WMAK call letters return, and HANK FM to debut in Tennessee!

[firepoint525]

Whiplash - I have to admit, Firepoint got my interest up to check the station out. I can hear your enthusiasm in what you are doing. Maybe Firepoint and I can road trip from Bellevue out to see what you have going on! Been a while since I have been out that way. I also must say, I like the 16 and the 1570. I think folks get the round ups, still. Look at The Big 98 or 92-Q, or even i106. AM may be a bit tougher these days to get that. I dunno Firepoint, I see your digital point (haha), but agreed - why follow everyone else. What I am still not buying into is that call letters don't matter. I think anything that ties a concept together, especially the minor details, make a huge difference. Not having call letters that are somewhat close to the moniker is just a sign of indifference in my book. Like: WNFN - i106. Pathetic. Ratings or PPMs or not.

Yeah, agree and disagree. I-106 has bigger problems than that. They rounded DOWN when they should have rounded UP. (Anyone here remember "Moo 102" with that stupid Chick-Fil-A-like cow mascot? They did the same thing.) Ironically enough, "I-107" would sound more like "Y-107," the station that they are apparently trying to co-opt. And to me, the letter "I" followed by any number just sounds like an interstate. ("Big crash out on I-106!") At any rate, "I" is quickly replacing "E" as the most used and abused letter in the English language. I-phone, I-pad, I-pod, I-this, I-that. Not changing the call letters to put an "I" in there somewhere is indeed stupid. But it could have been worse. They could have shifted the old "WRQQ" calls over there!

 

[firepoint525]

Been listening to them some more (online of course) this morning, and I must say that they are at least making use of the WMAK call letters, including bringing back some jingles that sound like they could have been used on the original WMAK, version 1.0. WMAK 2.0 (that would be Oldies 96.3) really didn't make much use of the WMAK calls, other than sort of tacking them on as an afterthought. They had Coyote McCloud, but did not add WMAK to any of their existing logos or merchandise. I should know. I have some of it. Occasionally, they would air a liner right before a song, something like "you heard this one on WMAK," followed by a song from the AM station's heyday, but that was about it.

Tibbs, agree with you on the call letter issue, but I never understood (apparently) shelling out big $$$$ to buy any certain set of call letters, only to use them once an hour for legal ID, and even then bury them within a spotset. It appears that WMAK version 3.0, the current version, is not going to be doing that. I still feel like if it had not been for some bonehead at the FCC deciding that stations east of the mighty Mississippi had to start with "W," we would never have seen stations going to the use of nicknames like they have. But of course, that is only conjecture on my part.

 

[dougw9wi]

I still feel like if it had not been for some bonehead at the FCC deciding that stations east of the mighty Mississippi had to start with "W," we would never have seen stations going to the use of nicknames like they have.

Just to be ridiculously pedantic about it... don't blame the FCC for that policy, it predates them.

It was the Department of Commerce that decided stations on the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts should get W calls & those on the Pacific Coast should get K.

I recall reading a few (10-15) years back where the FCC offered to remove the K/W distinction but the industry asked them not to.

 

[Whiplash]

Ok got an interesting email from Jam jingles today. Let me start by saying the late Ben Freedman had given me thousands upon thousands of jingles that he cut, owned or saved. Everything he ever gave me he said and allowed me to use. The WMAK jingles were a part of that. But since an email from Jam today, I have removed this particular group of jingles. which happen to be 40 to 50 years old. I will use the thousands of work parts that I have from the late Mr. Freedman and build new WMAK jingles.

But I guess my question is. What out of work radio or jingle junkie is jealous enough to take the time to write a jingle company, just to be a jerk?

It really doesn't matter to me. I'm living my dreams, owning and operating stations all over the country, and having more fun the last 15 years on my own, then the first 20 in the business working for others.