InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano published a column on March 31 that-- like much of his columns-- that had me thinking: Great minds think alike. Entitled "The AM Station That Defies Failure," it informs the story of WABC/New York and the success it has actually had since being bought by a local owner from Cumulus.

WABC is much like many AM stations throughout the country. Powerhouse top-40 format leaders in the 1960s and '70s, they lost their method when big corporate owners could not figure out what to do with them. They dropped music, in some cases found temporary success with political talk, and then floundered once programmers focused more on their FMs.

Odd how a neglected station would lose listeners.

Anyway, for all intents and functions, WABC was a failure in 2019 when Cumulus Media, owner of KABC (790 AM) here in Los Angeles, offered the station to a 74-year-old New York entrepreneur called John Catsimatidis, Jr.-- a man with no radio experience other than being a radio fan.

Catsimatidis then did what some believe is impossible: He brought a dead radio station back to life. He served his local audience.

And tune in they did. The station has actually been above a 3.0 share for at least the last six months and has had a 3.9 share for the last 2 months. It is the premier AM station in New York. Under previous ownership, it had actually been up to the mid to upper ones. Could other stations gain from the current success?

More than that, the entire industry could find out from its success. The formula is so simple, it's nearly as if stations of the past might help with the lesson. He looked at what made previous stations tick and applied it to his new toy.WABC discovered an audience that was being underserved, then designed a format that would appeal to that audience: In this case, an eclectic mix of talk, news, and music.

The station runs its old iconic jingles. The talk hosts have regional ties, including former mayor Rudy Giuliani, previous Rush Limbaugh manufacturer Bo Snerdley, and a founding member of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa.

Catsimatidis even has his own show, hosted by himself and regional broadcaster Rita Cosby.

While it is outstanding that Catsimatidis took a failing station and made it successful, he is not alone. I've written about the success of stations such as WION/Ionia, Michigan and WRDN/Durand, Wisconsin. What all 3 and others like them have in common are regional owners who care enough to program to their regional audience and not count on cheap syndicated programming.

This approach benefits not only the listeners and stations however local businesses that can advertise to reach an audience otherwise tough to discover. That Catsimatidis does it in New York City, arguably among the most difficult markets in the United States, makes it a lot more impressive ... and in my opinion, frankly, awkward to owners like Audacy that have actually gone so far as to simply close down some of its AM stations.

This lesson isn't simply for AM. FM stations absolutely can use more local material, and in the cases in which the regional audience is super-served, the results are excellent. Local material is the one thing that Spotify, Apple Music, or any other streaming service simply can't match.

Control panel Confessional

On the heels of Ford revealing that it will not include AM radio in future autos comes news that GM has actually decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support from future EVs.

While I dislike that AM is being dropped and I believe it to be a bad decision, a minimum of you can-- normally, at least-- utilize apps to change the tuner and in some methods have much better reception and better noise.

Dropping CarPlay? If CarPlay is not offered, I will not purchase one.

I desire the option to utilize the mapping software I wish to utilize. I desire the ability to utilize the apps I want to utilize, such as StreamsHiFi Audio and MyTuner Radio for online radio streams. I can connect my phone to any of my existing vehicle stereos and have all of my preferences and apps ready to go; without CarPlay, I 'd have to set all my preferences individually in every cars and truck.

And I certainly don't desire my life controlled by Google, which GM plans to use as the basis for its dashboard infotainment system. I am not a Google fan by any means, and I certainly don't desire their invasive anti-privacy ad-based system in my car.

In my opinion, GM is making a tremendously bad choice in dropping CarPlay and Android Auto. In doing so, however, you can now understand what is in shop for the future ... the ability to charge for belonging to and utilizing the dash. It is anti-competitive and anti-consumer. I hope that the relocation is met customer resistance similar to my own-- as I stated, I will never buy a cars and truck without CarPlay capability.

Even if I have to keep my existing truck permanently.