WCBS/880 AM News Format Ends; ESPN New York Radio Takes Over Frequency

WCBS/880 AM, the news radio station New Yorkers have known for decades by its slogan “Traffic and weather together at 8,” will go on the air Aug. 26, the radio company’s parent company, Audacy, announced Monday.

In a new development in the ongoing sports radio battle, Audacy will license the 880 AM frequency to ESPN New York, a competitor to its own sports radio station WFAN. ESPN New York carries New York Knicks and Rangers games. New York Mets games will continue to be broadcast on 880 AM.

Dozens of employees, including some of the most famous names in New York radio, will be laid off in the move, according to the union that represents them.

In a live interview Monday on 880, morning anchor Wayne Cabot called the news a “huge blow.”

Radio and podcast giant Audacy said in a press release that it will now focus its news efforts in the New York City metropolitan area on its other popular New York station, 1010 WINS, which it describes as the most-listened-to news station in the United States.

“New York has always been unique in supporting two news brands, but the news industry has undergone significant changes,” said Chris Olivero, New York market president at Audacity. “The headwinds facing local journalism nationwide have made it necessary to reimagine the way we deliver news to achieve maximum impact.”

Audacy, which won court approval for a plan to emerge from bankruptcy earlier this year, “needed to focus its resources in a more efficient and financially prudent way in one of its most important markets,” said Adam Jacobson, editor-in-chief of Radio and Television Business Report, which covers the broadcast industry. “Having two news stations in the same market, under the same ownership in 2024 makes no sense.”

Staffing news gathering can be expensive, Jacobson said, and news radio stations face competition from unregulated digital media. Also this year, Congress failed to pass a law that would have required automakers to include AM broadcast radio as standard equipment in new motor vehicles.

The bill’s signing comes amid years of shrinking news, said George Podarki, a journalism professor and community partnerships and training editor at the city’s public radio station, WNYC. “It’s sad to see local journalism shrink,” he said. “Local journalism and journalists on the ground are critical to democracy.”

Nearly two dozen employees will be laid off because of Audacity’s decision, according to their union, the Writers Guild of America East.

Among those journalists who have been on the air there for more than 30 years are chief meteorologist Craig Allen and Tom Kaminski, editor of the traffic and transit information section. Also expected to leave are morning anchors Paul Murnane and Capote, as well as afternoon anchors Steve Scott and Michael Wallace, and nighttime anchor Levon Putney.

Writers, editors and technical support staff members at the station will also be laid off.

David Heim, a spokesman for Audacity, said he could not confirm names or numbers. Heim also said he could not disclose the terms of the marketing agreement between Audacity and Good Karma Brands, the parent company of ESPN New York.

In a telephone interview, Allen, 67, who spent 43 years at 880 as its longest-serving correspondent, including 30 years broadcasting from his home studio in Merrick, called Monday’s announcement “horrific. It’s just an abrupt end, a loss to the family.”

1010 WINS and WCBS—or simply “880” to generations of listeners—have been competing for local radio news supremacy since the mid-1960s, with the launch of their full news formats (1965, for 1010, and 1967, for 880). 1010 has traditionally been a stronger station in New York City, while 880’s stronghold has been Long Island, Connecticut, and the northern and eastern suburbs in particular. WCBS’s antenna, perched on a small rocky outcrop off City Island, directs much of its firepower eastward, and can be heard clearly as far as Rhode Island.

The battle largely ended after Philadelphia-based Audacy — then called Entercom — bought the CBS-owned stations in 2017, then began airing 1010 at 92.3 FM in 2022. The move was designed to introduce 1010 to younger listeners and boost that number of listeners outside the five regions.

Since then, 1010’s ratings have improved dramatically, while 880’s have declined. Allen said Monday that there were indications that Audacy was favoring 1010, but the idea that the competition would become a zero-sum game — where one prevails and the other collapses — was out of the question, he said. That’s because 880 — which has a “clear channel” signal of 50,000 viewers — has remained steady across the tri-state area.

Sophia Hall, a reporter for 880 Long Island, said the mood in the newsroom was somber. While Hall will continue to appear on 1010, she said she will miss her job at 880, which she started in 2001.

She said she met young people who grew up listening to the station in their parents’ cars on the way to school, and older listeners who had been listening for decades. “It was a dream come true to get the job when I was in my mid-20s, just to be able to carry an 880 microphone every day and interview people,” she said.