Audacy Enters LMA with Good Karma; WCBS 880 to Flip to Sports

[Georgie56 3303]

Audacy has entered into a LMA with Good Karma Brands, who will move ESPN New York to WCBS 880, ending the news format.

 

The change happens on August 26, and there will also be a callsign change to WHSQ-AM.

Edited August 12, 2024 by Georgie56

[east-tx-tv 121]

That's gonna be weird to only have 1 all-news station (WINS 1010/92.3) in NYC.  Very sad for WCBS, after all the decades they've been around.  I guess they'll have a big on-air sendoff, like WNBC did in the 80s when they flipped to WFAN.

[nathannah 2428]

We're about to see Audacy sold for parts, this is so tragic. Their stations are now centralcast to a degree that makes Alpha jealous (Bru is beyond the worst voicetracker in the industry and his lack of show prep shows fully on air), their RDS info now only displays the show or a Top Dog ad and not the actual track playing, and it feels like everything and everyone is going through the motions.

 

I figured it was coming with the move of WINS to AM, but I expected it to be Relavented or some other Godcaster. It still may be in the future, but GKB doesn't focus on ratings numbers so they'll get bad numbers, but thankfully not KABC bad for sports talk. Bizarre though that Audacy will technically run the physical plant of their main competitor.

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

Such a sad day, and I wonder what will happen to the veteran voices that are legends on the airwaves (ie. Steve Scott, Wayne Cabot, Craig Allen, etc). My guess is some will either retire or move to WINS. I could see Craig doing TV full time or taking on a larger role at CBS2.

[Georgie56 3303]

As reported on 880 this morning:

 

 

[NYAZSporty 128]

1 hour ago, NYNewsCoverage said:

Such a sad day, and I wonder what will happen to the veteran voices that are legends on the airwaves (ie. Steve Scott, Wayne Cabot, Craig Allen, etc). My guess is some will either retire or move to WINS. I could see Craig doing TV full time or taking on a larger role at CBS2.

In regards to meteorologist Craig Allen, he's posted on FB that he's going into forced retirement. Would be nice to see him take on a bigger role at CBS2, especially to lighten the load a bit on Lonnie Quinn considering he's going to do weather stuff for the network. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/J7rADdLv6mybHb1L/

Edited August 12, 2024 by NYCsporty

[ekt8750 50]

I'm surprised it has taken this long and three different owners/management for this to happen. I know WINS and WCBS have different approaches to how they cover the news and they appeal to different tastes, but they have been sister stations since the Westinghouse/CBS merger with largely the same format in the same market.

 

It's a rarity you see stations in the same radio cluster directly competing in the same format. Usually the lesser station gets its format flipped within months of acquisition or what you see with music stations, they'll take the lesser station and instead of blowing out their format completely, they'll skew their key demo away from the demo of the bigger station so not to step on their toes.

[abric 178]

Well, this is REALLY stupid. To quote Roger Grimsby: "You heard the countdown. It's over."

[Encore 323 23]

Well, the flip just happened a few minutes ago at Midnight ET so unfortunately WCBS Newsradio 880 is now WHSQ ESPN 880. I was able to catch the last few minutes of WCBS on the Audacy app before the final sign off.

[NYNewsCoverage 300]

I think they signed off the best they could with an ode to all the jingles once played on 880, Wayne Cabot naming so many of the iconic voices we've heard over the years, and ending with an excerpt of John Lennon's "Imagine". He ended with "for the final time, this is WCBS, New York". After a minute of dead air, an ESPN program came on.

For those wondering, they continued to do traffic and weather together until 11:38pm. Yes, 1010 will be there, but New York has lost a friendly, unbiased, and trustworthy source of news on the airwaves.

[MD TV 255]

7 hours ago, NYNewsCoverage said:

I think they signed off the best they could with an ode to all the jingles once played on 880, Wayne Cabot naming so many of the iconic voices we've heard over the years, and ending with an excerpt of John Lennon's "Imagine". He ended with "for the final time, this is WCBS, New York". After a minute of dead air, an ESPN program came on.

For those wondering, they continued to do traffic and weather together until 11:38pm. Yes, 1010 will be there, but New York has lost a friendly, unbiased, and trustworthy source of news on the airwaves.

Not the first time Imagine was played when an NYC station was about to flip. Musicradio WABC and WPLJ played that right before they changed formats.

 

Been reading elsewhere that WINS was getting higher demo ratings even before they went to 92.3. That and Audacy's financial issues spelled the end of WCBS 880.

 

Here's the final minutes: