Jay Weber Show transcript 1-31-23 7:40am
Gregory Jon-did you ever work on an FM station-or have you strictly been an ‘Am radio’ guy for your 40-year career, now?
I have- never been -an FM guy. I have done a few newscasts, earlier in my career, for FM stations that were in our cluster...but my primary job, profile, on-air shifts have always been on ‘AM radio’.
And so- it is sad to hear that the days of am radio stations appear to be numbered.
-and no-that doesn’t mean that conservative talk radio or any popular format that still might be surviving on the AM band is going to go away-
Successful formats will migrate over to the FM dial and-more critically- onto the live internet streaming and podcast venues...
Even with the am stations will be operating, larger and larger chunks of our audience have decided to listen via streaming-to get a cleaner crisper sound....and/or...to listen to us in different markets.
So, conservative talk isn’t going to go away-even if the AM band is pinched out of existence-but that day-does-appear to be coming: i wasn’t aware of this but...some of the car companies are starting to eliminate the am-band option from their new car models. Pretty soon-just like you can’t find a new car model that has a cd player or cassette player in it-
Eventually, apparently, you won’t be able to find one with an AM band on it. A Wall St Journal story says today: Tesla was the first one to start this, and other companies are starting to follow suit.
This is true...and while I have no crystal ball here to guarantee that conservative talk-as a format-wouldn’t take a big hit if AM stations go off the air...
I will guarantee that any show or station that is making good profits and is popular-will simply find another home on the FM dial.
Because-here’s one thing that the article doesn’t say: a lot of music formats -stink. They aren’t profitable.
The truth is that- in today’s radio industry- its leaders have run out of ideas when it comes to ‘what is going to make money’ on a radio station, anymore. And yes- a few formats are profitable- like country, pop, new artist...etc.
But many are not. Many of the existing formats just sort of ‘clunk along’: classic rock, album rock, oldies. In general, these stations don’t make much money.
Why do you think markets like Milwaukee have five sports stations?
It’s because these big radio groups have more ‘signals’ than they have profitable formats. Look at what WKTI’s execs did not too long ago: they blew up a traditional rock format...or ‘pop rocks. Whatever you’d want to call it...and put on...a fifth? sports talk station?
Why?
Because they are struggling to find something different. Something that will generate ad revenue. Something that is different content than people can get off Spotify, or iTunes. That’s why.
And so far? - no-these sports stations haven’t proven to be very popular, either, but it’s an industry that’s trying to come up with some ‘different’ content-that you can’t get elsewhere.
Conservative talk radio already has that appeal-in spades.
It is unique content-that is being generated-daily- and in most markets- brings in profits. Even on the am-dial-which is hard to do.
I won’t share trade secrets with you-but I’ll generically report that -of our six station cluster- WISN is the most profitable- by far-and four of the other five are on the FM dial.
And so-if am radio magically ‘died’ tomorrow...the managers of our radio cluster would immediately kill off one of the other lower-performing FM stations and move our content over there.
I’ve been here over 30 years-and over the years-both Belling and I have pushed to have our station moved to an FM signal to get a wider terrestrial reach... And each time...we have been asked the same question by management: then what would we put on the am signal?
Right now- we are the most profitable station in the cluster-and? - we are doing it on an am signal, on which -virtually no other format would work?
Come on. That’s valuable. That’s compelling, unique content.
And so- while this article gets a lot of things right, its attempt to light the funeral pyre for conservative talk radio is way premature-and wrong-headed.
Hannity, Ingram, Bongino, Levin, Belling, Weber...etc... will all find a home on the FM dial and on streaming services without skipping a beat. Some of the more dreadful local talk radio of the sort that you can hear traveling across America.
Maybe some of those shows are in trouble-but I tell you what-they are at least original content that people can’t get anywhere else. The music on most FM formats -you can get anywhere.
So even in those smaller-market instances.... you might be surprised that ’coffee with Tom and Alice’... Or Jimmy and the jock .... from an am station...is suddenly replacing some DJ ..as the rock station in town is plowed under.
Today’s platforms-regardless of which one you choose-are hungry for original content. You -hope! -it’s good content, but the key- is original content. Radio, TV, podcast, streaming services- are all desperate for original content...and conservative talk radio is.
Stations such as this one-on the AM band-would immediately migrate over to an under-performing FM signal.
And there are all sorts of them in medium and larger sized markets like this one.
photo credit: WISN archive