The battle of slogans and cease-and-desist letters between CBS Radio all-News WINS-AM and Merlin Media’s all-News WEMP-AM NYC appears to have come to a conclusion with Merlin winning the battle. WINS has switched its former “New York’s One and Only All-News Station” slogan with “More people get their news from 1010 WINS than any other radio station in the nation.”
CBS had sent Merlin a cease-and-desist letter over using a version of WINS’ trademarked “You Give Us 22 Minutes, We’ll Give You The World.” Merlin responded with its own letter charging that the “One And Only All News Station” liner was “patently false” since WEMP launched the same format last August.
Merlin Media CEO Randy Michaels sent RBR-TVBR this email from one of their attorneys: “CBS’s outside counsel called me yesterday and stated that, while CBS disagrees with our assertions, they are in the process of replacing the “New York’s One And Only All News Station” claim with a new one. The lawyer thought the change had already been made, but that was not the case at least as of yesterday afternoon. I emailed CBS’s lawyer again and he finally confirmed this morning that the change was made. Sure enough, 1010 WINS’ announcers now make the following claim at the top of the hour: “More people get their news from 1010 than any other radio station in the nation.” I expect this will put our volley of letters to an end, but please let me know if anyone disagrees.”
Michaels tells RBR-TVBR: “It’s a good decision. WINS is a great station with many excellent people. I’m sure that they have not been happy being forced by management to say something that isn’t true. After all, how can you trust a news station that deliberately doesn’t tell the truth?”
