Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Stunts ahoy!

A quick recap of stunts that have either occurred recently or are occurring that we know of:

WWFF in Huntsville is stunting with a variety of music formats, ditching country for an as-yet to be determined format.

WJLQ in Pensacola/Mobile is stunting with TV themes after dumping CHR.

WUMJ in Biloxi ditched "Hank" country for sports talk this week.

WNCB in Birmingham ditched "The Buck" country for sports talk this week as well.
 

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Birmingham shakeup: Paul Finebaum leaving JOX for The Zone.

I don't talk about rumors, usually, but this one involves some pretty big changes in Birmingham radio. If true, it would be a pretty major media story.  There's talk that venerable* sports host Paul Finebaum is ready to jump ship off Citadel's WJOX (due to the upcoming merger with Cumulus?)

That part's confirmed. And as noted in that story, we can expect to see "97.3 The Zone" on Tuesday, August 30th when Cox blows up "The Buck" WNCB for their own FM sports station.  Although unspoken, it appears that Finebaum plans on landing with Cox, with the sports format pretty much being tailored around his syndicated afternoon show.

Getting into even wilder territory, speculation is that once Finebaum gets settled in at his new digs, Cox will flip-flop The Zone with 106.9 The Eagle, giving Finebaum and friends 100 kW to go toe to toe with JOX.  The Eagle's classic hits format will be shuffled to the weaker signal, which almost certainly spells the death of the format in the ratings (see: CHR, oldies and "new" country).  Lending some credence to this far fetched idea?  Listed on the Atlanta Falcons' website as an affiliate for Birmingham is "WZNN" on 106.9 in Birmingham.

* - “venerable” means “a Jerry Springer-like circus” right?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

WQRX Valley Head gets FM translator

Valley Head's WQRX (870 kHz, 10 kW days, 4.7 kW critical hours) has picked up a translator, although it's nowhere near the actual town of Valley Head.  Station W265CE (100.9 MHz, 205 watts directional) is licensed to the non-town of Cedarburg, Alabama and its 60 dBu contour doesn't come close to Valley Head.  Instead, it mostly covers rural Cherokee County, including the town of Cedar Bluff on Weiss Lake.  It also has significant coverage in Chattooga and Floyd Counties, Georgia, almost reaching Rome.  This all falls within WQRX's 2 mV/m contour and is thus "legal".

The last known format of the AM daytimer was Spanish Christian, operating in a noncommercial fashion.  It picked up the translator while it was still in the noncommercial FM band, but it moved to the commercial section before going on air.  It is not yet known if WQRX has reemerged as a commercial operation, or what format they currently have.

Demopolis translator gets CP to move into Tuscaloosa

W267BF (101.3 MHz, 245 watts vertical, relaying non-comm WUAL) has received its next construction permit, and as suspected, it's plunking right down in a prime spot to cover Tuscaloosa.  The station will change to W265CGH as it drops down 2 notches to land at 100.9 MHz, with an even-Steven 200 watts of power.  WUAL is still being listed as the parent station, but as the translator is owned by Red Mountain Broadcasting, my money's on it relaying a Clear Channel station soon.  RMB is parent to a translator in Birmingham that relays "The Vulcan" active rock off a Clear Channel HD-2 feed.

Although CC does not operate any stations in HD in Tuscaloosa, they do run a few AM stations that could wind up on the FM dial.  And all the CC HD stations in Birmingham easily cover the market, making it possible but not probable that the Vulcan rock format could find a home in T-Town.  My bet's on them doing something with an AM: WACT's sports or a new format, or WTSK's gospel.

WKLF-AM translator W238BS receives power upgrade

W238BS (95.5, 19 watts previously, relaying WKLF-AM) has received a big boost in power, to 175 watts.  Coverage should now extend all the way out past Thorsby to the north and Lake Mitchell to the east.

Friday, August 12, 2011

W246BN Bay Minette

A license to cover for W246BN (97.1, 250 watts vertical, relaying WBHY-FM Mobile) just came through for this Bay Minette-area translator.  Of note is that it is now showing as owned by Omni Broadcasting of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  Omni owns an AM talker and FM sports station in FWB and may still own an AM in De Funiak Springs.  The AM talker is already on an FM translator.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Birmingham News interview with Gary Richardson, owner of WJLD

On the Record: Gary Richardson, owner of WJLD-1400 AM Radio

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 11:30 AM
By Roy L. Williams -- The Birmingham News

Birmingham's Gary Richardson is part of a dying breed -- black radio station owners.
 For the past 25 years, Richardson has operated WJLD-1400 AM, which is known for its classic soul and blues music. Last month, Richardson added WAYE-1220 AM to his holdings, buying the station from the Willis family, another black operator that has stations across the country. 
And with Clear Channel of Birmingham, Richardson entered into a five-year programming and sales agreement two weeks ago to lease the 104.1 FM spot for an urban hip-hop station now called 104.1 FM The Beat. Richardson previously simulcast his WJLD-AM on the spot and said Clear Channel is using 104.1 FM to counter Cox Radio's 95.7 Jamz on the FM dial. 

The whole article is worth a read.  Thanks to a contributor for sending it in.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Atmore translator making moves towards Pensacola

W278AR (103.5, 2 watts vertical) has received a construction permit for a pretty significant move towards Pensacola.  The permit has it moving from just west of downtown Atmore to a site near Walnut Hill in northern Escambia County, Florida.  The new facility will drop one notch to 103.3 MHz and run 250 watts vertical only.

Just as noteworthy is a change of parent station from religious WSTF in Andalusia to country WYCT in Pensacola.  This translator is almost certainly headed to Pensacola, the question now is what will it relay?  WYCT was the first station in Pensacola/Mobile to install HD digital broadcasting, but they turned it off years ago.  Could a return of the HD be in store, to feed this translator a new format for the area?  Or could it be a diversion until it's close enough to relay another ADX property, namely News Talk 1620 WNRP?  Either is a possibility.   ADX is the only major local FM broadcaster left in Pensacola.

Birmingham: WAYE 1220 sold to Richardson Broadcasting, WJLD's FM translator to Clear Channel

A couple of moves in Birmingham worth mentioning: Richardson Broadcasting, owner of WJLD 1400 (1 kW fulltime) in Birmingham, have bought WAYE 1220, the long-silent gospel station formerly owned by Bishop Willis.  Willis ran into IRS troubles and… well, that's all anyone seems to know.  Richardson plans to restart the station on 15 August 2011 as "Praise 1220".  The new website is up for the station (linked on the ABMP AM and Birmingham pages).  Oddly, there's an advert on the site for HD Radio.  Let's pray they're not adding HD to the puny 1 kW (days, 75 watts night) signal of 1220.  The HD has been off WJLD for some time.

Continuing with the WJLD news, they've given up their translator at 104.1 (W281AB, 125 watts) to Clear Channel, who is now programming it for WJLD.  The new format is hip hop and R&B as "104.1 The Beat", to compete with 95-7 Jamz.