Loop Goes to Emmis, WIND to Salem in Chicago
 

A busy day yesterday in Chicago radio.

Both dailies reported that Bonneville agreed to give its classic
rocker WLUP (the Loop) to Emmis Broadcasting, owner of modern rocker
WKQX (Q101) in exchange for three Emmis stations in Phoenix--top-rated
AM news-talker KTAR, "AC" KKLT (Jack FMish the Peak) and ESPN Radio
sports talk KMVP. Emmis will take over the Loop on Nov. 1 through a
broker agreement until the FCC approves the trade. Bonneville also
owns in the Chicago market classic hits WDRV (the Drive), 80s/90s
oldies WNND and modern AC WTMX (the Mix).

Q101 is locked in a war for the young male Chicago rock listener with
ABC's active rocker WZZN (the Zone), which in the most recent
Arbitrons it is winning by only one-tenth of a rating point. The
Drive's softer, older skewing sound is performing better for
Bonneville than the "classic rock that really rocks" approach of the
Loop, but there are some that believe that atmosphere of the Latter
Day Saints Church-owned Bonneville has made it hard for the Loop to
perform as well as it could. There are also rumors that Emmis may
move Q101's controversial morning man Mancow Muller to the Loop and
bring the station back to its 90s heyday as a young-skewing talker in
competition with Infinity's WCKG. We shall see.

In addition, Salem and Univision made some dealing--with Salem giving
CCM WZFS (the Fish), along with San Francisco CCM KFSB (the Bridge) to
Univision in exchange for Spanish contemporary AM station WIND (La
Tremenda), along with Houston's salsa/merengue KOBT (Orbita 100.7),
Dallas' Tejano KHCK (Kick 1480 AM) and Sacramento's KOSL. Salem also
owns religious talk WYLL-AM in the Chicago market, while Univision
owns regional Mexican WOJO (Que Buena), the dominant Spanish-language
station in the market, and the Latin AC WVIV/WVIX "Viva" metrocast.

It's expected that Univision will flip the Fish to some sort of
Spanish format, which will probably enrage its listeners in the same
way almost every flip from an English to Spanish format does.
Meanwhile, Salem may return WIND to an English news-talker, as it was
before Westinghouse sold the station in 1984 to Univision predecessor
Tichenor. However, while Group W's view of news-talk was relatively
middle-of-the-road, Salem is expected to do a conservative talk format
featuring its stable of syndicated hosts including Michael Medved,
Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt. With ABC's WLS flailing about without
a GM and losing some of its key local personalities, the time would be
right for another hot talker to make an impact in the market. We will
be watching this in the months ahead.

"Mark Jeffries" wrote in message
...
A busy day yesterday in Chicago radio.

[...]We will be watching this in the months ahead.

You know, if someone or a public interest group has their s**t together, they should
mount a campaign to contest every single one of these transfers as contrary to the
public interest. Then watch when the negotiations begin.

This intervention should demand, through the attachment of service level agreements,
the re-imposition of news minimums, commercial time limits, public affairs programs
(when they're likely to be heard, not buried in the 2-6am slot on Sunday morning).
Access airtime for local bands. Direct those stations with a non-Chicago
city-of-license (and the in-city operations, for that matter) to do ascertainments
for their cities-of-license, and provide details to the file which would be evaluated
for performance when license renewal comes up. And so on. And failure to meet these
service levels would result in the transfer of the property/ies in question to
another buyer, the proceeds of which would fund a media watchdog group which would
continue to monitor broadcasters and fund local public broadcasting. How's that for
self-regulation? If the FCC won't do it, outsource the work.

Basically turn back the clock to the days when broadcasters had a mandate to serve
their audience. In the right hands, it might actually help to invent a new kind of
radio, just as media fragmentation in the 60s and 70s helped to bring about AOR,
all-news and other formats which are staples in the industry today.

(I can dream, can't I?)
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there's nothing that offends you in your community, then you know you're not
living in a free society.
Kim Campbell - ex-Prime Minister of Canada - 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

"Mark Jeffries" wrote in message
...
A busy day yesterday in Chicago radio.

[...]We will be watching this in the months ahead.

You know, if someone or a public interest group has their s**t together, they should
mount a campaign to contest every single one of these transfers as contrary to the
public interest. Then watch when the negotiations begin.

This intervention should demand, through the attachment of service level agreements,
the re-imposition of news minimums, commercial time limits, public affairs programs
(when they're likely to be heard, not buried in the 2-6am slot on Sunday morning).
Access airtime for local bands. Direct those stations with a non-Chicago
city-of-license (and the in-city operations, for that matter) to do ascertainments
for their cities-of-license, and provide details to the file which would be evaluated
for performance when license renewal comes up. And so on. And failure to meet these
service levels would result in the transfer of the property/ies in question to
another buyer, the proceeds of which would fund a media watchdog group which would
continue to monitor broadcasters and fund local public broadcasting. How's that for
self-regulation? If the FCC won't do it, outsource the work.

Basically turn back the clock to the days when broadcasters had a mandate to serve
their audience. In the right hands, it might actually help to invent a new kind of
radio, just as media fragmentation in the 60s and 70s helped to bring about AOR,
all-news and other formats which are staples in the industry today.

(I can dream, can't I?)
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there's nothing that offends you in your community, then you know you're not
living in a free society.
Kim Campbell - ex-Prime Minister of Canada - 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-