The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page A5

From Page One 2nd TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2007 A5 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR WWW.INDYSTAR.COM WIBC TO: INDYSTAR.COM RE: RADIO CHANGES 29th Anniversary Sale! Your Kitchen, Your Dream, that hard," Cummings said of the format flip for WIBC. "There are always challenges and always things that you don't anticipate." At the very least, Emmis isn't likely to be alone for long when it comes to putting talk radio on the FM dial. "It truly is the future for the format," Van Dyke said. "Music radio is really in the throes of competition from Internet radio and MP3s." Call Star reporter Erika D. Smith at (317) 444-6424.

Your Budget BBB Since 1978 5755 S. Belmont Ave. 1 784.8006 or 1.800.488.5732 Member Central Indiana I Here are some of the responses to "Emmis moving its Indy hip-hop FM to talk," edited for style and space, posted by readers on IndyStar.com. Go to Indy Star.comfeedback to join the conversation. This could be the worst idea ever.

Not everyone has HD radio. 93.1 was the only station playing today's hip-hop and top 40 songs. Way to go, Emmis. You lose Jeff Pigeon and now this. I'm dumping all of my Emmis stock because they are obviously in trouble.

Now I have to buy a stupid HD radio to even be able to listen to it? That is just bull. They just had to go and ruin a perfectly good radio station with boring talk radio, didn't they? I won't be listening to it. Sounds like a brilliant move to me. Not very many music stations hold their audience, and talk radio is a proven revenue winner. The listeners to these talk shows will flow over to the FM dial, and I bet more people will just happen to start listening, and boom more listeners on the FM side of things.

This equals more ad revenue and more dollars. Not to mention, ESPN will now be on a real radio station (at least one that doesn't fade in and out all over town). That will give them a ratings lift as well. on the AM dial will work to attract men. "We felt that the time was coming that we needed to split off the sports," Cummings said.

The change will maximize WIBC's broadcasting agreements with the Indianapolis Colts, the Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IRL and Indiana University football. The station also will air national sports programming, care of an affiliate agreement with ESPN. Indianapolis' current ESPN affiliate station, WXLW-AM (950), will lose that deal. Raven Broadcasting, which owns the station, didn't return a call for comment. Lastly, WNOU, the loser in this game of Emmis musical chairs, will continue with only music on the Web and as an HD Radio side channel.

To hear the 93.1 side channel, you'll need an HD Radio receiver, but not many people own one. Orbital, the former 93.1 side channel that played dance music, did well, Severino said, and might be assigned as a side channel to another Emmis station. "RadioNow was a good radio station, but it wasn't about the content," he said. "It has not been as economically viable in the last three years, and we didn't see it getting any better." This isn't the first time Emmis has flipped formats at a radio station to boost ratings and advertising. A few months ago, the company changed KMVN-FM (93.9) in Los Angeles to rhythmic pop.

Retraining listeners has been tough. In the second quarter alone, Emmis' radio revenue in Los Angeles fell 12.5 percent compared with a market drop of just 3 percent. Analysts from Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs reiterated that problem Monday, helping to drive the company's stock price down 6.9 percent, or 38 cents, to close at $5.13. "Let's hope that it's not quite There are more than 500,000 American kids in foster care and almost 10,000 right here in the Indiana. As a foster parent, you can use your skills and experience to make life better for a young person.

Through your good work, you will be providing a safe and loving home for a child during a difficult time and you'll also be doing your part to make our community a better place, one person at a time. All news personalities will make the move to FM. From Al time selling advertisers on the format of WNOU, commonly known as RadioNow. The attention of the station's target audience, 12- to 24-year-olds, is much too fragmented, Seve-rino said. Instead, Emmis is hoping to leverage the venerable brand name of WIBC and attract even more listeners to its news talk programming on the FM dial.

"Not many people under the age of 40 grew up with AM radios," Severino said. "More people are listening to FM than AM." On Jan. 7, WNOU-FM (93.1) will stop decking the halls and become WIBC-FM (93.1). All of WIBC's on-air news personalities will go to the FM dial, including morning news anchor Sherry Fisher and host Terri Stacy. Stacy's longtime co-host, Jeff Pigeon, left WIBC last month.

Severino said his departure wasn't related to Monday's announcements. Longtime traffic reporter Big John Gillis left the station in May. WIBC has had its ups and downs since it was founded in 1938. Recently, for example, it's been unable to stem the loss of female listeners. However, WIBC has been a fixture of Indianapolis' top four AM stations for a long time, according to Arbitron ratings.

"There really isn't a station in Indianapolis that can compete with what WIBC does," said Rick Cummings, president of Emmis Radio. Still, some changes are likely. Neither Cummings nor Severino would say what those might be, other than programming will become more "contemporary." WIBC-FM will have to keep up with an audience that's younger than WIBC-AM's typical fan base. Emmis hopes to target 40-year-olds, instead of the 52-year-olds it goes after now. To do that, WIBC might approach news talk in new ways, such as doing more entertainment news and features instead of hard news.

"You can almost do an 'Entertainment Tonight' and reach that (target) age group," said Dave Van Dyke, president and chief executive of Bridge Ratings, an audience research firm. Meanwhile, WIBC's new all-sports, all-the-time format Change a life a child's, and your own. Learn more about becoming a foster parent by calling 800-468-4228 or visiting www.in.govdcs Mitch Daniels, Governor James Payne, Director ABOUT WIBC WIBC debuted Oct. 30, 1938, as a daytime-only AM station broadcasting a combination of live music, news and information from the Indianapolis Athletic Club on 1070-AM. After several ownership changes, the talk-radio station was purchased in April 1994 by Emmis Communications, the current owner.

ABOUT WN0U-FM Emmis purchased the station, then known as WNAP-FM (93.1), in April 1994. The station aired "The Howard Stern Show" until it was taken off the air nationally. By March 2000, WNAP morphed into WNOU -RadioNow and began to play pop contemporary hits. MORE ONLINE Go to lndyStar.com starlinks for a complete timeline of the stations' history. Jky Take-home One city worker said he'd quit if he lost his vehicle.

From Al cil was creating a blanket policy when each department should determine who needs a vehicle individually. Fellow Republican Scott Schneider echoed that idea. "I certainly applaud the effort to save money," Schneider said. "But it seems like this could have been done earlier by the administration with a stroke of the pen. This must be an election year." Jackie Nytes, a Democratic council member, said the policy is a significant step because many employees have become accustomed to using take-home vehicles.

She said writing the policy into law recognizes how hard it is to change. Clifford has said agency or department heads sometimes gave out the vehicles in the place of higher salaries. At least one city employee, a fire department training instructor, had said he would seek another job if he lost his take-home vehicle. Schneider said there was some concern that limiting take-home vehicles could make it more difficult to recruit and retain government employees. He said saving taxpayer money outweighed that concern.

Call Star reporter Brendan O'Shaughnessy at (317) 444-2751. ing building inspectors and road engineers, a Department of Public Works spokeswoman and the city's Latino Affairs director. The county has 420 or so vehicles it lets nonemergency personnel take home. Rozelle Boyd, chairman of the committee that heard the proposal, said city officials told the panel that some workers would need time to adjust and find another method of transportation. Employees are not allowed to drive the vehicles for personal use; they are only for the commute to and from work, but the city likely won't take the vehicles away until sometime next year, Clifford said.

The city will reimburse employees who use personal vehicles for city business at 90 percent of the federal government rate of 48.5 cents per mile. Marilyn Pfisterer, a Republican council member, said she didn't understand why the coun HOOSIER BASKETBALL CELEBRATION SUPPORTED BY NBA, WNBA, USA BASKETBALL, NCAA, NFHS, IHSAA, INDIANA SPORTS CORPORATION, AND THE INDIANA BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME. Come celebrate the rich tradition of Indiana basketball and help set a world record for most basketballs dribbled at one time. First 5,000 fans registered receive a FREE Spalding basketball and Adidas T-shirt. See the 20072008 Pacers team and Indiana basketball legends.

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