Talk stations go to FM - what a waste

I don't even like hip-hop, but I'm all for it in this instance. It is becoming more commonplace within the past few weeks for "non-music" formats to move to or start up on the FM side.

Now comes word from San Antonio that KPWT 106.7 FM has let go of its air personalities and is abandoning its hip-hop format. And for what, you ask?

KPWT just became that city's only FM talk station. And with mostly syndicated shows. And this serves the local market how????

It's all about money. Syndicated shows don't cost nearly as much as local personalities. Pretty soon, not playing music will likely save stations money by not having to pay performance royalties.

My http://MajorLeaguePrograms.blogspot.com blog gives a few more examples of sports stations going to FM.

Sure, save a few bucks here and there. But what about the audience?

Here are station executives sitting there getting paid to wonder why their audience isn't as large as it once was, so they change to a cheaper method.

I've been saying this for months, but it bears saying again. During the course of my day I listen to satellite radio and to my MP3 player. In both cases, it is to hear something that I USED TO easily get, and "free" on my AM/FM Radio. (That being Howard Stern and my favorite music, respectively.)

Now, I pay a monthly fee for satellite radio, and have spent over a hundred dollars on an MP3 player plus the time involved with getting my favorite music on there.

The music stations I used to love hour after hour have narrowed their playlists down to a few hundred songs. I own more songs that I like than they play, including the ones they program that I don't like. So why bother listening to their music programming?

Now some AM/FM stations respond by taking away music.

The audience and the advertisers suffer because of it.