Merlin Media chose the path of most resistance when they launched WEMP (FM News 101.9) New York and sister WIQI (formerly WWWN) Chicago last year. They blew up two critically loved (if low-rated) Alternative stations. They hired a hundred staffers—some of whom were serving as all-news anchors for the first time. They went up against three heritage All-News stations whose most obvious vulnerability was not being on FM, and one of those (WBBM Chicago) promptly launched an FM simulcast. On top of all those challenges, Merlin tried to launch a female-lifestyle-oriented version of the format.

News/Talk launches are inherently mammoth, especially when there are no existing AM assets to move to FM. Both stations foundered in full view of a skeptical industry and a consumer press that was already not favorably inclined to Merlin CEO Randy Michaels. When Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene came ashore several weeks after the format’s launch, WEMP didn’t seem philosophically or physically ready to turn to hard news. With initial ratings in New York and Chicago well under a 1-share, the industry turned its attention to Washington D.C., (where CBS Radio’s WNEW launched against WTOP on Jan. 22), even before format architect Walt Sabo’s departure earlier this month.

But from the moment that word of WEMP’s female-lifestyle approach began spreading through the industry, even ahead of the station’s launch, so did WEMP’s escape route. If the new way of doing All-News didn’t work, there was always the option to do a WINS-type All-News station on FM. That transition, which began a few months ago when WEMP started imaging around 10-minute commercial-free news blocs, is now pretty much complete. And since you may not have been around to hear it, we took a Fresh Listen to morning drive on Jan. 23.

Five months in, a lot of WEMP’s points of differentiation—large and small—are gone. There were two scheduled business reports in the hour we heard. There was a scheduled sports report. There was only one piece of celebrity news, the Seal/Heidi Klum divorce. There was little of the John Tesh “Intelligence For Life”-style health/hearth/home stories that defined the station at the outset. In fact, one of the only “we’ll pay more at the gas pump” moments was literally a story about gas prices going up.

There’s also much more of a sense of urgency, noticeable even compared to 2-3 weeks ago. The big-voice imaging and hard-hitting stagers that WEMP had initially hoped to reposition as a relic of the mid-’60s “Mad Men” era that spawned WINS are now present, to some degree, on the new station. There’s a frequently used three-note signature (that most CHR fans will recognize as the tune heard behind the “Kiss-FM” jingle). There’s also a top-of-the-hour “countdown” of the five “top-trending news stories.”

As far as positioning, the new FM News 101.9 now comes not to bury the WINS “Give-Us-22-Minutes” model, but to streamline it. The 10-minutes-of-non-stop-news feature heard several times an hour has replaced traffic-and-weather-on-the-5s as the station’s most-referenced calling card. (That package is still there throughout the hour; it’s just not crossplugged with quite the same alacrity.) The station is now on TV with spots in which busy New Yorkers announce that they no longer have 22-minutes and don’t want to sit through a lot of commercials.

To its credit, the initial clunkiness of the early WEMP—an inevitable product of so many new employees, hired from various disciplines, doing a format that didn’t quite exist before—is mostly gone. In the 45 or so minutes monitored below, there was only one obvious slip-up and that was when the next element came in too soon. You might expect that in morning drive where former WINS staffer Alice Stockton-Rossini is teamed with Dave Packer (who made the transition from music radio), but it’s an observation based on several stretches of listening over the last few days.

Here’s the station at 7:00 a.m. on Jan. 23:

7:00 – Legal ID, followed by produced “ten minutes of non-stop news starts now!” Then the top-five countdown: Seal & Heidi Klum divorce (No. 5); More on the Marist College students killed in a fire at off-campus housing (4); Gabrielle Giffords steps down (3); Joe Paterno mourned (2); New York Giants are headed to the Super Bowl (1). Then there are traffic and weather minis, similar in feel to what you might hear on WINS at :00-:01 (although WINS goes into full-fledged traffic at :01).

7:01 – Stockton-Rossini recaps the Giants’ win.

7:02 – Report from Mike Murillo: area reacts to Giants’ win with fan audio.

7:03 – Recap of Patriots’ AFC championship win with actuality from Tom Brady.

7:03 – Packer billboards “ten minutes of non-stop news,” then a report on Paterno’s passing with audio from the “moment of silence” at the Penn State/Indiana game, fan reactions, and a quote from Rutgers’ head football coach.

7:05 – The Giffords story with audio from her resignation video.

7:05 – Teaser—a U.S. aircraft carrier makes its way through the Strait of Hormuz. Then traffic on the 5s with Jeff McKay.

7:07 – Weather with station meteorologist and self-proclaimed “Weather Geek Scott Derek.”

7:07 – Another mention of the 10-minutes of non-stop news , followed by a story on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie lashing out at Newt Gingrich on yesterday’s “Meet The Press.”

7:08 – The story on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the warnings of the Iranian Navy.

7:08 – One of the three Marist students killed in an off-campus housing fire is buried—audio from a college spokesperson.

7:09 – The Seal/Heidi Klum story opens with the hook from Seal’s “Crazy.” “If they can’t make it, who can?” asks Stockton-Rossini.

7:09 – A sports report that is a more detailed recounting of the game, as well as the news that Super Bowl odds makers are favoring the Patriots by three points.

7:10 – News teaser—the gas price story, Kodak has a year to get out of bankruptcy.

7:11 – Ads for Geico (two minis) and from financial services provider Gary Goldberg, who also teases his 8:30 Monday morning commentary on the station.

7:12 – A recorded promo using similar audio to the TV spot: (“I don’t have 22 minutes for the news.”; “I don’t want all the commercials”).

7:13 – Packer solicits news tips. Weather headlines. Then, as happens several times during the hour, he ID’s himself, Stockton-Rossini “and the entire FM 101.9 News team.”

7:13 – Report: the price of gasoline is up, according to the Lundberg Survey. That’s followed by a survey report that New Jersey residents prefer not having to pump their own gas; (not such a surprise to anybody who lives in New Jersey).

7:14 – Tracy Morgan still in hospital following a recent collapse, preceded by audio of the comedian.

7:14 – Another news teaser with a produced intro: Website Megaupload shut down, more Giants.

7:15 – Traffic, sponsored by BP.

7:16 – Weather.

7:16 – A reminder to “set a button on your radio for 10 minutes of non-stop news 3x an hour” followed by the Kodak reorganization plan story.

7:16 – The shutdown of Megaupload is having the authorities’ desired effect on other sites as Filesonic disables sharing.

7:17 – Ginny Kosola’s “Your Wallet” segment on the rise of portable checkout devices (similar to those used at the Apple Store) with an actuality from one of the device’s manufacturers. Perhaps the only non-time-sensitive stories of the sort that typified the station at the outset.

7:18 – A McDonalds sponsorship billboard, followed by ads for McDonalds, Pfizer and Sam’s Club.

7:20 – A produced stager promoting Traffic & Weather on the 5s, “this hour’s top trending stories,” and another 10-minutes of non-stop news. Followed by headline teasers (Giants, Paterno, an earthquake in Hawaii, Steven Tyler’s National Anthem butchering) and the traffic/weather minis.

7:21 – More Giants: another recap featuring Joe Buck’s Fox Sports call (which will play again at :41) and a report on Giants fans heading to Modell’s Sporting Goods for merchandise with advice from the store manager on which items will go first.

7:22 – The Patriots/Ravens recap.

7:22 – Another Paterno story—how did the stress of the Penn State scandal contribute to his death? A report from Ann Kelly.

7:23 – Packer hits the “10 minutes” again, then the Hawaii earthquake story.

7:23 – A string of robberies in Clifton, N.J.—the first real police blotter item so far.

7:24 – Report: Occupy Wall Street is being kicked out of an Upper West Side church after the lid of a baptismal font is stolen.

7:25 – Schools are using online service to guard against plagiarism in students’ term papers.

7:25 – Teasers (a murder case goes to trial) then traffic, sponsored by Subaru.

7:26 – Weather.

7:27 – “Ten minutes of non-stop news continues.” The teased story: a convicted sex offender goes on trial in the murder of dancer; one of the Connecticut home invasion convicts is due back in court; the captain of the doomed ship Concordia claims he was told to sail too close to land.

7:29 – An annual New Jersey drive to help the homeless starts this week.

7:29 -Audio of Kristin Chenoweth’s Star Spangled Banner at the Giants game vs. Steven Tyler’s less authoritative version at the Patriots game. “He’s 63 and yes he can still belt out ‘Walk This Way,’” says Packer, but this is when his punchline is cut-off by…

7:30 – Serena Williams’ winning streak ends in the fourth-round of the Australian Open;

7:30 – Another teaser/stager: “Just ahead on FM news,” followed by spots for Rosetta Stone and “Ad Clunker Junkers.”

7:32 – Time and temp, then a feature from veteran area talk host Lionel, beginning with a jingle and presented here as “Your News Decoder.” Lionel crossplugs his Website and appearances on WPIX-TV.

7:33 – “Underworld Awakening” opens at No. 1 in weekend box-office.

7:34 – Another teaser—stocks and Arkansas tornados. Then an ad for Time-Warner Cable.

7: 35 – Traffic (this time with a plug for the traffic tipline).

7:37 – Weather.

7:37 – The Bloomberg Business “Market Minute” with 3-4 stories over a minute’s time (including: only 27% of companies plan to add new workers in first half of this year; the best time to book air-travel; and another shipwreck story, this one on Costa Cruises offering survivors a 30% discount on future cruise). “Bloomberg Market Minute.”

7:38 – Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom is arraigned in New Zealand.

7:39 – Ad for Invention Resource International.

7:40 – The “10 minutes non-stop cycle” starts again with “top trending stories” teased again.

Overall, WEMP sounds a lot more together—and ready to be advertised. The first question is whether its current TV campaign is reaching listeners who quickly tried and rejected them last fall, or a potential audience that wasn’t on 101.9 in the first place and wasn’t even aware of the radio station.

Then there’s the issue of whether “10 minutes” trumps “22 minutes.” As shown above, WEMP is effectively on a 20-minute cycle itself, even though it’s the first 10 minutes that are being promoted. And if you’re going to WINS or WCBS-AM for traffic, weather, market closings, or to assure yourself that the world is proceeding without cataclysm, most frequent users are familiar enough with the clock to get what they want in 10 minutes. By contrast, even though there’s now sports and business on WEMP, only traffic-and-weather are time-stamped.

That said, “commercial-free” is an interesting proposal for a Spoken Word station. Broadcasters have addressed, to an extent, the burgeoning spotloads that made music radio difficult to listen to in the mid-’00s. All-News stations have been considered immune to those concerns, but until recently, there hasn’t been anybody to call them on spotload.

And there is some value to being All-News on FM in New York. Twenty-five miles from Manhattan, I’m unable to listen to WCBS or WINS on my clock radio in the morning. At my Central New Jersey office, on the edge of the New York metro, the only traffic or weather I’m going to get on AM 1010 on my winter ride home is for Toronto, as CFRB drowns out WINS after sunset. Then again, if WEMP’s more direct attack on WINS gets traction, CBS Radio still has FM options to invoke for its own “Plan B.”