The nearly four year attempt by CBS to create a competitor to Hubbard’s market-leading News 103.5 WTOP Washington has come to an end as the company has leased 99.1 WNEW Bowie MD to Bloomberg Radio.
Bloomberg abruptly took over WNEW’s programming at 10:00am this morning as “Bloomberg 99.1 & 105.7-HD2“. The 105.7 WJZ-HD2 signal is for enhanced Baltimore coverage. This becomes Bloomberg’s fourth over-the-air market. The company owns 1130 WBBR New York and leases iHeartMedia’s 960 KNEW San Francisco and 1200 WXKS Boston.
Most of the previous local news staff will exit with the lease of WNEW as well as a handful of staffers at CBS’ other stations in the Washington market. WNEW will have local inserts around the New York based programming and continue to carry Washington Wizards basketball.
CBS launched the WNEW news format in January 2012 but due in part to its suburban signal that covers Baltimore slightly better than Washington. In the November PPM monthlies WNEW registered a 1.0 share in Washington and 1.8 in Baltimore.
Bloomberg and CBS RADIO today announced the launch of Bloomberg Radio on WNEW FM 99.1, delivering business and financial news along with non-partisan coverage of politics, policy, power, and influence to Washington, D.C. Bloomberg Radio will also be available in Baltimore at 105.7 FM HD-2.
Debuting today as the result of an agreement with CBS RADIO, owner and licensee of the 99.1 and 105.7 HD-2 frequencies, this marks the launch of Bloomberg Radio on its first FM station. Led by Bloomberg’s Washington bureau and the company’s global news operation, Bloomberg 99.1 will draw upon the strength of reporting from 2,400 journalists in 150 news bureaus across 73 countries. Bloomberg News, one of the world’s leading financial news organizations, produces 5,000 stories a day and has received more than 800 awards since it was founded in 1990, including the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.
Bloomberg 99.1 is the only global business and financial news radio available throughout the Beltway, providing listeners with 24/7 coverage of market-moving news and analysis. In addition to Bloomberg Radio’s signature programming on financial markets, Bloomberg 99.1 will feature a simulcast of Bloomberg Politics’ “With All Due Respect,” hosted by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann weekdays at 5:00pm ET on Bloomberg TV. Additional unique programming tailored specifically to the Washington market will be announced in the coming weeks. The station will also begin presenting local news, traffic, weather, and sports updates in early 2016, and will remain the flagship station for Wizards basketball.
“As we enter this critical election year, there’s no better time to introduce Bloomberg Radio to Washington,” said Al Mayers, global head of Bloomberg Television & Radio. “On the heels of recent expansions in Europe and Asia-Pacific, this launch marks an important step in our mission to extend the reach of Bloomberg Radio into the most important regions of the world. We will tap into the deep expertise of our Washington bureau to provide insights and analysis on policy and politics that listeners cannot easily find elsewhere.”
Bloomberg Radio joins the company’s other platforms in Washington: Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Politics, Bloomberg Government, Bloomberg BNA, Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Intelligence. With its flagship station WBBR 1130AM in New York, WXKS 1200 AM/94.5 FM-HD2 in Boston, and KNEW 960 AM/KOSF 103.7 FM-HD2 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bloomberg Radio now reaches four of the leading global business markets in the country. Earlier this year, Bloomberg Radio partnered with CBS RADIO to deliver business reports which air on stations in 12 key markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco, among others. In 2015, Bloomberg Radio expanded globally, launching new programming in Europe and Asia-Pacific to bring listeners live, 24/7 coverage of international markets and up-to-the-minute news from around the world.
Bloomberg Radio’s audience has the highest median household and personal incomes of all measured broadcasters. Mercedes-Benz Local Dealers, Chicago Board Option Exchange, and the accounting firm Marks Paneth have already committed to annual launch partnerships slated to begin in 2016.
Joseph_Gallant 
elcartero 
lmbachman 
Bill Recto 
Not surprised.
Bloomberg Radio has long wanted a station in Washington.
I suspect deals for Bloomberg Radio to expand to Los Angeles and Chicago will likely be next.
Interesting that two of Bloomberg’s four stations either are, or used to be, called WNEW.
This is absolutely awful, and I hate that it has happened. I turned on the radio to listen to the traffic report on my way home and had to listen to a bunch of stuff-coats talk about a bunch of useless nonsense.
The interesting part is that WNEW was supposed to compete against WTOP a Hubbard station who happens to have a CBS affiliation via Westwood one.
But WNEW is supposed to be a CBS all News O&O that takes the Cumulus affiliation.
Because national network affiliations are the most important part of a local news station?
Yes Lance but I failed to mention other things here.
Its incredible that WTOP still has the highest revenue for an all news station in the nation even though WNEW was supposed to fight WTOP. Another reason WNEW failed in all News was that WAMU a Public News/Talk station is in the top 5 spots fighting WTOP in the D.C. ratings.