At 12:01a, WCBS-AM signed off the air after more than fifty years of delivering news to New York City. There to mark the end of the era was station anchor Wayne Cabot, who recalled the great names that graced the AM over the strains of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Following the final tones came silence before cutting into Good Karma Brands’ programming as the station rebranded to ESPN New York under a Local Marketing Agreement. WCBS will change its call letters to WHSQ-AM upon FCC approval.
New York Market President Chris Oliviero cited challenges in local journalism as key factors for the shift, as Audacy focuses its all-news efforts in the market on 1010 WINS-AM. On its streaming platform, Audacy displayed a message saying, “WCBS 880 will cease news operations. 880 AM will still be the home of the NY Mets but news will no longer be part of the station. To stay on top of your world, we invite you to create an account and follow All News 92.3 FM. Powered by 1010 WINS – All News All the Time.”
New York Mets broadcasts will continue on 880 AM, but Audacy will retain the broadcast and sales rights.
Earlier this month, Radio Ink captured reactions from across the industry to WCBS’ demise.
Throughout the last week, WCBS aired a three-hour special, WCBS 880 News: The People, the Moments, and the Events that Shaped our Lives, recalling the station’s history with imaging and interviews. Art Vuolo captured the entire special, which is available below.
Bob Scott, possibly a shill for one of the 2 businesses involved, leaves out many of the facts about WCBS becoming WHSQ: Good Karma didn’t want to pay the lease on 98.7 FM anymore. Their nearly simulcast AM station was on 1050, a 50,000 Watt directional at night station. They wanted a 50,000 Watt NON-directional station, so 1010 was not good enough for them. Most sports people listen to sports on AM or on their phones. Audacy just wanted to make money and they figured that anybody living more than 50 miles away was not making money for them. One would think having all those hospitals in Connecticut advertise in the evening for all the executives driving home would pay a lot, but I guess not.
Really, having a non-directional sports station will not be listened to in the same way. But for those Audacy people, money is money. Good Karma will probably get rid of 1050 soon also. Strange that Audacy owns both 660 (non-directional, I can hear it during the day in Baltimore) and 880, so now there are still 3 sports stations, and the news station with the broadest reach just disappears, so the directional station heard mostly within 40 miles, both AM and FM, is it. And their format, while good, especially with Larry Mullins, just isn’t the same for longer listening. And streaming it requires 3 minutes of commercials before it starts, and bad internet over-long commercials every couple of minutes.
For comparison, WTOP, the all-news station in Washington and mostly only on FM, is the highest grossing station in the country because of its detail (not as good as WCBS, but okay) and the ads aimed at Congressional staff and DoD leaders, and has also learned to simulcast it from 9 pm to 6 am on its 1500 AM station which can be heard up and down the East coast at night; during the day it has shows for Govt decision makers and contractors. Maybe it will replace the loss of WCBS 880, but nothing has ever been as well done as WCBS 880, and I’ve heard them all, WBBM, WBZ, KYW, KCBS, KNX, etc. Well now I will become a more devoted WTOP listener.
Loved CBS radio in the morning, getting ready for the new day. Loved getting the up to date news and weather and will miss it.
The radio personalities were great and feel it is wrong to shut down this radio station.
I’m so bummed out my news station is no longer! I don’t want to listen to men BS about sports endlessly as they already do on 660!!! What a disappointment! I’ve been listening to 880 for news for years to get my news, traffic, etc on my way to work and for the past 10 years of retirement!! What a BAD decision whoever made it!! No more sports talk!! Enough is enough!!!
I have been a happy WCBS listener since the days when Jeff Kaplan was on the mic and it was always a part of my days and nights. Another thing I depended on just vanished along with my quality of life measure (progress?). The other New York news stations are broadcasting with lower power so I cannot receive them with my radio at home. WCBS was the best station I have ever listened to and it was the quality of their announcers as well as their programming order with weather and traffic on the 8’s and the news always on the top of the hour. Audacy has made a major blunder and I hope it haunts them for all their days and the sports move is a complete failure.
Leasing the station to Good Karma is an absolute winner for Audacy. The lease payments will give them more net revenue than the station was generating. There is no down side for Audacy.
The simple fact is that most people get their news, traffic and weather on their phones. WCBS, which had once been a top 10 station, had slipped to 21st and falling. With WINS on FM, it was the more viable news station in a market that could no longer support two all news stations.
Audacy and it’s Leader should be Crucified!
What an idiotic and non-sensible decision it was to end a 57 year Wonder of AM Radio News!
I listened to WCBS AM since it’s inception, in 1967, and always depended upon it for all my News.
1010 WINS is good but it’s no WCBS with it’s great history of World Class/Historic Broadcasters!
Names like Walter Cronkite, Edward R Murrow, Dan Rather and ALL of the rest!
Damn You Audacy!
I hope you ‘Crash & Burn and go out of Business!
– Irv Ambler- Trumbull Connecticut
Audacy did it again. They took away a great radio station and put crappy sports programming on it, when they should have shifted 1010 to sports. Personally, I can hear 880 far better than 1010 here in the Norfolk, VA area where I live. I loved hearing news, traffic and weather from the NY area at night in my car. This is another fine example of corporate radio making idiotic decisions at the behest of some 20-something year old broadcast genius who has about as much radio experience as my cat–and I don’t own a cat!
The simple fact is that most people get their news, traffic and weather on their phones. WCBS was once a top 10 station. It’s now 21st and falling. The market just couldn’t support two news stations anymore and with WINS having the FM signal and being the heritage news station, it will now own the market. As far as sports on 1010, Good Karma, which owns ESPN NY would not have paid to lease 1010. The were willing to pay for 880, because of the strength of the signal. Audacy will actually realize more net revenue from the lease payments they will receive from Good Karma than WCBS was generating from ad revenue.
Screw Audacy and their invitation to listen to 1010 AM. I was a happy listener of WCBS 880 since 1977 and I listened to the very end. I have no intention to support any Audacy station now or ever. They should’ve kept WCBS 880 just the way it was. I understand WCBS 880 had $29 million in ad revenue so it’s illogical that they were taken off the air. I’ll miss you WCBS 880, the very best in radio.
While $29 mil in ad revenue sounds like a winner, $7 million of that is generated by Mets baseball and Audacy probably only keeps 25% of it. In addition, Audacy will receive about $10 mil in lease payments from Good Karma and they’ll have $0.00 in expenses. They will actually net more revenue.
The simple fact is that most people get news, traffic and weather on their phones. WCBS was once a top 10 station. Last month, they were 21st and falling. After the baseball season, they probably would have dropped out of the top 25. Many WCBS advertisers will now buy WINS, and it will thrive.