The Infinite Dial

The success of News/Talk on a full FM signal at WTOP Washington is doubtless going to further convince programmers of successful AMs that they need a storefront in the big mall, particularly given the modest launch of WTWP (Washington Post Radio) on WTOP's old frequency. And WTWP was a station that was starting life with a 50,000 watt signal, a lot of publicity, and cume that should have been amenable in an extra N/T choice.

So that's why the publicity surrounding N/T KFI Los Angeles' recent No. 1 book is important as well. Robert Unmacht, a media consultant with iN3 Partners (whose clients include the radio site Radio-Info.Com), was one of those contacted for the recent Los Angeles Times story on KFI. After the story ran, he sent the following additional comments:

Unmacht says the Times reporter "told me he was surprised AM was still used much, an interesting look at how people think of AM. It took KFI going to the top to make a lot of people in L.A. think AM still rated at all, even with KFI being a successful station book in and out. There have been a lot of AM stories after the KFI book. This was just one of them.

"I have thought that radio should take into account how easy it is to get great programming from an AM station. Promote the station and how to tune it in--be it telling people it is on AM or adding FM to a billboard. With HD and Podcasts I think it is more important than ever not to assume people know 101.5 is an FM station or that 570 is an AM station. And who knows what they think of '101.5 HD-2'? I think he might have hung out with R2-D2 at the bar."