NYC Radio: Valuable Traffic Reports Ending On WCBS-AM

When WCBS 880 AM signs off at the end of August after a nearly 60-year run, to be replaced at the 880 frequency by ESPN, its traffic reporting will end too, and a venerable if unsung news beat in a city with what is empirically some of the worst traffic in the world will take a hit.

Yes, there are smartphone navigation apps that drivers have been using for years, and reporting will continue on WCBS' sister station, 1010 WINS. It will continue, too, on other local news broadcasts. But, axxording to Newsday's Nicholas Spangler,  most of them do not match the ceaselessly updating 10-minute tempo by which WCBS and WINS mark their days.

Some would argue that metro region drivers need help now more than ever. In 2023, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, there were more than 335 million crossings on the seven bridges and two tunnels operated by the agency, the most in history. In April this year, the last month for which statistics were available, there were 927,912 crossings every weekday, on average, and 904,357 on weekend days. According to Inrix, a data collector, drivers in New York City lost 101 hours of their lives last year to delays, the worst rate of congestion of any city surveyed in the world.

“Traffic has always been bad, but it’s worse now than it’s ever been,” said Samuel Schwartz, a transportation engineer also known as Gridlock Sam. “It’s moving in Midtown at less than 5 miles per hour," he said. That is slower than a bicyclist, or a determined walker, or somebody riding a horse. The streets are clogged in part because of a pandemic-era increase in truck traffic that has yet to recede, said Schwartz, a former city traffic commissioner.

Schwartz is also a former cabbie, and said WCBS had been a mainstay for professional drivers since he drove in the late 60s and early 70s. Drivers listened, he said, because “you want to get the fastest information on a paralyzing incident, not your average daily traffic.” Drivers, both professional and commuter, who grew up with radio traffic reporting “still like to hear the traffic reports and get the warnings, but I suspect less so for many of the younger drivers” using apps, he said.

Traffic reporters have responded to the app threat by playing to their strengths, said Fred Bennett, senior vice president for analytics and networks at Audacy, the broadcasting giant that owns WCBS and WINS. Unlike outlets that buy their traffic content, Audacy does all of its own traffic reporting in New York City, the biggest market in the country, with 16.6 million listeners. In July in the city, WCBS reached 1.7% of listeners, WINS 4.3%; on Long Island, WCBS reached 2.3%, WINS 5%, according to Nielsen ratings published at Radio Online, an industry website.