(Washington) Post Radio Ponders a Fix For Its Low-Rated Formula (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

WaPo ^ | June 7, 2007 | Paul Farhi

[abb]

Faced with continuing financial losses and stubbornly low ratings for Washington Post Radio, Bonneville International Corp. and The Washington Post are reassessing programming on the station, which the two companies launched 14 months ago.

WTWP (107.7 FM, 1500 AM) primarily airs news and talk programs, much of it featuring reporters and editors from The Post. The newspaper-on-the-radio format is unique in the radio industry.

WTWP has struggled to attract listeners since its inception. Although its ratings have begun to improve, the station has never exceeded a 1 percent share of the local radio audience in any of the quarterly audience surveys conducted by Arbitron Inc.

The station continues to lose money, although the privately held Bonneville -- which owns WTWP and is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City -- hasn't disclosed its financial results.

Executives of The Post and Bonneville said the station's business situation is prompting a reappraisal.

"Are we looking at ratings that are really disappointing and a broadcast marketplace that is tougher than any of us hoped for? Yes," said Tina Gulland, The Post's director of radio and TV projects. "Are we looking at how we can address that? We certainly are."

On Monday, Bonneville laid off five WTWP employees, including two producers and an associate producer.

snip

[abb]

More good news.

[abb]

Ping

[RexBeach]

You know what would sound better than Washington Post Radio? A German Shepperd farting “Dixie” backwards.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. The station is simply dreadful.

[spald]

WTWP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Washington Post Radio WTWP / WTWP-FM
Broadcast area	Washington, D.C.
Branding	"Washington Post Radio"
First air date	both stations: March 30, 2006
Frequency	AM: 1500 (kHz) as WTWP FM: 107.7 (MHz)as WTWP-FM FM: 104.3 (MHz) as W282BA
Format	Talk/News/Sports
Callsign meaning	W The Washington Post
Former callsigns	AM 1500: WTOP (1943-2006) WJSV (1929-1943) WTFF (1927-1929) WTRC/Brooklyn (1926-1927) FM 107.7: WTOP-FM (1998-2006) WUPP (1997-1998) WRCY (1992-1997) WMJR (1984-1992) WWWK (1982-1984)
Owner	Bonneville International
Website	www.washingtonpostradio.com

WTWP/WTWP-FM a radio station in Washington, D.C., began operation on March 30, 2006 as Washington Post Radio. WTWP broadcasts on the mediumwave AM band on 1500 kHz from just outside the District line in Wheaton, Maryland, FM 107.7 MHz from Warrenton, Virginia, and low-power W282BA FM 104.3 MHz from Leesburg, Virginia, all of which are former frequencies of WTOP (now on 103.5 FM and 820 AM).

WTWP provides news and commentary in a long-form style similar to that of National Public Radio, but on a commercial station staffed and programmed jointly by the Washington Post and sister station WTOP. From 8 PM to 5 AM ET, the station is programmed as a general interest talk radio station, featuring hosts such as Clark Howard, Larry King and Jim Bohannon. On weekends, WTWP rebroadcasts programs produced by Radio Netherlands.

The Tony Kornheiser Show, hosted by Post columnist, host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, and Monday Night Football analyst Tony Kornheiser, moved to WTWP on February 20, 2007. [1] The program airs weekday mornings.

WTWP is a member of the CBS Radio Network and retransmits the CBS shows Face the Nation and 60 Minutes.

WTWP is the flagship radio station for Washington Nationals baseball and The George Washington University men's basketball. WTWP also serves as an affiliate station for Navy football.

The AM station transmits with a power of 50 kilowatts with a nighttime signal oriented north-south to avoid interference with KSTP-AM in St. Paul, Minnesota. This signal can be heard reliably on the East Coast of North America and is often heard by radio enthusiasts in Europe.

[edit] Other uses

A P. D. Q. Bach album is presented as a broadcast from the fictional "WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio," where the letters stand for "Wall To Wall Pachelbel." [2] It predates and has no connection to the stations discussed here.

[edit] External links

• WTWP official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WTWP
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WTWP
• Radio Locator Information on WTWP
• Query the FCC's FM station database for W282BA

[Dilbert San Diego]

This is kind of funny to have this happen to the MSM. Newspaper readership is down. They come up with this idea for a radio station, and find that very few people want to listen to a radio station featuring the reporters and editors of the Washington Post. So the downward spiral continues for the MSM. I’m sure they thought this radio station would have more loyal listeners and generate business for the paper. But it’s not happening. Where are the loyal liberal members of their target audience?

[VanShuyten]

It doesn’t matter what political bent you are. All the shows are terrible with the exception of Gnat’s baseball (which is bad, but for other reasons)and Goss’ Garage, hosted by Pat Goss of PBS’ Motor Week.

[4rcane]

there are lots of liberal audience. The problem is, the market is already saturated with liberals outlets and they know it. Why would a liberal listen to radio when they hear what they want on cable, tv and newspapers

[skinkinthegrass]

(click/on radio) liberal bah-bah *sigh* (click/off radio)
(click/on tv) liberal bah-bah *sigh* (click/off tv)

LOL! ....say it again. :)

[backslacker]

One evening someone from the Wash Post called me on my cell phone about subscribing to the newspaper and I told him I am not interested in a newspaper subscription. He persisted and asked why and I told him that I get all of the news from the internet. He didn’t have a whole lot to say afterwards.