My Thoughts on WABC Rewound

My radio enthusiast friends are aware that Allan Sniffen, the moderator of the New York Radio Message Board, made the official announcement today that WABC Rewound that has been played on Memorial Day for 10 years will be heard only on http://wabcradio.com and WPLJ-HD3 this year. To me this brings up the issue of ageism in radio programming which I would like to discuss in detail.

It is true that there is a new program director at WABC who may not value the heritage of the station as her predecessor, but I would not take this decision personally. I would draw an analogy to a long running TV series on a major broadcast network that was relegated to cable TV. Radio and TV programs have diehards and casual viewers/listeners. I would listen to the early Rewounds religiously, but as the years went on, the novelty wore off and my enthusiasm gradually waned. Whether we like it or not, we all have aged and the Rewound audience has aged with the show. I don’t want to go into a long discourse on the hijacking of WCBS-FM in June 2005 and the reincarnation of the station with a classic hits rather than an oldies format. Older audiences are not appealing to advertisers since they are set in their ways and not easily swayed by commercials. Thus radio executives are trying to program to a younger audience. Here is why I feel WABC is wrong in making this decision:

The entire AM band appeals to older listeners anyway. WABC’s brand of conservative talk radio appeals to older listeners. Liberal talk stations have not thrived. WABC let go liberals like Lynn Samuels and Ron Kuby.

Does WABC know that the talk radio audience on a major holiday would be any younger than a WABC Rewound audience? If you are at a family picnic on Memorial Day. Would you rather listen to music or a rerun of Rush Limbaugh?

Is there any guarantee that there will be more ad revenues for talk than for Rewound?
WABC promotes the regular talk radio programming on SNO and did so on past Rewounds.

On the positive side Rewound was not killed completely. I am one of the few people who owns an HD radio, but almost everyone has a computer and can hear the stream. Allan Sniffen said there will be new tapes this year and the 2009 version will be archived. Some of the older shows are available on aircheck sites, but it is possible they will be archived.

The radio executives are out for the almighty dollar. Mark Simone’s morning show now starts at 7 AM because the bean counters thought they could make more money with an infomercial. My gut feeling is that WABC management is happy with the advertising dollars made on SNO. But nothing in this world is absolutely permanent.

Let's take things “One Day at a Time”.