Will oldies station be a Weigel winner?

MeTVFMIf radio revenue is down by double digits and more listeners are turning to other sources for music, why would one of Chicago’s savviest television operators be getting into radio now?

The announcement last week that Weigel Broadcasting was extending the brand of its MeTV digital network by launching an oldies radio station may seem counterintuitive. That it’s doing it on WGWG LP 87.7, a low-power signal with a strange dial position and a checkered history, makes the move even bolder.

No official start date has been set for the full format on 87.7 MeTV FM, but music is expected to begin airing February 23 — the same day the station adopts the call letters WRME.

Mark Zander

Mark Zander

With just one week to go before the soft launch, no on-air talent or full-time programming staff have been hired. Assisting with the startup on a freelance basis is Mark Zander, a 21-year Chicago radio veteran who most recently was program director of west suburban rock stations WERV FM 95.9 and WRXQ FM 100.7, and former host and producer of two nationally syndicated shows, "The Rockin' 80's" and "The Rockin' 70's."

As described in the company’s promotional materials, the scope of the music playlist sounds more conceptual than formatic. It will run the gamut from soft rock to classic hits to album tracks, encompassing hundreds of artists from the ’60s through the ’80s, along with Baby Boomer-era TV drop-ins sprinkled along the way.

"It will be unique, and some traditional radio programmers will think we're playing too much," Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, told the Chicago Tribune. "But we're here to design something new and different, that we think there is an audience for that still listens to terrestrial radio."

John Gehron

John Gehron

John Gehron, the longtime and highly respected Chicago radio executive who knows the business as well as anyone, acknowledged the failure of an oldies station he launched in 2003, despite an all-star talent lineup that included Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards and other greats. Clear Channel Chicago pulled the plug on Real Oldies 1690 after three years of unprofitability. “The 1690 problem was being on AM, many radios didn't go up to 1690, and the nighttime — and morning in winter — signal was awful,” he recalled.

But Gehron is more optimistic about MeTV FM if it keeps costs low and targets listeners who are “not as tech savvy” as those who've migrated to satellite radio or Internet music outlets Pandora and Spotify. “There is a definite hole in the market for a ’60/’70s-based oldies format,” he said. “The synergy with the classic TV shows is a natural for programming tie-ins and promotion. The signal is quite good, so I don't see that as a major problem.”

Not all car radios are equipped to receive 87.7 FM, which actually is a low-power TV channel that’s been operating as a FM radio station under a variety of formats since 2008. In the past it drew respectable ratings with smooth jazz and alternative rock. But its last incarnation as home of Tribune Media’s sports/talk format known as The Game 87.7 FM tanked. Since January, Tribune Media has been simulcasting news/talk WGN AM 720.

Weigel Broadcasting has prospered with its TV stations and digital networks (including MeTV), but the company has had its share of misses, too. WebFN, a streaming financial news service, was a costly failure. TouchVision, a video news channel co-founded by Lee Abrams and based at Weigel Broadcasting as part of a strategic partnership, is struggling. And the verdict isn’t in yet on the 7 p.m. Monday-through-Friday newscast on WCIU-Channel 26, produced for Weigel Broadcasting by ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.

Will MeTV FM turn out to be a Weigel winner — or a Weigel wiener? Stay tuned.