NYC Radio: It’s Country For 94.7 FM

Gotham’s newest radio station is 94.7 FM and the music is country.  94.7FM is branding as "NashFM 94.7..Country For Life".   The station was expected by many to be the flagship for a new Cumulus national format.

The first song was “How Country Feels” by Randy Houser, followed by Alan Jackson's "Gone Country".

Followed By:  "Southern Comfort Zone" Brad Paisley
                       "Boot Scootin' Boogie" Brooks & Dunn
                       "Blown Away" Carrie Underwood
                       "I Run To You" Lady Antebellum
                       "Better Dig Two" The Band Perry
                       "Friends In Low Places" Garth Brooks
                       "My Kinda Party" Jason Aldean
                       "Begin Again" Taylor Swift

Call letters WRXP remain in place.  First hour's imaging was devoted to brand positiong with no posturing, no promotional hype..smart!  Jockless.

NashFM 947 joins The company’s existing New York cluster of WABC 770 AM and WPLJ 95.5 FM.

NashFM 94.7 54dBU Coverage Area

Sales Dept. Must Be Happy

Respected radio engineer and media observer Scott Fybush notes Cumulus already has a sales force that’s heavily focused on the suburbs, which is where 94.7 will draw the bulk of its audience. And Cumulus’ strong national sales focus should also help overcome a lot of the perceived “New York agency bias” that has kept country off the dial in New York City since WYNY 103.5 FM flipped to WKTU 17 years ago this month.

LISTEN LINE:  Click Here. 

Cumulus Media stopped spinning the NYC “Wheel of Formats” Monday morning at 9:47 am and the wheel settled on country.

NASH FM 94.7 SPLASH-PAGE WEBSITE, Click Here.

The format’s debut caps a weekend of spinning the classy, well-produced format wheel which featured several genres of music buffeted with produced pieces designed to entice listeners to set their clocks and adjust their daily routines to be on-hand to on-air and online to 94.7FM. The production was done by Cumulus' WLS Chicago.

The Wheel of Formats followed a week of simulcast the company-owned WPLJ 95.5 FM.

Radio geeks had a busy week of speculating about the eventual format.  Favorites included Country and Rock.  Reviews on the format introduction are complimentary on the Radio Discussions, New York Message Board. Click Here.

According to David Hinckley at nydailynews.com, New York has had a number of country stations over the years, from WHN in the 1960s and 1970s to WKHK and WYNY. They have featured popular hosts including Donna Hanover, Jim Kerr and Dan Daniel.

Station executives have often said country has a loyal listener base around the city, particularly in the suburbs.

According to Hinckley, The problem, the new owners of WYNY said when they dropped country in 1996, is that country didn't have the "sizzle" they needed to attract attention for their station from media buyers who are based in New York.

Ironically, the country music industry itself has long lamented the absence of a country radio station in New York, saying that void has made it harder to get the music on the radar of those same media buyers.

Many music people feel country music itself has moved closer to the pop/rock mainstream these days.

Cumulus deferred comment on the new station Monday, saying it will have an official corporate announcement Tuesday.

Here's some early response from listeners:

Will 94.7FM Bring Country Music To NYC?

Cumulus Media Friday ended its weeklong simulcast of WPLJ 95.5 FM NYC on newly acquired WRXP 94.7 FM.  And today at 9:47am radio geeks and everyone else will find out the station’s new format.

And the question will be answered, will Cumulus bring country music back to the NYC market radio?

There hasn't been a full-time FM station airing Country music since WYNY 103.5 FM dumped it on February 10. 1996.  Clear Channel's WKTU, licensed to Lake Success, NY is now on 103.5 FM.

While spinning NYC’s “Wheel of Formats” during the weekend, pre-recorded announcements urged listener to set their dials to 94.7FM and to listen Monday morning at 9:47am for the unveiling.

The wheel is a one-hour loop constantly spinning from Beatles, to polkas..to old TV clips, old Musicradio 77 WABC audio clips, classic country, smooth jazz.  AOR  as in all over the road.

LISTEN LINE. Click Here.

Although, Country is the most mentioned option for 94.7 FM, the format speculation continues at the Radio Discussions message board. Click Here.

Courtesy of  airchexx.com, here is the end of country music on WYNY.


As for WFME, the calls live again in northern Westchester County, NY.  Family family got WDVY 106.3 Mount Kisco from Cumulus as part of the deal for 94.7 FM.

Family last week completed its format flip from country to religious content.  The station had been simulcasting a country format with another Cumulus property WDBY in Patterson/Danbury, CT.

Report: CBS Radio Working On A Deal With Cumulus

CBS head honcho Les Mooves is looking to ramp up deal making.

According to the NYPost.com, the first step — a spinoff of the billboard division — has sparked talk that CBS Radio will be the next to hit the market.

While CBS insists radio is a core business, industry insiders believe Moonves is open to a sale of the station group as he looks to reduce the company’s reliance on advertising and shed slower growth businesses.

The Post cites, including Media expert Jerry Del Calliano,  that while a sale of the radio unit isn’t imminent, it could happen in the next 12 to 24 months. Cumulus boss Lew Dickey, who runs the second-largest radio station group after Clear Channel, has already sent out feelers to No. 3 CBS Radio, sources said.

By acquiring CBS Radio, Cumulus would become roughly equal in size to Clear Channel. Cumulus has already teamed with CBS to get its fledgling CBS Sports Radio network off the ground.

A source familiar with Dickey’s thinking said he believes Cumulus could buy CBS Radio through a spinoff structure known as a reverse Morris trust that would minimize the tax hit to CBS.

“We just bought a major station in New York and launched the CBS Radio Network,” said a CBS spokesman. “We are not selling CBS Radio.”

Read More Now.

Katie Couric Lands TV Interview With ND’s Manti Te’o

Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame linebacker at the center of an online hoax involving his non-existent girlfriend, will sit down for his first on-camera interview this week with Katie Couric, the talk show host said Sunday.

The interview airs Thursday on the "Katie" show.

Sports website Deadspin broke the story Wednesday that the girlfriend that Te'o, this year's Heisman Trophy runner-up, had talked about and had claimed died in September of leukemia wasn't real.

I will be doing the first on-camera interview with Manti Te'o & his parents - this Thursday on @katieshow abcn.ws/13TpqBc
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) January 20, 2013

CNN Reports Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told reporters later that day Te'o was the victim, having been fooled into believing that a woman he met on the Internet, but never in person, was his girlfriend.

After issuing a brief statement Wednesday, Te'o sat down Friday with ESPN for an off-camera interview.

There, one of the best defenders in college football this season defended himself against allegations that he was somehow involved in the online scheme.

Read More Now.

NY Radio: Bob Wolf Out At Radio Woodstock..Already

Bob Wolf

Bob Wolf’s tenure as morning man at WDST 100.1 FM I Woodstock is over…not even lasting two weeks.

The Progressive, award-winning radio station, Radio Woodstock 100.1 (WDST) earlier this month announced the addition of Bob “The Wolf” Wohlfeld as host of the station’s new morning show, “Wakin’ Up With The Wolf”.

Wohlfeld, former morning jock on WPYX (Albany) from 2000-2012 and WPDH (Poughkeepsie) from 1990-2000 brought his talents and long history of success to the Hudson Valley along with his signature dry and direct voice and cutting wittiness.

When his hiring was first announced Wohlfield said,   “I am thrilled to be the new morning show at Radio Woodstock 100.1. A legendary station in its own right, owned and run by actual humans."

However,  Radio Woodstock canceled "Wakin' Up With The Wolf" Thursday.

Jimmy Buff, who moved to midday following the hiring of Robert Wohlfeld, will take the morning-show host.

"I love mornings," Buff said. "I love getting up early. It'll still be an easy-paced morning show."

Losing that easy pace was a major complaint from WDST listeners upon Wohlfeld's introduction to 100.1 FM. Wohlfeld, a longtime morning radio staple, has been known to talk more during the mornings, sometimes rubbing locals the wrong way with edgy content.

"Every radio station has a vocal gang of listeners," said Buff. "But the response of people we never heard of before ... that response was overwhelming." He added that living in a modern age of social media probably helped WDST make its decision; its Facebook had been buzzing with listener critiques and complaints.

Little Rock Radio: DC McGhee Returns To Alice 107.7

Popular radio show host DC McGhee is back on air after taking a break to go to rehab, according to katv.com.

"Instead of going to the doctor and doing the right things and making the right things happen I choose to drink and the worse things got the more I drank," said DC on the KLAL Alice 107.7 FM radio show Friday morning.

DC didn't show up for work one morning in December, launching a massive search. (see original posting.)

He walked out of his attic late that night saying he'd been asleep. DC shared on the radio Friday morning that he had drunk himself into an alcohol induced coma.

Read More Now.

Albuquerque Radio: Milt McConnell Leaves Cumulus Media

Milt McConnell

After 10 years as the head of Cumulus Media Albuquerque, Milt McConnell has resigned.

McConnell told bizjournals.com Friday he put in his two week resignation at the company, which operates KKOB 770 AM, KOB 93.3 FM, KRST 92.3 FM and several other stations in the Albuquerque market.

“After 10 years, it’s a good time,” McConnell told Albuquerque Business First Friday. “As I told them [employees] in the letter, I’m not going to a competitor; I’m going fly fishing.”  McConnell, an avid fisherman, said that he was ready to take some time off.

“I really want to take a time out. We just got our fall ratings that were the best in a long time, and our sales are up,” he said.

He helped the local station group over the hump of an ownership change, which happened in late 2011. With that, he said, he helped the team get through changes and layoffs.

Read More Now.

Miami Radio: Sileo Suspended For Erin Andrews Tweets

Sports talker Dan Sileo will be benched for two days following what Beasley Broadcastings calls ‘inappropriate” Tweets about Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews.

Sileo’s show airs 10a-1p on WQAM Miami.

Sileo referred to Andrews as a bimbo in one and in another remarked her stalker being the best things that could have happened to her career.
Andrews was sideline reporter for yesterday’s Fox Sports broadcast of the Atlanta Falcons-San Francisco 49’ers NFC Championship game, won by the Niners, 28-24.

Sileo, not known to be subtle, got himself in trouble last year at Clear Channel's  WDAE 620 AM Sports Animal for calling Vincent Jackson, Cortland Finnegan and Jonathan Vilma of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers "monkeys" while discussing the upcoming free agency period in the NFL.  The team also pulled his credentials at the time.

Sileo is expected to be off-air today and Tuesday.

Belichick Snubs CBS After AFC Championship

Bill Belichick may not be a poor sport, but he plays one on TV according to a story at USAToday.

The New England Patriots coach continued his long history of petulant behavior when he declined an interview with CBS following his team's loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship.

During the network's postgame show, host James Brown told viewers that sideline reporter Steve Tasker had requested an interview with Belichick, but that the coach declined.

The Patriots sent out third-year safety Devin McCourty instead, which is like asking for an interview with the president and getting Joe Biden's secretary.

Read More Now

CBS Analyst Shannon Sharpe had this to say about Bill Belichick stiffing his CBS postgame interview.

"There's something to be said about being gracious in defeat," Sharpe said on CBS' postgame show. "We've seen the New England Patriots five times in the last 12 years be victorious [in the AFC championship game). We've seen the opposing coaches who lost come out and talk to our Steve Tasker. Coach [Bill] Cowher did it when they lost to them, we saw this last week.

"Bill Belichick makes it real easy for you to root against the Patriots. You can't be a poor sport all the time. You're not going to win all the time, and he does this every time he loses. It's unacceptable."

Oh Brother! ‘Big Game’ Becomes The Super Browl

Coach John Harbaugh and his Baltimore Ravens set up a family reunion at the Super Bowl, shutting down the New England Patriots 28-13 Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.

Next up for Harbaugh and the Ravens is younger brother Jim and the San Francisco 49ers, who beat Atlanta 28-24 earlier in the day for the NFC title.

The newly created CBS Sports Radio network currently airing on more than 250 stations across the country is going on the road with a wide range of programming originating from New Orleans leading up to Super Browl on Sunday, February 3.

Beginning on Monday, Jan. 28 the morning show featuring Tiki Barber, Brandon Tierney and Dana Jacobson, CBS Sports Radio will present a daily all-access look at the world’s biggest sporting event with analysis and commentary, an array of athlete and celebrity interviews, conversations with Hall of Famers, present and former coaches, and newsmakers.

Jim Rome

Broadcasts continue with John Feinstein (9:00 a.m to 12:00 Noon, ET, Jim Rome 12:00 Noon-3:00 p.m. ET) and Doug Gottlieb 3:00-6:00 p.m. live from Radio Row at the Super Bowl XLVII media center. 

All CBS Sports Radio programs will originate from CBS’s dedicated broadcast position alongside select CBS Sports Network shows, a number of CBS RADIO’s all-sports radio stations including WFAN-AM/FM (New York), WSCR-AM (Chicago), KRLD-FM (Dallas), WBZ-FM (Boston), and WIP-FM (Philadelphia).

“All of our shows are off to a great start and we are eagerly anticipating being on site for the world’s biggest sporting event,” said Eric Spitz, Director, Programming, CBS Sports Radio.

 “What makes radio so captivating is its ability to react in real time to the day’s news and events, and get up close and personal with callers and guests.”

Tampa Radio Trial Takes Monday Off

It’s MLK Day a national holiday, the Tampa courtroom will be dark today.  The Todd Schnitt vs. Todd ‘Bubba The Love Sponge’ Clem civil trial will resume Tuesday.

It’s being called the ‘Ego Trial’ by some and here is a recap of what happened Friday.