WSBB-FM Transmitter Move

[davideduardo]

I heard Mark Arum the other night with an Athens caller complaining about the signal. There are going to be quite a few in the northeastern metro with signals weaker than before.

The market ends with Gwinnett and Forsythe counties to the NE, both of which have predicted 70 dbu signal or better. The areas they lost are not in the Nielsen MSA (which is the Metro Survey Area and not the OMB's Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is different).

 

[acheron1982]

Hi -

I haven't traveled out to Bremen this week to test the western flank of the signal but I did venture down to Vidalia Georgia and noticed a few things:

1- The signal sucks on I-75 south in the fringe counties here 98.5, 99.7, 94.9 and 94.1 are coming in clear in HD. This is likely most due to the fact that you have a 95.5 translator signal over on the Twiggs/Bibb country line off I-16.

2- Yes, a 50,000 watt signal on 1400 ft tower is going to cover more ground than a 100K watt station at 900 ft. The ONLY reason to move the antenna closer to the city and increase the signal by increasing the wattage is to penetrate buildings because as we all know, we all enjoy hearing our favorite stations at work on the little boom boxes at our desks (do they actually make them anymore)?

3- The recent move has improved signal and sound in the counties that matter which are only the immediate metro counties. With that being said, this board is full of radio enthusiast so of course we are going to critique signal, overall and with the recent move, while the signal has improved in the counties that matter, the signal has been reduced for most other areas, with the exception being west of 75 north of 20 and 85 south of 20.

 

[TheBigA]

while the signal has improved in the counties that matter, the signal has been reduced for most other areas, with the exception being west of 75 north of 20 and 85 south of 20.

Which is why I'm in the camp that believes they'll continue the format on 750 and not spin that off to some other format (sports, etc)

 

[LegalTender]

Which is why I'm in the camp that believes they'll continue the format on 750 and not spin that off to some other format (sports, etc)

I'm in the camp that believes "750" will re-surface on all breaks, billboards and banter if their first book stumbles. It would surprise me if "herding listeners to 95.5" didn't have that unintended consequence.

 

[RadioDoogie]

2- Yes, a 50,000 watt signal on 1400 ft tower is going to cover more ground than a 100K watt station at 900 ft. The ONLY reason to move the antenna closer to the city and increase the signal by increasing the wattage is to penetrate buildings because as we all know, we all enjoy hearing our favorite stations at work on the little boom boxes at our desks (do they actually make them anymore)?

Yes. Best Buy/Insignia makes an excellent tabletop HD radio with great sound and great reception. NS-HDRAD2. It’s regularly $49.99 but I’ve seen it on sale some weeks for as low as $34.99. Just have to catch it while it’s on sale.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm in the camp that believes "750" will re-surface on all breaks, billboards and banter if their first book stumbles. It would surprise me if "herding listeners to 95.5" didn't have that unintended consequence.

Except for the likelihood that they got data on usage of the FM vs. the AM in areas where both signals were good and realized that the vast majority of listening was already to the FM.

Back many years, KSL in SLC looked at the split, and put the AM frequency first on their logo and began using the FM, generally alone, on the air.

 

[LegalTender]

Back many years, KSL in SLC looked at the split, and put the AM frequency first on their logo and began using the FM, generally alone, on the air.

No question 95.5 should go first in the logo. Having 750 disappear is an unforced error. It squanders a resource.

 

[TheBigA]

No question 95.5 should go first in the logo. Having 750 disappear is an unforced error. It squanders a resource.

Of course the difference being that the KSL call letters are used for both AM & FM. They can't do that with WSB.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Of course the difference being that the KSL call letters are used for both AM & FM. They can't do that with WSB.

They could call it WSB 95.5 on air and in logos all they want as long as they id as WSBB Doraville at top of hour

 

[LegalTender]

Of course the difference being that the KSL call letters are used for both AM & FM. They can't do that with WSB.

 

[TheBigA]

They could call it WSB 95.5 on air and in logos all they want as long as they id as WSBB Doraville at top of hour

I get it, it's branding. But it's interesting that the letters "FM" are never used in the logo, while they show AM750.

 

[On the Dial]

"AM750" is no longer shown on the WSB promo that airs at 6:59 every night on WSB-TV. Just the FM frequency.

 

[secondchoice]

Pikens County is less than 0.5% of the market population. There are likely only a couple of meters, if any, in the county.

On the other hand, they gained a 70 dbu signal in counties or portions with nearly 3 million population. They lost a Pikens, and about a million people not in the Atlanta MSA. Net gain: 3,000,000 persons in the 70 dbu in the MSA.

I was joking about trees having meters. If trees HAD meters we would hear a lot more termite commercials.

 

[davideduardo]

I get it, it's branding. But it's interesting that the letters "FM" are never used in the logo, while they show AM750.

I think that is natural. With about 95% of under-55 AQH listening to FM, there is an assumption that listeners know the "address" of an FM but may need to be told what "750" means.

 

[davideduardo]

Of course the difference being that the KSL call letters are used for both AM & FM. They can't do that with WSB.

Why not? iHeart has branded AM talk stations in several markets as "WFLA" even though those are not the call letters of any of the stations except the one in the Tampa Bay area.

There are plenty of cases of stations using "slogan" call letters as a shorter version of the "real" calls.

These are things like a fictional WKOA calling itself "KOA" everywhere but the legal ID.

In PPM markets, it makes no difference. Call letters don't matter there. And in Diary markets, unless calls are the only ID used, few listeners write down calls of stations: 80% of diary entries are by frequency, with slogan or name in second place.

 

[AMRocks]

I read an interview with Pete Spriggs, the Program Director. He said that 80% of their listening already happens on the FM. And, if they want any new listeners, they will likely be younger and not even know what AM radio is (My words, not his.) This is a great move for WSB Radio. They will keep the simulcast until nearly zero people listen to the AM. Then, the AM will do another format. They probably won't even announce the split. It will just happen since hardly anyone was listening to the AM anyway. (I'm not sold on sports since Atlanta already has a number of sports stations.)

 

[TheBigA]

Why not? iHeart has branded AM talk stations in several markets as "WFLA" even though those are not the call letters of any of the stations except the one in the Tampa Bay area.

There are plenty of cases of stations using "slogan" call letters as a shorter version of the "real" calls.

I think the difference is there is a WSB-FM in Atlanta, and it has a different format. So they're creating a brand around the WSB name and it might cause confusion for the actual WSB-FM. There is a WFLA-FM, but it's in another market (also owned by iHeart). WSB-FM brands itself on the dial location, not the call letters. As we've discussed, this same problem exists for WBBM in Chicago and several other stations.

 

[deejaywestbrook]

Okay... Was just listening to Eric Erikson and when he broke to check traffic, the old traffic sounder almost blew me away. It was in total stereo! Sounds fantastic! Very surround sound..... who knew that old traffic sounder would sound so amazing. Lol I'm running errands for work so I don't know about the rest of the station yet. But the changes keep coming.

 

[fybush]

I think the difference is there is a WSB-FM in Atlanta, and it has a different format. So they're creating a brand around the WSB name and it might cause confusion for the actual WSB-FM. There is a WFLA-FM, but it's in another market (also owned by iHeart). WSB-FM brands itself on the dial location, not the call letters. As we've discussed, this same problem exists for WBBM in Chicago and several other stations.

Except that it's not a problem.

I'd bet 98.5% or more of the listeners who tune in to B98 in Atlanta know it as "B98.5" or "98.5 FM," if not "preset #3 in my car." The brand of B98.5 is... "B98.5." Its website is b985.com, its social media accounts are @b985 or @b985fm. As best I can tell, the only place "WSB-FM" is mentioned on its website is in the link to the FCC online public file down at the bottom of the page. The letters "WSB" or "WSB-FM" appear nowhere on its FB or Twitter "about" pages.

If any of B98.5's listeners happen to be wearing a PPM meter, the PPM meter will pick up the encoding that's unique to the 98.5 signal and register the listening accordingly.

If those listeners tune into the station branded as "WSB," whether at 95.5 or at 750, their meters would pick up the encoding unique to those signals and register that listening accordingly.

To have branding confusion, you'd have to have conflicting brands. And while I know it drives the purists on these boards crazy, there's no potential for confusion here. "WSB" means 750 and now 95.5. "B98.5" means 98.5.

(The same thing applies to WBBM in Chicago, where this "conflict" has existed for quite a few years now without ever becoming any sort of real-world problem that CBS or now Entercom seems to have felt a need to address.)

 

[jabba17]

I see what you did there

The only time B98.5 mentions WSB-FM is in their TOH ID. Tempests in teapots.