From: fybush@unixland.natick.ma.us (Scott Fybush)
Subject: Re: WNEW Reborn? WQXR goes big band.
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: _
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 00:58:49 GMT

slutsky@tesla.njit.edu writes:

>There is big radio news in New York City to report.  Paul Colford in New
>York Newsday revealed in his column of November 18 that on December 1 at
>8 PM WNEW-AM (1130) will become WBBR with an all business news format.  The
>next day at 10 AM WQXR-AM (1560) will become WQEW and pick up the big band
>format.  The New York Giants football will be on WBBR 1130 for the rest
>of the season.  It will be interesting to see where Larry King and Bruce
>Williams will land on the New York dial.

It's not exactly a revelation.  Bloomberg has been in the process of
killing...oops, buying WNEW for several months now.  What's news here is
the exact date of the change.  I've said it before...and I'll say it
again: I'm sickened by this change, even more so than by the demise a
few years back of WNBC(AM).  WNEW(AM) is one of the few stations in a
major market that's kept a consistently high-quality music format and
a high-quality attitude for over fifty years.  To kill it off for the
sake of money...for some crap called "Bloomberg Business Radio"...is
frankly obscene.  This business radio format has been a disaster almost
everywhere it's been tried.  Just ask the short-lived KBLA(AM) in the
Los Angeles market, which ran business news for a few months and
failed miserably...and is now running a leased-time Korean format.
Just ask WMEX(AM) here in Boston, which ran the Business Radio Network
for a few years, and is now simulcasting WMJX-FM.  Business all day
just doesn't work as a format; what do you program at night?  on 
weekends?  And how do you draw the small core Wall Street audience
away from the direct info they're already getting on their Quotrex
machines...and the analysis they're getting on CNBC?  And how in blazes
are the traders supposed to hear 1130 AM amidst the RF-drenched
trading floors?  This thing is going to bust and bust big, and I
hope Mr. Bloomberg loses his pants on this deal.  It's what he
deserves for murdering one of the few legendary stations left.

As for the New York Times, they deserve praise for doing something
new with the 1560 signal.  It's a good strong signal that propagates
at night as well or even better than 1130, and I believe it still has
Kahn stereo on it.  I hope they can snag the WNEW calls quickly and
won't be stuck with WQEW for long.  I _will_ miss classical music at
the top end of the AM dial at night.  

And finally...since Mr. Bloomberg apparently cares not one bit about
radio history or tradition, I'm sure he's unaware that his 
solipsistic WBBR call letters have surfaced once before in New
York.  Licensed to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., 
the original WBBR operated first on 1300 and later on 1330 kHz
from Brooklyn, with a thousand watts.  It had at least a 20 year 
career, staring sometime before 1926, and giving up its airtime
to shared-channel WEVD New York sometime after 1946.  (The station
is today's WWRV).  I hope the latest WBBR lasts for a much shorter
time than the original.

If I had the bucks (and we're only talking about 12 million dollars
here), I'd buy Bloomberg out of 1130, keep the WNEW calls, and promote
this legend of the AM dial back into good health.

Meanwhile, anybody in NYC or anywhere within the daytime contours of 1560
willing to tape the WQXR(AM)-->WQEW cutover on December 2?

[Moderator's Note:  OK, Scott, but how do YOU feel about it? :-) ]
Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting