Classic AM station's rebirth a message to industry
InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano posted a column on March 31 that — like many of his columns — had me thinking: Great minds think alike. Titled “The AM Station That Defies Failure,” it tells the story of WABC/New York and the success it has had since being bought by a local owner from Cumulus.
WABC is much like numerous AM stations across the country. Powerhouse Top 40 format leaders in the 1960s and '70s, they lost their way when large corporate owners couldn't figure out what to do with them. They dropped music, sometimes found temporary success with political talk, and then floundered once programmers focused more on their FMs.
Weird how a neglected station would lose listeners.
Anyway, for all intents and purposes, WABC was a failure in 2019 when Cumulus Media, owner of KABC (790 AM) here in
Los Angeles, sold the station to a 74-yearold New York businessman named John Catsimatidis Jr. — a guy with no radio experience other than being a radio fan.
Catsimatidis then did what some think is impossible: He brought a dead radio station back to life. How? He made it local. He served his local audience. He wasn't afraid to embrace older listeners, and he started superserving those willing to tune in.
And tune in they did. The station has been above a 3.0 share for at least the past six months and has had a 3.9 share for the past two months. It is the top-rated AM station in New York. Under previous ownership, it had fallen to the mid- to upper 1s. Could other stations learn from the recent success?
Yes. More than that, the entire industry could learn from its success. The formula is so simple, it's almost as if stations of the past could help with the lesson. In fact, that's pretty much what Catsimatidis did. He looked at what made previous stations tick and applied it to his new toy. WABC found an audience that was being underserved, then designed a format that would appeal to that audience: In this case, an eclectic mix of talk, news and music. Yes, music … on AM. Weird.
Cousin Brucie, a legendary WABC disc jockey, plays oldies on weekends. The station runs its old iconic jingles. News coverage focuses on the local area. The talk hosts have local ties, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Rush Limbaugh producer Bo Snerdley, and a founding member of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa.
Catsimatidis even has his own show, hosted by himself and local broadcaster Rita Cosby.
While it is impressive that Catsimatidis took a failing station and made it successful, he is not alone. I've written about the success of stations such as
WION/Ionia, Michigan, and WRDN/Durand, Wisconsin. What all three and others like them have in common are local owners who care enough to program to their local audience and not rely on cheap syndicated programming.
This approach benefits not only the stations and listeners but local businesses that can advertise to reach an audience otherwise hard to find. That Catsimatidis does it in New York City, arguably one of the toughest markets in the United States, makes it even more impressive …. and in my opinion, frankly, embarrassing to owners like Audacy that have gone so far as to just shut down some AM stations.
This lesson isn't just for AM, though. FM stations definitely can use more local content, and in the cases in which the local audience is super-served, the results are impressive. Local content is the one thing that Spotify, Apple Music or any other streaming service simply can't match.
Dashboard confessional
On the heels of Ford announcing that it will not include AM radio in future automobiles comes news that GM has decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support from future EVs.
While I hate that AM is being dropped and I believe it to be a bad decision, at least you can — usually, at least — use apps to replace the tuner and in some ways have better reception and better sound.
But dropping CarPlay? That's a nonstarter for me. My family, starting with my grandfather, my father and now me, has owned GM almost exclusively since 1926. If CarPlay is not offered, I will not buy one.
I want the choice to use the mapping software I want to use. I want the ability to use the apps I want to use, such as StreamsHiFi Audio and MyTuner Radio for online radio streams. I can connect my phone to any of my current car stereos and have all of my apps and preferences ready to go; without CarPlay, I'd have to set all my preferences individually in every car.
And I certainly don't want my life controlled by Google, which GM plans to use as the basis for its dashboard infotainment system. I am not a Google fan by any means, and I certainly don't want their intrusive, anti-privacy, adbased system in my car.
In my opinion, GM is making a tremendously bad decision in dropping CarPlay and Android Auto. In doing so, though, you can now understand what is in store for the future … the ability to charge for being part of and using the dash. It is anti-competitive and anti-consumer. I hope that the move is met with consumer resistance similar to my own — as I said, I will never buy a car without CarPlay ability.
Even if I have to keep my current truck forever.