99.9 FM And 700 AM No Longer Simulcasting The River

[djchrisontheradio]

Looks like 99.9 FM and 700 AM in Athol have stopped simulcasting The River and are flipping to a new format on June 9th. Currently they are stunting with a variety hits format and telling people to "vote" for their favorite songs via their website to help decide the new format. Their website and online stream can be found here: http://www.vote999.com/.

 

[raccoonradio]

interesting, and note that 99.9 I believe has the calls of WFNX. No idea if they'd go the route of the old 'FNX.

Driving thru part of NH yesterday, heard the 92.5 simulcast on 102.3...which fired in a station ID ("also in Campton on 105.7", I think calls are WVFM?) at the appropriate time

Note the day of format change is June 9 and one of the two stations involved is at 99.9...co-incidence? Radio Nine?

The AM of course grabbed a bit of attention with a call change to "WWBZ"...

The 99.9 facebook had a post about the voting deal on May 15 but we're only hearing about this now

 

[robotique]

the 96.5 translator in Needham is running and covers a decent area

 

[Eli Polonsky]

the 96.5 translator in Needham is running and covers a decent area

Yes, it covers a good sized area due to its antenna height, but because of its low power, it covers that large area weakly.

I ended up driving around the area over the weekend (Route 128, Needham, Newton, etc...) and I found that their original 25kW signal from Haverhill was still their more robust sounding signal on the radio, even practically right under the 96.5 translator tower. The translator was not able to completely overcome interference from a number of co-channel, first or second adjacent channel, and off-channel (intermodulation) sources of interference even in its immediate area, while the original 92.5 signal was cleaner, stronger, and would definitely be the one that a casual listener would choose in comparison even in the translator's target area.

I don't understand the purpose of it, unless it was the best they could do just to claim that they have a signal in the metro-Boston area (barely) within Route 128, or if there are some particular clients right in that immediate Route 128 Needham, Newton Upper Falls, Wellesley Hills area that they're trying to impress.

 

[Schuyler]

interesting, and note that 99.9 I believe has the calls of WFNX. No idea if they'd go the route of the old 'FNX.

.....The AM of course grabbed a bit of attention with a call change to "WWBZ".....

The FM is indeed WFNX and while a switch to alternative/modern is possible, some of the rock cuts they are "testing" (which may be purely a stunt) are the harder "active rock," already covered locally on Laser 99. They've also asked their listener [sic] to "vote" on oldies, pop and even a few country tracks. The original WFNX was quite unlike WXRV The River, so the call letters may not indicate their future direction. From the present sound of things, my guess would be a Mike-FM "We Play Anything" (no, you don't!) format.

With the Monday deadline approaching, anyone who thinks their "vote" is going to make a difference in programming is mistaken. Whatever new format maybe coming has already been determined, and possibly had been decided upon before the "voting" started.

One of their promos said this process would help them design "two perfect stations," which implies the AM will be separate. Bird-fed third tier talk, maybe? Who'd vote for that? And these would have to be shows so desperate for affiliates that they don't care being partly preempted in morning and afternoon drive (or after 6pm in summer).

The real question in my mind is not what they'll do but how they'll do it. Where is this "new" programming coming from? There's been no evidence of any activity inside the dusty old WCAT bungalow recently, or for that matter in the past year. A few --very few-- local ads have been clumsily inserted over the Haverhill simulcast previously, which MIGHT have been produced at the Orange studio. But when the FM was WNYN, running a local morning show and then Classic Rock from ABC, the stereo FM air & production studio (same thing) was at WGAW in Gardner, which they no longer own. (Note that WGAW is so far from the Athol transmitter that monitoring the 99.9 signal was a painful and impractical fringe listening chore.)

The only surprising thing about these new developments is the mere fact that someone in Haverhill suddenly remembered they have stations out here.

 

[robotique]

i think using the calls WFNX as an identity is a bad move. They still have such a lingering notable legacy. Now granted, the geography is different... but if someone says "oh i was listening to WFNX while I was driving through Gardner", they are going to get some weird looks

 

[96StereoLane]

For quite awhile, 700 was being left on all night. Is this still occurring?

 

[promixcuous]

Why bother branding yourself as WFNX when you're not providing the WFNX product?
http://www.999wfnx.com/

 

[Schuyler]

For quite awhile, 700 was being left on all night. Is this still occurring?

I haven't checked, but I doubt it. Now that it has its own automation for its own programming, s/on & s/off commands might be running on it.

Why bother branding yourself as WFNX when you're not providing the WFNX product?
http://www.999wfnx.com/

Agreed. The only excuse is that most listeners out here never heard the original unless they were traveling many miles east of Athol. You can't even hear their former NH repeater (92.1) from here, which went God Squad after the Phoenix sold it.