Balt/DC Radio: WNEW-FM Adding Talk Shows, Infomercials

2/26 UPDATE:  The DCRTV website reports WNEW-FM is  now airing the syndicated "Overnight America" talk show. WNEW still carries locally-produced news updates at the top of the evening and overnight hours. It remains an all-newser from 5 AM to 8 PM weekdays. During the past few months, WNEW has been adding infomercials during its night and weekend hours. It's also added sports - carrying Wizards games.

Earlier Posting...

Three years after launching the second all-news station in the nation’s capital, CBS Radio WNEW 99.1 is apparently moving away from all-news.  The station is adding talk programming.

The station has picked up the syndicated “Dave Ramsey Show” which will air weeknights from 8-11pm.

WNEW’s first daypart talk show comes one year after it put a greater focus on Maryland listeners to differentiate itself from Hubbard’s market-leading WTOP 103.5 FM.

WNEW trended 1.3-1.8 in Baltimore and 1.3-1.7 in Washington among listeners 6+ in Nielsen’s January survey.

WNEW 99.1 FM (45 Kw) Red=60dBu Local Coverag Area

Market observers expect WNEW-FM  to gradually reduce its News format with play-by-play sports, infomercials, and talk shows. The station is expected to add "pay-for-play" programming in its non-weekday drivetime hours.

Jerry Del Colliano, who publishes the daily media biz newsletter, Inside Music Media, writes: "The decision to remove all-news-all-the-time from WNEW-FM, Washington doesn't bode well for CBS Radio or the rest of the radio industry. WNEW only wanted a sliver of what Hubbard's WTOP takes out of the market WTOP is the highest billing radio station in the country. Instead, today's CBS didn't have the patience that Westinghouse had in the 1960's when it stuck to all-news as expensive as it was in a stubborn belief that the payoff would come."