Sunday, October 27, 2024

The Hearing and Un-Hearing of HEARD ISLAND

A vid clip of my Radio Shack 200629 receiving Australian ham VK1A, working US stations from his location just outside Brisbane, Queensland, during the CQ World Wide contest, the night of Oct. 26th, 2024 (Oct. 27th UTC). The ID of VK1A is right near the end of the clip.

Over this past weekend, there has been a 'contest' on the Shortwave Ham bands. These contests have been around for ages -- the bigger ones usually happen two or three times a year, where you'll tune the ham bands and they will actually be crowded with signals, with hams eagerly trying to contact as many other hams as possible

When I was younger, I would buy CQ Magazine periodically. It's a magazine dedicated to the ham hobby. There are articles on how to improve your antennas, and there would be schematic diagrams of projects hams and other radio hobbyists could build. And there would be articles on DXpeditions (where a team of hams will transmit from some rare island out in the ocean somewhere), and also the results of contests.

A QSL Card for Qatar ham station A7XB, a station I heard on 15 Meters long ago, on my Yaesu FRG-7 and 80-100 ft. outdoor wire antenna. It was my most memorable DX catch. I had tuned into a couple guys -- with American accents -- talking. The signals were weak. The one guy seemed to be in Qatar and the other guy had an unusual DX call -- maybe Indonesia or Afghanistan? I don't remember, and I never got his call right. He might have been part of the US diplomatic mission in one of those countries. When A7XB mentioned his callsign, and spelled out his location ("Q-A-T-A-R"), suddenly there was a churning barrelhouse of signals -- all these 10's or hundreds of hams trying to contact him to get Qatar in their logs. I never did find out who the ham actually was, and never heard him again. Even DX Callbooks didn't show up anything. This QSL Card I found on E-Bay, by chance last year, is the only verification I've got for a very rare reception.
 
One year there was a big article on a guy in Belgium who won the CQ Worldwide DX contest -- I don't remember which year, it was probably in the 1980s. There was a pic of him, sitting proud in front of his several, large and expensive ham radio rigs, and also some pics of his antennas, which -- if I remember correctly -- were very impressive.

Now, this weekend a similar contest is taking place, on sideband. So, for the first time in recent memory, the ham bands are fairly close to packed with all sorts of SSB signals -- it's just like it would be on a typical Saturday afternoon on 20 Meters back in the 80s-00's when the bands were always packed. Not so much anymore -- crap propagation and inactive hams, as well as those running the clown car noises on FT8 have made the bands more spare.

But, this weekend, the bands are very busy.
A map of CQ Magazine's 'DX Zones', with the 'Zones' being designated by the people at CQ Magazine, which sponsors the Contest. During the Contest, individual hams (or teams, in a club) try to get as many contacts as possible, from as many of these 'DX Zones' as possible.

Last night I decided to tune around. 20 Meters, of course, was dead except for one guy calling CQ Contest from the Netherlands -- PJ2T, on 14318. He was alone on the SSB section of the 20 Meter band. And although I could hear him readably on my 24 ft. indoor wire and DX-394, he had no takers, except one American ham, K3DXX.

So I tuned down to the 40 Meter ham band. I had a lot more luck. The band was packed. I logged Brazil, Japan, Barbados, Mali, a bunch of hams from all over the US, and -- at least for a while -- I thought I logged Heard Island!

HEARD ISLAND? NO.... NOT REALLY
Heard Island is a remote island that is south of Kerguelen (the Antipodes of WA state, the exact opposite side of the world), which means it's out in the middle of frozen nowhere in the Southern Indian Ocean. So, why did I think I heard Heard Island? Because the guy in Australia, VK1A, had a web page that indicated that he was transmitting from Heard Island [please see screenshot of the page below].

Here you can see what threw me off: the unusual VK1 ham prefix (Australian prefixes are generally VK2-VK7 for each State, with VK1 being ACT, the Australian Capital Territory -- I've never heard ACT), and this page, which clearly denotes this station as being on Heard Island. Obviously -- it's a joke, or somebody, either at the site or elsewhere, typed in the absolutely wrong geographical coordinates.
This is a Ham Radio Station Prefix map. Maps -- and lists -- help you identify the country of the station you just heard. This map may be hard to read, but it -- and others like it -- are available online. I used to have a small book that had a map just like this inside it.

VK1A's QRZ page (QRZ.com is sort of a clearinghouse of info on ham radio stations) didn't have a location (the location only is available if you are logged in, and if you are not a ham, even if you are logged in the information available is a bit restricted). His QRZCQ page of course, was another matter. QRZCQ.com often has a lot more location info available, and QRZCQ said this VK1A guy was on Heard Island. 

The latitude and longitude coordinates -- which somebody had to take the time to type in -- gave the latitude and longitude for Heard Island as well.

I made a recording of my catch, still thinking there was something awry about the location. The operator didn't speak with an Aussie accent, but he's Dutch originally, so that would figure. I even heard him on my Radio Shack 200629, which is an able receiver on SSB but not as good as my DX-394, DX-398 (out of batteries right now) or Panasonic RF-B45.

Anyway, I moved on and listened some more and then went on with my household chores -- feeding my three cats, making some celery soup for myself, etc.

So then I looked up the station again. VK1A -- very little info on his QRZ page, or his main QRZ page (he has several callsigns, apparently quite active). No info whatsoever on ANY ham operating out of Heard Island, even during a contest. No real bio. Just a bunch of callsigns he's used over the years.

I finally logged into QRZ (after signing up), and being logged in more location info appeared. 

It turns out that the guy's up in the hills just north of Brisbane, and the weird VK1 prefix (not a standard Australian ham call prefix) is for contesters and clubs. Why the misleading info on QRZCQ.com? Maybe someone was having a joke? Maybe they typed in the latitude and longitude coordinates too hastily? I've seen misplaced locations on QRZCQ before, but not 7000 miles off.

So, there ya go. I had thought I'd heard Heard Island, but I had NOT heard Heard Island.

But I did get a clear copy of a guy from Brisbane on my Radio Shack 200629, which actually is a decent catch for that radio and an indoor wire. In fact, VK1A came in as well on my 200629 as he did on my DX-394, which is one of my best two radios for SSB and CW. It may have been that the conditions were up. Either way, I'm still happy with the DX catch -- even if it wasn't in the Indian Ocean. :-)

And, in the process, I found out that Heard Island has numerous glaciers, and its mountain, 'Big Ben', is the tallest mountain on Australian territory (although most Aussies think of Kosciusko as the country's tallest one). And -- no one, meaning absolutely no one -- lives there.

Here's a pic. And remember, if it looks cold, it IS cold. Nothing lives there but elephant seals and some penguins.

A picture of Heard Island, located south of Kerguelen, in the Southern Indian Ocean. The mountain is Mawson Peak, part of the mountain complex called "Big Ben". Big Ben is still volcanically active. No one lives on Heard Island, aside from elephant seals, penguins, and some other birds.

Here is an article on Heard Island's volcanic activity, courtesy the Australian CSIRO.

I will post a couple more short articles within the week.

I hope my readers are all doing well. It's almost Winter here in Seattle, although the temperatures have been more or less moderate for it being this late in the year. I hope that holds.
Racofrats, when a kitten, Oct. 23, 2011. Such a long time ago.

I'll close this article with a pic of my cat Racofrats, when he was very young -- still a kitten. He's on my lap, looking to attack the other cats when they go by. He's the survivor of that litter. I call him Rac-a-doodle. He's turning into an indoor cat now. The plush, antique chair on the upstairs landing is all his, as is the cat furniture there.

Peace,
C.C. October 27th, 2024

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Three Canadian FM Stations shut down, including one in OTTAWA -- FM Radio is taking a hit, not just AM


CJWL, 98.5 FM, a Hot-AC station in Canada's capital and fourth largest city, will soon be shut down, and taken off the air. Two other FM Country stations in nearby, smaller cities are also getting their plugs pulled.

[NOTE: Several weeks after writing and posting this article, I learned that the three Ottawa region FM stations mentioned in this article were bought by two separate, Canadian radio companies and they will stay on the air. I decided not to cut up the article with this news, but I added an Addendum (with news link) at the bottom of the blog post with this information. I have left the article otherwise intact because most of the negative factors concerning the radio business, that are covered in this article, still exist and are still affecting radio companies and radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.]

Over the past several years, some AM stations have been shut down, flipped to syndicated programming like Sports Betting, or otherwise just plain removed from the airwaves, and being that this blog is about AM Radio as well as all other things Radio, in recent articles here I have covered the closings of several AM stations -- as quite a few of those closings have occurred after the Pandemic.

The post-Pandemic economy is socking it to Radio, and now it is apparent that it's not just AM Radio that's taking the hit.

It was recently announced that three FM stations in Canada (owned by the Evanov company) are being shut down, due to financial reasons, and one of them is a station that plays Hot AC, a very popular radio format, and that station is in Canada's #4 city (and its capital), Ottawa -- metro population approximately 1.5 million people.

The three FM stations in question went on the air in 2000's, with CJWL Lite 98.5 going on the air in 2006, with the other two stations hitting the airwaves not long afterwards.

It appears that these FM stations -- like many others -- have been getting hit by changes in listenership, with its migrating to Streaming. On top of that, there have been downturns in advertising revenues in the Radio industry, especially since the Pandemic.

The Evanov company's PR release concerning the shutting down of the FM radio stations says it all, really: "All broadcasters are now contending with the challenges of increased competition, a difficult media climate, and the residual effects of the pandemic."

Here is a link to the RadioInsight article on the FM station closings.:

Whether a new buyer is interested in purchasing these stations to make a go of it is a good question. None have been mentioned. No potential sale was mentioned, either. It looks like these three Eastern Ontario stations will go permanently dark.

From everything else that I've read concerning the state of Radio, the Evanov spokesman seems correct. The 'difficult media climate' he mentions is directly related to the state of advertising -- ad revenues are down across the board, especially for legacy media like Radio, TV, Cable, Newspapers, Magazines -- there are infinite 'slots' for advertisers on the internet and it decreases the value of those advertising 'slots' media wide.

On top of that, of course, you've got inflation, something which Canadians also deal with. Their dollar, like the US dollar, is worth less than it was worth in the 2000's. For example, according to the Bank of Canada, the Canadian dollar is worth 69% less than it was in 2000, and 18% less than it was before the Pandemic hit.

The Bank of Canada inflation calculator can be found here. It is similar to the US BLS Inflation Calculator.:

Being that the Canadian dollar -- like the US dollar -- has declined in value since the 2000's, the effect has hit Radio with a double-whammy: you have decreased numbers of listeners since the 2000's, increased online competition for advertising over the same time period, and overall inflation, too.

Radio is a difficult business anymore because of these factors.

KNPT 1310, Newport, Oregon, left the air for good in late January, 2024, after seeing its ad revenues dive by more than 50% during and after the Pandemic. Several other stations in Newport's Oregon Coast market, both FM and AM, as well as a stream, were shut down at the same time. This left Lincoln City, OR, without an AM station (KBCH).

WHEN IT WAS JUST AM STATIONS, NO ONE CARED
Over the past couple of years, I've noted -- on this blog -- the shutting down, or potential shutting down, of several radio stations in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. From KNPT Newport, to KUTI Yakima, to KYVL/KMED Medford, to the shutting down of Las Vegas's 50KW powerhouse station KDWN, to the potential closings of two stations in Edmonton and Vancouver, to the shutting down of 7 AM stations in Canada by Bell Media (4 of them in Alberta and British Columbia), to Bell Media's selling off 45 other radio stations in Canada last year to smaller Radio companies. Many of the stations in Bell Media's 45 station fire sale (this last February) were on the AM band, with all of them affected by the post-Pandemic economy, and migration of listeners to Streaming platforms.

During the February sale of the 45 stations, Bell Media's spokesman said "radio is not a viable business anymore."

Here is my article on Bell Media's selling off the 45 stations -- many in Western Canada.:

My article on Bell Media pulling the plug on CFRN and 6 other AM stations in Canada is here.:

To AM Radio fans, all of these sales and station closings were a bit of a shock.

But to many others in the Radio business, there were a lot of scoffers, who just shrugged it off as 'AM Radio', the 'dying media'.

However, now, the picture is changing. The shutdowns are starting to hit FM.

Both AM, and FM, are being bludgeoned by Streaming platforms -- and those Streaming platforms aren't owned by Radio companies.

In one of my last articles on this subject, I mentioned that I understand why some listeners migrate to Streaming. If I want to hear all 2010's Electronic pop, Radio doesn't provide a lot of it. But Pandora has a channel devoted entirely to 2010's Pop. If I want to hear 2000's Nu-Metal, there are channels online that cater to that genre as well. The local FM Rocker that played a lot of it -- KVRQ 98.9 -- got flipped to country after a year, and the other local FM rocker, KISW, doesn't play a lot of Nu-Metal, and they shut down their HD2, Metal Militia channel that played nothing but Metal. 

However, I can get all the Nu-Metal and Metal I want on a couple channels on Pandora, which is on my phone.

CKHK-FM was a Modern Country station in Hawkesbury, a small to medium sized city on the Ottawa River, near the eastern tip of Ontario, about 30 miles upstream from the junction of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers. Country is one of the hottest radio formats. Even such a format can not save a station if the ad revenues are down.

THE DECLINE OF HD RADIO -- GIVING THE LISTENERS THE FINGER
Radio is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but it's not helping itself by leaving a lot of listeners in the lurch. Half the HD FM signals in my metro of 4 million people are HD1 only, meaning that their HD signal just broadcasts the main channel. A lot of FM's have no HD.

It wasn't always this way. Just 8 years ago there were quite a few HD2's with different formats -- Blues, Metal, BBC, Alt, Radio Disney, LBGTQ, Viet, Religion.... Yet the radio companies got rid of a lot of them. Thankfully, some companies still have HD2's on their FM stations. But it seems to be a declining trend.

They sometimes say that HD2's are expensive to maintain, which seems a bit laughable: it's just another programmed computer playlist and the signal is already on the air.

Either way, Radio in general appears to be drifting in free fall, and many of the experts seem to be resigned to the fact that the future is all online, and they're resigned to keep it that way.

Some of them, but not all of them, understand that the transformation to All Streaming means that by 2035 or 2040 most of them won't have a job, because most listening won't be to individual stations, but to channels on Pandora and other platforms, as well as individual, user-programmed streams.

For those who are or were in the Radio business, it's just the reality. Radio could advertise more, but apparently the Radio companies are strapped for promotion revenue, and the ROI that would come from advertising your station/stream's existence on other platforms like YT, FB, or other online media -- to try to attract and gain new listeners -- just isn't there.

In conclusion, it's sad to see FM radio take the hit. For the past few years, a lot of folks -- even Radio people -- make fun of AM as the old-person's media, and even MW DX'ers talk as if they wish a lot of stations would just shut down.

I've always been against that idea, and detest that attitude. I know some stations are going to shut down due to economics, but I in no way applaud it. Any stations shutting down -- AM or FM -- is an indicator that the industry is in great trouble. And this applies not just to AM, but FM also.

If an FM station that plays one of the two most popular music formats in North America can't pay the bills, while being on the air in one of Canada's Top 4 cities, what does that say for the state of Radio today?

WPLJ New York City was a top FM station in the 70's and 80's, and probably one of the top stations in the US. When it finally sold to EMF in 2019, it was valued much lower than it was even 20 years ago. An FM station with a good signal, in America's biggest city, couldn't keep going without being sold to a religious broadcaster.

THE WRITING FOR FM WAS ON THE WALL WITH WPLJ
I have a feeling that there may be more of these stations going off the air, or otherwise being sold to religious broadcasters -- some of which have enough money to buy an FM in a big city, as was proven by EMF's purchase of WPLJ New York several years ago in 2019 (it was part of a deal where EMF bought 5 Cumulus FM stations, including FM stations in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta). The purchase of WPLJ, once a major station in NYC, got the biggest discussion in Radio circles, however.

That purchase, of what once was a hit radio station in the #1 market and #1 city in the United States was a harbinger of the future of FM radio. The station also sold for a fraction of what it was worth in the 1980's.

Here's the Wiki on WPLJ:

WPLJ's logo today. K-Love is a national, Christian contemporary / praise music format, with stations in nearly every major city in the US. They are owned by EMF, who also runs Air-1 stations in most metros. The Air-1 in Seattle is on 88.1 FM.

So now Canada's capital city, and Canada's fourth largest metro area, will see a station go dark on 98.5 FM. The other two FM stations being shut down, both Country (the #1 music format in the US), serve smaller cities SE and East of Ottawa. According to the RadioInsight article above, three employees of these stations will still have jobs at other stations in the company, but whether there were other employees let go or not isn't mentioned.

If there were, I feel for them, as their Radio days are probably over. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: chances are extremely high they will never work in the Radio industry again. The industry is in decline. Even a cursory look at BLS labor stats indicates that employment in Radio, and broadcast media in general, is dropping. Although that's just the US, I'm certain in Canada it isn't much different.

Rockland, Ontario is a moderate sized city maybe 20km / 15 miles East of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River. Modern Country is the #1 or #2 music format on radio in North America (excluding Mexico and Greenland). It couldn't keep this FM station on the air. The spectre of listener migration to online Streaming, as well as the decline in advertising revenues is killing Radio stations. Including FM.

CANADA IS A DIFFICULT RADIO MARKET
I used to work with two Canadians who were format consultants at the Radio Format company where I worked for 16 years. They both told me that it's a tougher market in Canada. It's because it's a smaller national Radio market. The country is vast, but the population is comparatively small, and it's mostly concentrated in just ten or eleven large metros (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Victoria, Halifax, and a few other cities with over 200K in the market). 

The Canadian radio experts I knew each said that the Canadian Radio infrastructure isn't financially robust, especially compared to the US Radio marketplace. They each consulted hundreds of radio stations in the US. That was something they couldn't do in Canada. The economics of Radio in Canada is smaller than it is in the US.

Perhaps with the shutting down of these three Ontario FM stations we're seeing some of that. And we may be seeing the start of a trend, not just in Canada, but in the US as well, of FM's going under. Because the economics of Radio in the US isn't very robust at the moment.

Remember, one of the largest Radio companies in the US, Audacy, just flipped the #10 billing radio station in the country -- WCBS-AM -- from news to sports. Top billing doesn't count like it used to.

My article on WCBS having the news format 'plug' yanked.:

FM going down the tubes is inevitable. I personally think the death of FM is a few decades away, but it's apparent that everything is going online, and that means more concentrated power in the hands of a few key players: Spotify, YT, Pandora, Apple, Amazon Music, IHeart, and Audacy, and a few other large music and audio streaming platforms.

There will come a day when the economics of Radio won't support studios (with all the expensive desks, microphones, processors, computers, etc.), station audio processing equipment, STL's, Transmitters, backup transmitters, and Towers -- and all the electric bills it takes to run that FM infrastructure. Many FM stations in the US are 100KW or more. Even smaller ones can be 30-50KW. That electricity cost adds up. 

One expert on a Radio forum I go to said that most of the stations in a small metro of around 45K people in the Eastern part of my state are financially in trouble, because of the decline in advertising revenues. Most of those stations are FM's. Another small metro on the western side of the state is seeing its small cluster of stations (including an FM) getting rid of staff because of a decline in revenues.

As can be seen, FM Radio is not immune to the decline. Remember, KNPT Newport had two FM stations in its cluster, and KNPT itself had an FM translator. They also had a station stream. 

It didn't save them. The economics just wasn't there for the operation anymore.


To those of you in Canada, my other mother country: I realise that the economy is hitting Radio in your country, and it's sad that so many of these stories are about shut down radio stations across your great land.

CKMX, CFRN, CKST, CFTE, and other stations in major Canadian cities -- some of which still had ratings (like Edmonton's CFRN, a TSN/ESPN affiliate), and some of which I listened to (CKMX, CFRN) are now all gone. Just recently, 900 CHML Hamilton, an AM news and talk station, was shut down. Its owners, media company Corus, is facing economic difficulties.


97 years on the airwaves, and a Global / City News format in Canada's #9 city couldn't keep CHML 900 from having the plug pulled. The mayor of Hamilton called CHML the 'DNA' and the 'fabric of the city.' Not any more. The company abruptly laid off the staff one morning in mid-August, switched to automated music for a couple hours, and then -- after a statement by a radio company exec -- went to one hour of dead carrier before finally switching it off. True class.

Here's a CBC news story on that destruction of a nearly 100 year old, community-related news station.:

And now these 3 FM's in Ottawa and nearby cities are being shut down. 

What my former Canadian workmates said about media in Canada turns out to be pretty accurate. It's a tough radio marketplace. And it's getting that way all over.

My oldest cat, Tigger, born some time in March, 2007. He is now 88 cat years old.
He's a tough, gentle cat. He still misses one of his cat pals that ran off 6 years ago. But his other pal, Racofrats, keeps him good company.

IN OTHER LIFE? SHITTY, BASICALLY
There really isn't all that much to say about what's going on, really. The weather is still relatively warm, and I buried my cat Squeakers, but it didn't take away the pain. She was getting stronger and doing better over a couple days, and then I went in to check on her and she was dead. Now she rests near my hawthorn tree.

Now I just have to ensure that my other cats stay healthy.

I'm keeping physically active. I eat OK. A lot of noodle soups, with beans, peas, celery, bok choy, onions, potatoes, carrots, and some cut oats mixed in -- with lots of paprika, curry, cayenne and other spices. I still DX the SW and MW bands, although it's been a bit boring to do so, as I'm not really enthused about it. I'm starting to plan ahead for Halloween. I have some electric jack o' lanterns to fix, and I suppose I'll have to carve a pumpkin for this Halloween also. But that's a month away.

Although I really have nothing to celebrate, I'll at least put up the effort.

There are millions of people worse off than me. Believe me, I am aware of that.

Racofrats, named after my very first cat, that I had when I was a little kid. Racofrats is Tigger's pal.

Today, of course, is September 11th. On this day, 23 years ago, we all know what happened in New York City. It was an event that changed the United States in many ways.

I have a post on September 11th here.: 

Until next time, 
Peace.

C.C. September 11th, 2024.


ADDENDUM, October 23rd, 2024:
I have since learned that a couple small radio companies have decided to buy all three of the FM stations in the Ottawa and nearby areas. They were purchased at the last minute, and they will stay on the air.

Here is a link to an article about the sale, and the continuance of CJWL and the other FM's being on the airwaves in Eastern Ontario.:


I added a short paragraph inside the article about this.

During a discussion online about this situation with the three stations -- the failure of the Evanov company to see a good ROI in Canada's 4th largest metro, one radio expert reminded me that Ottawa (and probably other radio markets on the Ontario / Quebec border -- Pembroke would probably be another similar city) have split Anglophone / Francophone markets, because the audiences get divided between the two dominant language groups, and advertisers generally prefer one language group over another. Makes sense, as it would decrease the size of the market from 1.4 million to whatever size the Anglos / French speakers are in their effective areas.
C.C. 10-23-2024





Monday, August 26, 2024

Top Billing Station WCBS 880 Flips To Sports -- What That Means For Radio in the US


WCBS 880 AM, a powerhouse station that New York City depended on for News. The station made almost $30 Million a year, and it was one of the top billing Radio stations, AM or FM, in the country.
A good reason to kill it, right? 
Right.

Over the past several months, I've posted articles here about AM radio stations in the US either going dark, or flipping to syndicated, automated formats like Sports Bet talk.

Since the start of last year, Bell Media in Canada turned off 6 or 7 AM stations; KNPT Newport Oregon (which had a stream and an FM translator) switched off permanently -- along with a couple sister, AM and FM stations; KUTI Yakima (ESPN Yakima -- an already syndicated station) turned off; CKGO Vancouver and CHQT Edmonton saw their staff fired and the two stations went to a simulcast, and may end up going off the air; 50KW station KDWN in Las Vegas went off the air permanently (their stream didn't help them survive); CHML Hamilton, Ontario went off the air permanently; another company in Canada sold off a ton of AM stations last year.

It seems that a lot of Radio companies are downsizing and AM radio is bearing the brunt of it; the others bearing the brunt, naturally, are the laid off airstaff and other laid off workers, the majority of whom will never work in Radio ever again.

So, as you can see, it's been a fairly dark year or so for AM radio in the US and Canada. In one case, where Bell Media got rid of so many stations (some of which had OK ratings), their leadership said that "radio isn't a viable media anymore". It seems that they no longer believed in Radio as a relevant medium with any future. 

It wouldn't be the first time, of course, that a large media company has shown that it no longer believes in Radio -- Radio Disney proved that when they sold off all of their AM radio stations, then turned off all their HD Radio channels nationwide, and then finally cut off their Radio Disney stream.

Radio Disney went from being an Over-The-Air radio player, to pulling the plug on all Radio operations -- OTA or online streaming -- completely in just under 5 years.


WCBS 880's most recent logo, used until Midnight, the morning of August 26th, 2024.

In many cases, the stations that I wrote about last year weren't really making enough money to stay in operation -- that was the case with KNPT Newport (50% decline in ad revenues after the Pandemic was over), and it is said the KUTI / ESPN Yakima had a deteriorating antenna system and it probably wasn't worth all the money needed to rebuild it. The return on investment just wasn't there.

Radio in general is in a tough spot economically. Anyone who is acquainted with the economics of Radio knows that. But it turns out that even if you are a Top Billing Station in the US, your owners will lay off staff, and flip the station.

And this has happened in the US's "Market #1", New York City. WCBS 880, a mainstay in New York City media culture, is flipping from All-News to Sports.

WCBS was a TOP BILLING AM RADIO STATION in New York City. They are one of the top 20 billing radio stations in the United States.


Here is a list of the Top Ten Billing Radio Stations in the United States, last year.
WCBS 880 is #10, with $29.7 Million in revenues.


And WCBS 880 was the #2 Top Billing AM Radio station in the United States last year, also (competitor WINS in NYC is FM as well as AM).
It naturally begs the question: What company risks throwing $29.7 Million away?

Here is a link to the RadioInk article where I got those two charts. It's a roundup of Radio revenues for last year.:

Despite the fact that WCBS 880 pulled in over $29 million a year, their owners have fired 22 people and have just switched WCBS to Sports -- with part of that programming being syndicated, and some of it appearing to be a simulcast of another station in NYC. And on top of that, they changed the call letters to generic and forgettable sounding ones, WHSQ.

On the radio forums there are all sorts of reasons given for this flip. "They're saving money this way" seems to be the general mantra. Being that WCBS's owners, Audacy, Inc., also runs WINS in New York -- another All-News station -- they figure that the WCBS newsies will migrate to WINS and WINS will get even more revenue from it.

And that begs the question: when you treat your listeners like shit, why are they going to stick around and migrate to one of your other stations?

After all, News is not confined to a Radio station. You can easily get your news from your smartphone or laptop computer. There are alternatives, and even older demos who love radio know about the alternatives, many of which are right on their phone.

Pissing off your listeners doesn't always work well. When Radio ditched several music formats for older listeners in the late 2000's -- Smooth Jazz, AAA, Oldies, Alternative Rock, Motown, Old-School R&B, Standards, Beautiful Music, and even other niche formats like Kid's radio and Heavy Metal -- many of those listeners left Radio completely, and went to streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and YouTube. 

If I want to hear all 2010's pop music (like Radio Disney used to play a lot), there's a Pandora channel for that. It's a great channel to listen to, if you want to slip back into 2012 when things didn't suck as much as they do now.  If I want to hear Metal, thanks to the local FM rocker pulling the plug on their HD2 Metal Militia channel, I just go to YouTube or Pandora for that kind of music.

No Radio necessary.

Here's the article I wrote on Radio Disney, and Radio Disney's demise. It is a capsule of everything wrong with Radio today.:

Thanks for giving me the finger over the last few years, Radio. I guess in a way -- by going online to get the music I like -- I'm giving you the finger right back. And I'm not apparently alone. Now, I still listen to radio. I still tune around. I listen to some talk, some music, a little bit of religious radio from time to time, and a lot of the Sikh prayer music at night on KVRI 1600, and sometimes the CBC. There's also an classic alternative HD2, as well as a Classical Christmas HD2 channel I like. 

But it is a bit jarring to read some of the attitudes of radio people towards folks in my age range (I'm a Generation Joneser), along with Boomers and Gen X'ers -- people who grew up with and love radio -- to where they seem to view us with disdain. If often feels like they are indeed giving us the finger.

And right now, WCBS's owners are giving the WCBS listeners the big middle finger. Despite the money they were making, they're cutting staff, cutting costs, and hoping that in the end it will still pencil out for the corporation.

I suppose time will tell.

For those interested, here is a link to ESPN New York's website, where there is a list of the shows on both WEPN 1050 and WCBS 880.:


The new logo for ex-WCBS, WHSQ 880. 


OK, IT'S A BUSINESS. BUT IS IT A GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE TO KILL A MONEY-MAKER?
You know, on the Radio forums, they keep repeating the mantra that "Radio is a Business".

OK. I get it. It is indeed a business. And power bills, airstaff -- they all need to be paid. And that means you have to have ad revenue.

But what business -- that is making big money, and is a top revenue earner in its market -- gives the finger to its consumer base?

Of course, in Radio, they say "our customers are the advertisers -- you listeners are the product, which we deliver to the advertisers". OK, you're doing a great job, Radio. Too often you're telling your "product" -- the listeners -- to go away. You are giving your "product", the listeners, less reason to tune in to your stations, and many of them are indeed leaving. You really think your "customers", the advertisers, are still going to pay you for that smooth move?

Thankfully, my own livelihood is not on the line. My last job in the Radio industry ended on December 31st, 2006. Since then I've just been an interested observer with nearly 20 years of working in the Radio industry (a 3 month internship, 3 years at one station, 16 years at a radio format company) under my belt.

And -- for the life of me -- I just can't wrap my head around a company taking a gamble by killing a Top Billing Radio station in America's #1 city. It just doesn't add up.

But I suppose I could be wrong.

My headline poses the question: What does this mean for Radio in the US?

I think it's a sure sign of Radio's decline. If the industry truly thinks that Radio listeners don't really count -- even when you have a top billing station in Market #1 -- then you're going to increase the decline of Radio listeners.

Oh, and to those who run the Radio industry: The listeners aren't migrating to your online platforms. They're going to Spotify, YT, Pandora, and online podcasting. This includes older demographics (who traditionally love Radio) as well as the younger ones. They not only are finding Radio to be irrelevant because it's older tech -- they're finding it irrelevant because Radio is making itself irrelevant to the listener. From 2012 to 2022 Radio lost 10% of its listeners. They didn't leave just because of Spotify. They also left because Radio itself is too homogenized and blah to listen to.

The local rock station situation in Seattle is a classic example. Seattle is a Rock town. AC/DC sold out the 20K seater, Seattle Center Coliseum 4 nights in a row in 1981. Grunge was born here. 


Rock 98.9's Logo and website banner. The station lasted about a year and a half.

In 2016 there was a new station, KVRQ Rock 98.9, that played Rock aimed at Gen X, and the mix was better than that at the mainstay, KISW, which has an afternoon show of yakkers who play little music, and the yakking simply isn't that entertaining to listen to. Most of the Gen Xers and Boomers I knew who liked rock listened to Rock 98.9 instead. They liked the mix of music, and they preferred the artists that were 98.9's core artists (80's through 00's hard rock, with some Grunge, Nu-Metal, and classic Metal).

The owners of KVRQ Rock 98.9 didn't promote the station well. There were no billboards, no advertising. No real visibility outside of the FM band. They thought that just flipping the format and putting up a website was adequate.

It wasn't. Since then KVRQ Rock 98.9 turned into KNUC The Bull (Modern country); into KPNW (Alt Rock - AAA); and into The Bull (Modern Country) again. With none of these changes did the company ever advertise outside of the FM radio dial. They seemed to take it for granted that if they just put a format on the air, it would draw listeners.

Here's the 2016 article I wrote on KVRQ Rock 98.9 when it was still a new station in town.:

Many in Radio have lost touch with the concept how to grow and run a business. Part of that aspect is advertising your product, to gain more consumers or customers. Too many in Radio have lost it. They think it's 1970 and if they just build it, they will come. That worked in 1975, but it doesn't work anymore. Too many Radio owners seem to be stuck in a 1970's Radio mindset, combined with the early 2000's "just put up a website and we'll make tons of money off the New Economy" mindset. 

Neither mindset applies today.

For example, a lot of stations still "stunt" when changing formats. WCBS 880 didn't, but there have been some stations doing this as late as last year. It was pertinent in 1980 when people literally tuned the FM dial with analog tuning mechanisms, and could pick up a new station by chance -- but in today's smartphone, smartscreen, virtual pushbutton environment, the idea that people are tuning around on the dial looking for something to listen to are long gone.

The days of "stunting" to flip a format were over 15 years ago, but some stations still do it.

News flash: Today's radio listeners don't tune around anymore, looking for new stations. The older demographics that Radio experts make fun of do that, sure, but your 18-49 demos don't do that anymore. 

They go online.

That's why you need to advertise.

Wake up, Radio.

A VID CLIP OF WCBS 880's LAST MINUTES
I will end this article with a vid taken by a guy on a radio forum I go to, a guy named Dalton, who lives in Pennsylvania. Like me, he likes older radios, and he likes AM radio. He recorded this clip of WCBS signing off for the last time, on a classic old 1960's AM portable radio. During the clip, one of their announcers is telling a tale -- a tale of how he always loved WCBS ever since he was a kid -- and he ended up working there. His voice is the last one heard before the WCBS ID at Midnight, and the plug is pulled, before the station ID's as "WHSQ".

Because there seems to be an issue with Blogger's YT search function (they changed it, and their Blogger/YT search function is basically broken -- all results, instead of being specific, are now completely useless), here is a link to the vid. It's worth checking out.:

EDIT: I found a way to embed the YouTube video. Had to use quotes around my search terms. The panel should play when you click the arrow.



IN OTHER LIFE....

My two cats I lost last year and this year: Fluffy is on the left, and Squeakers is on the right. They were pals. As you can tell, I was working on my GE Superadio 1, and also had some cleanup to do. You can tell I still read newspapers, and there were a couple books I was reading, too. The cats, of course, helped themselves to the table to take a nice rest from playing mouse. 
This was in 2011. Such a long, long time ago.

In other life, yeah, it's been pretty shitty around here. My cat Squeakers died, and I had to bury her earlier today. It really sucks to lose your little friend, after dealing with her sickness for over a year, and all the joy she brought to my life before that. I still have a couple other cats, but Squeakers was my little pal.

Losing this one really hurts.

There's not much more to say.  I still have a few new articles written, that just need editing, and some pics added. I'll get around to it eventually.

C.C. August 25th, 2024.