Looks like My 107.3 in Pensacola is going away. Reports that they are asking listeners to move over to sister station Lite 99.9 in Mobile, and that "My 107.3 is going away" soon.
There's already a Clear Channel-registered 1073thegroove.com that redirects to My 107.3's website, so that sounds like an urban AC type format. Of course, the rage right now for underperforming FMs is talk, and Clear Channel has plenty of talk in the Mobile-Pensacola market, so who knows what may happen.
Friday, February 26, 2010
WQLS on from Pike Road licensed location; FM translator in the near future?
Radio-Locator is showing WQLS, the AM that relocated from Ozark to the Montgomery market, to be rebroadcasting on W298BC, a translator located on the WNCF-TV tower in central Montgomery. The format is no longer gospel but reported to be classic country, with no IDs or commercials.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
WENN's FM translator confirmed on the air from Graysville location
It has been confirmed today that WENN's FM translator, W270BW (licensed to Haleyville) is on from its Graysville location and not the Red Mountain construction permit as I had previously believed.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A curious translator APP in the Gump
I don't usually talk about applications to change facilities because they are so early in the process of making changes that a lot can, well, change before they're granted. But one down in Montgomery has caught my eye: W218BG on 91.5 MHz, a WAY-FM translator in the noncomm band.
They have filed an application to begin rebroadcasting commercial station WXFX and change frequency to 102.3 MHz. But for the time being, the FCC database shows a noncomm translator as relaying WXFX, a commercial station. I don't know if that's actually happening or not, but it is a curious sight since that is technically prohibited.
If all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed and this thing gets granted, I forsee yet another AM-on-a-translator move in Alabama. The state, in my opinion, has led the way for the migration of small AM stations to FM via translators, and Montgomery is proving itself to be a magnet for translators no matter what they relay.
They have filed an application to begin rebroadcasting commercial station WXFX and change frequency to 102.3 MHz. But for the time being, the FCC database shows a noncomm translator as relaying WXFX, a commercial station. I don't know if that's actually happening or not, but it is a curious sight since that is technically prohibited.
If all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed and this thing gets granted, I forsee yet another AM-on-a-translator move in Alabama. The state, in my opinion, has led the way for the migration of small AM stations to FM via translators, and Montgomery is proving itself to be a magnet for translators no matter what they relay.
WAPI's FM simulcast begins 12:01am Monday
So says Bob Carlton over at the Birmingham News. Looks like those 20,000 fans of the “Save Live 100.5” Facebook page only generated 4,000 signatures on their petition.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
WENN picks up FM translator, not WAGG!
Kind of a surprise for me, but oh well, this is a surprising business sometimes. W270BW, licensed to Haleyville, is now broadcasting from the Birmingham area, either from a site in Graysville or from atop Red Mountain. I'm not sure since the FCC database has crapped the bed and says nothing below 91.1 MHz exists anymore. Government for ya.
I had predicted that WAGG would take on this translator, but in a surprise move it went to 1320 WENN instead. It's been rebooted from repeating WBHK to originating a new format called “neo soul” as “101.9 WENN, Birmingham's Neo Soul Station.” Sweet.
Of course, this doesn't mean WAGG might not wind up on FM at some point anyway… There are still a few possibilities…
I had predicted that WAGG would take on this translator, but in a surprise move it went to 1320 WENN instead. It's been rebooted from repeating WBHK to originating a new format called “neo soul” as “101.9 WENN, Birmingham's Neo Soul Station.” Sweet.
Of course, this doesn't mean WAGG might not wind up on FM at some point anyway… There are still a few possibilities…
Monday, February 15, 2010
The impending demise of Birmingham's Live 100.5, AM radio and WYDE
No central Alabama radio station has garnered as much press lately as Citadel's adult alternative Live 100.5 has in the last several days. A rumored flip to talk radio has fans of the format up in arms, with over 13,000 fans on a "Save Live 100.5" Facebook page. This is quite the outpouring of support for a station whose primary signal barely reaches half the Birmingham metro area.
It's all going to be for naught.
For all the faces that have shown up on Facebook to support the station, those people simply did not materialize in the ratings. In the 12+ books (which are useless to advertisers but give us an idea of a station's popularity) WWMM placed 16th, behind three AM outlets. Smaller companies can eek out a living there at the bottom, but for a big company like Citadel they need a bigger return on the numbers.
Right now, numbers are everything to Citadel. They've filed for bankruptcy. Cutting costs to the bone is par for the course for these big media companies, but it's taken on a more serious note with Citadel. Staffing a station with seasoned jocks and a competent programmer who knows the genre costs money, money Citadel does not have. The cheaper alternative would be music playing off a computer, but music still costs royalty money, too. So the next cheapest option is to simply put on an existing format that the company is already paying for. With WERC's move to FM and WYDE already there, all of WAPI's competition has moved off AM, so it was a no-brainer to throw this talk on FM to put them on a more even footing.
Citadel, for what it's worth, is not who you want running your music format in Birmingham, anyway. They're the ones that ruined “The X”, the much-loved modern rocker, by first putting it on a big signal (and taking away one of Birmingham's heritage black stations) then killing off most of what made it special. They're making it work with Hot 107.7, but dying on the vine with Rock 99. Is it rock, or classic rock? Who knows. But I digress…
A lot of the comments on the Save 100.5 Facebook page have been along the lines of “I'm going back to my iPod.” Well, that's why this station is going away in the first place. The majority of people who might listen to this are generally technically savvy and already get most of their hipster music from iTunes. They're the people who abandoned radio during the great wave of consolidation in the early 90's, or never grew up with radio to begin with. To them, radio is passé and not worth the effort, especially with 15-minute long commercial blocks during drive time.
If WAPI is to compete today, it must be on FM. It should have been on FM years ago. It stinks when people passionate about radio and the music they love lose their jobs, but losing a gig is what radio broadcasting is all about. It's par for the course. With music radio's future so bleak, look for more and more talented and passionate people to be out on the streets.
Whether WAPI will see a ratings boost from moving to FM, though, remains to be seen. One last piece of the Live 100.5 problem is its coverage area. It has never covered the Birmingham area well, being something of a shoehorned-in rimshot from Tuscaloosa. Moving WAPI to this frequency won't overlap WAPI's coverage so much as supplement it in Tuscasloosa and points south.
The real loser in all this, in the long term, is AM radio. For some reason, people of a certain age forgot that there is an AM and an FM on their radio. The talkers that have done so well on AM are slowly losing listeners who don't even know those stations exist. Hence the accelerated move of talk to FM. It seems strange to a radio fan such as myself, but the ratings magically double, sometimes triple, when a talker moves to FM. AM will continue its slide into dollar-a-holler preaching, paid programming and decrepit, silent facilities too far gone to bring back to life. Whether the medium manages to survive on this and super-niche formats like regional Mexican and nostalgia remains to be seen.
Finally… We can only hope this will be the wakeup call to Crawford that their experiment with WYDE is not working. Is it a talk station? Is it a music station? Who knows. Is it a Cullman station, or a Huntsville station? Or Birmingham? Not sure. It doesn't cover any major market well enough to survive, but it's too big a facility to let go to pot in Cullman. It's future is in as much doubt as that of niche music on FM. ¿Que Buena? 101.1 anyone?
It's all going to be for naught.
For all the faces that have shown up on Facebook to support the station, those people simply did not materialize in the ratings. In the 12+ books (which are useless to advertisers but give us an idea of a station's popularity) WWMM placed 16th, behind three AM outlets. Smaller companies can eek out a living there at the bottom, but for a big company like Citadel they need a bigger return on the numbers.
Right now, numbers are everything to Citadel. They've filed for bankruptcy. Cutting costs to the bone is par for the course for these big media companies, but it's taken on a more serious note with Citadel. Staffing a station with seasoned jocks and a competent programmer who knows the genre costs money, money Citadel does not have. The cheaper alternative would be music playing off a computer, but music still costs royalty money, too. So the next cheapest option is to simply put on an existing format that the company is already paying for. With WERC's move to FM and WYDE already there, all of WAPI's competition has moved off AM, so it was a no-brainer to throw this talk on FM to put them on a more even footing.
Citadel, for what it's worth, is not who you want running your music format in Birmingham, anyway. They're the ones that ruined “The X”, the much-loved modern rocker, by first putting it on a big signal (and taking away one of Birmingham's heritage black stations) then killing off most of what made it special. They're making it work with Hot 107.7, but dying on the vine with Rock 99. Is it rock, or classic rock? Who knows. But I digress…
A lot of the comments on the Save 100.5 Facebook page have been along the lines of “I'm going back to my iPod.” Well, that's why this station is going away in the first place. The majority of people who might listen to this are generally technically savvy and already get most of their hipster music from iTunes. They're the people who abandoned radio during the great wave of consolidation in the early 90's, or never grew up with radio to begin with. To them, radio is passé and not worth the effort, especially with 15-minute long commercial blocks during drive time.
If WAPI is to compete today, it must be on FM. It should have been on FM years ago. It stinks when people passionate about radio and the music they love lose their jobs, but losing a gig is what radio broadcasting is all about. It's par for the course. With music radio's future so bleak, look for more and more talented and passionate people to be out on the streets.
Whether WAPI will see a ratings boost from moving to FM, though, remains to be seen. One last piece of the Live 100.5 problem is its coverage area. It has never covered the Birmingham area well, being something of a shoehorned-in rimshot from Tuscaloosa. Moving WAPI to this frequency won't overlap WAPI's coverage so much as supplement it in Tuscasloosa and points south.
The real loser in all this, in the long term, is AM radio. For some reason, people of a certain age forgot that there is an AM and an FM on their radio. The talkers that have done so well on AM are slowly losing listeners who don't even know those stations exist. Hence the accelerated move of talk to FM. It seems strange to a radio fan such as myself, but the ratings magically double, sometimes triple, when a talker moves to FM. AM will continue its slide into dollar-a-holler preaching, paid programming and decrepit, silent facilities too far gone to bring back to life. Whether the medium manages to survive on this and super-niche formats like regional Mexican and nostalgia remains to be seen.
Finally… We can only hope this will be the wakeup call to Crawford that their experiment with WYDE is not working. Is it a talk station? Is it a music station? Who knows. Is it a Cullman station, or a Huntsville station? Or Birmingham? Not sure. It doesn't cover any major market well enough to survive, but it's too big a facility to let go to pot in Cullman. It's future is in as much doubt as that of niche music on FM. ¿Que Buena? 101.1 anyone?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Rumor mill: Live 100.5 to give way to "News talk 100 WAPI"
Listen up, AAA fans: it looks like Citadel has plans to pull Live 100.5 off the air and replace it with a simulcast of talker 1070 WAPI. There's nothing here yet, but it may well point to the future home of WAPI's talk lineup.
I had previously opined that WAPI might pick up a translator, but having a full power FM outlet would put them on much more competitive ground with the other two FM talk stations in town, WYDE and WERC.
Time will tell…
I had previously opined that WAPI might pick up a translator, but having a full power FM outlet would put them on much more competitive ground with the other two FM talk stations in town, WYDE and WERC.
Time will tell…
Friday, February 5, 2010
Translator updates for Clanton, Citronelle
WKLF-AM has been on Clanton-area translator W238BS lately, at 95.5 MHz. The signal, however, isn't so great all over the city. That will change, as a construction permit has been issued to raise the power, from 19 to 175 watts from the current TX site. The new facilities should allow WKLF to completely blanket the Clanton city limits now.
In Mobile County, Edgewater is making moves with translator W214BW, licensed to the fresh-sounding Citronelle. It's on 90.7 MHz, with a currently authorized 13 watts. The new permit will move it south of the city limits to the Gulfcrest community, with 225 watts.
Interesting tidbit #1: W214BW doesn't appear to exist, from looking at Google Maps Street View. The FCC data shows it on a structure 190 feet above ground level in a residential area of Citronelle, but such a structure clearly does not exist on the Street View. No structure exists at the CP location, either.
Interesting tidbit #2: This sucker's on the move towards Mobile. There's an application behind the CP already to move it further down the road, to right outside Pritchard.
Interesting tidbit #3: While checking out the situation in the area, I noticed that a translator licensed to Malbis in Baldwin County is shown with a CP to move from 90.7 to 90.9 MHz. That would seem to facilitate Edgewater's move into Mobile-proper. “But however comma” there's a rub — that permit expired November 2009. So who knows what is going on down on the bay.
Interesting tidbit #4/annoying thing about religious translators #1,334: W214BW is listed on this site as relaying Mobile religious powerhouse WBHY, but Radio-Locator has it relaying WPAS from Pascagoula. The construction permit data says WAOY Gulfport. The application most recently accepted says WPAS. Damnit people, pick a station and stick with it! We're going with WPAS. For now…
In Mobile County, Edgewater is making moves with translator W214BW, licensed to the fresh-sounding Citronelle. It's on 90.7 MHz, with a currently authorized 13 watts. The new permit will move it south of the city limits to the Gulfcrest community, with 225 watts.
Interesting tidbit #1: W214BW doesn't appear to exist, from looking at Google Maps Street View. The FCC data shows it on a structure 190 feet above ground level in a residential area of Citronelle, but such a structure clearly does not exist on the Street View. No structure exists at the CP location, either.
Interesting tidbit #2: This sucker's on the move towards Mobile. There's an application behind the CP already to move it further down the road, to right outside Pritchard.
Interesting tidbit #3: While checking out the situation in the area, I noticed that a translator licensed to Malbis in Baldwin County is shown with a CP to move from 90.7 to 90.9 MHz. That would seem to facilitate Edgewater's move into Mobile-proper. “But however comma” there's a rub — that permit expired November 2009. So who knows what is going on down on the bay.
Interesting tidbit #4/annoying thing about religious translators #1,334: W214BW is listed on this site as relaying Mobile religious powerhouse WBHY, but Radio-Locator has it relaying WPAS from Pascagoula. The construction permit data says WAOY Gulfport. The application most recently accepted says WPAS. Damnit people, pick a station and stick with it! We're going with WPAS. For now…
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Low power digital updates
According to FCC reports, the low power HSN affiliate in Mobile on channel 30 has flash cut to digital.
Also in the list is W17DJ-D, a digital construction permit for W38BQ in Huntsville, which carries the 3 Angels Broadcasting Network.
Down in Tuscaloosa, WVUA has a second construction permit show up in the database. WVUA-CA is analog on channel 7, with a permit to move to 14 as a digital LPTV channel. That is likely superseded by a permit for WVUA-CD on channel 23, from a site near Moundville. I'm going to leave both digital construction permits in the list until I know for sure which one they pick.
WBMA-LP, the actual ABC affiliate for the city of Birmingham, has received a permit to go digital on channel 11. For some reason it varies slightly from the existing permit that has been listed on the site, but it's hard to tell what exactly would be different, coverage-wise, because the map doesn't work. Your government at work.
Odds and ends…
Several Mississippi-coastal FM stations got updated RDS data the other day. For now it looks like the formats are still the same. I didn't get a chance to log the AM dial, unfortunately.
Also, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the LPTV/digital LPTV sections. The whole LPTV situation is a mess right now, with some stations flash cutting on their existing channels, some displaced ones relocating for a second time, etc. It needs some serious TLC but I just don't have the time right now. Getting that cleaned up, updating some of the data pages and creating the Montgomery metro pages are tasks that need to be done but I just can't find the time to sit down and bang them out.
Also in the list is W17DJ-D, a digital construction permit for W38BQ in Huntsville, which carries the 3 Angels Broadcasting Network.
Down in Tuscaloosa, WVUA has a second construction permit show up in the database. WVUA-CA is analog on channel 7, with a permit to move to 14 as a digital LPTV channel. That is likely superseded by a permit for WVUA-CD on channel 23, from a site near Moundville. I'm going to leave both digital construction permits in the list until I know for sure which one they pick.
WBMA-LP, the actual ABC affiliate for the city of Birmingham, has received a permit to go digital on channel 11. For some reason it varies slightly from the existing permit that has been listed on the site, but it's hard to tell what exactly would be different, coverage-wise, because the map doesn't work. Your government at work.
Odds and ends…
Several Mississippi-coastal FM stations got updated RDS data the other day. For now it looks like the formats are still the same. I didn't get a chance to log the AM dial, unfortunately.
Also, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the LPTV/digital LPTV sections. The whole LPTV situation is a mess right now, with some stations flash cutting on their existing channels, some displaced ones relocating for a second time, etc. It needs some serious TLC but I just don't have the time right now. Getting that cleaned up, updating some of the data pages and creating the Montgomery metro pages are tasks that need to be done but I just can't find the time to sit down and bang them out.
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