Just a month after CBS debuted News 99.1 WNEW-FM Washington, DC to compete with Hubbard’s 103.5 WTOP, the company is poised to take on Hubbard’s niche “Federal News Radio” 1500 WFED.
“1580 The Big Talker” WNEW will soon become “1580 GOV” as the company has registered 1580GOV.com and 1580GOV.biz for the station.
INSTANT INSIGHT: WFED does not generate high ratings with its Government News programming, but does bill well with government contractors. CBS’ combo of 1580 and 99.1 can be sold to advertisers as a more affordable option to Hubbard’s WTOP and WFED. With WTOP being the #1 billing station in the country last year, there should be enough money to go around especially in an election year like this.
This is CBS’ dumbest – most hubris fueled – move since they decided to make WCAU all news up against Group W’s KYW in Philly. If anything, WTOP is even more strongly established as DC’s all news station today than KYW was in Philly back then. On top of that, why annoy a major affiliate (and group owner)?
WTOP being an affiliate of CBS’ network news and CBS running a competing All-News station have nothing to do with one another.
WTOP is the top rated station in DC and #1 billing station in the country. Wouldn’t you want to compete head to head with the market leader if you had the resources to do so?
WTOP has been more than an affiliate, they’ve been an ally of CBS. WTOP and CBS; Washington Bureau have cooperated in coverage of happenings in DC and the network has often taken extended coverage from WTOP on the network’s secondary satellite channels. That’s likely to change now that the too are competitors.
CBS’ clone of federal news radio suggests once again CBS is egotistical to try to beat ‘TOP at its own game. Similar format. Same TOH network news. Same debriefs with the same correspondents. And now the same federal news. Is CBS’ betting that ‘TOP is turning away advertisers who will flock to them just to get on the air? CBS is putting themselves in the position of the “other” Yellow Pages directory.
If there is some way ‘TOP is vulnerable or some niche they are not filling, this might make sense. When Newsradio88 went on against 1010WINS they had a much better signal in the ‘burbs. They clearly targeted suburban listeners and adopted a format intended to appeal to more upscale suburban listeners. Even today under common ownership, those differences persist. I don’t think CBS has much of chance in DC doing “more of the same.”
WETA tried pretty much the same thing in their attempt to rip-off and then beat WAMU in the DC public radio news arena. That didn’t work either.
It’s my impression that in some cases, ever since the Telecommunication Act of 1996 allowed conglomerates to own multiple stations in any given market, some operators cede the market for one format as long as another conglomerate stays off THEIR turf. Now that times are tougher, a few of them may be going after one another. In Boston, CBS challenged Entercomm’s all-sports station. But no commercial broadcaster here is willing to take on their all-news (sort of) WBZ-AM. And they’ve left the soporic, snooze-inducing soft AC WMJX harmless while going after the oldies/classic rock audience with WZLX-FM. The REAL competition on FM in Boston was between pubcasters WBUR and WGBH-FM, similar to WETA-FM’s attempt to rival WAMU. WETA retired from the field, but WGBH is still out there trying to eat into WBUR’s audience (as of this morning!).
Lawrence,
You know, it does seem a no-brainer for someone, anyone to go up against WBZ. However, its doubtful that any of the current owners in Boston have the news background or resources to take WBZ down. BZ may look like a target but it’s a formidable presence. In fact, there are few cities that have an AM station as successful and prominent as Boston has with WBZ. Still, the hole in the news format created by WBZ’s evening and overnight talk shows should be enticing. You gotta remember, though, there have been contenders, all of whom were unable to unseat WBZ as the news leader. But, it’s an interesting topic nonetheless.