It's 1 March 2012, and WABB is no more. The station hosted a 12 hour loop of clips from the station's history, going all the way back to the late 50s and WABB-AM 1480. The last 5.5 hours, including the flip to K-Love, are available here. At midnight, K-Love faded in, right in the middle of a song. Their first legal ID came shortly after, mention the new calls, WLVM, and also the legal ID for WKPF Navarre, which implies they're being simulcasted off one another. The actual ID reads "WLVM Mobile-Pascagoula, WKPF Navarre-Pensacola".
I contacted EMF yesterday and they said they had no immediate plans for WKPF and that it and WLVM will simulcast K-Love for the time being.
As one CHR leaves Mobile, another makes a stumbling entrance: former WYOK "Jack FM" dropped the variety hits format half an hour before midnight for a tolling bell. At midnight their new CHR format debuted with LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem". The imaging is done by the same person who appears to have done the failed i100 imaging, as well as work on the current Journey 100 format of WJLQ. The music was heavy on currents and repetitive, but it's overnight and work will be done yet to improve the delivery. The station's calls are now WABD, an obvious nod to WABB and/or Bernie Dittman; the station logo is a carbon copy of WABB's logo. One major flub that got through was a promo for a Christ Daughtry concert that mentioned "Q100" — Cumulus' Atlanta CHR station. One technical note: WABD has a pending application to slightly lower antenna height, and re-license to Saraland from Atmore.
Finally, lost amongst all the farewells and goodbyes for WABB is word that Red Mountain Broadcasting has bought a tiny little translator in Gulf Shores — W262BL. The license is for all of one watt from downtown Gulf Shores. An application is pending to move to what appears to be the WKRG-TV tower in Spanish Fort, with a height of 1414 feet and a full 250 watts. That will cover some serious territory, for a translator. The parent station is listed, for now, as WHIL-HD2. There is no HD broadcast on WHIL.
Red Mountain Broadcasting is the name on several central Alabama translators, some of which relay HD-2 channels from various Clear Channel properties in Birmingham. Could WNTM-FM be waiting in the wings?
Showing posts with label pensacola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pensacola. Show all posts
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Mobile-Pensacola TV station WHBR dark due to technical issue
WHBR, affiliated with the CTN religious network, has gone dark for viewers in Mobile and Pensacola due to a failure in the transmitter system. There is no date set for it to return to air. WHBR also airs an international version of CTN on 33.2, and the Florida-centric BLAB TV infomercial channel on 33.4.
More information can be found at Alvin Williams' Mobile TV Examiner page.
More information can be found at Alvin Williams' Mobile TV Examiner page.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Two new Journey stations hit the road, other minor odds and ends
Note: I'm writing this via mobile phone today as the internet at ABMP World Headquarters (what, you didn't know we had a World HQ?) has been out all day. The entire city's only high speed internet is delivered by CenturyLink, who generally sucks. Special kudos today to the folks who make the AnyFTP Android app for allowing me to get my site updated despite the outage!
A Friday full of odds-n-ends today as both Huntsville and Mobile/Pensacola pick up new "Journey" formatted stations, featuring a variety of 80s and 90s pop hits.
First up in Huntsville, country Wolf WWFF was blown up to bring in Journey 93-3. It's surprising that Cumulus chose this format as it overlaps with several existing stations locally. Huntsville may be the most oversaturated AC/variety hits market in the US now. This flip happened at 9:33am.
Later, Pensacola's WJLQ picked up the Journey format after dropping CHR as "i100" and a few days of stunting with a very short playlist of TV theme songs. The RDS has been off since the flip, although the HD signal is still active and still 7 seconds behind the analog.
Both cities debuted with the EXACT same playlist, which was a direct copy of the one used for the launch of Journey in Atlanta a while back. Just think, if Cumulus and Citadel merge, you'll have twice as many radio stations run this poorly and with so little thought given to them!
Staying on the coast for a moment, Pensacola's other pop music station, WRGV "The Groove" took this opportunity to finally shed their name, which had stuck around from the rhythmic AC days; they're now "107-3, Hit Music NOW".
Two AMs received minor construction permits today. WJUS in Marion has one that changes almost nothing, just dropping nighttime power for 34 to 33 watts. It will put the FCC record in compliance with the actual transmitter site, as ABMP has listed correctly for some time.
The other AM is WEBY in Milton, Florida, part of the Pensacola market. As far as I can tell this is only a "cosmetic" update, with the same facilities at the same location with basically the same coverage. WEBY is an unusual facility in that they use different night and day locations. The day location with 3 towers is co-located with Pensacola's WPNN, south of I-10 near FL-281 on Garcon Point. The night site is further north in the city of Milton, east of the river near downtown. With this update I've fixed the entry for WEBY, which had listed the night site with 3 towers. That was incorrect. It's directional days and non-directional at night only.
A Friday full of odds-n-ends today as both Huntsville and Mobile/Pensacola pick up new "Journey" formatted stations, featuring a variety of 80s and 90s pop hits.
First up in Huntsville, country Wolf WWFF was blown up to bring in Journey 93-3. It's surprising that Cumulus chose this format as it overlaps with several existing stations locally. Huntsville may be the most oversaturated AC/variety hits market in the US now. This flip happened at 9:33am.
Later, Pensacola's WJLQ picked up the Journey format after dropping CHR as "i100" and a few days of stunting with a very short playlist of TV theme songs. The RDS has been off since the flip, although the HD signal is still active and still 7 seconds behind the analog.
Both cities debuted with the EXACT same playlist, which was a direct copy of the one used for the launch of Journey in Atlanta a while back. Just think, if Cumulus and Citadel merge, you'll have twice as many radio stations run this poorly and with so little thought given to them!
Staying on the coast for a moment, Pensacola's other pop music station, WRGV "The Groove" took this opportunity to finally shed their name, which had stuck around from the rhythmic AC days; they're now "107-3, Hit Music NOW".
Two AMs received minor construction permits today. WJUS in Marion has one that changes almost nothing, just dropping nighttime power for 34 to 33 watts. It will put the FCC record in compliance with the actual transmitter site, as ABMP has listed correctly for some time.
The other AM is WEBY in Milton, Florida, part of the Pensacola market. As far as I can tell this is only a "cosmetic" update, with the same facilities at the same location with basically the same coverage. WEBY is an unusual facility in that they use different night and day locations. The day location with 3 towers is co-located with Pensacola's WPNN, south of I-10 near FL-281 on Garcon Point. The night site is further north in the city of Milton, east of the river near downtown. With this update I've fixed the entry for WEBY, which had listed the night site with 3 towers. That was incorrect. It's directional days and non-directional at night only.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
