NY Radio: 'Lack of Content' Dooms Progressive Talk WNYY

Beginning on February 1 WNYY 1470 AM, the progressive talk station owned by Cayuga Radio Group will be changing format to oldies.

For more than a dozen years, the progressive talk format featuring the likes of Jon Grayson, Leslie Marshall and the Car Doctor, Ron Annanian, has aired in Ithaca at 1470 AM and at W249CD 97.7 FM.

When news broke, listeners of the station began calling in and, because of the election season, some began to cry conspiracy. However, this is not the case, reports ithaca.com.

"We're losing so many shows on that station we can't cover a full schedule anymore," WHCU News Director Kyle Robertson said in a Facebook message. "So we're getting rid of progressive talk entirely and changing it to a music station. WHCU (the conservative talk) will be staying the same, and that's made some people upset."

WNYY 1470 AM (5 Kw, 1 Kw-N)

Cayuga Radio Group President Chet Osadchey provided a fuller explanation of what's happening.

We always had a good following of listeners and advertisers on WNYY. Our Progressive Talk format was comprised of the traditional “syndicated” shows, meaning these shows are contracted with local radio stations (affiliates).  The business models is that the syndicator retains some of the commercial inventory to sell to national advertisers, and the local radio station also has commercial inventory to sell the remaining to local businesses.  Even today that model can work well on terrestrial radio.   

What has happened to WNYY in the last couple years is that for various reasons many of the shows we carry from the syndicators have gone away from syndication (no longer available to a local station):  Rachel Maddow, Randi Rhodes, Ring of Fire, Ed Shultz, and now Bill Press and Jon Grayson (and Leslie Marshall going from 3 hours daily to 1).  When I say “gone away”, that means these shows are no longer available for a local station like WNYY radio…so when that happens, we have no product to put on the airwaves..  So without product to air… you don’t have a station.