READER REQUEST: CHECK OUT WNYE-FM IN NEW YORK

When I was on the air, I loved to play requests.  Here at SPARK! I also want your suggestions.  Last week I received a comment from an anonymous person asking for the lowdown on WNYE-FM and their new program schedule:

Please do an article about WNYE, which has completely changed its program schedule and now seems to be competing with WNYC. It's a welcome change that might create fund raising problems for WNYC. I also wonder how many people know about WNYE, since they don't promote themselves.

Challenge accepted!

I’ve never paid much attention to WNYE because they seemed so unfocused and unprofessional. I can’t recall ever, in my 25 years in public media, meeting someone from WNYE. Here is some of what I learned:

FACTS ABOUT WNYE-FM

• WNYE 91.5 FM is owned by the City of New York. It is managed and operated by NYC Media, a part of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. NYC Media also operates WNYE-TV and the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

• For FY 2015, the City provided $8.3 million to fund NYC Media. The department has around 70 fulltime employees.

• WNYE-FM signed on in 1938, one of the first FM stations in the nation. They broadcast until 1942 at 42.1 MHz in old FM band. When the FM spectrum was moved after WW2, WNYE reemerged at 91.5.

• Listening data for WNYE is hard to find.  The most recent info I could find is an Arbitron top-line report from Spring 2008.  At that time WNYE had an estimated 2,000 Average-Quarter-Hour listeners and 87,600 Weekly Cumulative listeners.

WNYE’S PROGRAMMING DURING KEY DAYPARTS

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

WNYE 91.5, NEW YORK

MONDAY – FRIDAY 6AM – 7PM

HOUR	PROGRAM	COMPETITIVE FACTORS
6am- 7am	WFUV Simulcast	WNYC airs Morning Edition
7am- 8am	WFUV Simulcast	WNYC airs Morning Edition
8am- 9am	WFUV Simulcast	WNYC airs Morning Edition
9am-10am	WFUV Simulcast	WNYC airs BBC Newshour
10am-11am	The Diane Rehm Show	WNYC airs The Brian Lehrer Show
11am-Noon	The Diane Rehm Show	WNYC airs The Brian Lehrer Show
Noon-1pm	Various Weekly Programs	A different program each day, examples:
1pm- 2pm	Various Weekly Programs	Zorba Paster, Backstory, Studio 360
2pm- 3pm	Here & Now	WNYC airs Fresh Air
3pm- 4pm	Here & Now	WNYC airs The Takeaway
4pm- 5pm	All Things Considered	WNYC also airs ATC
5pm- 6pm	All Things Considered	WNYC also airs ATC
6pm- 7pm	The World	WNYC-FM does NOT air The World

(Source: NYC MEDIA website link)

This looks like a mixed bag.  I don’t know how much the new/current schedule is different from the previous one. There are some good counter-programming moves against WNYC but overall the new schedule gives more reasons to tune out than tune in.

I like countering Brian Lehrer with Diane Rehm.  I was very surprised to see WNYC-FM does not carry The World.  WNYC-AM DOES carry The World. So, it is a good choice for WNYE and it certainly helps PRI justify its foundation support. News and information from 2pm to 7pm is a move in the right direction. [This paragraph was updated after the original post.]

But, there are some major clinkers.  I can’t recall ever seeing a major market station simulcast a competitor’s morning program.  The benefit is obvious to WFUV and its listeners but I fail to see the benefit to WNYE.  Maybe it is a temporary move.

Weekdays between 1pm and 3pm looks like a black hole for listening.  Everyday there is something different, making WNYE less dependable for listeners.  If it is Tuesday, it must be time for 51% from Albany for a half-hour. This is not a formula for building audience or reaching sustainability.

OVERALL IMPRESSION OF WNYE

Somebody is trying to do the right thing with the programming.  But overall WNYE is wasting their public service potential. Much of the programming appears to be time-brokered ethnic community programming.  No doubt there are listeners who value the Greek, Macedonia and Croatian programming.  This kind of narrow, narrowcasting is much better suited to online and mobile media.

When I managed KCSN in LA the station’s number one fundraising program was a weekly two-hour German program.  As a GM, this was found money. However, I’d guess the number of listeners was in the dozens.

WNYE-FM is one of the least transparent public broadcasters I have seen recently. There is no staff list – only generic information about the folks who supervise it for the City. The links to compliance documents go nowhere. No financial information is available.

Thank you to the reader who suggested WNYE. I wish whoever is in charge of programming well for the future. I hope there are more positive changes.