http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/ct-877-fm-metv-radio-0210-biz-20150209-story.html
MeTV, the Chicago-based classic TV network, is launching its first radio station.
Weigel Broadcasting has signed a lease to take over operations of 87.7 FM in Chicago beginning this month. The station will be known as MeTV FM and will air music from the 1960s, '70s and '80s, featuring artists such as Carole King, Carly Simon and James Taylor to appeal to the same demographic as its TV network.
"The core of the audience will be like MeTV — baby boomers," said Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting.
The station will take the call letters WRME-LP and begin a soft launch this month. The full format will be up and running in March. There willbe elements from the MeTV network, and other programming features targeted to baby boomers, which will be rolled out over time.
But music will be the focus, Sabin said, especially artists who don't get much radio airplay these days. Expect a broad, somewhat eclectic mix — from the Eagles to Neil Diamond — including album cuts long since excised from most playlists.
"It will be unique, and some traditional radio programmers will think we're playing too much," Sabin said. "But we're here to design something new and different, that we think there is an audience for that that still listens to terrestrial radio."
Sabin, who started his career in Chicago radio, has been a TV programmer for more than 30 years, most of it at Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, which owns WCIU-Ch.26.
In 2010, Weigel launched the pioneering MeTV network, which airs classic TV shows on the digital subchannels of some 160 affiliated stations. MeTV is the largest multicast network in the U.S. and beats many cable networks in the ratings.
Weigel intends to use WCIU-Ch.26 to help generate interest for the radio station.
Like the MeTV network, Weigel intends to build the radio station carefully. The station will not employ any air personalities to begin with, in part to keep costs down, Sabin said.
"I'm not ruling out that we won't have personalities, but we just can't afford to do that right now," Sabin said.
Owned by Los Angeles-based Venture Technologies Group, 87.7 is a low-power television station that has been operating as an FM radio station since it went on the air in 2008. The station has been through a variety of operators and formats, with smooth jazz and alternative rock achieving far greater ratings success than its most recent foray into sports talk.
Tribune Media, which owns WGN-AM 720, signed an 18-month lease for 87.7 FM and launched The Game in February 2014. Low ratings doomed the sports talk format, which ended its run on New Year's Eve.
WGN-AM has been simulcasting its news/talk programming on 87.7 FM since January.
Just as the MeTV network started with one station in Chicago, Weigel may have long-term ambitions to build a national MeTV radio network. For now, Sabin is content to focus on getting 87.7 off the ground.
"I can't operate this in a manner that is fiscally irresponsible. I have to make sure we walk before we run with this," Sabin said. "We're going to do this in a very smart, Weigel way, of growing the brand as an extension of the MeTV brand."
