Cover of Frank Sinatra
As they used to say on the old game show — “You Asked for It.”
I rarely venture into radio. But a blog reader asked for my take on the decision of the owner of WECK-AM to drop its sports and talk format after three years and play adult contemporary music.
As I’ve said before, never has so much been written in the local newspaper about a station listened to by so few.
I think the Buffalo News has written one inch of copy for every listener that WECK had.
In the last ratings period, I was told that WECK had a .6 share – which is six-tenths of one point.
Now this has nothing to do with quality.
In a way, I feel kinship with WECK.
My blog has grown since it began to average more than 1,000 page loads most weekdays, with a high of 4,500 page loads.
That may not sound like much compared to the page loads of the Buffalo News. My problem is driving awareness to the site. A day doesn’t go by that some friend or acquaintance isn’t surprised to learn that I even have a blog.
A week or so, I ran into former Buffalo Bill Jeff Nixon, who was unaware that I had even left the Buffalo News.
The percentage of people who are aware of the blog that read it is pretty high. It is just awareness isn’t high because I don’t advertise and primary drive readership through Facebook, Twitter and wnymedia.net.
WECK had a similar promotional and awareness problem competing with WGR-AM, the top sports talk station in town, and news talk station WBEN-AM.
“I agree 100 percent,” said Brad Riter, the former afternoon talk show host who later added program director to his duties.
WGR has the added benefit of carrying Buffalo Sabres games, being on the far left of the dial and having a long history of sports talk.
WECK’s top talkers were WGR graduates or dropouts – Riter and Nick Mendola. They were good at what they do. But they didn’t have the awareness or the promotion to compete with WGR, even though many listeners have tired of Mike Schopp’s arrogant know-it-all act in the afternoons.
If I were WGR, I might even consider replacing Schopp with Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan, who appears to be the station’s most popular figure even with his limited appearances. Who knows? Maybe Sullivan would even consider a full-time radio job and a part-time newspaper columnist job if the latest rounds of buyouts at the Buffalo News are attractive enough.
But I digress.
The point is WGR versus WECK isn’t a fair fight. WGR hardly considered WECK much of a threat despite Riter’s proclamation in February that he was “declaring war” against WGR and WBEN.
There was a method in Riter’s February Madness, which led to WECK getting much more attention and publicity in the News than a station that isn’t even in the top 20 here and gets fewer listeners than Canadian stations deserved.
“I knew before saying that (declaring war) that if we didn’t do something big quickly, the whole thing was going to end,” said Riter.
It ended last week. Naturally, Riter was disappointed he didn’t get more time. He added he wished that owner Dick Greene had waited until seeing the results that are expected to arrive shortly that rate the period after Riter made his bold statement.
“We haven’t seen the ratings since I did that,” said Riter. “We got some attention. We didn’t see it through. Give me one year and let’s see where we are.”
Of course, unlike stilltalkintv, WECK has overhead or salaries to pay and that may have made waiting for the latest ratings more difficult for Greene.
I would have waited to see if what Riter was doing was working because it isn’t my money. But I don’t blame Greene – a former neighbor – for pulling the plug even if it means I may never listen to the station again unless the Yankees are on.
I mean an AM station playing music? Really? What century are we in?
Besides Riter and Mendola, the big losers are the University at Buffalo football and basketball teams.
It was one thing to be on low-rated WECK when it carried sports talk. It is quite another to be on the station playing Frank Sinatra even if Tom Petty and Cold Play are featured as well.
Like stilltalkintv and WECK, the Bulls need awareness to expand their fan base. And now that sports talk is history, WECK is no longer in position to even marginally drive that awareness.
* On another radio note, sources report that Andy Roth, the program director who has helped drive the success at WGR, will be leaving shortly to take a new and presumably better job. Roth could not be reached for comment.
pergament@msn.com
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
Very informative – I like it when you talk radio.
I agree with Mark. Radio updates are equally enjoyable from you and I would welcome more of them. I also enjoy your insights into the inner workings of the Buffalo News (i.e. upcoming buy-outs, etc).
Thanks for the radio column, Alan. As a 30-plus year veteran of the radio industry here, it’s a pleasure to read your opinions. I agree that Dick Greene probably should have waited until the Spring ratings came out to assess Brad’s performance at WECK. But he did give the format three years. (Breaking news as I write this — the Spring radio ratings are now out. WECK had a .5 share. Now, this is a 12+ number covering the entire week. Hourly numbers, which we don’t have access to, could show some strength among specific demographics in some dayparts. But this overall number indicates WECK made no traction after Brad issued his manifesto against WBEN and WGR.)
Talk on WECK was difficult from the get go. The station couldn’t compete with WBEN’s 24-hour news presence. And then you have the two public stations — WBFO (where, in the interest of full disclosure, I served as news director before retiring last year) and WNED-AM. Tom Donahure and Loraine O’Donnell tried hard. But if you’re a radio news consumer, you’re either listening to John and Susan on WBEN or “Morning Edition” on the public stations.
I think Brad Riter is a talented host. But he was up against Sandy Beach, Shredd and Ragan, Schopp and the Bulldog and “All Things Considered” on at the same time. So, his show was my fourth or fifth choice.
I never tuned in Nick Mendola. I did download his interview with my friend, Dan Herbeck of the Buffalo News, last month. Nick is a young announcer with tons of potential. But the Herbeck interview was rough. Now, I will say that at his age, I, too, wasn’t very good. Mastering the art of the radio interview was the most difficult challenge in my career. Nick needs a mentor to get him to that next step. That wasn’t going to happen at WECK.
So, talk really wasn’t going to work.
Only time will tell if music works on WECK. But I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss music on AM radio, Alan. If you were to combine the shares of the stations playing music — Swing 1270, Solid Gold Soul on 1400, standards on AM 740 and country on WXRL — you’d have a station with more than a five share. So, obviously, there’s an audience that still listens to music on AM. With streaming, everyone is on an equal playing field. And I’ll share this personal story. While preparing to go out, I switched on a radio tuned to WECK with every intention of changing the station to WBFO for “All Things Considered.” But WECK was playing Bruce’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” If you hear one of your favorite songs, even if it’s on crappy-sounding AM, you’re going to listen to it. Will the music format work? That will be answered when the summer ratings come out later this fall. But I don’t criticize Mr. Greene for making this change.
All this time later and Jeff Nixon didn’t even realize you had left the Snooze? Wow. What a huge impact you must have had. I know Ahmad Rashad must have been equally as impressed, , having referred to you as “Bob” Pergament in his autobiography.
* On another radio note, sources report that Andy Roth, the program director who has helped drive the success at WGR, will be leaving shortly to take a new and presumably better job. Roth could not be reached for comment.
Let’s just hope he takes Mike Schopp with him.
I can’t see Sully sullying himself by becoming a full-time radio guy.