AIR AMERICA LOSES ITS NYC STATION 1190 WLIB

Radio trade industry news | 8/2/2006 | Paul Strater

[VideoPaul]

This just in!

Err America radio, who has been paying WLIB-AM for 100% of its airtime, has lost its home. They found a new station, WWRL, has a transmitter located in New Jersey and is a 25kW datytime, 5kW nighttime station. The directional antenna patterns are very tight to the Southeast to cover NYC, with a lobe to the NW towards Paterson, NJ during the day that is eliminated at night.

WLIB is 30 kW daytime and 10kW nighttime, its daytime pattern similar to WWRL's but not as tight and with a lobe to the east that gets it into Long Island. WLIB's nighttime pattern is extremely broad to the NE, E and SE.

This will mean a massive loss of listeners in the NYC area as its station is far less in power, even moreso at night, and the pattern much more restrictive.

One can only wonder how much Err America is now paying for a far weaker signal.

Any viable, self-respecting syndicated radio show does NOT pay for its carriage on local stations. Broadcasters who have to pay for thei air time are referred to derisively in the industry as "brokers". This translates into "Pay us '$xxxx' and we'll put you on the air. The fact that Err America has has to pay for its airtime in NYC is an industry laughingstock for 2 1/2 years now.

[Fiddlstix]

LOL! It Sux to be a Lib Rat

[Incorrigible]

That's a cool website.

http://www.radio-locator.com/

[capt. norm]

That's a cool website.

It's also cool for looking up audio feeds of your favorite talk shows anywhere you happen to be. Rather than carry a list around, I just look it up and you can link right to the feed with a click or two.

BY the way, I was mentioning about stations at the high end of the AM band (like WWRL) not propagating as well as those at the low end. A good example can be looked up on Radio-Locator.

The best example would be two stations in Iowa on the same soil and terrain (fairly flat). KCRG is on 1600 khz in Cedar Rapids and KWMT is on 540 khz, both at 5,000 watts...but look at the difference in their coverage areas during the day (when they're using equal power).

And KWMT 540 (larger scale map)

[kcvl]

Poor babies. roflol!

[Valin]

DARN and me being fresh out of sympathy.

[Boiler Plate]

Here's a radio station they can afford, that will cover all of their listening audience!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Update;

Found this in the comments section on another site. Note that AllAccess.com is a subscription site, so going there may not give anymore info;

"Trade website AllAccess reports that the AAR/WWRL deal may not include morning drive. (If I'm reading that right.)"

[AmishDude]

It's even worse than the signal. WLIB is an institution in NY. Being on there was a coup for AA. This "Jersey station" may also have interference issues with NYC buildings.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

You forgot the hilarious part of this whole story;

"Over the course of several months, Rhodes and her New York-based attorney, Robert V Gaulin, have repeatedly demanded that her show must be heard on New York's WLIB, or else!"

Rhodes: New York Flagship Or Else
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2006/05/randi-rhodes-air-america-wlib-new-york.html

Bet she doesn't carry the threat through.

Also here's the press release on the station change;

http://ftp.media.radcity.net/ZMST/AAR802.pdf

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Rush, Sean and Mark all were NY radio regulars before they went to National formats.

True unambiguously of Sean and Mark; not exactly true of Rush.

Rush cut a deal with WABC to do a local show in NY, true - but Rush's demand for doing the local show was the use of WABC facilities to originate his national show out of New York. Originally WABC did not want the national show. So Rush was doing two shows a day, one local and the other national but not including New York.

I was a WABC listener before I was a Rush listener. Rush's local WABC show was different from the national show - and frankly, it was not as good as his national show. It was not even as good as some of the other local shows on WABC. So it was a revelation to me when WABC finally started carrying the national show, as a full-blown national phenomenon.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Why do the liberals need Air America when they have the mainstream media?

Obviously, they don't. IMHO that was always the problem with Air America's business model - they were going up against "objective" journalism which is far more satisfying for lefties than explicitly liberal rants are.

Not to mention NPR . . .

[FarRightFanatic]

"AIR AMERICA LOSES ITS NYC STATION 1190 WLIB"

Wish we could lose AM950 here in the Twin Cities...

[GeronL]

They found a new station, WWRL, has a transmitter located in New Jersey and is a 25kW datytime, 5kW nighttime station

lol... Citizens Band radio

[new yorker 77]

1600 WWRL - Nighttime Coverage Map