Posted by John on July 23, 2015 at 09:28:03:
In Reply to: News/Talk on FM posted by the nose on July 22, 2015 at 02:09:34:
> Milwaukee is one of the few markets left without a
> news/talk on FM:
Few? Really? Last I checked, NYC, LA, Denver, Dallas (among many others) don't have a news/talk station on FM.
> Why doesn't Scripps simulcast WTMJ-A on WKTI -load up
> the FM with more sports and AM with more talk a la
> WBBM's split.
WKTI? The station they just flipped to country two months ago? Make a Dave Magnum-esque panic move? Uh, OK.
Timing aside, why aren't there FM news/talk stations in Milwaukee? The audience for the format is old -- they're old enough to remember there's an AM band and can find the format there. I do agree that some of the talk on FM has been a bit of a fad, but even if it is about chasing younger listeners, if you have a format that skews as old as the conservative talk (because that's what's really on the air on WTMJ and WISN, not news/talk), going to FM isn't going to accomplish anything other than wasting money.
A talk station on WKTI or another FM (in the case of WISN), would have to make more money than the current FM format and the talk format combined to make financial sense. Otherwise, you're just leaving money on the table. There were some questions early on about whether CBS was leaving money on the table by giving up the ad revenue from Fresh 105.9 when they panicked about 101.1 and simulcast WBBM-AM.
Further, the Milwaukee AM talk stations don't have the signal issues that have driven some other n/t stations to add an FM station.