DC News War

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AmpedNow
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DC News War

Post by AmpedNow »

I know DC radio isn't talked about much here, but there's some pretty interesting things happening there.

First, there's news monster WTOP, who was last year's #1 biller in market #8, outperforming the usual KFI, KIIS, and WABC.

Also looking for a share of that news pie is CBS, who is looking to start another all-newser on 99.1, with the calls WNEW launching around January 15.

Remember that the 99.1 stick was the old WHFS of long ago, which CBS blew up in 2005 for the Spanish El Zol.

Recently, Herold Camping's Family Radio sold off 107.9 to CBS for $8 million. CBS almost immediately moved El Zol off of 99.1 onto 107.9. 99.1 flipped to Christmas music until recently, and is currently playing "The History of Rock and Roll" for 3 more weeks or so.

CBS then rolled 107.9, licensed to Annapolis into the CBS-DC cluster. They did the same to 99.1, moving the transmitter 10 miles closer to DC. The COL also shifts from Annapolis to Bowie. Before, it was more of a Baltimore stick, and it will still provide great coverage there, even though it's now technically a DC station. I don't know how they could do this without CC objecting, due to 98.7 and 99.5, also in DC. They are well within the second adjacent class B restrictions.

As for WHFS, CBS has brought it back to Baltimore on a 250 watt translator on 97.5 they are leasing from some Christian group in Delaware. So the "legendary HFS" still exists to some extent.

Another amusing sidenote is CBS is rolling their entire DC cluster into a single building located in Bowie, including WJFK. Yet WJFK will still be licensed to Manassas, some 40 miles west, with zero presence.

I think DC can support two all-newsers, but the wild card is Northern VA, where 99.1 can be sketchy in places but WTOP's signal dominates. however, 99.1 dominates the northeast suburbs towards Baltimore, where WTOP is sketchy.

This may be a radio war worth watching...
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Dave Loudin
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Re: DC News War

Post by Dave Loudin »

CBS applied to move 99.1 about 8km up the Patuxent River (more or less NW) from a tower near the 50/301 intersection back in late 2004, but didn't get approval until a year after the flip to Spanish. The spacing to WMZQ and WIHT is grandfathered short. Per the rules, grandfathered second-adjacents have no spacing or interference limitations.

For as long as I can remember, whoever owned 99.1 tried to make it a DC station. In the good old days, the legal ID was "WHFS, Annapolis, Washington, Baltimore" even though the ratings were always better in Baltimore. As of the 12th, it's "WNEW-FM, Bowie Washington."

The translator deal in Baltimore demonstrates the latest business model for HD radio. The translator in question was to be part of a daisy chain relaying WVBV Medford Lakes, NJ, into Baltimore and vicinity. The church that had put all the apps back in that auction only got a portion of the chain, so the question became what to relay? The deal with CBS answered the question - relay WWMX-HD2 that started carrying the "HFS" program. In return, CBS is carrying WVBV on another HD subchannel (not sure if it's on WWMX or WLIF.)
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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Dave Loudin
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Re: DC News War

Post by Dave Loudin »

AmpedNow's got it exactly right about the strengths and weaknesses between WTOP's signals and WNEW. Commuters in the Fredericksburg area will not hear WNEW at all thanks to 99.3 in Spotsylvania, so WTOP/WWWT will continue to win there. To the north WTOP-FM is slightly directional to protect a first-adjacent 103.7 WXCY, so WNEW will tend to win there.

In the stop sets during The History of Rock and Roll, CBS is running promos for all their DC stations. For WNEW, they're now talking about the news clock, with traffic on the 1's, business news at 15/45 and sports at 25/55 (provided by their sports talker, WJFK). WTOP's clock is traffic on the 8's, sports at 15/45, and business news at 25/55.

The History of Rock and Roll is oddly compelling. It's the 1981 version of the Drake-Chenault production that spans 52 hours and features Bill Drake narrating. His script is very top-level, which is the chief complaint I've seen. However, D-C wanted the music to do the talking. I think the majic is in what songs were included plus the artist interview excerpts that are scattered throughout. The coolest feature is the time sweep, or montage of all number 1 songs fron January 1956 to February 1981 - almost one hour's worth.
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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Re: DC News War

Post by AmpedNow »

I never thought about the grandfathered status concerning 2nd ajacents. They've just always seemed closer than they should be. Might be fun if they fire up HD. Both 98.7 and 99.5 already run it. People with Mickey Mouse clock radios might be SOL.

As for the 99.1 signal, they cover Northern VA pretty good on car radios. You can hear them virtually clear all around the beltway paramater, except near that RF s-storm at the 66/495 interchange. They may suffer in house listening, though. When I lived in southeastern Fairfax County, I had to do antenna adjusting to get them clear in the house, but they sounded great in the car.

WTOP has the 107.7 advantage for points south of Dale City. By the time you get there, 99.1 starts fizzling out, even in the car.
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Re: DC News War

Post by AmpedNow »

Here's the signal after the upgrade.

Image
45kw @ 515 ft.

WTOP's signal:

Image
44kw @ 518 ft.

WTOP's Northern VA advantage on 107.7:

Image
29kw @ 646 ft.

99.1 is among the very few class B stations that put a city grade signal over two major markets. They will have many Baltimore listeners though they will mostly concentrate on DC.

Many wondered why CBS didn't just flip 94.7 or 95.5 since they are DC signals... But with all-news being a very expensive format to run, they almost certainly have did their homework and concluded that 99.1 is the best place for it. However, the reasoning is not very apparent.

Of course, if they are successful, they could eventually relay on 106.7 for NoVA.
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Re: DC News War

Post by Dr. Loomis »

Dave Loudin wrote:The History of Rock and Roll is oddly compelling. It's the 1981 version of the Drake-Chenault production that spans 52 hours and features Bill Drake narrating. His script is very top-level, which is the chief complaint I've seen. However, D-C wanted the music to do the talking. I think the majic is in what songs were included plus the artist interview excerpts that are scattered throughout. The coolest feature is the time sweep, or montage of all number 1 songs fron January 1956 to February 1981 - almost one hour's worth.
I am REALLY enjoying this program. I'm hearing songs that DC's assorted classic rock stations wouldn't have touched with a 10-foot pole in years. I've especially enjoyed how they weren't afraid to stop and play an entire hour set of one particular artist, in between the half hour segments devoted to different years.

As for the 99.1 signal, it comes in great for me around Arlington and out through Falls Church in the car, but on my daily commute through the middle of DC, I'm getting a lot of interference from something (99.5, I'd guess), and it even drops out of stereo for a while. I don't get the best reception on the aforementioned crappy clock radios at my place, either.

It was suggested elsewhere that CBS might try and surprise everyone by actually launching the all-news format on 94.7 instead.
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Re: DC News War

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Re: DC News War

Post by Dave Loudin »

...but they will be talking to themselves (no, really.) Live on air starts Monday. Some sort of "engineering issue."
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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Re: DC News War

Post by Dave Loudin »

Launched! The news went live at noon, as documented here. I did get to hear this live.
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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Re: DC News War

Post by AmpedNow »

Listened to a little bit of the webstream. Sounds professional but still a little rough around the edges. It will take a little while to get the sound as polished as WTOP. My only gripe is weather every 4 minutes seems excessive. Maybe during drivetimes or inclement weather, but not 24/7.

I could only take about 10 minutes of listening because the sound levels are way out of whack on the stream. Blaring commercials coming on randomly and out of sync with the broadcast. I'll listen a bit more after they fix that.
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Re: DC News War

Post by Dave Loudin »

The over the air audio chain appears to be lined up properly now. Earlier today it sounded like the gate was set way too high. Abnormal peaks would cause the volume to take a dive, plus average volume was far less than most anybody else on the dial.
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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