.
"Now there's no radio station on FM that represents the African-American community," said Morris, a real estate agent. "They have devastated the African-American community."
Morris used to be on an advisory board for the station. He said he was unhappy with programming changes before the switch, and he said he has stopped listening to the station and pulled ads for his business. There's a Facebook page to bring back the old 106.9.
Delmonico said the decision to switch WPHR to AM was a difficult one. But he said there wasn't much room for growth at WPHR. They found that 94 percent of the people in the target audience were already listening to the station. But he didn't want to abandon it.
"Over the past 10 years, I think we've done a decent job providing a voice, a platform, for the African-American community," Delmonico said. The station sponsors community events and has raised money for causes including Mary Nelson's Youth Center and Say Yes to Education.
Wenner, of Syracuse University, wonders if the company has different plans for 570, too.
"If you're not a fan of Rush Limbaugh, you won't find him more palatable on the FM. The content is the same," Wenner said.
Shannon Burke, who works for local advertising company Eric Mower, has been buying ads in the radio market for two decades. She said she's heard both -- that the simulcast will be dropped and that it will continue indefinitely.
In Delmonico's office, people were struggling with the station's new identity.
An employee carrying equipment stopped off to tell the receptionist where he was going. Up to the community college for ... Then he paused. For SYR-FM, he said. He shook his head. "That's going to take a while," he said to no one in particular.
Contact Marnie Eisenstadt at meisenstadt@syracuse.com or 470-2246.
What are we listening to?
The top six stations for adult listeners in the Syracuse market (first quarter of 2010)
1. WBBS-FM 104.7
2. WSYR-AM 570
3. WTKW-FM 99.5/105.5
4. WWHT-FM 107.9
5. WYYY-FM 94
6. WNTQ-FM 93.1
CAPTION(S):
PHOTO
Dennis Nett / The Post-Standard
CLEAR CHANNEL general manager Joel Delmonico. On Jan. 2, WSYR began airing on 106.9 FM, as well as 570 AM. WSYR was the second radio station in Syracuse, beginning its broadcast just months after WFBL in 1922.
Dennis Nett / The Post-Standard
WSYR'S JIM REITH does prep work before he goes on air recently. Iconic radio station 570 WSYR is now on 106.9 FM. Though you can still listen, it's no longer called 570, and the 80-year-old station's identity is nowhere in the marketing.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий