Reactions poured in Monday after Audacy announced it was ceasing operations of WCBS Newsradio 880. Many shared their appreciation for the legacy brand. Dozens shared they were saddened by the news. Former Program Directors Tim Scheld and Harvey Nagler were members of that group.
The station will sign off from its all-news format on Monday, August 26th to make way for Audacy to lease the signal to crosstown rival Good Karma Brands, which is moving its ESPN New York brand from 98.7 FM to 880 AM. WCBS ending operations on that Monday will leave it two days shy of its 57th anniversary of launching its all-news format. Longtime CBS newsman Charles Osgood, who died earlier this year, was one of the original anchors alongside broadcasting legends like Ed Bradley and Pat Summerall.
Barrett Media reached out to past programmers like Tim Scheld — who stepped away from leading the brand in October 2022 after serving in a multitude of executive roles with the station for more than 20 years — and Harvey Nagler, who programmed the station for a decade before ascending to the role of Vice President of Radio for CBS News where he retired from in 2016.
Both shared that they were slightly taken aback by the bombshell announcement Monday.
“It’s like a gut punch. My friend, a former colleague, described it as it’s like finding out your house was destroyed in a tornado, a sudden impact event like that. It was a sudden shock,” said Scheld. “I have to say, I wasn’t totally shocked by it. The company was obviously struggling to operate two news properties. I saw that while I was there. They didn’t really know what to do with WCBS. I’m not sure they had a great plan for it, anyway. So when an opportunity came up, they made a business decision that seemed to make sense and give the signal up and put all their resources into 1010 WINS.”
Harvey Nagler shared similar sentiments.
“I was surprised,” he bluntly said before noting that, despite being gone from the outlet for more than a quarter of a century, he is still familiar with many employees there due to living in northern New Jersey. He shared that he hired some of the 23 employees who have seen their positions eliminated by the decision. And that is the disappointing part for him.
“One of the things you find about life is that it’s not your career necessarily, but it’s your colleagues and the friendships that you make along the way that are everlasting,” Nagler. “And so I spoke to many of them in the last two days, and they were as surprised as I was at the turn of events.”
Neither Tim Scheld nor Harvey Nagler thought it was an inevitability that Audacy would eventually be forced to choose to keep one of WCBS Newsradio 880 or 1010 WINS.
“Some people are saying that, but when I was there at the time, we only shared about 20% of the audience with each radio station,” said Nagler. “Which basically meant that 80% of the listeners did not listen to the other radio station. So in a market of probably 16 million people in the tri-state area, I thought there was enough to go around for two radio stations. But, obviously, other people disagree with that thought.”
“I don’t know if it was inevitable,” Scheld added. “Remember, we existed under one roof for a really long time.”
In Scheld’s opinion, the two heritage news brands worked well as competitors before Westinghouse and CBS merged. When they joined under one banner, he called the situation “very uncomfortable.”
“It was difficult because it was hard to compete against your sister station, even though you did every day. And it was very awkward,” he shared. “I think there was a very awkward period where the people who owned the company we’re always asking questions like, ‘What would the future be? Why do we have two all-news stations? How can we operate effectively and how can we perfect the revenue model where both stations can exist?’ Because it’s expensive to do news. And those stations that decide to do news in local markets across America deserve a lot of credit because they’re spending a lot of money to do it.”
Ultimately, Scheld believes the legacy of WCBS Newsradio 880 will be one of excellence.
“I think it was one of the best local radio stations in our generation,” he stated. “The legacy will be that WCBS was a friend. Was a comforting, reliable, responsible voice across generations to help a city get to work, understand their lives, deal with their weather, deal with the tragedy, celebrate their sports teams’ victories, and see historic moments. It’s amazing all of the things that the radio station helped the community experience.”
Nagler couldn’t have agreed more.
“Well, it is a fabulous legacy. It’s had an enormous legacy,” Harvey Nagler shared. “The station at its height was cuming millions of listeners. It had great ratings. It was a fabulous, journalistic radio station. Particularly in retrospect, this was a time when people could go to WCBS, know they would get news — objective news, not polarized, not slanted, they would get all the elements like traffic and weather, and all the other elements that go into a great all-news radio station. And it was very popular. People loved listening to this radio station.”
Scheld noted that, overall, he was sad. Not only because the station that he spent nearly two decades leading was ceasing operations but because so many talented journalists were going to be out of work. However, he took solace in the ambition of the hundreds of employees who helped grown the brand into what it became before it’s ultimate demise.
“I spent the whole day (Monday) on the phone either talking or texting to former colleagues, current colleagues, all of whom expressed the same sentiment of sadness,” he admitted. “If nothing else, we believed in that brand. And what really drove that radio station for many decades was the passion of the professionals that worked there. That were driven to do as good a job as they could because it was WCBS. You walked into that radio station every day and you felt the pressure of having to live up to the legacy. And that’s why it was such a special place to work. Because we all felt the legacy of that radio station.
“It’s very sad to see it go. But we’re also all filled with pride that we were able to be a part of it. What a privilege. What an honor to manage it for so long, in my case,” Scheld concluded. “That’s a radio station that I spent an awful lot of time at. It’s definitely a piece of my heart and it aches today.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
As the company that’s introduced “The Bet” in a few markets around the country, Audacy is “gambling” on the future of its all news operation. GK’s acquisition of 880’s signal was obviously a better choice than going after directional 1010 as WINS signal isn’t much better than WEPN. Audacy is hoping that the 1.8 share of WCBS could be added to the 4.3 that WINS has. WINS has a larger share so the majority of the news junkies won’t be disrupted. Will WFAN be affected by the increased coverage of 880? Probably. I hope GK is paying a premium for its LMA rights. Who’s the loser? Could be the listener. When WINS was into spots, one could (supposedly) tune to WCBS for continuing coverage and vice-versa. Sports fans will be continually reminded of their favorite teams play by play being streamed on a number of services -and where they can wager their hard-earned money. All we can hope for now is that WINS rides the middle of the political highway and offers (pardon the phrase) “Fair and Balanced” -and immediate coverage in the most active market in the country.