AM Radio Changes

Fifty years ago, RKO-owned AM station 93-KHJ in Los Angeles revolutionized a still young Top 40 format as "Boss Radio."   It was a fast-paced, music intensive approach that was emulated in varying degrees by stations across the country and Canada, including WPOP 1410 in Hartford.   WPOP gave rival WDRC a run for its money in an era of music, personalities and promotions most Baby Boomer listeners wouldn't forget.   A generation later, the music had pretty much died on AM with the exception of adult standards nostalgia formats.   Talk and sports in the 80s and 90s gave many traditionally dominant AM's a much needed infusion of Baby Boomer adult listeners, but now sports has migrated successfully to the FM band while syndicated talk's move in that direction has been slowed largely because of an aging audience.   

In Hartford, heritage signal WTIC-AM 1080 has jettisoned political talk in afternoon drive time in favor of local sports talk, but 'TIC is exceptional in several ways.  WTIC's 50,000 watt signal and their lineup of major sports team play-by-play cover the market far better any other local AM or even the one existing FM sports outlet on 97.9.   Hartford, unlike many markets its size, is not over-radioed.   Even so, WPOP now struggles to get a .1 share of total audience with syndicated Fox Sports.    If profitable sports talk has largely abandoned the AM dial, how long can WTIC keep it as their AM cash cow?

Is talk toast in medium and major markets?    I can point to Providence, where Cumulus Media's WPRO beats the Rush Limbaugh affiliate WHJJ three to one with a very live and local approach, but even local celebrities don't come cheap.     CBS Radio shows less interest in hanging on to any radio stations beyond the top markets, which may also explain why they saw sports as an easier route to relatively young male demographics while they let WTIC-AM's longtime news director Dana Whalen go.    As a child of the sixties now in my sixties, I'm really in the last generation to grow up listening mostly to AM radio.   Does anyone under 55 care about AM?     As a lover of AM, I have to wonder where these stations are headed.