About two years ago, The Washington Post and WTOP, one of the top-rated news radio stations in the D.C. area, decided to enter into a joint venture; turn over an entire radio station to Washington Post reporters and columnists.
Yea, I didn’t listen to it either:
Washington Post Radio, which brought the newspaper’s journalists to the local airwaves, will go off the air next month after failing to attract enough listeners and losing money during its 17-month existence.
Post Radio, which is broadcast regionwide on 107.7 FM and 1500 AM, , was not able to draw even 1 percent of listeners during its first year. Although ratings have improved somewhat in recent months — partly because of Nationals baseball broadcasts and Tony Kornheiser’s morning program — the gains weren’t enough to convince WTWP’s owner, Bonneville International Corp., that the station could be profitable any time soon, executives said. Bonneville and The Post had a three-year agreement.
The two companies will announce Friday that WTWP — whose call letters abbreviate the newspaper’s name — will go off the air by the end of September. The stations will continue to carry news and talk programming without an association with The Post.
Billed as a new kind of radio programming when it began in March of last year, Post Radio, or WTWP AM-FM, featured in-depth discussions with Post reporters and editors about the day’s news. The station’s backers said it would be like “NPR on caffeine” for news-hungry listeners.
Gee, I like caffeine. But I hate NPR. Perhaps that’s why I looked elsewhere for my news-talk fix. And, apparently, I wasn’t alone.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
[...] I thought the idea of “Washington Post Radio” was pretty goofy, also. Apparently, they’re going away at the end of September, which won’t change [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I can think of one such hybrid I’d have listened to, given the opportunity: WTOP and the Washington Times. AT night, we can even receive WTOP down here in the Piedmont of VA.
But WaPo? No thanks…